Here's a helpful tool to increase your students' complex sentence production in speech-language therapy
*Free downloads below!*
Regular readers of this blog know that I often make embarrassing confessions here. I do this for two reasons:
It relieves some guilt I carry about mistakes I've made as an SLP, and
I hope it can help even one other SLP not make the same mistake.
So here's my confession: I used to think that the Recalling Sentences subtest on the CELF is a receptive language task. 😬
I figured the difficult part of the subtest was for students to remember all the words I had just told them.
Wrong!
The Recalling Sentences subtest is really more of an expressive language task; while memory certainly plays a role, you need strong grammatical frameworks to remember lengthy sentences.
Since then, I have learned quite a bit about grammar (syntax and morphology) and have really come to appreciate how important knowledge of sentence structures is for students, especially those students with developmental language disorder (DLD). I am especially interested in my students' abilities in formulating complex sentence structures.
Complex sentences are important because:
Kids need to use complex sentences to generate effective explanations, and
Written language contains tons of complex sentences (much more so than oral language), which means that compromised comprehension of complex sentence structures will result in reduced reading comprehension overall.
Kids with DLD often have difficulty generating complex sentences, especially in their writing. Do a quick language sample analysis (free checklist here), and you'll see what I mean!
Complex sentences contain subordinating conjunctions. See this post for a breakdown of compound and complex sentences, or get the Clauses Cheat Sheet for SLPs on the free downloads page.
The most common subordinating conjunctions, and the ones we see most often in elementary-aged students, are:
because (e.g., I'm hungry because I skipped breakfast.)
if (e.g., I can eat breakfast tomorrow if I wake up earlier.)
that (e.g., I think that oatmeal is the best breakfast.)
when (e.g., I can think more clearly when I've eaten breakfast.)
where (e.g., I like to eat my breakfast at the table, where I can read my email.)
So how do I target using complex sentences as a grammar goal in speech-language therapy? I get "meta" with my students about these 5 critical subordinating conjunctions! I tell them that because, if, that, when, and where are some of my favorite words of all time and I keep a visual where kids can see it, especially when we're working on sentence production activities - either orally or in writing.
Want to use these visuals in your practice? Get them on the free downloads page!
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Have you heard? StoryWhys now offers the Speech and Spell series of resources. I am always trying to tie articulation work and spelling together in my therapy and I've never found any good resources out there to help me do this. So I made my own! Many more speech sounds and spelling rules to come. They'll be 50% off for 48 hrs when new resources are added to the StoryWhys store. Find them here.
Did you know book companions can be among the best speech therapy materials for elementary students? Explore all of the StoryWhys book companions for speech therapy in my store. You'll find comprehensive book companions that target many different language skills or Spotlight Series book companions that focus on one type of skill, all using high-quality, beloved storybooks.
And get your FREE, 71-page book companion for speech therapy on the free downloads page.
Enjoy!
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