Elementary Strategies
There are many instructional strategies to help students with speech and language disorders. Some specific examples are:
1) Say-it-and-move-it activity: "students are taught to represent sounds by using manipulatives" (Kuder, 2003, p. 84-85). Students represent each sound they hear by moving the manipulatives. The teacher explains the activity to the student by moving each manipulative when he/she says the sound. Students repeat the activity. Once the student is familiar with the letter sounds, the teacher can start building words. The video to the right entitled "Say It and Move It" provides an example of this strategy. |
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2) Key Word Method: teach students how to learn new material instead of teaching them what to learn. Three steps:
- Recoding: recode new vocabulary words into key words. Key words should sound similar to the new vocabulary word, be familiar to the student, and be easily pictured by the student (Kuder, 2003). - Relating: the student relates the key word to the new vocabulary word, using an illustration. Relate the word to the drawing by creating a sentence about it (Kuder, 2003). - Retrieving: the definition of the new vocabulary word is retrieved by thinking of the key word, creating the drawing (either actual or imagined), thinking of the related sentence, and stating the definition (Kuder, 2003). 3) Computers for socialization: computers can be a forum for social interaction (Kuder, 2003). Programs/games that emphasize problem-solving are a great way to get students engaged and talking to one another. Teachers can group students together and have each group come up with a solution to each problem. The video on the right entitled "TinyEYE-Online Speech Therapy..." is a video about a company that provides students with access to speech pathologists. Students interact and play games with the speech pathologists in order to practice communicating. The following links are websites that provide games for students:
http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/ http://www.iknowthat.com/com http://www.fun4thebrain.com/index.html |
General Teaching Strategies/Tips:
1) Model and demonstrate various learning strategies 2) Explicitly teach attending, listening, and memory strategies 3) Activate students' prior knowledge 4) Label and show connections (use graphic organizers!) 5) Explicitly teach new concepts and vocabulary 6) Use themes across curriculum areas 7) Request paraphrasing to check for understanding 8) Accommodate student needs - seating arrangements, writing instruments, etc. 9) Teach and prompt active listening strategies 10) Emphasize patterns and sequences 11) Allow students to actively think about new information |