Marisha

Hello and welcome back to the SLP Now Podcast. I am Marisha. Today we're talking about four simple ways to use a narrative graphic organizer in your therapy sessions. And these strategies work beautifully across multiple grade levels, as long as we're still targeting narrative structure. And these strategies give students a clear structure for organizing their thoughts, whether they're telling a personal narrative or retelling a story they heard from someone else, a picture book or a fiction article. There's lots and lots of options and uses here. So let's jump in to our four ways to use a graphic organizer.
The first step is to use the graphic organizer to structure personal narratives. One of my favorite starting points in intervention is helping students produce personal narratives using the graphic organizer to help them organize something that happened over the weekend or on the playground, whatever is meaningful to the student. Let's make a narrative about it. And we can use the graphic organizer and go through the different elements and ask them like, who was there, when did it happen, where did it happen?
Do some quick pictography to fill in that graphic organizer. And produce a beautiful personal narrative. By using this graphic organizer, it makes personal storytelling much easier. It reduces the overwhelm and gives us really rich language samples.
The second strategy is to use a graphic organizer to build pre-story knowledge when implementing a literacy based therapy unit. Before reading the story, I like to do a book walk and look at the cover of the book and maybe look at a few pages. We don't read it yet. We just scan the book, then we use the organizer to activate pre-story knowledge. After looking at the cover we'll go through our graphic organizer, and we'll ask who do we think the story is about? Where do we think it'll happen?
What do we think the problem will be? We can draw some quick pictures, like little stick drawings, to symbolize what we think will happen in the story. And that is a way to practice building a narrative. Then students can practice telling their version of what they think will happen.
This gets some really meaningful repetitions. It's a great way to make sure that we have adequate story knowledge before we dive in, because if students really struggle with this, I might do some vocabulary instruction, a virtual field trip, or fill out a KWL chart
But using the graphic organizer for pre-story knowledge is really helpful and gives us a great starting point for our unit. The third way we can use the graphic organizer is to support story retell.
After we read the book or the fiction article, we can go through the questions and identify the character, the setting, and all of the different story grammar elements. We can reference the book or article to help create that story retell.
And then that brings us to the fourth and final way we can use a graphic organizer. So that is to create a parallel story. Once we've read the book or the fiction article, we can create a parallel story. A parallel story is following the same narrative structure of the book or article that we just read, but we change some elements.
We might change the character, the setting, the problem, the resolution, whatever it might be. And this supports generalization because students are able to apply that narrative structure, but it's still scaffolded. It's a structure they're familiar with and it helps us bridge that gap to more open-ended storytelling.
My students love creating their parallel stories. They get to infuse their own lives and their own stories into the final parallel story. So it's a really fun activity on all ends. To recap the four strategies we talked about when using a graphic organizer. Use it for personal narratives, pre-story knowledge activation, story retell and parallel stories. If you keep your story grammar graphic organizers, students can use those to compare and contrast. So maybe the pre-story knowledge one, you can compare it to the actual retell. Like what did we guess correctly? Where were we off? That leads to a lot of additional fun language opportunities as well. To wrap things up, a graphic organizer is a very simple tool, but it can be very powerful. And we can use it across a variety of narrative contexts. If you want a deeper dive into narrative interventions to see graphic organizers being used for these different types of narratives, be sure to check out my SLP Summit course.
The replay is available until January 31st. It's packed with practical examples that you can use right away. It also includes some free graphic organizers that you can use in your therapy room for all of the purposes listed in this episode. So that's a wrap for today.
I hope to see you at the SLP Summit. If you go to slpsummit.com, it'll redirect you to the Be the Brightest site and the registration page for Summit. Check out my on-demand course, where you can access the freebies and learn more in-depth strategies than I shared today.
I hope this was super helpful and I'll see you in the next episode.

244: Why I Don’t Write Sequencing Goals (And What I Do Instead)

January 13, 2026 by Marisha Leave a Comment

Sequencing goals are common in IEPs, but do they actually lead to meaningful outcomes? In this episode, I share why I no longer write traditional sequencing goals and what I do instead to support generalization, comprehension, and real-world language use. We’ll look at how isolated sequencing tasks fall short and how embedding sequencing within narrative-based therapy can better support students’ communication skills.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Why decontextualized sequencing tasks often don’t generalize
How narrative-based frameworks support sequencing, memory, and comprehension
Examples of functional, measurable alternatives to traditional sequencing goals
Practical ways to scaffold sequencing within real stories and experiences

Listen in to rethink how you target sequencing and walk away with ideas you can apply in therapy right away.

Sequencing goals show up in countless IEPs, but do they actually support meaningful language use in the classroom and beyond? If a student can sequence four picture cards with 80% accuracy, what does that really tell us about their ability to communicate, comprehend, or retell real-life events?

Over time, I’ve stopped writing traditional sequencing goals. Not because sequencing isn’t important—but because how we target it matters. Instead of isolated tasks, I embed sequencing within narrative-based therapy to support generalization, comprehension, and functional communication.

Let’s break down why.

Why Traditional Sequencing Goals Often Fall Short

Many sequencing goals look something like this:

Student will sequence four picture cards with 80% accuracy.

While these goals are easy to measure, they’re also highly decontextualized. Tasks like ordering picture cards or following unrelated multi-step directions often rely on short-term memory rather than deeper language processing.

The problem? Skills learned in isolation don’t reliably generalize.

A student might successfully sequence pictures in a therapy room—but still struggle to:

Retell what happened at recess
Explain steps in a classroom activity
Understand story structure during reading comprehension

Real-world sequencing is never just sequencing. It requires vocabulary, grammar, attention, working memory, and understanding how events connect over time.

What the Research Tells Us About Sequencing and Language

Research consistently shows that contextualized, meaningful language instruction leads to better outcomes than isolated skill drills.

Narrative-based intervention:

Supports comprehension and expressive language
Builds mental schemas for organizing information
Promotes generalization to academic and real-life contexts

Studies have found that targeting narrative structure improves story retell, language complexity, and comprehension—skills directly tied to functional sequencing (Gillam & Ukrainetz, 2006; Petersen, Gillam, & Gillam, 2008).

When sequencing is taught only as picture ordering, students may demonstrate task-specific success without meaningful language growth.

What I Do Instead: Embed Sequencing in Narrative-Based Therapy

Rather than teaching sequencing as an isolated skill, I target it within narratives—the way it naturally appears in real communication.

This might include:

Retelling stories from books
Sharing personal narratives
Describing familiar routines or classroom events

In this context, sequencing becomes part of a larger language framework that also supports:

Vocabulary development
Grammar and sentence structure
Temporal and causal language (first, then, because)
Working memory and attention

This approach reflects how students are actually expected to use language in school.

Examples of Functional Sequencing Goals

Instead of a traditional sequencing goal, consider goals like:

When given a short story, the student will retell the events using appropriate temporal language with minimal support.
When producing a personal narrative, the student will include a clear beginning, middle, and end using at least three temporal or causal words.

These goals are:

Functional
Contextualized
Measurable
Aligned with classroom expectations

They also make it much easier to track meaningful progress.

But What If a Student Really Struggles With Sequencing?

This is a common (and valid) concern. Contextualized does not mean unsupported.

We can scaffold by:

Using very short narratives
Co-creating quick visuals or pictography
Modeling language repeatedly
Gradually increasing complexity over time

Even with significant support, working within a meaningful context provides more value than random picture cards ever could.

Why This Approach Leads to Better Generalization

When sequencing is embedded in narrative-based therapy, we’re not just teaching order—we’re building comprehension.

Students are:

Organizing information meaningfully
Strengthening memory and attention
Practicing skills they’ll use across settings

This leads to better carryover, stronger academic support, and more confidence with real-world communication.

Learn More About Narrative-Based Therapy

If you want to see what this looks like in practice (with concrete examples, goals, and therapy activities), I share more inside my on-demand course at the SLP Summit.

References

Gillam, R. B., & Ukrainetz, T. M. (2006). Language intervention through literature-based units. In T. M. Ukrainetz (Ed.), Literate language intervention: Scaffolding PreK–12 literacy achievement (pp. 59–94). Pro-Ed.

Petersen, D. B., Gillam, S. L., & Gillam, R. B. (2008). Emerging procedures in narrative assessment: The index of narrative complexity. Topics in Language Disorders, 28(2), 115–130.

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). (n.d.). Spoken language disorders: Evidence-based intervention.

Ukrainetz, T. A. (2006). Contextualized language intervention: Scaffolding PreK–12 literacy achievement. Pro-Ed.

Transcript

On today's episode, I want to chat about something that's a little controversial, but in a good way, and it's why I don't write sequencing goals, at least not in the way that many of us are used to. I am going to share what I do instead and why I believe that this leads to better generalization and improved outcomes for our students.
First let's chat a little bit about what we usually mean by sequencing goals and why that might be a problem. I've written these goals in the past, but they look like: "Student will sequence for picture cards or Student will follow three step directions. It's a lot with picture cards and following directions, and that kind of sequencing is very decontextualized, stripped down and uses isolated tasks.
And the problem is that these isolated tasks often don't generalize. So a student might be able to order four picture cards or follow three step directions, but what does that matter if they can't apply that into the classroom? The things that really matter are being able to tell stories, retell events, understanding sequences of events in real life. Sequencing in real life rarely exists in a vacuum, like real communication, like telling a story, telling what happened at recess, that involves vocabulary, grammar, memory, attention, story structure, which is way more than isolated ordering of some pictures. And the research supports this too. Targeting sequencing in isolation often taps only short-term memory, and it doesn't build the complex cognitive language skills needed for comprehension and expressive language. So if we're writing a sequencing goal, like: "Student will sequence four picture cards with 80% accuracy", and if we're only using those sequencing cards, that builds a narrow skillset that doesn't reflect real world language use and won't generalize outside of the classroom.
Then what does it actually look like? What do I do instead? So what I have found to help, and the research supports this as well, is that I contextualize sequencing within narrative based frameworks. And so we target sequencing goals within narrative based therapy and work with real stories.
Instead of picture cards or decontextualized routines, we use books, story retells, or personal narratives, and that way sequencing becomes part of a bigger picture. We're able to incorporate vocabulary, grammar, story grammar, comprehension, all of these different skills that provide a really meaningful context and are reflective of how students would be using this in the real world.
And then facilitate facilitating that generalization, because again it doesn't matter if they can sequence 10 images with a hundred percent accuracy if this isn't generalizing to the classroom. By using a narrative based approach, we're encouraging students to build a mental schema, and that helps them recall and organize information that frees up their working memory for comprehension and expressive language, and instead of just having to memorize.
By doing this, we're able to address underlying skills like working memory and attention. Sequencing isn't just about ordering events or pictures, it heavily relies on skills like working memory and attention. by targeting these skills in context rather than an isolated ordering of pictures, we're supporting comprehension, narrative retell, expressive language, following directions, all of those different types of skills, and planning for generalization from the start. We're building towards comprehension versus a very isolated skill.
And by embedding sequencing in this narrative context, we're giving students repeated opportunities to target additional skills like using temporal vocabulary, first, next, then last. They get to use causal language. They get to incorporate story grammar, and those are all really important for real world communication.
So what does this actually look like? Instead of writing a goal of "Student will sequence four picture cards with 80% accuracy", we might write goals about when given a short story, the Student will retell the story with temporal language. Or when asked to produce a personal narrative, the student will produce a coherent narrative with a beginning, middle, end structure and at least three temporal or causal words. Those are two examples of how this might come together. In the show notes, I'll give the full example of the goal . What this looks like in therapy is that we use real stories from books, familiar routines, personal experiences, and we use those to build vocabulary model, temporal and causal language, support working memory, and then gradually fade those scaffolds.
Some common things that SLPs might say are, I need a goal that's easy to measure. And these are perfectly measurable goals. Like the examples that I gave, you can develop a probe to easily measure progress towards that.
Another common thought that I've heard is my student really struggles with sequencing.
That is also valid. We can provide scaffolding and support in these contextualized activities. Maybe we can just use a really short personal narrative, but that is a lot more meaningful than random picture cards. We can create, we can use pictography and make quick pictures, and then gradually increase the complexity, but at least we're starting with a meaningful context.
So why this matters in terms of the big picture, we're helping students gain skills that they'll actually use, whether that's producing narratives, retelling narratives, comprehension, following multi-step directions. Targeting sequencing in this way will lead to really meaningful gains of some functional skills, and by teaching in this way, we're also helping students build cognitive skills like memory and attention, and we're more likely to see carryover and generalization when we're using this type of approach.
And if you're curious what this looks like in context with some concrete examples, I'd love to see you at the SLP Summit. My course is on demand. I'll include a link in the show notes. It'll be available until January 31st. I would love to see you there, and we are including some cool freebies as well.
Definitely check that out if you're wanting to learn more about what this could look like. That's a wrap for today. Thanks for hanging out and we'll see you next time.

👉 Not a member yet? Grab your Summarizing Skill Pack (for free!) here!

242: 6 Evidence-Based Strategies to Target Summarizing in Speech Therapy

December 9, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

Summarizing is one of the most powerful skills we can teach in speech therapy. However, it’s also one that many students struggle with. Research consistently shows that summarizing improves overall comprehension, supports information recall, and boosts academic performance across content areas (National Reading Panel, 2000; Duke & Pearson, 2002).

In this post, we’ll explore six evidence-based strategies that help students understand what a summary is, identify key details, and generate their own summaries with confidence. These strategies align beautifully with structured literacy principles and are easy to implement using the materials inside the SLP Now Membership.

If you want to follow along with ready-made visuals, passages, sentence frames, and photo scenes, you can access the Summarizing Skill Pack inside the membership.

How to Target Summarizing

1. Explicitly Teach What a Summary Is (and What It Isn’t)

Before students can summarize effectively, they need clear, student-friendly definitions of:
📖 Summary
📖 Main idea
📖 Key details

Students often rely on ineffective rules of thumb (e.g., “the main idea is the first sentence”), which can lead to inaccurate or incomplete responses. Research shows that explicit teaching of comprehension strategies, including summarizing, significantly improves reading outcomes (Duke & Pearson, 2002).

Try This:

Use a visual metaphor, like an umbrella, to show how the main idea “covers” or connects key details. This concrete, repeatable teaching point helps students internalize the concept.

The Summarizing Skill Pack inside the membership includes a teaching visual to help you break this down for students.

2. Use Graphic Organizers to Build Understanding

Graphic organizers make abstract concepts concrete, especially for students with language needs. Research supports their use for improving comprehension, recall, and organization of information (Kim et al., 2004).

Two helpful formats include:
📖 Main idea at the top → Key details below
📖 Graphic organizers with integrated sentence frames

These tools help students identify the structure of a text and prepare them for generating oral or written summaries.

The Summarizing Skill Pack inside the membership includes multiple graphic organizers.

3. Model Your Thinking (Metalinguistic Talk)

Students benefit from hearing an adult’s internal thought process, a strategy rooted in explicit thinking-aloud instruction (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995).

This helps students understand:
📖 How to identify main ideas
📖 How to filter out non-essential information
📖 How to compare possible summaries

Using simple texts or picture scenes at first reduces cognitive load and makes the strategy more accessible.

4. Start With Pictures Before Moving to Text

Pictures remove the decoding barrier, allowing students to focus on idea-level comprehension. Visuals have strong research support in improving narrative and expository language skills (Ukrainetz, 2015).

You might:
📖 Show a photo scene
📖 Provide possible main ideas
📖 Discuss which key details support each option

This supports the gradual release process and sets students up for success with written passages.

The Summarizing Skill Pack inside the membership includes picture scenes to practice summarizing before diving into a text.

5. Use Sentence Frames to Teach Summary Structure

Sentence frames help students understand how to say a summary. They also reduce linguistic load so students can focus on content rather than syntax.

Examples might include:
📖 “The main idea is ___ because ___.”
📖 “The text is mostly about ___ and includes details such as ___, ___, and ___.”

Sentence frames are supported in literacy research as a way to scaffold academic language and improve expressive outcomes (Fisher & Frey, 2014).

In the Summarizing Skill Pack, these frames are already embedded into the graphic organizers so students can smoothly transition from identifying information to producing a summary.

6. Teach Text Structures Explicitly

Text structure instruction is one of the most evidence-supported ways to improve summarizing and comprehension (Williams et al., 2005).

Common nonfiction text structures include:
📖 Description
📖 Sequence
📖 Cause/Effect
📖 Problem/Solution
📖 Compare/Contrast

Knowing the structure helps students anticipate what matters most and what is simply “extra” information.
If a passage is cause/effect, for example, your graphic organizer and sentence frames will shift accordingly.

Bring It All Together

When we combine explicit instruction, visuals, modeling, graphic organizers, sentence frames, and instruction of text structure, students gain a comprehensive framework for summarizing. These strategies help them move from surface-level retellings to meaningful, efficient summaries that reflect deeper comprehension.
If you want ready-made materials to support these strategies (including photo scenes, student-friendly definitions, leveled passages, and scaffolded organizers) explore the Summarizing Skill Pack inside the SLP Now Membership.

👉 Get started with the Summary Skill Pack and 5 free material downloads!

References

Duke, N. K., & Pearson, P. D. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension.
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2014). Speaking and Listening in Content Area Learning.
Kim, A.-H., Vaughn, S., Wanzek, J., & Wei, S. (2004). Graphic organizers and their effects on the reading comprehension of students with LD. Journal of Learning Disabilities.
National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction.
Pressley, M., & Afflerbach, P. (1995). Verbal protocols of reading: The nature of constructively responsive reading.
Ukrainetz, T. A. (2015). Contextualized Language Intervention: Scaffolding PreK–12 Literacy Achievement.
Williams, J. P., Hall, K. M., & Lauer, K. D. (2005). Teaching expository text structure to young at-risk learners. Journal of Educational Psychology.

241: Morphology Made Simple: Easy Ways to Teach Affixes in Speech Therapy

December 2, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

Did you know that just four prefixes account for 97% of all prefixed words students encounter in school texts? According to Honig et al. (2013), teaching a small set of high-frequency affixes can have an outsized impact on vocabulary growth, especially for students who struggle with decoding or deriving meaning from unfamiliar words.

For SLPs looking to work smarter (not harder), morphology instruction is a powerful way to boost comprehension, vocabulary, and language flexibility across grade levels.

In this post, we’ll walk through evidence-based, student-friendly strategies for teaching prefixes, suffixes, and root words in your speech therapy sessions.

Why Morphology Matters

Research consistently shows that explicit morphology instruction helps students:

✔️ Increase vocabulary knowledge
✔️ Improve decoding and spelling
✔️ Strengthen reading comprehension
✔️ Make meaning-based connections across content areas

Carlisle (2010) notes that teaching students how to analyze word structure equips them to infer meaning, even when encountering completely new words. This skill makes morphology one of the most efficient vocabulary interventions SLPs can deliver.

**Step 1: Teach What Affixes Are and How They Change Meaning**

Before diving into lists of words or graphic organizers, start by building conceptual awareness. Students benefit from clear, concrete examples of how affixes transform base words.

For example:

✔️ cat → cats (adding -s means more than one)
✔️ happy → unhappy (un- changes the meaning to its opposite)

This explicit comparison helps students understand that:

1️⃣ Words are made of meaningful parts
2️⃣ Those parts carry clues
3️⃣ We can use those clues to figure out meaning

This aligns with research indicating that metalinguistic awareness (thinking about how language works) supports later vocabulary growth (Kieffer & Lesaux, 2008).

Step 2: Explicitly Teach High-Value Prefixes and Suffixes

Rather than overwhelming students with dozens of affixes, focus on the ones they’ll encounter most often.

According to Honig et al. (2013), the most frequent prefixes include:

✔️ un-
✔️ re-
✔️ in-/im-
✔️ dis-

Introduce each prefix with:

✔️ A student-friendly definition
✔️ An icon or visual
✔️ A few high-frequency examples

If you’re an SLP Now member, you can use the Prefixes & Suffixes Skill Packs, which include definition cards, visuals, and examples that make instruction simple and consistent.

Not a member yet? Sign up for a free trial and download the skill packs!

Give students printed cards so they can collect, sort, and reference them across sessions, almost like vocabulary “trading cards.”

Step 3: Teach Students to Become Word Detectives

Once students understand common affixes, teach them a framework for analyzing words step-by-step. A simple graphic organizer can guide them through:

1️⃣ Identify
🔎 Prefix
🔎 Root
🔎 Suffix

2️⃣ Define
🔎 Meaning of the prefix
🔎 Meaning of the root
🔎 Meaning of the suffix

3️⃣ Combine
🔎 Put the meanings together to infer the meaning of the word

4️⃣ Check
🔎 Use the inferred meaning in a sentence
🔎 Confirm if it makes sense in context

For example:

In the word disagree

✔️ Prefix: dis- (“not” or “opposite of”)
✔️ Root: agree
✔️ Combined meaning: to not agree

This aligns with morphological problem-solving frameworks supported by research from Goodwin & Ahn (2013), who found that explicit analysis and repeated practice improve comprehension and morphological awareness.

Model the process first. Then work through examples with students. Gradually reduce support until they can analyze words independently.

Step 4: Reinforce Affixes Across Units and Contexts

One of the most effective ways to make morphology stick is to use it everywhere, not just during vocabulary drills.

As you move through literacy-based therapy activities, encourage students to:

✔️ Look for target prefixes and suffixes
✔️ Add new examples to their vocabulary journal
✔️ Highlight affixed words in stories, articles, or science experiments
✔️ Use the definition card as a reference tool

SLP Now members can search the library for books and articles that contain specific prefixes or suffixes. This makes it easy to find contextualized opportunities for practice.

You can also bring in book-specific or article-specific organizers, allowing students to collect multiple examples of the same affix throughout the year.

Not a member yet? Sign up for a free trial to access 400+ therapy plans!

Step 5: Build a Vocabulary Journal

A vocabulary journal helps students:

✔️ Track affixes
✔️ Write definitions
✔️ Record example words
✔️ See their progress over time
✔️ Add sentences and illustrations

This strategy supports deeper processing, described by Nagy, Berninger & Abbott (2006) as essential for moving new vocabulary from short-term exposure to long-term mastery.

Help students keep their affix cards, organizer examples, and unit-based words all in one place. I love creating student folders for this!

Putting It All Together

Morphology instruction doesn’t have to be complicated. By focusing on the most common affixes and embedding practice into everyday therapy, you can give students powerful tools for understanding and using new vocabulary.

These evidence-based strategies help students become confident, independent word learners, and help you make the most of your therapy time.

If you want ready-to-use materials for teaching prefixes, suffixes, and root words, you can download five activities for free and explore the full SLP Now membership. Sign up today!

References

Carlisle, J. F. (2010). Effects of instruction in morphological awareness on literacy achievement: An integrative review. Reading Research Quarterly, 45(4), 464–487.

Goodwin, A. P., & Ahn, S. (2013). A meta-analysis of morphological interventions: Effects on literacy achievement of children with literacy difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 46(6), 635–646.

Honig, B., Diamond, L., & Gutlohn, L. (2013). Teaching Reading Sourcebook. Arena Press.

Kieffer, M. J., & Lesaux, N. K. (2008). The role of derivational morphology in the reading comprehension of Spanish-speaking English language learners. Reading and Writing, 21, 783–804.

Nagy, W., Berninger, V., & Abbott, R. (2006). Contributions of morphology beyond phonology to literacy outcomes of upper elementary and middle-school students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(1), 134–147.

240: Multiple Meaning Words: The SLP CLEAR Method Explained

November 25, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

Teaching multiple meaning words can feel surprisingly hard.

Not because the concept is advanced, but because students often:

guess the wrong meaning
get stuck on one definition
struggle to apply the word correctly in reading or conversation

And for busy school-based SLPs, the real challenge usually isn’t instruction.

It’s planning.

Creating:

clear examples
multiple contexts
visuals and organizers
and enough repetition for generalization

This takes time most SLPs simply don’t have.

That’s not just frustrating, it’s exhausting.

And it’s exactly why so many school-based SLPs struggle to stay consistent with skills like multiple meaning words.

Not because they don’t know what to teach. But because planning effective therapy takes more time than they have.

As a school-based SLP you should always be able to:

Leave work at work instead of planning at 9pm
Feel confident walking into every session
Actually have time for dinner with family or your favorite hobby

The good news?

There is a simple, practical way to teach multiple meaning words that builds clarity and flexibility. Without overwhelming students or adding hours to your prep.

We call it the CLEAR Method™.

It’s a planning-first, clarity-driven approach that reflects the systems and methods built into SLP Now. The ones designed to reduce prep time, support confidence, and make therapy easier to sustain.

Is the CLEAR Method™ for Teaching Multiple Meaning Words Right for You?

This approach works best for SLPs who:

Are currently spending hours planning and prepping materials each week
Want to maintain high-quality, evidence-based therapy
Need materials that support consistent repetition and generalization
Value time with family/life outside of work

If you’re already using a comprehensive therapy resource or prefer creating everything yourself, this may not be for you.

But if you’re spending hours planning sessions and want that time back, without compromising quality, keep reading.

Using structured, planning-first methods like these can lead to dramatic time savings and better student outcomes.

Just like the time Courtney saved with her 40 student caseload:

slp software case study multiple meaning words

“It’s been a one -stop shop for me. I’ve been able to gather my materials, collect my data live, and then have a graph to show how the students are making progress or what goals I didn’t target in a previous session.”

– Coutney Tomberlain, SLP at Cobb County School District (20 yrs experience)

These results didn’t come from working harder.
They came from using repeatable methods and ready-made supports instead of rebuilding lessons from scratch.

And that’s exactly what the CLEAR method for multiple meaning words is designed to help you do.

Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack

Ready-to-use materials that follow the CLEAR Method™ so you can teach multiple meaning words with confidence — without spending hours on prep.

CLEAR Method™ framework with step-by-step teaching guide
Pre-written sentences for context-first instruction
Parts of speech supports including student-friendly reference cards
Visual organizers to anchor meanings and reduce cognitive load
Leveled practice activities (K-4+) with built-in repetition across contexts

Everything you need to assess, teach, and generalize multiple meaning words — all in one place.

👉 Join to Download Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack

Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack preview

Why multiple meaning words matter for kids

Multiple meaning words are words that have more than one meaning, depending on how they’re used. Research indicates that approximately 50% of English words have multiple meanings! (Nagy & Anderson, 1984)

For example:

bat (an animal vs. sports equipment)
change (coins vs. doing something differently)

Many students — especially those with language impairments — have difficulty:

using context clues
thinking flexibly about word meanings
shifting from one meaning to another

This directly impacts:

vocabulary development
reading comprehension
overall language understanding

That’s why how we teach multiple meaning words matters just as much as what words we choose.

What Are Multiple Meaning Words?

Multiple meaning words are words that have more than one meaning, depending on how they’re used in a sentence or situation.

The key is this:
👉 The word itself doesn’t change, the context does.

Examples of Multiple Meaning Words in Sentences:

Bat
- The bat flew out of the cave.
- She hit the ball with a bat.
Change
- I have change in my pocket.
- It’s time to change your shoes.

For many students, especially those with language impairments, this flexibility doesn’t come naturally.

Instead, they may:

lock onto the first meaning they learned
ignore context clues
guess based on pictures or prior knowledge
struggle when the same word shows up in a new way

This is why multiple meaning words often become a bottleneck for:

vocabulary growth
reading comprehension
understanding grade-level texts

👉 Want Ready-to-Use Multiple Meaning Words Examples Like These?

The Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack includes pre-written sentences, visuals, and organizers so students can practice identifying meanings in context — without you creating everything from scratch.

➡️ Start a Free Trial to Access the Skill Pack

Multiple Meaning Words visual organizer example

Why Multiple Meaning Words Are Tricky for Kids

On the surface, multiple meaning words seem straightforward.

But for students, they require several skills working together at once:

understanding sentence meaning
using context clues
knowing parts of speech
thinking flexibly about language

If one of those pieces breaks down, students often:

choose the wrong meaning
get confused when meanings shift
struggle to explain why a meaning makes sense

types of multiple meaning words

That’s why simply giving students a list of multiple meaning words or a worksheet often isn’t enough.

They don’t need more words.
They need a clear way to think through meaning.

A Better Way: Teach the Process, Not Just the Words

Instead of asking students to memorize definitions, effective instruction teaches them how to figure out meaning.

That’s where the CLEAR Method™ comes in.

It gives students a repeatable process they can use whenever they encounter a word with more than one meaning — in therapy, in the classroom, and while reading independently.

In the next section, we’ll break down the CLEAR Method™ step by step, starting with the most important piece: context.

The CLEAR Method™ for Teaching Multiple Meaning Words

Over time, we’ve found that the most effective multiple meaning word instruction follows one clear pattern.

We call it the CLEAR Method™.

It’s a simple, practical process that helps students:

figure out the correct meaning
explain why it makes sense
and apply that thinking across new contexts

CLEAR stands for:

C — Context First
L — Label the Part of Speech
E — Explain the Meaning
A — Anchor With Visuals
R — Repeat Across Contexts

Instead of memorizing definitions, students learn a process for understanding meaning,which is what actually supports comprehension.

Let’s start with the most important step.

👉 Want Instant Access to Examples Like These?

The Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack includes:

Pre-written sentences for context
Student-friendly parts of speech guides
Visual supports that make meaning clearer

➡️ Start a Free Trial to Access This Skill Pack

Multiple Meaning Words visual support example

C — Context First

Context is the foundation of multiple meaning word instruction.

If students try to decide what a word means without context, they’re usually guessing.

That’s why the CLEAR Method™ always starts with a sentence or situation, not the word by itself.

What this looks like in practice

Instead of asking:

“What does the word bat mean?”

Start with:

The bat flew out of the cave.
He grabbed the bat before stepping up to the plate.

Then guide students to ask:

“What’s happening in this sentence?”
“What clues help us figure out the meaning?”

This shifts students from guessing to analyzing.

Why context-first instruction matters

When students consistently start with context, they:

rely less on memorized definitions
pay attention to surrounding words
become more flexible with meaning

Research shows that context clues significantly aid vocabulary learning and support students’ ability to derive word meanings independently (Baumann et al., 2003).

This directly supports:

reading comprehension
understanding unfamiliar vocabulary
independent problem-solving in texts

In the next section, we’ll look at how identifying the part of speech helps students narrow meaning quickly — especially when words can function in more than one way.

L — Label the Part of Speech

Once students understand the context, the next step is helping them narrow the meaning.

That’s where parts of speech come in.

Many multiple meaning words change meaning based on how they’re used in a sentence — not just the situation.

Helping students ask:

“Is this a thing (noun)?”
“Is it an action (verb)?”
“Is it describing something?”

can immediately eliminate the wrong meaning.

Simple sentence frames that build flexibility

Sentence frames make this step concrete and student-friendly.

👉 Want this step ready-to-go?

Resources like this student-friendly reference card come included in the skill pack, along with sentence frames and organizers that guide students through the process without you creating them yourself.

Multiple Meaning Words parts of speech reference card

For example:

Noun frame: I have a ___.
Verb frame: I am ___.

Using the word change:

I have change. → coins or money
I am changing. → doing something differently

These quick tests help students:

think more flexibly about word meanings
generate definitions more independently
explain why a meaning makes sense

Why this step matters

Labeling the part of speech:

reduces random guessing
builds metalinguistic awareness
supports students who struggle with abstract language

It also gives students a strategy they can reuse when they encounter unfamiliar words in reading.

👉 Want this step ready-to-go?

The Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack includes student-friendly parts-of-speech supports and organizers that guide students through this process, without you creating sentence frames or visuals yourself.

E — Explain the Meaning (In Student-Friendly Language)

Once students have identified the correct meaning, the next step is making sure they truly understand it — not just recognize it.

That’s where student-friendly explanations come in.

Instead of repeating dictionary definitions, encourage students to:

explain the meaning in their own words
describe what’s happening in the sentence
talk through how they figured it out

This is where deeper language learning happens.

Using think-alouds to build metalinguistic awareness

Think-alouds are especially powerful with multiple meaning words.

Metalinguistic instruction (teaching students to reflect on and talk about language) has been shown to improve vocabulary and comprehension outcomes (Biemiller & Boote, 2006).

For students with language impairments, this type of awareness is particularly critical for reading comprehension (Zipke, 2007).”

Simple prompts like:

“How did you know which meaning it was?”
“What clues helped you?”
“Could this word mean something else here?”

help students reflect on their thinking — not just their answer.

Over time, students start to internalize these questions and apply them independently while reading or listening.

Why explaining meaning matters

When students explain meanings out loud, they:

strengthen vocabulary knowledge
build metalinguistic awareness
improve expressive language
become more confident explaining their thinking

This step is also incredibly effective in group therapy, because students benefit from hearing how others reason through meaning.

Next up is the step that helps everything stick: anchoring meanings with visuals.

A — Anchor With Visuals

Multiple meaning words are abstract by nature.

That’s why visual supports are such a powerful part of the CLEAR Method™.

When students can see the difference between meanings, they’re more likely to:

understand the word
remember it later
retrieve the correct meaning in new situations

How visuals support multiple meaning word instruction

Visuals help students:

break down abstract language
compare meanings side by side
reduce cognitive load

Effective visuals might include:

simple pictures for each meaning
graphic organizers that show multiple definitions
space to draw or sketch what each meaning looks like

Research on robust vocabulary instruction emphasizes the importance of explicit support for definitions, part of speech, example sentences, and imagery (Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2013).

For example, a graphic organizer might ask students to:

write the word
identify the part of speech
explain each meaning
draw a picture for each one

multiple-meaning-words-anchor-with-visuals multiple meaning words anchor with visuals

This anchors understanding and supports long-term retention.

Why anchoring with visuals matters

Students who struggle with language often need more than verbal explanation.

Visual supports:

give students another way to process information
support students with working memory challenges
make abstract concepts more concrete

Strong vocabulary instruction includes the use of multiple modalities to reinforce memory and comprehension (Snow, 2010)

This is especially helpful for:

younger students
students with language impairments
English learners

👉 Want Instant Access to the Multiple Meaning Words Anchor Chart?

The Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack includes ready-made graphic organizers and visual supports aligned to each step of the CLEAR Method™ so you don’t have to design or adapt materials yourself.

Multiple Meaning Words anchor chart example

We’re almost there. The final step is where generalization happens and where most instruction breaks down without the right materials.

R — Repeat Across Contexts (This Is Where Generalization Happens)

Most students don’t struggle with multiple meaning words because they never learned them.

They struggle because they only saw the word once.

Generalization doesn’t happen after a single sentence or activity.
It happens when students see the same word used again and again in different ways.

That’s why Repeat Across Contexts is a core part of the CLEAR Method™.

What repetition should look like (without busywork)

Effective repetition means practicing the same word across:

different sentences
different contexts
short passages or texts
student-generated examples

A simple progression might look like:

Two clear sentences with different meanings
A short paragraph or story using the word
A new context (book, article, or classroom example)
Student-created sentences or explanations

Each repetition reinforces flexibility, not memorization.

Why this step is often skipped (and why that’s a problem)

Repeat Across Contexts is the step that:

takes the most planning
requires the most materials
is hardest to sustain week after week

Without it, students may:

understand the word during therapy
struggle to apply it in reading
revert to guessing in new contexts

This is where even strong instruction can break down.

At this point, you’ve seen how the CLEAR Method™ works from start to finish.

Next, we’ll tie it all together with:

practical examples
grade-level considerations
and the strongest AI-Builder–style CTA on the page.

SLP Multiple Meaning Words Examples: Putting the CLEAR Method™ Into Practice

The CLEAR Method™ works across grade levels because the process stays the same — only the complexity of the words and contexts changes.

Below are examples of how multiple meaning word instruction can look from kindergarten through 4th grade, using the same CLEAR steps each time.

Multiple Meaning Words for Kindergarten

At this level, the goal is helping students understand that one word can have more than one meaning.

Focus on:

very concrete words
clear visuals
short, simple sentences

Example words:

Word	Meaning 1	Meaning 2
bat	an animal	baseball bat
park	a place to play	to stop a car

Use CLEAR by:

starting with simple sentences (Context First)
naming the meaning out loud
anchoring each meaning with pictures

Multiple Meaning Words for 1st Grade

First-grade students are ready to compare meanings more intentionally — especially with support.

Focus on:

concrete + slightly abstract meanings
sentence-level context

Example words:

Word	Meaning 1	Meaning 2
ring	jewelry	make a sound
light	something you turn on	not heavy

Use CLEAR by:

identifying what’s happening in each sentence
labeling whether the word is a noun or describing word
anchoring meanings with pictures or drawings

Multiple Meaning Words for 2nd Grade

In second grade, students benefit from learning how parts of speech help narrow meaning.

Focus on:

noun vs. verb meanings
explaining meanings in their own words

Example words:

Word	Meaning 1	Meaning 2
change	coins	to do something differently
watch	something you wear	to look at

Use CLEAR by:

testing meanings with sentence frames
encouraging students to explain why a meaning fits

repeating words across different sentences

👉 Want sentence frames and ready-made examples that support flexible thinking?

Start a free trial to access the Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack.

Start Your Free Trial →

Multiple Meaning Words for 3rd Grade

Third grade is where multiple meaning words start to affect reading comprehension more directly.

Focus on:

sentence-level ambiguity
short passages
context clues

Example words:

Word	Meaning 1	Meaning 2
point	a sharp end	an idea
scale	to climb	a tool for measuring

Use CLEAR by:

analyzing context before guessing
explaining how clues lead to the correct meaning
repeating words across passages and discussions

👉 Want passages, visuals, and activities that build repetition without extra prep?

Start a free trial to access the Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack.

Start Your Free Trial →

Multiple Meaning Words for 4th Grade

By fourth grade, many multiple meaning words become more abstract and academic.

Focus on:

abstract meanings
academic vocabulary
generalization across texts

Example words:

Word	Meaning 1	Meaning 2
draft	a rough version	air movement
table	furniture	data chart

Use CLEAR by:

breaking down context in longer texts
labeling part of speech to narrow meaning
repeating words across subjects and settings

Why This Works Across Grades

What changes from kindergarten to fourth grade isn’t the method — it’s:

the type of words
the complexity of context
the level of explanation expected

The CLEAR Method™ gives students a consistent way to think about meaning, while the Skill Pack gives you the materials to apply it without rebuilding lessons every week.

“This consistency aligns with research on effective vocabulary instruction, which emphasizes the importance of systematic, repeated exposure across contexts (Baumann et al., 2003).”

👉 Want examples and activities already organized by level?

The Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack includes leveled activities, visual supports, and practice materials that make it easy to apply the CLEAR Method™ across grades — without sorting or adapting everything yourself.

➡️ Start your free trial to access the Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack

Multiple Meaning Words activities organized by grade level

Using the CLEAR Method™ Without Spending Hours Planning

At this point, you might be thinking:

“This makes sense — but setting all of this up takes time.”

And you’d be right.

To use the CLEAR Method™ consistently, you need:

carefully chosen multiple meaning words
multiple sentences and contexts for each word
visuals and graphic organizers
materials that support repetition and generalization

You can create all of that yourself…

…but most school-based SLPs end up:

planning at night
recreating the same lesson week after week
or skipping repetition because of time constraints

“This sounds great, but…”

“I’m not sure if pre-made materials will work for my students”

The Skill Pack includes leveled materials (K-4+) and flexible activities you can adapt. You’re not locked into one approach.

“I’ve tried therapy resources before and they weren’t evidence-based”

Every activity in the CLEAR Method™ Skill Pack is grounded in research (Baumann et al., 2003; Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2013; Snow, 2010) and aligned to best practices.

“What if I don’t like it?”

Start with a free trial. Use the materials in your actual sessions. If it doesn’t save you time or improve your therapy, you haven’t lost anything.

That’s exactly why we built the Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack inside SLP Now.

The Skill Pack = The CLEAR Method™ (Already Built for You)

The Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack is the ready-to-use version of the CLEAR Method™.

Instead of planning from scratch, you can:

open a session
select a target word
use pre-written contexts and visuals
and guide students through each CLEAR step with confidence

Everything is designed to work together, so you’re not piecing resources together from multiple places.

👉 Want to try it in your next session?

You can access the Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack with a free trial to SLP Now.

That means you can:

explore the materials
use them with your students
and see how CLEAR works in real therapy sessions

Final Thought

Multiple meaning words don’t have to feel confusing for you or your students.

With a simple framework and materials that support it, you can:

teach vocabulary more effectively
support reading comprehension
and protect your time and energy

The CLEAR Method™ gives you the structure.
The Skill Pack gives you the speed.

References

Baumann, J. F., Edwards, E. C., Boland, E., Olejnik, S., & Kame’enui, E. J. (2003). Vocabulary tricks: Effects of instruction in morphology and context on fifth-grade students’ ability to derive and infer word meanings. American Educational Research Journal.

Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.

Biemiller, A., & Boote, C. (2006). An effective method for building meaning vocabulary in primary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology.

Nagy, W., & Anderson, R. (1984). How many words are there in printed school English? Reading Research Quarterly.

Snow, C. (2010). Academic language and the challenge of reading for learning about science. Science.

Zipke, M. (2007). The role of metalinguistic awareness in reading comprehension for students with language impairments. Topics in Language Disorders.

Transcript

Let's chat about strategies to target multiple meaning words, shall we? Before we dive into the practical strategies you can use in your next session, I want to lay some groundwork. When I started looking into the research almost a decade ago, I was surprised to learn that 50% of English words have multiple meanings.

Many of our students, especially those with language impairments, have difficulty inferring the meanings of those words. And that can really impact vocabulary development in general, but also comprehension, because if we are not able to analyze words and look at context to understand what they mean, then that can really impact our comprehension.

So we will dive into the strategies that we can use from introducing multiple meaning words to working towards generalization. The first thing I want to do is make sure students understand that words can have multiple meanings. We might just start off the discussion and say words can have multiple meanings, like one word can mean different things. The example I always start with is the animal that flies and the wooden stick used to hit a ball in baseball. That would be kind of my initial teaching so that we can wrap our heads around what we're working on.

Then the second step is having students practice identifying the meaning and looking at the context. In my initial teaching, we would've talked about like a bat the animal as well as the baseball bat. And I might give them some sentences. I like to have the pictures and start with really concrete examples and then we can get more complex.

But I first wanna make sure that they're really understanding the concept, so I might give them two sentences, like the bat flew into the cave, and we would look at that sentence and which bat is that talking about? And just having some specific examples and then using images to help.

Because we are building that imagery, that can be a way to get in some errorless learning and help students understand the context. For our third strategy, something we can do while completing that activity is to think out loud and help students build that meta linguistic awareness.

This is easier with concrete examples. we can ask questions like, how did you know which meaning it was, could it mean something else in that sentence, and kind of having some discussion around that.

And they could practice saying I knew it was the animal because bats live in caves, so that could be the example for the sentence we talked about. And if we're doing this as a group activity, this will be a beautiful language, rich activity. Even if not all of the students are working on multiple meaning words, they can be working on syntax, creating sentences, grammar, vocabulary, all of those things, in the context of these activities. So those are our first three strategies. The fourth strategy is to use a graphic organizer. We have lots of graphic organizers built into SLP Now, that help students kinda break down the meaning and give them robust vocabulary practice with these words.

We have blank graphic organizers in our skill pack for multiple meaning words. For our books and articles, we've identified multiple meaning words in the text. For each word, we give three sentences with the target word in it, and then the students find the word, work through the graphic organizer to identify the part of speech, the meaning, and draw a picture to help with imagery. That type of graphic organizer can be really helpful. One of the strategies that has helped my students the most is helping them understand how parts of speech work.

I have a graphic organizer that lists noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and it gives a student friendly definition of what a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb are. It also has some sentence frames that can help them understand what part of speech something is.

A noun is a person placer thing, and the sentence frames are, I have a blank and I see blank. I have a bat. I see a bat. For the example with bat, the animal and the wooden stick, those are both nouns so that strategy wouldn't help us differentiate the meaning.

We can use that to help students generate different definitions for words. They can use that as a strategy to help them understand what the word might mean. If we know it's a noun, that'll help narrow down how we are going to define that word.

And if we know it's a verb and an action. That'll help us narrow down the definition as well. We have a little cheat sheet that students can use. We can have them look at the context of the sentence and then put the word in their own sentence. For example, if we are looking at change, we can say, I have change.

And then that might spark, oh, change. That means like coins of money. And then if the verb is, I am changing, maybe they think, oh, that means putting on new clothes. And so that helps them generate definitions for this word. It helps them practice to think more flexibly because if you ask them what are two meanings for the word change?

They might only think of one and they have a hard time thinking flexibly of what else could change mean? I found that using those sentence frames can be really helpful and throughout the entire process we'll leverage the strategies of using visuals and graphic organizers and pictography or acting things out to help students build that picture in their heads.

Using the cheat sheet for parts of speech can help give them a framework to start thinking more flexibly about what words mean. So those are our strategies for today. If you want to check out the Multiple Meaning Words Skill Pack or any of the activity sheets for picture books, articles, and science experiments, we have lots of activities based on these evidence backed strategies that you can use in your sessions without having to reinvent the wheel.

You can literally just click. Into something as students are walking in the door and be ready to go. I hope these strategies were super helpful and we'll see you in the next one.

239: How to Teach Describing: Evidence-Based Strategies SLPs Can Use Tomorrow

November 18, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

In this post, we’ll explore two research-backed approaches for teaching describing, walk through practical therapy tools you can use right away, and share a simple way to bring these strategies together during your literacy-based sessions.

Why Teaching Describing Matters

Describing is foundational for writing, classroom discussions, and overall expressive language. Students who struggle with describing often benefit from explicit instruction in how to organize their ideas and select meaningful attributes (Ukrainetz, 2015). When students learn a predictable framework, they can more easily access and share what they know.

Evidence-Backed Strategies for Describing

Strategy #1: Explicitly Teach Attribute Categories

Research shows that teaching students to use consistent attribute categories (such as category, function, parts, size, shape, color, and location) helps them build organized semantic networks (Ebbels, 2014). When students internalize these categories, they gain a reliable structure for describing any object or concept.

How to Use This Strategy in Therapy

– Introduce each attribute category explicitly
– Model with real objects or storybook vocabulary
– Use visuals to support understanding
– Provide multiple, varied practice opportunities

SLP Now Tool to Support This Strategy

The Describing Helper includes visual supports for categories, colors, shapes, functions, locations, and more.
Sign up for a free trial to download the Describing Helper for free today!

Strategy #2: Teach Through Contrastive Examples

Contrastive learning is when we pair examples and non-examples). When students compare items that differ in one or more attributes, it strengthens their understanding of what the concept is and is not.

For example:
Is an apple a fruit? Yes.
Is a bee a fruit? No.

These comparisons promote deeper semantic processing and increase accuracy in categorization and description.

How to Use This Strategy in Therapy

– Present pairs or small sets of contrasting items
– Ask yes/no questions about category membership
– Highlight similarities and differences across attributes
– Embed practice across units or storybooks

SLP Now Tool to Support This Strategy

Our Vocabulary Pages for Categories and Object Functions include exemplars, non-exemplars, and sections for adding new examples across sessions and units.
Sign up for a free trial to download the vocabulary pages for free today!

Tools to Implement These Evidence-Backed Strategies

Use Visuals to Scaffold Describing Skills

Many students need visual anchors as they learn new vocabulary and practice describing. Visual supports can provide options for colors, shapes, locations, categories, and more—making it easier for students to access the language they need.

The Describing Helper inside SLP Now was designed for this exact purpose. Whether you’re targeting describing directly or building the underlying vocabulary skills that support describing, visuals give students the support they need to be successful.

Build Vocabulary With Journals for Long-Term Retention

Vocabulary journals are an effective way to deepen semantic knowledge over time, especially when tied to literacy-based therapy.

Each vocabulary page includes:
– A student-friendly definition
– Pictures of exemplars and non-exemplars
– A blank space to add new examples from books, activities, or classroom life

As students revisit the same category across books and real-life contexts, their semantic networks become richer and more flexible (Nagy & Townsend, 2012).

Support Generalization With Sentence Frames

Once students can identify and list attributes, the next step is helping them communicate descriptions in meaningful sentences. Sentence frames encourage generalization and align with classroom expectations for writing and discussion.

Examples include:
“It is a type of…” (category)
“We find it…” (location)
“It is used for…” (function)

The Describing Helper includes sentence frames for each attribute category, making it easy to support students during structured and unstructured tasks.

Try These Strategies in Your Next Session

Explicit teaching, contrastive examples, vocabulary journals, and visual supports work beautifully together, and they help students build describing skills that carry into storytelling, academic tasks, and real-life communication.

If you want to download the Describing Helper and access thousands of evidence-backed therapy materials, sign up for the free trial!

References

Ebbels, S. (2014). Effectiveness of intervention for grammar in school-aged children with primary language impairments: A review of the evidence. Child Language Teaching and Therapy.
Nagy, W., & Townsend, D. (2012). Words as tools: Learning academic vocabulary as language acquisition. Reading Research Quarterly.
Ukrainetz, T. (2015). Contextualized Language Intervention: Scaffolding PreK–12 Students to Promote Academic Success.

Transcript

Hey there and welcome back to the podcast. Today we are diving into strategies related to describing. And this is an area that I think we all do pretty well with. We have a strong foundation on how to target describing, but I'm excited to share a couple strategies and then dive into some tools that we can use to make it easier to implement those strategies.

So there's two core strategies that emerge in the research. One is explicitly teaching attribute categories, like size, shape, function, location, parts, category, all of those things. Teaching those categories give students a clear framework and helps them organize their ideas.

And then we also want to make sure that we're systematically teaching those and helping students build that framework. The second strategy is teaching through contrastive examples. When we show pairs of examples that differ in one or more attributes, like an apple and a pear.

They're both fruits, sweet, and have stemsbut have different colors, shapes, and tastesContrasting can be really helpful. In practice, one tool that we all know about is the Expanding Expression Tool.

It is a visual and tactile way to teach those attribute categories. You can make a little song about the attributes and it's a tactile thing. If they're looking at the apple, they can be like, okay, green group, and do that.

Definitely look at the resources from Expanding Expression Tool. They have a bunch of amazing resources and handbooks so I'm not teaching how to use that. I wanted to give a nod to that tool because it can be very helpful. Some other tools that we can use. I personally use the Expanding Expression Tool.It's really helpful to teach them like, what group is it in?

But sometimes they don't have that vocabulary of like, oh, these are all the groups that I can think of. And these are all of the colors and shapes. Sometimes we need a little bit more visual support. So I created, it's called a Describing Helper.

and it has a page for the different attributes that we might use when describing. So it has pages for the different attribute categories, and then it has pictures of a bunch of examples. On the colors page it shows different colors. On the shape page, it shows different shapes.

And then we have a bunch of locations and categories and all of that. I find that if we are doing a describing activity, it's really helpful to have those visual choices. even as a scaffolding tool, if we ask a student what category it's in, we can pull up the Describing Helper and be like, is it a fruit or a toy?

And have that be a way to scaffold. This can give us some practice with a contrastive examples If we're looking at the apple, we can say, is the apple a person? No. An apple is not a person. And so that gives us that contrast. Is an apple a place? No. That helps give us practice opportunities, with one simple visual. Another thing that's really helpful, 'cause sometimes teaching the attribute categories is really helpful, like size, shape, color, all of that. Sometimes our students are missing the vocabulary for those. I have a bunch of activities in my library to help teach categories, object functions, and basic concepts

Sometimes we need to break it down and maybe describing is a good longer term goal, but we really need to focus on building vocabulary in the subcategories, and the Describing Helper helps with that. we can also do it more systematically. For categories and object functions, I like to build vocabulary journals for students.

So we have vocabulary journal pages attached to all of the therapy plans in SLP Now, So let's say we're using Apple Trouble, 'cause I'm fixating on apples today. But if we're reading Apple Trouble, we can go to the Targets section in the Therapy Plan for Apple Trouble.

We'll go to the targets tab and see all of the categories and object functions identified in the story. You can click on that and download the vocabulary page. It's just a one pager and it has the title, so it would be like fruit.

First we come up with a definition of what a fruit is .It would have like 10 pictures of exemplars and non exemplars and we can go through. Is a bee a fruit?

A bee is not a fruit. We cross that one out. And then is a grape of fruit. Oh yeah, grape is a fruit and we can circle that. We get lots of repetition and lots of practice. The first section is a quick definition of what a category or what the fruit is. Then we have little pictures to go through what's an exemplar and a non exemplar.

And then the third section on the page is blank. And then we get to add exemplars from the books and the activities that we're doing. So as we're going through Apple Trouble, we can add the apple and the pear. I don't remember if there's any other fruits in that story. But then let's say the next month we read the book about the Hungry Bear and the Strawberry.

We can add a strawberry to the page and then let's say during lunch, they're eating like they have different fruits, then we can add that to their page.We can continue to build on that journal.

And so they'll always have that quick definition, the reminders of the exemplars and non exemplars, and then they get to continue adding their own. And as we're doing the virtual field trip, we continue to add examples and it'll build over units and units. And that just helps them build that vocabulary organize that information and get some really meaningful practice. So we talked about, in terms of the tools that we've covered so far, the Expanding Expression Tool. I'll include a link in the show notes, but if you Google it, you'll find all the resources around that.

In SLP Now we have a Describing Helper, which includes visual choices for different attribute categories. That just came from a need of my students. They knew they needed to give me a group but they needed some foundational support, so having that is a good starting point.

We also want to provide explicit instruction on the attributes within each attribute category. Because sometimes they don't have that vocabulary of like the colors and the shapes and the categories and the functions and all of that. And so we wanna make sure that we're doing some explicit practice there.

And then another thing that has been really helpful. This is in the Describing Helper as well. The first page has sentence frames that we can use to help students. They can give us a list of attributes, but we want them

to create sentences to describe something. That's what they're gonna have to do in the classroom when they're writing and having discussions. There are sentence frames for each of the attribute categories, to help them do that describing activity.

So that's what that looks like. An example for location, the sentence frame would be we find it and it could be like inside, at the store, whatever it might be. Those are the tools that I use to help me in my describing intervention and link to a quick review of some of the research, that helped me decide how I want to do that. So yeah, there's lots of tools that we can use to help us, whether it is EET, the Describing Helper, the categories and object functions vocabulary pages. These are evidence-based activities for basic concepts as well. We have those to help fill in that vocabulary.

Andit's based on the units that we have for those also embed the contrastive examples So if students are struggling with those, like the location words, the sizes, and all of that, the basic concepts, units can really help too. The last thing we talked about was sentence frames in helping students with generalization, so that they're not just listing, we're embedding it into real sentences. That's a quick recap of my strategies and the tools that we use. If you're interested in accessing the tools in SLP Now, I'll include a link in the show notes so you can check out all of the things. Thanks for joining me.

I hope this was helpful, and we'll see you in the next one.

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Basic Concepts in Speech Therapy: 5 Research Backed Tips

November 10, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

Why Basic Concepts Matter

These foundational concepts help students follow directions, understand stories, and access academic content—especially in math and reading.

In this post, I’m sharing five evidence-based strategies for targeting basic concepts that actually stick. We’ll walk through research, practical examples, and how to bring it all together using one of my favorite books, Zoe Gets Ready.

1. Keep Instruction Clear and Focused

When targeting basic concepts, clarity is everything.

Work on one concept at a time and make sure a student masters it before adding more. This helps reduce confusion and cognitive overload—especially for students with language delays.

💡 In Practice
If you’re working on under, stick with that target until the student can identify and use it consistently. Once mastered, move to the next concept.

📘 What the Research Says
Seifert & Schwartz (1991) found that preschoolers learned basic concepts best when clinicians used direct instruction combined with interactive and incidental teaching. This blend supports generalization and retention while keeping instruction focused.

Seifert, K. L., & Schwartz, S. E. (1991). An instructional approach to teaching basic concepts. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 6(2), 143–158.

2. Embed Concepts in Meaningful Contexts

Once a student can identify a concept during structured tasks, bring it to life!

Embedding learning in context helps students apply and retain new concepts more effectively than drill alone.

💡 In Practice
→ During storybook reading: “She put the hat on her head.”
→ In play: “Put the shoes on the doll.”
→ During routines: “Put your folder in your backpack.”

📘 What the Research Says
Bracken (1982) emphasized that teaching basic concepts in natural, meaningful settings, like play and routines, improves both comprehension and generalization. Contextualized learning builds stronger conceptual frameworks than decontextualized drills.

Bracken, B. A. (1982). The importance of basic concepts for preschool children: An assessment of conceptual development. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 1(1), 3–20.

3. Use Multiple Exemplars—Strategically

Using varied examples helps students generalize new concepts, but timing matters.

Start small to establish understanding, then increase variety gradually.

💡 In Practice
Begin with a few consistent items (e.g., “Put the apple on the plate,” “Put the cup on the table”).
Once students grasp the concept, vary the context, setting, and materials.

📘 What the Research Says
Nicholas et al. (2019) suggest that limiting variability early in instruction can improve conceptual learning for children with language delays. Gradual expansion of exemplars ensures solid understanding before introducing new forms.

Nicholas, E., Light, J., & Romski, M. (2019). Teaching basic concepts to young children with developmental delays: Effects of variability in exemplars. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(4), 1120–1133.

4. Pair Words with Gestures or Visuals

Pairing verbal labels with visuals or gestures helps anchor abstract ideas.
Gestures act as visual cues, supporting comprehension and memory.

💡 In Practice
→ On: one hand placed on top of the other
→ Under: one hand slides beneath a fist
→ Big: hands spread apart
→ Little: fingers pinched close together

📘 What the Research Says
Vogt & Kauschke (2017) found that iconic gestures (i.e., gestures that visually represent meaning) enhance children’s learning of new words and concepts. Using consistent gestures alongside verbal cues leads to stronger recall and faster understanding.

Vogt, S., & Kauschke, C. (2017). Observing iconic gestures enhances word learning in typically developing children and children with language impairment. Journal of Child Language, 44(6), 1458–1476.

5. Collaborate Whenever You Can

When SLPs work with classroom teachers, PE teachers, or paraprofessionals, students see and hear consistent models across environments, which boosts carryover.

💡 In Practice
→ In PE: Practice over, under, and through during obstacle courses.
→ In art: Discuss on top of or next to while creating collages.
→ In class: Coordinate with teachers to reinforce concepts in daily routines.

📘 What the Research Says
Lund et al. (2019) found that preschoolers learned more concepts when SLPs collaborated with PE teachers. The combination of movement, meaningful context, and language repetition supported stronger outcomes.

Lund, E., Douglas, S. N., & McNaughton, D. (2019). Collaboration between speech-language pathologists and physical educators: Effects on preschoolers’ concept learning. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 50(2), 214–228.

Bringing It All Together with Zoe Gets Ready

Now, let’s put it into practice using one of my favorite books, Zoe Gets Ready by Bethanie Murguia.

This story is perfect for targeting spatial and descriptive concepts (on, under, next to, big, small).

Here’s a quick literacy-based therapy flow:
– Direct Teaching: Use a structured activity for your target concept (e.g., “on”).
– Vocabulary Pracitce: Use dress-up play—“Put the tiara on the doll.”
– Model During Reading: Emphasize the target as you narrate the story.
– Comprehension Check: Ask, “Where are her shoes?” → On her feet.
– Parallel Story: Act out Zoe’s routine and have students use gestures as they retell.

This mix of explicit teaching + contextualized play supports both understanding and generalization.

Key Takeaways

→ Teach one concept at a time for clarity.
→ Embed practice in meaningful contexts.
→ Use multiple exemplars strategically.
→ Pair gestures and visuals with verbal models.
→ Collaborate across environments for consistency.

Each of these steps is grounded in research—and when combined, they make concept learning more natural, effective, and fun.

Ready to Save Time and Teach Smarter?

If you’d like ready-to-go materials for these strategies, check out the Basic Concepts Skill Pack and Literacy-Based Therapy Plans inside the SLP Now® Membership.

You’ll get structured lessons, play-based extensions, and built-in visuals—so you can spend less time planning and more time connecting with your students.

References

Bracken, B. A. (1982). The importance of basic concepts for preschool children: An assessment of conceptual development. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 1(1), 3–20.

Seifert, K. L., & Schwartz, S. E. (1991). An instructional approach to teaching basic concepts. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 6(2), 143–158.

Transcript

Hey there. Today we are chatting about strategies that we can use when targeting basic concepts. So these small but meaningful words like ""on under before"" are the foundation for understanding classroom directions, understanding stories. They're embedded in the curriculum, especially when it comes to math.

We are going to be reviewing some practical evidence-backed strategies that we can useand then we're going to tie it all together with a book, Zoe Gets Ready. So we'll talk about how we can embed this into our literacy based therapy units. First up we have a few strategies that we can use when breaking down concepts for students.

I'll share all the citations in the show notes, but one strategy involves keeping it clear in focus and working on one concept at a time,making sure that a student masters a concept before we add in more concepts. And this helps reduce confusion, especially for, students with language delays.

If we have vocabulary goals, it might make sense, to keep our instruction more focused for these students. There's a study by Seifert and Schwartz, 1991,and they inspired how I set up all of our basic concepts units in SLP Now. They talk about combining direct instruction, with interactive and incidental teaching.

And they did this with preschoolers and found that this direct instruction plus embedded practice, resulted in meaningful gains in preschoolers' understanding of basic concepts. We get really good results when we do that explicit teaching and then give students the opportunity to practice and see these concepts in action in meaningful contexts, like when reading a story or during play or during their routines.

and like I said, I'll share that research study in the show notes. It's a great practical read. All of the basic concepts unitsin SLP Now help implement the evidence back strategies for that direct instruction, and then when it comes to embedding concepts in meaningful context, we don't want to just drill. As we're reading stories, we can emphasize the concepts in the reading and through all of our literacy based therapy activities like our virtual field trip, for example.

And then if we're doing play-based activities, our early language books include tons of play-based activities, and we can practice our concepts and model and recast them during our play and routines as well. There's a lot of ways that we can embed those.

Then strategy three is interesting and nuanced depending on our student, but, we want to use multiple exemplars, but we want to be strategic with how we're doing that. We want to expose students to the concept. Let's say our focus for our next therapy session is on the basic concept.

We want to expose students to that concept in different contexts. whether it's play-based or during their daily routines. and with different items. So put the apple on the table, put the toy on the floor.However, Nicholas et al 2019, suggests limiting the variety of objects early on. And so this kind of goes along with that, starting with direct instruction. So maybe this is a way to kind of reconcile that research. So when we are doing our direct instruction, we wanna just have a few exemplars. Start really simple and then expand as students start to understand the concept, keeping it consistent at first. And the activities in SLP Now help you do that, so that's great. And then the fourth strategy is to pair verbal labels with iconic gestures or visuals. We can use gestures that look like what they mean. For the example with on, we can hold up our fist and put the other hand on the fist. That could be our iconic gesture for on, or put our hand under our fist for under.

Or like spreading our hands apart for big, or just sitting with a little pinch for little. We can use those gestures or icon cards to represent the concept. There is the Vogt & Kauschke, sorry if I butcher any of these names from 2017, is the study that talks about iconic gestures supporting concept learning.

We can use those gestures or other visuals to help support students. Keeping that gesture or icon consistent can help with understanding.

And our fifth strategy is to collaborate when you can.

A study by Lund et al in 2019 found that students learn more concepts when an SLP collaborated with the PE teacher. Pairing concept teaching with those movement activities might be part of what was happening. But it's also practicing those concepts in a meaningful activity.

So again, bringing us back to strategy number two, but that's another really good one. So those are our five strategies and now we'll take a quick minute to chat about what this could look like. The book that I picked to demonstrate how we can target basic concepts using literacy based therapy is Zoe Gets Ready.

And so let's say we're focusing on on, so we'll use that iconic gesture throughout. If the on is a totally new concept, we might want to start with that structured teaching activity. If you are a member of SLP Now, you can go to the therapy plans tab and type in Zoe Gets Ready ,and then go to the Targets tab and you'll see all of the basic concepts there. If you click on on, it'll launch the structured teaching activity for on, and this will give the student different exemplars, and it'll use the evidence backed strategies that were pulled from the Seifert and Schwartz article,and help you do that direct instruction.

So before we dive into the thematic unit, we can do that structured practice. Once we've gotten exposure to that target, we might wanna revisit that activity multiple times, depending on how helpful it is for the student. Once we do that, we can dive into the actual contextualized activities.

So what those can look like throughout the unit is pre-story knowledge activation. We might do a virtual field trip, like a YouTube video of different outfits.

And so that can be something that we can do for the virtual field trip, or we can look through the pictures of the book and talk about what we know about clothing and dress up. Throughout those activities, we can model and recast, examples like she's putting on the tiara and she's putting on the boots.

And then we can use our iconic gestures or our visual icon to emphasize that. We can do activities too. If you have a doll set with different clothing items, that can be a way to introduce the vocabulary that's going to be in the story.

We could also use that for phase four of the unit. For step two, when we're actually reading the book, we can model the concepts naturally and maybe just put a slight emphasis on them and talk about the things that are happening, like using, emphasizing the on as it's happening on the story pages.

Then for story comprehension, we can ask questions that embed that concept as well. So like, where are her shoes? And they can say on her feet if we're at that level, if that's appropriate. We can use visual supports and all of that as we're giving that exposure. Then for step four, this is where we can revisit the unit. We can do some more of those play-based activities. In the early language unit, we have tons of play-based activity suggestions, like the dress up activity Check out the unit for even more ideas. And then for step five, this is typically the parallel story, so we can act out the story as a comprehension type of activity. This is a great meaningful context to target whatever basic concepts we're focusing on throughout the unit. They can create their own version of the story, and act it out and then we can emphasize those concepts and yeah, that's super fun.

Our takeaways here. Teach one concept at a time. Embed those concepts in meaningful context, after direct instruction. Use multiple exemplars. Starting with just one exemplar in the beginning might work better for some of our students. Using iconic gestures or visuals. And then collaborate when we can, embedding these concepts in the classroom, in PE, during snack time, all of that. So that is a recap of our strategies for basic concepts. I'd love to hear how you are using these and check out the show notes for the research articles and all of that good stuff.

If you are not a member of SLP Now yet, you can sign up for a free trial to check out the therapy plan and all of the activities I mentioned. The link will be in the show notes, but just head to slpnow.com/trial. You can sign up for free, no strings attached.

And you can access the therapy plans, like I said, all of those basic concepts, activities, we'll hope to see you soon and we'll see you in the next episode too.

237: 5 Evidence-Based Strategies to Boost MLU (That You Can Use Tomorrow!)

November 4, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

Why MLU Goals Matter

Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) is one of the most reliable and widely used measures for tracking expressive language development (Brown, 1973; Miller & Chapman, 1981). It helps SLPs identify where a student is, monitor progress, and plan therapy that supports steady, functional growth.

In this post (and the SLP Now Podcast episode), we’ll walk through five evidence-based strategies for boosting MLU in a way that’s fun, functional, and easy to monitor—plus an example from a Little Blue Truck therapy plan.

1️⃣ Identify Targets Using a Language Sample

Before starting intervention, collect a language sample to get an authentic picture of your student’s communication.

Language sampling provides:
– An accurate baseline for MLU (Brown, 1973; Miller & Chapman, 1981)
– Insight into which structures and parts of speech are missing
– Data for ongoing progress monitoring

Many SLPs find language sampling intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be!

💡 Try This: Use the Language Sample Freebie to automatically calculate MLU and extract metrics for reports. The spreadsheet even helps you organize utterances and visualize growth over time.

2️⃣ Embed Targets in Play, Books, Songs, and Routines

Once you know your student’s targets, embed them in natural contexts, like play, shared book reading, songs, and daily routines. Research consistently supports that language learning is strongest when embedded in meaningful, interactive experiences (Fey, 1986; Justice & Ezell, 2002).

Why it works:
– Encourages spontaneous use of new language
– Supports generalization across settings
– Keeps therapy fun and functional

Try this:
– Reenact story scenes (“Truck stuck!” “Push truck!”)
– Sing songs like The Wheels on the Bus
– Incorporate targets into daily routines (“Open door”)

✨ Explore SLP Now’s Play-Based Units for ready-made activities designed to build MLU through storybooks and play.

3️⃣ Model Just Above the Child’s Level

Modeling slightly longer utterances (about one morpheme above a child’s current level) is the core of MLU intervention.

This approach, supported by decades of research, helps children expand expressive language naturally (Brown, 1973; Fey, 1986; Camarata, Nelson, & Camarata, 1994).

Here are some potential strategies:

Expansions: Add grammatical elements while maintaining the child’s meaning.
Child: “Dog jump.” → SLP: “The dog is jumping!”

Extensions: Add related, new information.
Child: “The dog is jumping.” → SLP: “The brown dog is jumping!”

Recasts: Reformulate the child’s utterance using correct syntax.
Child: “Him run.” → SLP: “He is running!”

Focused Stimulation: Model the target without requiring imitation.

📏 The Rule of Thumb: Model just one step above what the student currently produces.

4️⃣ Use Sentence Frames and Visual Supports

For students who benefit from more structure, sentence frames and visuals can make language more accessible and concrete.

The SLP Now Sentence Pack includes:
– Movable icons for core parts of speech
– Sentence strips organized by MLU level
– Visual scaffolds for building utterances

Example:

Child: “Truck.”
SLP: (adds icon) “Truck stuck!”
Next: “Truck stuck in mud.”

Visual modeling helps students connect words with meaning, supports working memory, and facilitates sentence expansion—especially for early language learners or students with ASD (Kaiser & Roberts, 2013).

5️⃣ Use Contingent Responses and Time Delay

Last but not least: pause and wait.

Time delay and contingent responding encourage children to initiate and elaborate on their own utterances (Kaiser & Roberts, 2013).

How to implement:
– Utilize expectant pauses in play.
– Give processing time before asking another question.
– Use contingent comments (“You see the truck!”) to maintain interaction.

This small shift gives students processing space and often leads to longer, more complex utterances.

🛻 Therapy Plan in Action: Little Blue Truck

Here’s how all five strategies can fit into a single literacy-based therapy plan using Little Blue Truck (Schertle, 2008):

Before diving into the unit, we want to make sure we know where the student is at. Review the student’s language sample to determine what the “+1 Approach” might look like.

We can use expansions, extensions, recasts, and/or focused stimulation throughout all of the unit activities.

If a student needs additional support, we can use the Sentence Pack visuals and sentence frames to scaffold responses.

And we don’t wait to forget about wait time!

Here are a few quick examples of what the unit might include:
– Pre-Story Knowledge Activation: Take a virtual farm field trip.
– Shared Reading: Read the story.
– Comprehension: Ask WH-questions.
– Focused Skill Practice: Reenact the story using toys. (This is a fun context to target MLU, but also support early narrative skills!)
– Parallel Story: Help students create their own version of the story.

This aligns beautifully with Dr. Ukrainetz’s (2015) Literacy-Based Therapy Framework, which emphasizes meaningful language practice across reading, listening, and play.

✨ Final Takeaways

To help students grow their MLU naturally and confidently:
1️⃣ Start with a language sample to identify a baseline.
2️⃣ Embed targets in meaningful, play-based contexts.
3️⃣ Model one level above using expansions, extensions, and recasts.
4️⃣ Support with visuals and sentence frames.
5️⃣ Pause, wait, and respond contingently.

Each strategy builds on the next, supporting both language growth and engagement.

🔗 Resources Mentioned

Language Sample Freebie

Sentence Pack

🧠 References

Brown, R. (1973). A First Language: The Early Stages. Harvard University Press.

Camarata, S. M., Nelson, K. E., & Camarata, M. N. (1994). Comparison of conversational‐recasting and imitative procedures for training grammatical structures in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 37(6), 1414–1423.

Fey, M. E. (1986). Language intervention with young children. Allyn & Bacon.

Justice, L. M., & Ezell, H. K. (2002). Use of storybook reading to increase print awareness in at-risk children. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 11(1), 17–29.

Kaiser, A. P., & Roberts, M. Y. (2013). Parent-implemented enhanced milieu teaching with preschool children with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 56(1), 295–309.

Miller, J. F., & Chapman, R. S. (1981). The relation between age and mean length of utterance in morphemes. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 24(2), 154–161.

Schertle, A. (2008). Little Blue Truck. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Ukrainetz, T. A. (2015). School-age language intervention: Evidence-based practices. Pro-Ed.

Transcript

Today we're going to chat about five evidence based strategies that we can use to boost students' mean length of utterance or MLU, in a way that's fun, functional, and easy to keep track of. I'm really excited that we'll be sharing some strategies that you can use in your very next session.

And then we will tie it all together, and show you what it would actually look like in context when you're applying these strategies. Our first strategy is to identify the baseline, using a language sample. Language samples can be a really helpful way to calculate the student's current MLU, and also see what types of utterances they're using and tracking that progress over time.

Regular language sampling helps us ensure that we're modeling at the right level. I love language samples, but a lot of times when I mention them to SLPs, I get a little bit of an eye roll, because they feel really time consuming and difficult.

I put together a, spreadsheet, maybe a decade old at this point, but it still works really well. it helps you calculate. So you just use it to type in your transcript, and then you separate it out by utterances, and then it automatically calculates the MLU and it helps you grab some other metrics so you can write a really fancy report based on the data or include it in your evaluation area or progress monitoring. It makes it really easy to grab the data that we need,for easy progress monitoring. I'll add the link to the language sample sheet that I made in the show notes. It includes a video and walks you through how to set it up.

That is a really helpful starting point, because we'll use this data as we go through. Our second strategy is to make sure that we're embedding targets in meaningful contexts, like, play, books, songs, routines.

And I'll share some specific strategies, of what we actually do in those functional contexts, but if we are embedding our strategies in those types of activities, we are thinking about generalization from the start and setting our students up for success and making sure that the targets are very meaningful.So that brings us to strategy number three. Different research articles will share different strategies, but there's a lot of overlap between the strategies and, I just wanna share the names of the strategies and what they are, and you'll see that there's some overlap.

I'll wrap up with a general takeaway of what we can do with these strategies. Expansions are where we add grammar while keeping the child's meaning. If the child says, "dog jump," you can say "the dog jumped," or "the dog is jumping."

An extension is adding new information. If the child says "the dog is jumping," we can say "the brown dog is jumping."We can do an extension where we add new information, but that's still related.

And then focused stimulation is when we're providing models and recasts without requiring imitation. It's just strategically using, those strategies. a recast is when we restate the child's utterance, but maybe do a correction, which is really similar to an expansion.

There's also research talking about modeling one level above the child's MLU, which expansions and extensions kind of naturally do. If the student says "dog run," and then if we suddenly go, "the excited dog is running quickly."

We're expanding and adding the grammar and we're adding multiple new pieces of information. It's helpful to think about just going one level above the child's MLU and not having a whole, massive expansion.

So if the child says "truck stuck," we can say, "yeah, the truck is stuck." Or we can say "stuck in the mud." We get to use our clinical judgment to decide if that is appropriate because if they just say "truck stuck," but their MLU is five, then I think "The blue truck stuck in the mud" might be okay.

That's why we collect that MLU to know what might be appropriate for the student.

Strategy four is to use sentence frames. In SLP Now, we have a Sentence Pack. It's a booklet based on the modified Fitzgerald key. It has nouns verbs prepositions and all the components we use to build a sentence.

And it also includes sentence strips based on Brown's research of all the different utterance types. So you have tons of utterances that you can go with . We also have sentence frames with just like for one MLU, and two, and three, and four, and five. And so you can build sentences with any of the components.

If I notice that the student is only using nouns, or if there's a part of speech that's completely missing, I might strategically try to include that more and expand the utterances in that way. That's, a visual that I really like to use. We grab the icons to create sentences. It's really nice because the pieces are movable, It's a tactile experience too, and the students can build it and then you can point to it as you're modeling.

If the student just says truck, truck, truck, and we're trying to expand from one MLU to two MLU. We have like an icon for truck, and then we have one for stuck, and then we would just build the sentence using those icons. Once the truck is out, we can say truck out or truck in if it's in the mud.

Having those icons is really helpful. Verbal strategies help the majority of my students, but there are those who need something extra.

And including those visuals is something that has worked for a lot of the students. So that's how the Sentence Pack came to be. I also use it for different grammar goals. If they are dropping the auxiliary verbs or if they're having trouble understanding that pronouns replace a noun.

So there's lots of ways that I use that, but it's especially helpful for those MLU goals and for those students who need those extra visuals. And then the fifth strategy, which is just too provide contingent responses and time delay. So we really just wanna give our students space to respond and give them some processing time.

And we don't have to fill every second. It's okay if we have some silence in the session. If a student starts to say something, if they say truck, we can just pause a second and see if they say anything else first.

Or if we turn the page and give them some time to look before we really jump in and start talking at them. So that is just a reminder for myself because I sometimes go a little too fast. In terms of what this would look like actually applied. Let's say we're using the therapy plan an SLP Now for a Little Blue Truck, which is a super sweet story about a truck who gets stuck in the mud.

We like to use literacy based therapy units based on Dr. Ukrainetz's research. The first step is pre-story knowledge activation. We might do a virtual field trip of a farm, and we're gonna be doing a lot of talking during that activity. And we can target the MLU goals during that conversation.

As we're reading, we can model expansions and recasts. The third step is comprehension. We can ask simple WH questions and use those sentence starters in the sentence frames to support the student. And then, the fourth step is focused skill practice.

We often have mixed groups, so we're targeting multiple goals with students. We might have some play-based activities related to little Blue Track. We might be reenacting the story or whatnot. This is a early language unit, so it has play-based activity suggestions and all of that.

So that's how that would work. That's just a peek at how we might incorporate this in a literacy based therapy unit.

And then, a quick recap. We wanna start with a language sample. So we know the students' baseline and we can easily see like, oh, they're only using nouns.

Seeing it on paper helps us come up with a good plan.We want to make sure that we're embedding our practice in meaningful context, whether it's play stories, routines. And we want to model just above the child's level and use those verbal strategies. once I set up parents and teachers with that strategy of modeling one level above and then how to do that, it skyrockets from there. If our students need more support using the Sentence Pack and those sentence frames can be really helpful.

And then also just giving them time to respond using some of that wait time. So those are our strategies that will hopefully help you see meaningful growth in your students when it comes to communicating and building beautiful sentences. Head to the show notes to check out the Sentence Pack and the Therapy Plans. If you're new to SLP now, you can do it for free. if you're a member, type in Sentence Pack to find that download or go to the Therapy Plans to check out Little Blue Truck. I hope this was helpful and we'll see you real soon.

236: Making Syntax Simple: Strategies for Passive Voice and Clauses

October 27, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

Why Syntax Matters (Even for Kindergarteners)

Syntax isn’t just for older students! Research shows that even five-year-olds produce subordinate and coordinate clauses.

A 2024 study by Owens, Pavelko, and Hahs-Vaughn analyzed conversational samples from 196 children ages 5 to 10 years, 11 months.

Five-year-olds used an average of 1.25 subordinate clauses and 2.05 coordinate clauses, and that number increased steadily with age.

If your students are only producing simple sentences, they may need support with syntax. Limited syntax can affect comprehension, writing, and overall language performance.

Owens (2016) found that about half of five-year-olds understand reversible passive sentences (e.g., “The dog was chased by the cat”), and by age 8, 90% can comprehend them.

This means that targeting syntax — even with kindergarteners — helps build comprehension and expressive language skills that impact reading and writing success.
👉 Prefer to listen? Check out the full podcast episode above for a quick blitz through all five strategies.

Step 1: Start With a Thorough Syntax Assessment

Syntax varies across contexts, so assessment should too. Guo & Schneider (2016) demonstrated that tense and grammaticality measures from narrative tasks can help differentiate students with and without language impairments. Nippold et al. (2005) also found that children use more complex syntax in expository tasks than in conversation.

Here’s how to assess syntax comprehensively:

– Collect multiple language samples (e.g., conversational, narrative, persuasive, and expository).
– Observe in the classroom to capture naturalistic syntax use.
– Review writing samples to see syntax in an academic context.
– Include structured assessments targeting comprehension and production.
– Gather teacher and parent input to identify functional impacts.

💡 SLP Now Tip: Use our Language Sample Analysis Tools to streamline your syntax assessments.

Step 2: Make Syntax Explicit, Then Contextualize It

Explicit teaching sets the stage for understanding.

According to Zipoli (2017), lessons should begin with a clear explanation of the sentence structure and its purpose, followed by modeling and guided practice.

Best practices for explicit syntax instruction:
– Use clear, concise, and consistent explanations.
– Provide multiple examples with visual and auditory cues (color coding, sentence frames, etc.).
– Gradually fade supports as students gain independence.

Once students understand the structure, transition to contextualized practice. As Ukrainetz (2015) emphasizes, students learn syntax best when it’s embedded in meaningful activities like narratives, classroom discussions, or writing tasks.

💡 Try This: Incorporate syntax instruction into your literacy-based therapy sessions using storybooks or nonfiction passages that naturally include target structures. SLP Now has skill packs and therapy plans to make this super easy to implement!

Step 3: Evidence-Based Syntax Intervention Strategies

Let’s look at a few proven techniques you can implement right away.

1. Focused Stimulation

Provide frequent models and recasts in natural conversation.

Student: “The boy ran.”
SLP: “Yes! The boy ran after the dog that escaped.”

This implicit modeling approach exposes students to variability, which strengthens learning (Plante et al., 2014).

2. Directed Questioning

Use scaffolded questions to build comprehension of complex structures, like the passive voice:

Sentence: “Diego was found by Rebecca.”
Ask: “Who was found?” “Who did the finding?”

Pair this with pictorial supports to make abstract syntax more concrete.

3. Visual Supports and Picture Sequencing

Visuals clarify sentence meaning. In SLP Now, you’ll find syntax visuals, icon cards, and structured activities for passive voice, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses.

Try using picture sequencing to teach adverbial clauses:

“Before I take the test, I will study.”
Students can arrange icons representing each clause to show temporal order.

4. Sentence Combining

Help students merge simple sentences into complex ones to develop flexibility:

“The dog barked. The mailman came.” → “The dog barked when the mailman came.”

Use conjunction cards or sentence starters to scaffold learning.

5. Sentence Decomposition

Break down complex sentences to promote comprehension:

“The dog that barked at the mailman ran away.” → “The dog barked at the mailman. The dog ran away.”

This strategy pairs well with sentence combining to support both understanding and production.

Step 4: Embed Syntax in Meaningful Contexts

Syntax intervention works best when it’s functional and engaging. Move beyond isolated drills and integrate targets into authentic communication: storytelling, retelling, explaining science experiments, or writing persuasive paragraphs.

SLP Now’s skill packs and literacy-based therapy units are designed for exactly this, giving you ready-made materials that embed syntax goals into real contexts. You can model and recast complex sentences, scaffold comprehension with visuals, and collect data effortlessly.

Bringing It All Together

Syntax development is a critical skill for every school-age student. By assessing across contexts, teaching explicitly, and applying evidence-based strategies, you can help students grow from simple sentence users to confident communicators.

If you’re ready to simplify syntax intervention, explore the SLP Now Membership for therapy materials, sentence-level visuals, and built-in supports for your literacy-based lessons.

References

Guo, L.-Y. & Schneider, P. (2016). Differentiating School-Aged Children With and Without Language Impairment Using Tense and Grammaticality Measures From a Narrative Task. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

Nippold, M. A., Hesketh, L. J., Duthie, J. K., & Mansfield, T. C. (2005). Conversational versus expository discourse: A study of syntactic development in children, adolescents, and adults. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48(5), 1048–1064.

Owens, R. E., Jr., Pavelko, S. L., & Hahs-Vaughn, D. (2024). Growth of complex syntax: Coordinate and subordinate clause use in elementary school–aged children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.

Plante, E., Ogilvie, T., Vance, R., Aguilar, J. M., Dailey, N. S., Meyers, C., … Burton, R. (2014). Variability in the language input to children enhances learning in a treatment context. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.

Ukrainetz, T. A. (2006). Contextualized language intervention: Scaffolding preK-12 literacy achievement. Austin, TX: PRO-ED, Inc.

Ukrainetz, T. A. (2015). School-age language intervention: Evidence-based practices. Austin, TX: PRO-ED, Inc.

Zipoli, R. P. (2017). Unraveling difficult sentences: Strategies to support reading comprehension. Intervention in School and Clinic, 52, 218–227.

Transcript

Hello there, and I hope you are in the mood for some talk about syntax. Last week, we talked about compound sentences and I wanted to continue the conversation with more types of syntax, like passive voice and relative clauses. Before you hit pause because you're like, well, I work with kindergartners or I work with second grade,this is still a relevant thing to target with our students. There was a study by Owens et al in 2024. They reviewed conversational language samples for 196 children, ages five to 10 years, 11 months, They found that five year olds are using an average of 1.25 subordinate clauses and 2.05 coordinate clauses, so even five year olds are using complex syntax and the number continues to increase with age. So if we are seeing our students only use simple sentences, that is a sign that they may need support with syntax and we might want to look into it a little bit for further. It's easy to hear if they're using simple sentences, compound sentences, complex sentences, and all types of clauses.

If we're not seeing this in their communication, they may be struggling to comprehend that complex syntax as well. And that is an absolutely age appropriate skill for our school age students. Approximately half of five year olds are able to comprehend reversible passive sentences, and that's from Owen's 2016.

And 90% of children between the ages of seven and a half and eight are able to comprehend reversible passives. So very early on in the school age years, this is something that's typical and something that we might want to support if our students are struggling with it.

So hopefully you're still intrigued. I am going to be sharing strategies that we can use in our assessment and intervention when targeting these types of goals. The first strategy, and this has been a common theme, but we want to start with a thorough assessment. Collect language samples and consider multiple contexts because we use different types of syntax when generating narratives, retelling narratives, describing a picture, summarizing a text, explaining how to do something, trying to persuade someone.

So all of those types of samples will elicit different syntax. We want to consider different language samples. We will also want to observe in the classroom because the language that we're hearing in the classroom will be a little bit different. We can look at work samples and look at their writing.

And we can also collect parent and teacher report. And then we can also do a more structured assessment of the comprehension and production of syntax.

In terms of actual treatment strategies, I'm pulling a lot of these from Zipoli 2017. I'll share the citation in the show notes. Lessons should begin with clear explanations of the target sentence structure and give the purpose of the lesson so we can model comprehension and production of sentence structures. We'll want to use clear, concise, and consistent language as we're doing that.

When we're providing demonstrations, we'll give multiple examples and use visual and auditory cues to make the syntactic features more explicit. There's a lot we can do to support the teaching of that. One strategy is focused stimulation.

This is one that applies to all grammar goals and that I have found to be incredibly impactful. This is a little bit more implicit, but this is when we provide frequent models and recasts in a variety of activities. So, when we're modeling the passive voice or a relative clause, we highlight that naturally in conversation. When we recast, we might correct what the child says or modify it. If they produce a simple sentence in our literacy based therapy activity, I can recast the student's sentence and add in that relative class.

Using those models and recasts is what they call focused stimulation in the research and we can incorporate that in all of our therapy activities. That is a great way to implicitly target some of these skills.

Other strategies we might use for passive voice are using directed questions to enhance and scaffold comprehension. So if we have a sentence like Diego was found by Rebecca. We can say who was found and who did the finding, and ask some questions about that statement.

And we can use pictorial support as well and asking students to draw pictures to represent those sentences. The example I gave was with the passive, but we can also do this with a active voice. So instead of Diego was found by Rebecca, we can do Diego found Rebecca. And in SLP Now we have syntax activities attached to the majority of our literacy based units. We embed these strategies in the activities for passive voice, for example. So we have a sentence, with pictures and visual choices to help the students.

We have pictorial support as well, and we give you statements and questions so that you have support as you're implementing these types of strategies. For verbal clauses, which is another type of syntax we might want to target, we can use sentence starters.

This is an effective technique for helping students understand and write more elaborate sentences. If we give them a starter, they can fill in the sentence and create more. We also have picture sequencing. If we have pictures of the different items, for example, before I take the test, I will study. You can have a icon representing studying and taking the test, and you can do that practice using those adverbial clauses. In SLP Now we have icon cards for the conjunctions that you would use with the sentence starters.

We also have pictures to practice and support that understanding. We give you tools for sentence starters and picture sequencing. In terms of relative clauses, two more evidence backed strategies are to use sentence combining, which we talked about last week.

This is where we're combining two or more simple sentences. You can use simple sentences from whatever book or article you're reading and then use our conjunction cards to help students combine those. The other strategy we talked about last week is sentence decomposition, where you take a complex sentence and break it down into simpler sentences.

All you need is the book or article you're reading and identifying those simple, complex, and compound sentences. That is a quick blitz of some strategies we can use for our syntax goals. Check out the show notes for references and more detail about the resources if you want help implementing this.

I hope that this was a helpful review for you and we'll see you in the next one.

Click here to download the visuals for compound sentences.

How to Teach Compound Sentences: 5 SLP Strategies

October 20, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

In this week’s episode of the SLP Now Podcast, Marisha shares five practical, evidence-backed strategies to help students learn, practice, and generalize compound sentences. She also shares strategies to help make it easier for students to understand those abstract conjunctions!

👉 Prefer to listen? Check out the full podcast episode above for a quick blitz through all five strategies.

1️⃣ Start with clear visuals.

Give students an intro visual that defines a compound sentence and shows the FANBOYS conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

Then, build on that with:
– A “recipe card” showing sentence + comma + conjunction + sentence
– Symbol cards for conjunction meanings

These concrete visuals help students internalize the function of conjunctions, not just the form.

Visual and multimodal supports strengthen students’ metalinguistic awareness and retention (Cook, Mitchell, & Goldin-Meadow, 2008).

2️⃣ Teach sentence combining explicitly.

Give students two short sentences and model joining them with a target conjunction.

Cued combining: Provide the sentences and the conjunction.

Open combining: Remove supports as students gain independence.

Sentence-combining instruction reliably improves syntactic maturity and writing quality when scaffolded and faded over time (Strong, 1986).

3️⃣ Use sentence expansion and reduction.

Encourage flexibility by asking students to expand simple sentences into compound ones or reduce compound sentences into shorter forms.

This back-and-forth manipulation builds syntactic control and comprehension.

Alternating expansion and reduction helps students generalize grammar goals across tasks (Fey et al., 1997).

4️⃣ Add movement for meaning.

Make conjunctions physical!

Assign one student per clause and another as the conjunction.

The “conjunction student” can hold or act out the joining symbol (like a plus sign for and).

Movement helps learners encode meaning through multiple modalities.

Gesture and embodied practice make abstract grammar concepts more memorable (Cook et al., 2008).

5️⃣ Plan for generalization.

Don’t let the skill stay in the speech room!

Collaborate with classroom teachers so students can:
– Use mini visual reminders at their desks
– Identify compound sentences in reading passages
– Apply conjunctions in writing assignments

Integrated service delivery—where SLPs and teachers align targets—leads to stronger transfer of language skills (Cirrin et al., 2010).

Why This Matters

Understanding compound sentences helps students:
– Combine ideas clearly
– Improve written cohesion
– Build complex syntax essential for reading comprehension (Scott & Balthazar, 2013)

And when students see and act out those conjunctions, abstract language becomes tangible.

Free Resource

Click here to download the Compound Sentences skill pack!

References

Cirrin, F. M., Schooling, T. L., Nelson, N. W., Diehl, S. F., Flynn, P. F., Staskowski, M., Torrey, T. Z., & Adamczyk, D. F. (2010). Evidence-based systematic review: Effects of different service-delivery models on communication outcomes for elementary school–age children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41(4), 252-270.

Cook, S. W., Mitchell, Z., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2008). Gesturing makes learning last. Cognition, 106(2), 1047–1058.

Fey, M. E., Cleave, P. L., Long, S. H., & Hughes, D. L. (1993). Two approaches to the facilitation of grammar in children with language impairments: An experimental evaluation. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36(1), 141–157.

Myhill, D. (2012). The ordeal of deliberate choice: Metalinguistic development in secondary writers. In V. W. Berninger (Ed.), Past, present, and future contributions of cognitive writing research to cognitive psychology (pp. 247–274). Psychology Press.

Scott, C. M., & Balthazar, C. H. (2013). The role of complex sentence knowledge in children with reading and writing difficulties. Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 39(3), 18–30.

Strong, W. (1986). Creative Approaches to Sentence Combining. NCTE/ERIC.

Transcript

Hello there. I hope you are having a fabulous week, and ready to dive into some practical evidence backed strategies that you can use when working on compound sentences with your students. So I have five tips for you today.

The first tip is to actually teach what a compound sentence is.

This is the first step with any of our skills but we wanna make sure that we provide our students with an initial explanation, but then also some visuals that they can use to understand what we're asking them to do. And then also to help with that generalization.

Some examples of visuals that I like to use. I have a intro little one pager that says what a compound sentence is, and it includes the conjunctions, the fanboy acronym.

That helps them know what a compound sentence is, and we're on the same page, I also have a little recipe card, that students can use when they are working on building sentences. It shows a visual of the sentence, the comma, the coordinating conjunction and the sentence, just a little graphic.

We have different versions of that. We have bigger sentence maps they can use with interactive cards and sentence starters to help them implement the strategies we're going to talk about. The visuals that I shared so far are just that introduction visual, different visuals to show the sentence structure.

I like to introduce specific conjunctions, because each conjunction has a different meaning. And, this can get really confusing for students. These conjunctions are a little bit more abstract, so I wanna make sure that I'm scaffolding that and helping them learn the different meanings of those conjunctions.

So we have little cards that include an icon to help them visualize the meaning of the conjunction. For "and" we would have a plus sign, for "but" we would have a lightning bolt. Each conjunction has a symbol that goes with it. And we have examples of sentences being used.

We also show the meaning of the conjunction. This is a really great way to introduce the conjunction. Like I said, the little icon cards and sheets for each conjunction with different examples, and it has all the visuals to help understand what that conjunction means.

That is strategy one. Having visuals to help break down complex concepts for students, especially the abstractness of the conjunctions. It really helps have some visuals for that. And then if you want access to these visuals, you can totally create your own. But if you want ready-made visuals, you can sign up for a free trial of SLP Now.

It's totally free. Just go to SLPnow.com/trial. And then you can create your free account. Go type in compound sentences on the materials page, and you'll have access to all of these visuals and other materials as well. Now let's move on to strategy number two, which is to teach sentence combining.

So we would start by giving students two independent classes or two simple sentences, and then model joining them with our target conjunctionI like to start with one conjunction, just so they get the hang of it, and then we might add in another one.

We do wanna give students opportunity to practice combining two simple sentences and getting a feel for how that works. There's different types of combining you can do.

You can do cued combining, where you give the students the two sentences and the, conjunction and they just have to literally put them together, or you can make it more complex where you just give them two sentences and they have to do that. Definitely check out the Strong article for more detail on the protocol for that.

On to strategy number three, we can also do sentence expansion and reduction. We can have students expand simple sentences, so we can give them one sentence and encourage them to make it into a compound sentence. Or we can identify compound sentences in our reading and break them down into the individual sentences.

And so that's just practicing breaking and putting sentences together, expanding them and reducing them is the technical term that, also has some evidence to support using that as a strategy.

Then strategy number four is to incorporate movement. If you have multiple students in your group, this is super fun.

in SLP Now our compound sentences skill pack has sentences or students can come up with their own. Let's say you have three students in the group. One of the students can act out the first sentence, and then the other student can act out the second sentence. And the third student can be the conjunction. They can choose the conjunction if you're giving them a field of conjunctions to choose from, or if you're just practicing with one, the student would hold that conjunction.

And maybe they can come up with a gesture. If it's "and" then maybe they just put their hands out and connect the idea between the two students.

So all three students are acting it out It really shows the meaning change and the power of conjunctions, and it gives that really meaningful practice, in that they're visualizing it, acting it out, their whole body is engaged in the activity.

The fifth strategy I want to leave you with is to collaborate with classroom teachers and think about generalization from the start.

Maybe you make a tiny version of the visual and put it on the student's desk or whatever the conjunction of the week is, you put that on the student's desk or binder and then they get extra exposure. You encourage them to use that in their writing or in classroom discussions.

So bringing the visuals into the classroom is an easy thing to do. You can also use text from the classroom as you're doing these activities, as inspiration for your sentence combining and sentence expansion and reduction activities.

So those were our five strategies starting with teaching and using visuals to break down the skill. Then we talked about strategy two sentence combining. Strategy three is sentence expansion and reduction. Strategy four was to incorporate movement and act out the sentences in conjunctions.

And then strategy five is to think about generalization. I'd love to hear which strategies you are using in your speech room. If you have any favorites, that I missed or if I shared your favorite or if there's a new one that you're trying, reach out to us on Instagram. We'd love to hear what you're up to.

That's a wrap. We'll continue this series and talk about more skills on the podcast going forward. I hope this was super helpful and that you have some new inspiration for how to target compound sentences with your students, or at least a boost of confidence, based on what you're doing already.

And then again, we have all of these visuals and practice activities and tools inside SLP Now. When you sign up for a free trial, you can download this skill pack and a few others completely free. I just want to help set you up for success and make your job as easy as possible.

Thanks for joining me, and we'll see you next time.

A Guide to Collaborating with Teachers

234: 5 Practical Strategies to Teach Following Directions (Backed by Research)

October 13, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

Teaching students to follow directions effectively is a foundational skill for both academic success and functional communication. Whether students are navigating classroom routines, participating in group activities, or playing on the playground, their ability to understand and act on directions impacts every aspect of their day.

In this post, we’ll explore five practical, evidence-based strategies SLPs can use to support students in their ability to follow directions. These strategies are backed by research and designed to help you plan intentional, effective therapy sessions.

👉 Prefer to listen? Check out the full podcast episode above for a quick blitz through all five strategies.

1. Start with a Thorough Following Directions Assessment

Before targeting “following directions” directly, it’s essential to identify the root cause of the difficulty. Not all one-, two-, or three-step directions are created equal. A student may struggle due to:

– Vocabulary (e.g., temporal, quantitative, and spatial basic concepts like “before” or “under”; instructional verbs)
– Morphology (e.g., smaller vs. smallest)
– Syntax (e.g., relative clauses, temporal clauses, complex sentences)
– Executive function (working memory, attention, shifting, inhibition)
– Sensory regulation
– Attention and processing differences

A differential assessment can help pinpoint which of these factors are at play. For example, you might present several types of directions and observe whether students have more difficulty with vocabulary, syntax, or the number of steps involved.

Dynamic assessment is another useful tool. We can teach a strategy or provide cueing, and observe whether the student’s performance improves.

Classroom observations and teacher/parent input add valuable context about how these challenges appear across the school day.

📌 Pro Tip: Use SLP Now’s Following Directions Skill Pack to guide your assessment. It includes tools to break down directions by vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and executive function–helping you plan more targeted intervention.

NOTE: While following-directions assessments provide valuable information about a student’s performance, they should be viewed as a lens for uncovering underlying language difficulties. Rather than writing goals focused narrowly on the task of “following directions,” we should focus on targeting the foundational skills that make following directions possible—such as syntax, vocabulary, and morphology. As Wallach (2014) reminds us, effective intervention requires shifting away from isolated, task-specific goals toward addressing the underlying language systems that support academic success.

2. Incorporate Movement to Support Language Learning

Movement isn’t just a fun way to boost engagement. It’s a powerful way to anchor language in action, supporting comprehension, attention, and memory. Research shows that pairing linguistic input with meaningful physical activity can strengthen language learning for a variety of students.

In a classroom-based study, Kosmas, Ioannou, and Zaphiris (2018) implemented motion-based learning activities and found that students made significant gains in expressive vocabulary and short-term memory compared to traditional instruction. By embedding movement into language-rich contexts, students were able to engage more fully and retain new concepts more effectively.

Lund, Young, and Yarbrough (2019) explored co-treatment sessions between SLPs and adapted physical education teachers focused on teaching basic concepts to children with Down syndrome. When concept instruction was integrated into movement-rich physical activities, students made significantly greater gains in concept development than those who received SLP-only treatment. This demonstrates the power of multimodal, embodied approaches for building foundational skills that support direction-following.

Mellor and Morini (2023) found that physical exercise was associated with improved word learning in preschool-age children. This finding supports incorporating movement-based tasks—like gross motor games, obstacle courses, and action-based language activities—into therapy to facilitate vocabulary and concept acquisition.

Here are some fun, functional ways to incorporate movement:

– Obstacle Courses: Great for multi-step directions involving sequencing and concepts (e.g., “First jump over the line, then touch the door”).
– Scavenger Hunts: Combine receptive vocabulary with movement (“Find the object that is under the table”).
– Simon Says: Perfect for targeting basic concepts and syntax in a playful way.

Movement-based activities increase engagement and create natural opportunities for repetition.

3. Teach and Model Strategies Explicitly

Many students benefit from explicit instruction in strategies. Techniques such as rehearsal, visualization, drawing icons, asking for clarification, and self-monitoring (Stop–Think–Do–Check) give students a toolkit for decoding and acting on multi-step directions.

One of the strongest empirical supports comes from Gill, Klecan-Aker, Roberts, & Fredenburg (2003). They taught students with specific language impairment to use rehearsal and visualization strategies in following-directions tasks. Compared to traditional therapy, students using those strategies made greater gains immediately, and importantly, retained those gains over time.

In practice, you can model your own thinking aloud (e.g., “I’m going to repeat that direction to myself. I’ll make a movie for the direction in my head. If I get stuck, I’ll ask, ‘Can you say that again?’”).

You can scaffold students in these techniques using:

– Visual strategy cards
– Prompted rehearsal (You say it with them, then fade support.)
– Drawing simple icons to represent steps
– Scripts to ask for clarification

4. Share Strategies with Teachers to Increase Carryover

For students to master following directions, we need to extend practice beyond the therapy room. Collaborating with teachers is key to support students in the classroom and promote carryover into real-world settings.

Cirrin et al. (2010) conducted a systematic review examining the effects of different service delivery models on communication outcomes for elementary-aged children. They found evidence supporting classroom-based and collaborative models, showing that SLPs working alongside teachers in the classroom can lead to positive communication outcomes.

You might:

– Share visuals, checklists, or strategy posters with classroom teachers.
– Encourage teachers to chunk directions into smaller steps.
– Collaborate on prompting routines (e.g., reminding students to rehearse directions before starting).
– Align classroom accommodations (e.g., visual supports, repeated directions) with your therapy goals.

These indirect supports empower students to use their strategies across contexts, increasing the likelihood of generalization.

📚 Additional Resources

5. Plan for Generalization from the Start

Generalization shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should shape how we plan our intervention.

Even if a student can follow complex directions in the speech room, that skill must transfer to the classroom, playground, and beyond.

We can build generalization by:

– Embedding direction-following into functional, contextualized activities, like literacy-based lessons, crafts, or science experiments.
– Practicing classroom routines that students encounter daily.
– Coordinating with teachers and caregivers to reinforce strategies consistently.

When we plan for generalization from the start, we help students become more independent and successful communicators in their natural environments.

Dr. Ukrainetz’s book, Contextualized Language Intervention, is a great read if you’re wanting to learn more!

📦 Resource Spotlight: The Following Directions Skill Pack

Ready to put these strategies into action? The Following Directions Skill Pack includes:

– Differential assessment tools
– Strategy visuals for students and teachers
– Visuals to teach and scaffold following directions
– Ready-to-use therapy activities and data collection forms

References

Cirrin, F. M., Schooling, T. L., Nelson, N. W., Diehl, S. F., Flynn, P. F., Staskowski, M., Torrey, T. Z., & Adamczyk, D. F. (2010). Evidence-based systematic review: Effects of different service delivery models on communication outcomes for elementary school–age children. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41(3), 233–264.

Gill, C. B., Klecan-Aker, J., Roberts, T., & Fredenburg, K. A. (2003). Following directions: Rehearsal and visualization strategies for children with specific language impairment. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 19(1), 85–103.

Kosmas, P., Ioannou, A., & Zaphiris, P. (2018). Implementing embodied learning in the classroom: Effects on children’s memory and language skills. Educational Media International, 55(4), 324–339.

Lund, E., Young, A., & Yarbrough, R. (2019). The effects of co-treatment on concept development in children with Down syndrome. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 40(3), 165–174.

Mellor, L., & Morini, G. (2023). Examining the relation between exercise and word learning in preschool-age children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(10), 4004–4015.

Ukrainetz, T. A. (2015). Contextualized language intervention: Scaffolding preK–12 literacy achievement. Thinking Publications.

Wallach, G. P. (2014). Improving clinical practice: A school-age and school-based perspective. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.

✅ Takeaway

Start with solid assessment, give meaningful feedback, incorporate movement, teach explicit strategies, collaborate with teachers, and plan for generalization from the beginning. Implement one or two of these strategies this week!

Transcript

Hello there. I hope you are having a great day so far. I am really looking forward to diving into five strategies, backed by research, that we can use when targeting, following directions. I hope that you'll walk away with a boost of confidence and maybe a thing or two that you can try.

We all know how critical following directions are to being able to access their curriculum. Even if they're on the playground and their peers are teaching them to play a game, there's so many important, social, academic and safety benefits, to targeting this skill.

So we are going to dive into five strategies.

Strategy number one is to start with a thorough assessment. This is critical because we need to identify the underlying skills that a student is struggling with or that need support. It might be a vocabulary issue, or a syntax issue, or a working memory issue, or some other aspect of executive function.

We want to do a differential assessment to determine which of those apply. You can do this using a direct differential assessment. I have one in SLP Now that helps you break down if it is more of a vocabulary issue, a syntax issue. Not all one step directions are created equal, and the same applies to two and three step.

We're increasing the complexity when we're moving from one to two to three, but there is a lot of different syntax that can be in those, different types of vocabulary that students might struggle with. The research shows that all of those elements are important and play a role in how students are able to follow directions.

A differential assessment is really good at piecing apart whether it is vocabulary, syntax, working memory, et cetera, et cetera. But we can also do a dynamic assessment where we teach some strategies and see if that makes a difference or provide different types of cueing and see if that improves the student's, ability to follow the directions.

We can also do classroom observations, or collect parent teacher feedback and get some more context in terms of how this is showing up across the school day.

And strategy number two is to incorporate movement. Pairing language with movement based activities has been found to help the language learning process. Movement engages multiple cognitive systems, which can help boost comprehension, retention, and all of that.

So some examples of what this could look like. We could set up a little obstacle course in this speech room, where we could use that to work on multi-step directions. Or we can do scavenger hunts or Simon Says types of games. If we have students practicing directions with movement and engaging those multiple systems to help really work on that skill.

Strategy three is to teach and model strategies, and there are a lot of different strategies that we could use. In SLP Now, the skill pack for following directions include some little strategy cards that we can share with the student. We have some little cards for students to use to remind them of different strategies to help them follow directions. Some things we can do are rehearsing their direction, repeating it. Visualizing, as they're hearing their direction making a little movie in their head. Drawing quick icons like the example I gave earlier, touch your nose and then sit down. Maybe they just do a quick little nose picture and then an arrow to remind them to sit down. Especially if you're giving more directions, using that icon drawing can be helpful. Teaching them to ask for clarification. Those are just a couple examples of strategies that we can teach to students to support them with following directions. If we identify that it's a vocabulary issue or a syntax issue, we obviously wanna target those as well. but giving our students strategies can help if it is more of the working memory and executive function.

So those are just a few strategies. Again, the blog post will include more details on things that we can teach students to help them. And then strategy number four is to share strategies with teachers.

I have a visual in the Following Direction Skill Pack, that includes those strategies as well. This will help with generalization and support, like we might write accommodations for these students to help set them up for success in the classroom.

So teachers might incorporate visuals or checklists or chunking their directions. Instead of giving 10 directions at once, they practice giving two or three steps at a time Or modeling the strategies, reminding the students to use their strategies. So there's lots of things that we can do to support students indirectly by working with teachers.

And the fifth strategy is to plan for generalization from the start. What happens in the speech room should not stay in the speech room. It doesn't matter if a student can follow a 20 step direction in the speech room if it's not moving into the classroom. And so we wanna make sure that we're embedding directions in functional, contextualized activities and being intentional with how we're targeting these goals. It's something that we need to think about from the start. How can we target this goal in a way that will set students up for success? I like to use literacy based activities that are contextualized.

We can do crafts, science experiments, real life tasks, practice their classroom routines if there are common ones they struggle with. Thinking about the context they'll be using these skills in and strategies we can use to help them in the classroom, on the playground, whatnot. And then also coordinating with teachers and parents and other members of the team to make sure that we're all on the same page and all helping the student master the skill.

Hopefully one of these strategies sparked a new idea for you. Go ahead and jot down one that you'd like to try using and then check the show notes for a link to the blog post with all of the details. I mentioned the Following Direction Skill Pack. This is available in the SLP Now Materials Library. If you're a member, just type in following directions and you'll get to download that skill pack. If you are new to SLP Now you can sign up for a free trial and download this skill pack for free. Your free trial includes five downloads, so you can get a hundred dollars of free materials, no strings attached, no credit card requiredI just wanna make sure that you have access to awesome materials and that you're able to easily implement these evidence backed strategies and have high quality materials to help make your job a little bit easier.

That is a wrap on our six strategies for following directions. Thanks for joining me, and we'll see you soon.

👉 Join to Download WH Questions Skill Pack

WH Questions for Speech Therapy: Full List, Materials, Strategies

October 7, 2025 by Marisha Leave a Comment

🎧 What You’ll Learn in This Episode (How to Teach WH Questions)

Even if WH questions are already part of your therapy toolbox, this episode aims to fine-tune your approach with six strategies that streamline planning and maximize student progress. You’ll hear about:

– How to use leveled assessments to pinpoint a student’s starting point
– Explicit methods to teach WH words using visuals and clear definitions
– A scaffolded hierarchy for structuring instruction
– How to select targets
– Embedding WH practice into meaningful contexts to boost carryover
– The importance of repetition + varied practice for generalization

Why WH Questions Matter for Kids

I’m so excited to dive into one of the foundational skills we target in speech therapy — WH questions!

These little question words — who, what, where, when, why, and how — may seem simple, but they’re at the heart of communication. Whether we’re working on classroom comprehension, social interactions, or general language development, success with WH questions is essential for building strong receptive and expressive skills.It’s a skill that shows up everywhere: in reading comprehension, group discussions, and even playtime.

But as you’ve probably seen, answering WH questions isn’t always easy for our students. Children with language delays, autism, or other communication disorders often struggle to process the meaning behind each question type. Research by Parnell and colleagues (1986) found that students with language delays often produce appropriate but inaccurate responses. For example, a student might a “who” answer to a “who” question but name the wrong person. It’s a subtle but important distinction, and one that tells us we need to explicitly teach both appropriateness and accuracy.

That’s where structured intervention makes all the difference.

When we combine explicit instruction, visual supports, and meaningful practice, we can help students connect the question word to its purpose, and eventually use WH questions confidently in any context.

To make this easier for you, we created the WH Questions Skill Pack, a ready-to-go resource that includes:

Leveled assessments to identify each student’s starting point
Visual supports and cue cards for every WH question type
Structured practice activities to promote generalization

It’s everything you need to assess, teach, and track progress — all in one place.

WH Questions Skill Pack

Leveled assessments to identify each student’s starting point
Visual supports and cue cards for every WH question type
Structured practice activities to promote generalization

The WH Skill pack includes evidence-backed visuals, activities, and data sheets to teach every WH question type

What Are WH Questions? (and Why They’re Important for Kids)

Before we jump into specific strategies, let’s take a quick step back.

WH questions are the foundation of how kids learn to gather and express information. Each WH word serves a specific purpose:

Who → a person
What → a thing or action
Where → a place
When → a time
Why → a reason
How → a process or explanation

Complex WH Questions (and How They Differ from Early WH Questions)

As students develop stronger language and reasoning skills, WH questions naturally become more complex. Early in therapy, we might focus on straightforward questions like “What is this?” or “Who is eating?” that can be answered by labeling something visible. But as comprehension grows, students begin to tackle questions that require more inference, reasoning, or background knowledge — such as:

“Why did the boy wear a coat?”
“How do you know she’s sad?”

These types of complex WH questions ask students to go beyond what they see and instead make connections, draw conclusions, or explain cause and effect.

Research by Swanson (2001) shows that explicit instruction — clearly defining and modeling each WH word — helps students make faster progress with these more challenging question types. In practice, that means we can’t assume a student will automatically generalize skills from “what” to “why.” Each WH question type benefits from direct teaching, modeling, and plenty of repetition.

Functional WH Questions in Everyday Routines

Beyond structured practice, it’s important to use functional WH questions throughout the day. These are questions embedded naturally into a child’s environment and daily routines. For example:

During snack time: “Where’s your spoon?”
In the classroom: “Who is the line leader today?”
At home: “Why are we washing our hands?”

Embedding practice in real contexts helps students connect WH questions to authentic communication, not just drill work. This kind of contextualized learning supports better carryover and generalization, meaning the skill sticks outside of the therapy room.

By understanding how WH questions vary — from simple WH questions that focus on labeling and describing, to complex WH questions that require reasoning and background knowledge, and functional WH questions used in everyday routines — we can meet each student where they are and design activities that move from concrete understanding to abstract reasoning.

In the next section, we’ll look at how WH question development progresses by age and skill level, so you can confidently select the right targets for your students.

WH Questions by Age and Skill Level

As with most language skills, WH question comprehension develops gradually — from concrete labeling to abstract reasoning. Understanding these stages can help you pinpoint where each student is in their learning journey and plan intervention accordingly.

WH Questions for Preschoolers

Preschoolers are just beginning to connect language with the world around them, so WH questions at this stage should focus on concrete, visual concepts — typically what and where questions.

At this level, I like to use picture cards, storybooks, and play-based routines to teach WH questions in meaningful contexts. Research by Justice and colleagues (2002) shows that literacy-based intervention (using shared storybook reading and contextual prompts) helps preschoolers improve comprehension and vocabulary simultaneously.

Here are a few examples you can use in therapy:

“What is the girl doing?”
“Where is the dog sleeping?”
“What do we use to eat?”
“Where do we go to play?”

As you read or play, pause to model and reinforce the question word’s meaning. Visual supports, like cue cards or icons, can make a huge difference in helping students recognize the purpose of each WH question word.

📘 Related Reading:

How to Use Books in Therapy

Tips to Implement Literacy-Based Therapy for Students with SLI

WH Questions for Early Elementary Students

By the early elementary years (around kindergarten and first grade), most children begin to understand and respond to who, when, and why questions. However, these question types can still be tricky for students with language delays or comprehension challenges — especially when they appear in connected text or classroom discussions.

Research by Ukrainetz (2015) highlights the importance of contextualized intervention, embedding WH questions directly into meaningful routines and activities. Instead of isolated drills, try incorporating WH questions into story retells, science observations, or classroom routines, such as:

“Who helped the teacher clean up?”
“When do we eat lunch?”
“Why do we wear coats when it’s cold?”

These questions are more effective when practiced in context, giving students real-life opportunities to apply their growing comprehension skills while promoting generalization across settings.

WH Questions for Students with Autism

Students with autism often benefit from a structured, visual, and highly consistent approach when learning WH questions.

They may need explicit modeling, repeated practice, and visual supports to connect each question word to its meaning. For example, using a picture of a person for “who”, a place for “where”, or an object for “what” helps students understand what type of answer each WH question is asking for.

Here are a few ideas for building comprehension and confidence:

Use WH question visuals (icons or cue cards) to represent each question type.
Provide clear models and immediate feedback when students respond.
Practice across multiple contexts — stories, classroom routines, or play — to promote generalization.

The goal is to build functional understanding, helping students recognize WH questions as tools for communication and connection, not just as structured “drill” items.

💡 Try this: The WH Questions Skill Pack includes visual cue cards, leveled assessments, and structured practice sheets that make it easy to support students with autism using evidence-based methods.

WH Questions Skill Pack

Leveled assessments to identify each student’s starting point
Visual supports and cue cards for every WH question type
Structured practice activities to promote generalization

The WH Questions Skill Pack includes visual cue cards, leveled assessments, and data sheets designed for both structured and naturalistic practice.

👉 Join to Download WH Questions Skill Pack

WH Question Examples and Lists (Free Preview)

Now that we’ve covered how WH questions develop, let’s look at specific examples you can use in your therapy sessions.

Having a variety of questions ready makes it easier to differentiate by level — from simple, concrete questions to more abstract, inferential ones. These question lists can be used for data collection, sessions with mixed groups, or at-home practice with families.

Here’s a free preview from our WH Questions Skill Pack, which includes printable lists and visuals for each question type.

What Questions for Speech Therapy

(Focus: Labeling objects or actions)

Simple:

What is this? (Show a picture of a ball.)
What do we use to eat?
What animal says “moo”?

Complex:

What should you do when it rains?
What makes the story funny?
What can we do to help a friend?

Where Questions for Speech Therapy

(Focus: Identifying places or positions)

Simple:

Where is the cat?
Where do we put our shoes?
Where do we eat lunch?

Complex:

Where do you think the boy is going?
Where should we go if we feel sick?
Where do butterflies live?

Who Questions for Speech Therapy

(Focus: Identifying people or roles)

Simple:

Who is eating?
Who helps us learn at school?
Who is your best friend?

Complex:

Who do you ask for help if you’re hurt?
Who do you think will win the race?
Who is the main character in this story?

When Questions for Speech Therapy

(Focus: Identifying time, connects sequencing and routines)

Simple:

When do we eat breakfast?
When do you go to bed?
When do you brush your teeth?

Complex:

When do flowers grow?
When do you feel proud of yourself?
When is the best time to wear a coat?

Why Questions for Kids

(Focus: Understanding cause and effect, developing reasoning and inferencing)

Simple:

Why do we wear shoes?
Why do we wash our hands?
Why do we sleep at night?

Complex:

Why was the girl sad in the story?
Why do people help each other?
Why do we need to listen to directions?

How Questions Examples

(Focus: Explaining processes and feelings)

Simple:

How do you open a door?
How do you draw a circle?
How do you make a sandwich?

Complex:

How can you tell someone is surprised?
How do you know it’s winter?
How can we make someone feel better?

These examples illustrate the natural progression from simple to more complex questions, moving from labeling and describing to reasoning and inferring.

If you’d like a complete list of questions organized by difficulty and question type, plus matching visuals and leveled data sheets, you can grab the full resource below, 👇

👉 Download the Complete WH Questions List and Skill Pack Activities
Includes over 120 WH questions, visual cue cards, and printable tracking forms, all aligned with evidence-backed strategies for school-based SLPs.

Teaching WH Questions in Speech Therapy (6 Evidence-Based Strategies)

Over the years, I’ve found that effective WH question intervention follows six clear steps. Each one builds on the last to help students progress from identification to mastery, and every step is backed by research.

These strategies come straight from the framework I use in my own sessions (and inside the WH Questions Skill Pack): Assess → Teach → Scaffold → Focus → Embed → Repeat.

1. Assess — Find the Starting Point

Before teaching, we need to know exactly where each student is starting.

Students with language delays often give responses that are appropriate but inaccurate. For example, answering “who” with a person, but naming the wrong one. Research by Parnell and colleagues (1986) highlights this distinction and reminds us that accuracy comes after appropriateness.

I always begin with a leveled assessment that includes:

Simple picture-based questions (“Who is eating?”)
General knowledge questions (“Where do you sleep?”)
Comprehension questions about short passages

This helps pinpoint whether a student needs work at the picture, sentence, or story level. The WH Questions Skill Pack includes an assessment and probe set that makes this step quick and consistent.

🧩 Pro Tip: Once you identify the student’s level, use that same probe to monitor progress throughout intervention.

2. Teach — Use Explicit Instruction and Visuals

Once we know where to start, it’s time to teach the meaning of each WH word explicitly.

Research by Swanson (2001) supports explicit teaching as one of the most effective ways to improve comprehension. I like to introduce one question word at a time using:

Visual cue cards (with icons or simple images)
Student-friendly definitions (e.g., What = a thing or action; Who = a person)
Concrete examples (“What is she doing?” → running)

You can make your own visuals or grab the pre-made ones from the Skill Pack. Each card pairs an icon with examples and definitions, so students can see the difference between question types.

👉 Explore the WH Questions Skill Pack. It includes visuals for every WH word plus student definition cards.

3. Scaffold — Move From Simple to More Complex WH Questions

Once students grasp the basic meaning of each question word, we start to build complexity.

I move from:

Questions about pictures or objects
To general knowledge questions
Then comprehension questions about stories
Finally, conversation-level questions

This scaffolded hierarchy helps students bridge from concrete understanding to inferential thinking.
As Swanson (2001) emphasized, success with more complex WH questions depends on clear, sequenced instruction — not just repetition.

Example:

Simple: “What is this?” (show a picture)
Complex: “Why do we use an umbrella?” (requires reasoning)

4. Focus — Teach One WH Type at a Time

While it’s tempting to target multiple question types at once, research (including Parnell et al., 1986 and Isenberg, 2014) supports focusing on one question type until mastery.

For example:

Start with “what” and “who” questions, since these are more concrete.
Once students achieve 80% accuracy, move on to “where,” “when,” “why,” and “how.”

This approach reduces cognitive load and helps solidify comprehension.

🧩 Therapy Tip: If your student already understands “what,” use it to support a harder question type (e.g., contrast “Who is eating?” vs. “What is he eating?”).

5. Embed — Practice in Meaningful Contexts

After structured drill practice, it’s time to move into real-world application.

Research by Justice and colleagues (2002) and Ukrainetz (2015) shows that embedding WH question practice into literacy-based or contextualized intervention improves generalization.

Here are some ways to embed practice:

During shared storybook reading
In classroom routines (“Who is the line leader?” “Why are we washing our hands?”)
Through play-based or functional activities (“Where should the toy go?”)

Embedding WH questions in meaningful contexts turns abstract drills into functional communication.

📘 Related Resources:

6. Repeat — Provide High Repetition and Varied Practice

Finally, students need lots of practice in many contexts.

Repetition builds mastery, but varied repetition builds generalization.

This means asking questions across:

Different materials (pictures, books, real life)
Different partners (teacher, parent, peer)
Different environments (therapy room, classroom, home)

It’s kind of like basketball drills. Practicing “dribbling” (structured tasks) is important, but students only master the skill when they can “play the game” (use WH questions in natural conversation).

The WH Questions Skill Pack includes structured practice materials and story-based prompts that make this kind of repetition simple to plan and track.

Using the SLP Now WH Questions Skill Pack

If you’re ready to put these strategies into action, the WH Questions Skill Pack makes it easy to assess, teach, and track progress — all in one place.

WH Questions Skill Pack

Leveled assessments to identify each student’s starting point
Visual supports and cue cards for every WH question type
Structured practice activities to promote generalization

It’s everything you need to assess, teach, and track progress — all in one place.

👉 Join to Download WH Questions Skill Pack

I originally created these materials while managing a triple-digit caseload, trying to make therapy both effective and doable. The goal was simple: give SLPs everything they need to target WH questions with research-backed structure and minimal prep time.

Here’s what’s included:

🧩 1. Leveled Assessments

Quickly identify each student’s starting point with assessments that move from simple to complex WH questions, from picture-based prompts to story-level comprehension. You’ll also find progress probes that make it easy to measure growth across sessions.

Perfect for goal writing and data collection.

🎨 2. Visuals and Cue Cards

Visual supports are one of the most powerful tools for students with language delays or autism. The pack includes WH question visuals for each question type, including icons, definitions, and examples.

These visuals are especially helpful in ABA-style sessions, where students benefit from consistency and repetition. They also work beautifully in small groups or whole-class lessons.

👉 Try pairing the cue cards with real-life photos, storybooks, or interactive classroom questions for quick generalization practice.

📘 3. Structured Practice Activities

Each WH type comes with guided activities designed to align with the six-step teaching framework:

Start with explicit instruction
Move through scaffolded levels
Practice within meaningful contexts

Activities include picture cards, short passages, and conversation prompts, so you can easily target receptive and expressive WH questions at any level.

📊 4. Data Sheets and Goal-Tracking Tools

You’ll find editable tracking sheets that make it easy to monitor both appropriateness and accuracy, a distinction emphasized by Parnell et al. (1986). These templates help you visualize progress and report growth efficiently, without extra paperwork.

🌟 Why SLPs Love It

Saves hours of prep each week
Works for any age or setting (preschool through secondary)
Built on evidence-based strategies from Swanson (2001), Justice et al. (2002), and Ukrainetz (2015)
Includes everything you need to start (o additional materials required!)

👉 Access the WH Questions Skill Pack Now →
Get evidence-based visuals, leveled assessments, and structured activities designed to make WH question instruction simple, effective, and fun.

Setting Goals and Tracking Progress

Once you’ve assessed your students and started using evidence-based strategies, the next step is setting clear, measurable goals and tracking progress along the way.

I like to think of this process as closing the loop. We start by assessing where the student is (their baseline), then we teach, scaffold,embed the skill, and finally, we measure growth to show what’s working.

🧠 Writing SMART IEP Goals for WH Questions

Strong goals focus on both accuracy and context. It’s not just about answering the question correctly; it’s about understanding and using the skill functionally across settings.

Here are a few examples:

Simple WH Questions:

When given a field of 3 visual choices, Student will answer “what” questions about a story with 80% accuracy across three sessions.
When given a short story, Student will answer “who” and “what” questions about the story with 80% accuracy across three sessions.

Complex WH Questions:

After listening to a short story, Student will answer “why” and “how” questions with 70% accuracy.
Given a classroom narrative or book, Student will answer inferential questions about the story with 80% accuracy across three sessions.

Functional WH Questions:

During classroom routines, Student will answer functional WH questions (e.g., “Where is your backpack?”) with 80% accuracy across three consecutive sessions.
During classroom activities, Student will ask appropriate WH questions to gather information in 4 out of 5 opportunities.

These goals can easily be adapted for your students’ unique needs.

📊 Tracking Progress Effectively

Consistent data collection helps you see whether students are generalizing their skills and whether your current strategy needs adjusting.

Here’s what I like to track:

Appropriateness: Did they respond with the correct type of answer (e.g., a person for “who,” a place for “where”)?
Accuracy: Was their response correct based on the content?
Cueing Level: How much support did they need (independent, verbal cue, visual prompt, etc.)?
Context: Were they successful in structured vs. naturalistic activities?

The data sheets in the WH Questions Skill Pack make this easy by breaking progress into small, measurable steps. You can record both accuracy and cueing, see growth trends over time, and quickly share updates with teachers or parents.

🧩 Connecting Data to Instruction

Data shouldn’t just live on a sheet; it should drive your next steps.

If a student’s accuracy is improving but responses are still inappropriate (e.g., answering “where” with a person), revisit explicit teaching of question word meanings.
If accuracy is high in structured drills but low in conversation, focus on embedded, contextualized practice.
If progress plateaus, consider targeting one question type at a time again before mixing multiple WH forms.

By consistently looping data into your instruction, you’ll ensure each student continues to build mastery — not just in the therapy room, but across their entire school day.

FAQs About Teaching WH Questions

Even though WH questions are a familiar goal for most school-based SLPs, there are always a few tricky areas that come up in practice. Here are some of the most common questions I hear from fellow clinicians, along with strategies and resources to help you feel confident in your approach.

At what age do kids learn WH questions?

WH question understanding develops gradually between ages 2 and 6, though the exact timeline varies by child.

According to Blank, Rose, and Berlin (1978) and later summarized by Paul and Norbury (2012), WH-question understanding typically develops between ages 2 and 6, though every child progresses at their own pace.

Here’s a general progression:

Age 2–3: Begins to answer what and where questions (with visual support).
Age 3–4: Starts to understand who and when questions.
Age 4–5: Begins to respond to why questions (cause and effect).
Age 5–6+: Understands how questions (processes, emotions, and reasoning).

If a child is struggling with WH questions beyond these ages, especially in comparison to peers, that’s a good indicator for targeted speech therapy support.

How do visuals help teach WH questions?

Visuals are a game-changer for students who need support with WH questions. A simple icon or cue card helps students connect the question word to its meaning. For example, showing a person for “who” or a place for “where.”

Visuals reduce cognitive load and give students something concrete to anchor their understanding. Research by Swanson (2001) supports this approach, showing that explicit instruction paired with visual scaffolding leads to stronger comprehension outcomes.

The WH Questions Skill Pack includes visual cards and student-friendly definitions for each WH type, so you can introduce, cue, and review the skill consistently.

What’s the best order to teach WH questions?

In general, start with simple and concrete question types and move toward abstract or inferential ones.

Here’s a hierarchy that works well for most students:

What (objects and actions)
Where (places)
Who (people)
When (time or sequence)
Why (reasoning)
How (processes or emotions)

This sequence aligns with developmental norms and research showing that simple WH questions (e.g., “what,” “where”) develop before complex WH questions (e.g., “why,” “how”).

How can I make WH question practice more engaging?

Keep it fun and functional!

Incorporate WH questions into storybooks, games, and classroom routines.
Use visual supports and movement-based activities (e.g., scavenger hunts.
Rotate between structured drills and open-ended tasks to maintain engagement while still targeting accuracy.

You can find dozens of ideas in the WH Questions Skill Pack, which includes printable visuals, story-based practice pages, and leveled assessments that make planning a breeze.

Up next, we’ll wrap up with a quick summary of the research behind these strategies, plus related resources if you want to dig deeper into literacy-based therapy and contextualized intervention approaches.

Evidence & Further Reading

As with all of our therapy approaches, everything we’ve talked about in this guide is grounded in research. Below are a few of the studies and frameworks that inspired the strategies shared here — along with related blog posts that show how to put the research into practice.

🧠 Evidence & Research Highlights

Parnell et al. (1986)
Found that students with language delays often give appropriate but inaccurate responses to WH questions. This study helps us remember that children may understand the structure of a question before mastering its meaning, which is why explicit instruction and consistent data collection are so important.

Swanson (2001)
Demonstrated that explicit instruction significantly improves comprehension skills for students with language-based learning difficulties. When targeting WH questions, this means clearly defining each question word, modeling responses, and using visuals to support understanding.

Justice et al. (2002)
Supported the use of literacy-based intervention, showing that shared storybook reading with embedded WH questions improves comprehension and expressive language.

Ukrainetz (2015)
Highlighted the effectiveness of contextualized language intervention, embedding WH questions into meaningful classroom or play activities to encourage generalization and functional use.

Together, these studies form the foundation of the Assess → Teach → Scaffold → Focus → Embed → Repeat model used throughout this post and in the WH Questions Skill Pack.

📚 Related Blog Posts

If you’d like to explore more ways to use these evidence-based strategies in your sessions, here are a few related resources:

Tips to Implement Literacy-Based Therapy for Students with SLI — Learn how to embed WH question practice within book-based units and classroom routines.
How to Use Books in Therapy — Practical strategies to connect storybooks, comprehension questions, and language goals.
How to Use a Pocket Chart for Easy Literacy-Based Therapy — A visual scaffolding technique that makes WH question practice more interactive and structured.

💡 Putting It All Together

If you’re looking for a way to apply this research without spending hours planning, the WH Questions Skill Pack combines all of these strategies into one easy-to-use resource. You’ll find leveled assessments, visuals, and printable data sheets that bring the research to life, so you can focus more on your students and less on prep time.

✅ Evidence-based. Classroom-friendly. Ready when you are.

That’s a wrap on WH questions! I hope these strategies, examples, and tools make it easier for you to plan effective therapy sessions and help your students build lasting comprehension and communication skills.

Transcript

I am so excited to continue our series about how to teach different skills. Today we are diving into strategies for wh questions, and I think we all know how fundamental wh questions are for success in the classroom, literacy development, social interaction, all of the things. Before we dive into the strategies, I wanted to share a couple tidbits from the research, and I will share my citations in the show notes.

Parnell et al talk about how students with language delays produce less appropriate and less accurate responses to questions. And those are two things that we want to consider as we're approaching intervention and strategies that we're using.

So an appropriate response would be that we're responding to a who question with a who answer. So like, who went to the zoo? The girl did, and not responding with like a what or a why. If we say who went to the zoo because they wanted to, that would be an inappropriate answer because they're using the wrong question word and it would also be inaccurate because it's the wrong response.

But we wanna look at are they identifying the question word and responding. So if they say who went to the zoo and they say the girl, but it was really the penguin who went to the zoo, then that would be an appropriate response because they're identifying the who and giving a who answer. But it would be an inaccurate response because that's not the correct answer. But they are identifying the correct question word. So that's one thing we want to consider. Students with language delays often show appropriateness before accuracy, so we might see students start to give more appropriate answers before they become totally accurate. So that is something helpful to consider and something that we might look at in our data collection. I make skill packs for a lot of different skills and I started this because I was working as a school-based SLP managing a caseload in the triple digits, and I was not feeling my most confident and I wanted to make sure that even if I was spread very thin, I was providing the best possible intervention for my students and that I was doing it without breaking my neck. Enter the skill packs and a bunch of other things that I've made over the years. I dug through the research, and I started this process about 11 years ago when I started working and managing that massive caseload.

I made these skill packs to help organize the practical strategies and give me access to materials right at my fingertips. I'm going to pull from that, as a practical example of what this could look like, but the focus will be on the actual evidence backed strategies that we can use.

How I structure these packs are through assess, teach, practice. So we want to have tools to assess a skill. We wanna make sure that we're appropriately teaching the skill. This is a step that I would often skip as a newer SLP.

And then we want to give students the opportunity to practice.

So we're going to start with the assess portion. We talked about appropriateness versus accuracy, which is important to think about all throughout intervention when working with wh questions. But we'll move through strategies for assessment and then teaching and practice.

Strategy number one is to assess to find our starting point. We need to make sure that we're meeting students where we're at. I like to get a baseline assessment to help me determine what goal is even appropriate for the student, but then also where we need to start and what levels of support they need.

If they're at 0% accuracy, my approach is going to look a lot different versus if they're at 50% accuracy. So like to have a strong baseline assessment. and usually that's leveled to pinpoint exactly where we want to start with the goal. I also like to have a probe for the goal I end up writing, and I use that probe to assess the student's progress throughout intervention.

We do wanna find our starting point. We wanna start with that baseline assessment. I go from simpler to more complex and look at the different question types because, research shows us that some question types are more complex. They might struggle more with a certain question type. So I look at their responses to all of the question types, like who, what, when, where, why, how, and then I increase the complexity of that.

So I might start with responding to questions about a simple picture. I might include general knowledge questions, and comprehension questions about a passage. I can pull out my assessment packet and look at all of those different levels, and then wherever the student starts to struggle I'll be able to identify their strengths so we can leverage that in intervention. Also I want to find that sweet spot of, okay, where does it make sense to start intervention? Answering questions about a picture or are we all moving all the way to responding to questions about a story?

And there's different levels of complexity there. Having a strong baseline helps us identify what makes sense for that. The skill pack in SLP Now includes that leveled assessment to help you do that really good baseline to identify where students need to start. We also have probes for all of the different goals that you might write for that ongoing intervention.

That was our strategy one using a baseline assessment to figure out where to start.

Then strategy two is explicitly teaching the question words using visuals. Swanson 2001 talks about explicit teaching. How we do that with WH questions is we select a question word to focus on and we might have a visual to help the students understand what that word means. We might also have a quick student friendly definition. So we might have a picture of an object, and an action. A simple definition for a what question is a thing or an action. Then we would practice, answering questions. So, we have a number of different visuals inside the WH question skill pack. You can also do quick drawings and make your own little cards for the visuals for students. We have, little cards for each question word with the icon and the, quick student friendly definition.

We also have sheets that have examples of answers. The what page has the icons and the student friendly definition as well as examples of things like an apple, watching, stretching, clapping, all of those types of things. We have that for all of the different question marks.

Then we have a bunch of different ways to help you. You have that visual to help you teach it. And so you would introduce like, today we are practicing what questions, this is what a what question is, and then strategy three is to scaffold using a hierarchy. So part of that, we talked about already in strategy one, in just using that assessment to determine where students are at, are they able to answer questions about photos, general knowledge questions or questions about a text, question about conversation.

This is where teacher, parent report would come in, classroom observations, all of that good stuff. We would write the goal for the appropriate level. and then we have activities to practice those. So we have photo cards where you can practice who is in the picture, and then you would pair that with the visual. if you're practicing who today, you would have the little who card or the little who page, and you can have practice discrimination too. Like maybe have the who and the what poster, if they're already good at responding to what questions. That's how we can leverage their strengths. You can have these picture cards and you can ask who is in the photo, and then you'll pause. Okay, what word are you hearing? What question word is that? So first identifying the question word. So, oh, we heard the who, so we're looking for a person. then you look at the picture. Who's the person in this picture? They can say, A boy.

And then to leverage their strength and to practice that discrimination can say, okay, what's the boy doing? What kind of question was that? Is that a who or a what? And so you can point to the appropriate card, and then they can respond giving an appropriate and accurate response to that question.

And so you could rinse and repeat for all of the different question types. And then you can move on from simple photos and you can use the photos in the skill pack, any photos that you have in decks of cards, or you can look at pictures in books or ask questions about the immediate environment.

There are so many ways to scaffold that depending on where the student is at in the hierarchy. Strategy four, which we've touched on a little bit, is to teach one wh question at a time. Parnell et all 1986 Isenberg 2014 talk about focusing on one question type as a way to support mastery and reduce cognitive load.

We can, use the assessment to identify which question, like if they're really good at who and what questions, then we don't need to target them. We can leverage those as a strength. And then, if they are struggling with one questions, for example, we would put our focus on one question and just focus on that question type.

And then as they master that we can move on to more.

Strategy five is to embed wh questions in meaningful context. The four steps I've talked about have been very decontextualized. We're doing assessment, using visuals, and doing very structured practice to help teach that concept. Then we want to move into a meaningful context.

So we wanna move away from these card decks and structured activities and move into books and classroom activities as quickly as possible. I could share a lot of references to support the use of meaningful context for this skill.

Dr. Ukrainetz's research emphasizes this. There's also a study by Justice et al. from 2002 about using short shared storybook reading. lots of evidence to support using this approach. The reason why we want to make sure that we jump into embedded practice as quickly as possible is that it facilitates generalization.

I think that's the biggest thing. It doesn't matter if they can respond to the most complex wh questions in the speech room if they're not able to use that in the classroom. We want to think about where we ultimately want them to use the skill and give them the opportunity to practice that as quickly as possible.

It would be like if I were a basketball coach and only ever had my students do drills. If it's game time, they're really going to struggle if only did dribbling practice and never practiced the coordination of all the things in a game.

And so it's the same thing with all of the skills that we target, but it also applies to wh questions. Then our last strategy is to provide high repetition with varied practice. Repetition builds mastery and the varied context support generalization. We do want to use the question cards and structured practice to build that repetition. Then we want to make sure again, that we're moving into that embedded practice as quickly as possible, because that is critical for generalization. In terms of WH questions, the varied practices that we're not asking the same question over and over, we are asking if we're doing a storybook, there's variability and varied practice built in.

We're answering questions about different activities throughout the story unit. Last week I did a podcast episode about how I used Apple Trouble to target all of the skills. That'll give you a lot of ideas for varied practice with WH questions, from doing the KWL chart to the book walk to the virtual field trip to the story.

There's lots of varied practice built into a literacy based therapy unit, and we'll leverage that. So those are our six strategies for wh questions.

So a quick recap.

One, we wanna have a high quality assessment to help us determine which level is most appropriate for students. We'll use that to inform our goals and how we structure intervention. Strategy two is to explicitly teach the word meanings and to leverage visuals. Strategy three is to scaffold using a hierarchy. Based on the assessment results, we might start with questions about pictures and then move up to general knowledge and then about a passage

We want to teach one question at a time. Strategy five is to embed this practice in a meaningful context to facilitate generalization. Strategy six is to provide high repetition with varied practice. Those are our six strategies. Check out the show notes for the references and examples of what this looks like.

If you want to access the WH questions unit with all the assessments, visuals, and structured practice in one nice download. It's totally no strings attached. You'll just enter your name and email, set up a password, you'll get logged in.

You can go to the materials page, download the WH questions pack, and have the access to this awesome resource. Or you can check out some of our other skill packs and therapy plans and resources.

I started creating these materials as a very overwhelmed SLP who still really wanted to serve her students well. These materials have been 11 years in the making. We're constantly updating and revamping them, and I hope that they make your life a little bit easier and make it easier to implement some of these strategies.

So that's a wrap for today. Thanks for joining me, and I'll see you soon.