Adapted books are my favorite material to pull for my speech and language sessions because they are simple and SO incredibly versatile! Keeping my adapted book pile stocked ensures that I have no-prep materials ready to go. Wondering how you can use adapted books in your speech and language sessions? Keep reading for ideas on how to incorporate these amazing materials into your routines!
AUGMENTATIVE AND ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION (AAC)
Many of my students who use AAC to communicate are working on vocabulary. Adapted books are a great way to target vocabulary while keeping students engaged in an activity. This winter adapted book set includes opportunities for students to find all kinds of specific vocabulary words, such as weather and clothing. The book also offers students to find visual options for answers, which adds an interactive piece to the book activity. Utilizing this activity for my AAC users also allows them to use vocabulary specific to books such as “turn the page” or “the end.”
LISTENING COMPREHENSION
These books are great to use for learners working on listening comprehension, as they all include comprehension questions. This Let’s Go to the Zoo book includes multiple comprehension questions and two answer options. For learners with less support needs, I remove the visual options and see if they can answer on their own. This book includes two leveled options to support a variety of learners. Level one includes repetitive sentence frames to make it easier for students to engage and catch on to the pattern of the story. Level two includes more details on each page to allow for additional wh- question opportunities.
VOCABULARY
I love using this Life Skills: Which Room adapted book set to target category items with learners who have vocabulary goals. The Community Helpers book is another great example of a book that can be used to work on vocabulary. I love that these books include visual pieces that students can use to velcro onto pages and categorize. Most of these books can be used to target vocabulary in some way and I love being able to use the book to use words in context for my students.
ARTICULATION
For my articulation students who are working on generalization, I have them read adapted books to me or to a friend to work on their best sounds. Students who are still at the word level get to read the words I pick out for them. Within the January adapted book bundle, the “It’s a Snow Day” is loaded with the /s/ sound! These books are great to pull on particularly busy days because they require no preparation. You can always find target sounds in stories! Happy reading!
