Build Communication Skills with Story Twists

Story Twists

As speech-language pathologists, we are always on the hunt for new and engaging ways to work on our speech and language goals.   We easily can get bored of doing the same activities over and over.  We are always looking for a way to keep our students motivated, especially when our goals are not so easy for them.  That is why I knew I had to try the brand new Story Twists with my speech and language students and I am excited to share with you how we used them!

I love when I find a product that can be used to target a variety of goals.  This allows me to use it with several groups in a day or even with a mixed group that contains students with different goals.

What goals did I work on?

• Story recall
• Narrative skills
• Listening comprehension
• Sentence structure
• Answering WH- questions
• Articulation carryover
• And more!

I love that the product allowed me to decide which twists should have pictures and which should have text only.  This made it easy for me to differentiate for my students.  I can decide on my own who would benefit from having a visual aid or who would benefit from the text only so that it wasn’t “too cute.”

Each twist contained a setting, character, and a prop.  The product comes with a graphic organizer and even visual cues of all of the items on the various twists, which you can use as a reference if a student does not have the background knowledge of any of the items.

So how did I use it?

Each student in the group was given a twist and they were instructed to make a combination.  They were given a copy of the graphic organizer to use to plan out their stories ahead of time.  They verbally expressed their stories for the entire group and the rest of the group was responsible to listening, taking notes (on a blank copy of the graphic organizer) and then they had to answer questions based on the story they heard.  All students were engaged and participated throughout the entire activity.  I was easily able to break it down using the graphic organizer provided to make them successful and build confidence.

What are some other ways you can use this product in speech?

Students can make a silly story and a regular story and compare and contrast them.  You can pull out a twist that contains your student’s articulation target and have them create a story that contains their sound.  The sky really is the limit!

Your speech and language students will love manipulating these twists and using their creativity while working on their various speech and language goals.  Learning can be fun!

Hallie Sherman, M.S. CCC-SLP is a licensed speech-language pathologist from New York and the author of the blog, Speech Time Fun.  She loves finding and creating creative, quick, and fun ways to keep speech students motivated and shares them on her blog, Instagram, and Facebook page.

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