• Home
  • About
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Search
    Generic filters
    Exact matches only
    Search in title
    Search in content
    Search in excerpt
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Ms. Gardenia's Speech Room

  • School Speech Therapy
  • SNF Speech Therapy
  • Faith in Practice
You are here: Home / School Speech Therapy / How to Help Language Impaired Students Improve their Leisure Skills

How to Help Language Impaired Students Improve their Leisure Skills

Do you have students on your caseload who have very limited leisure skill interests? Are these students often left out of group activities at school and in the home environment? When our students do not engage in play/ leisure activities they are missing out on a natural way to work on language instruction.

Read the following article, a guest post by Rosemarie Griffin from ABA Speech, to help your students increase their functional language and leisure skills:

Leisure skills can be addressed in a variety of ways in clinic or school based settings. If you have a student who receives direct individual therapy, you could work on a specific leisure skill during therapy and generalize it to a larger group, when the student is able to engage in the skill with minimal prompts from an adult. Another way to target leisure skill instruction would be to teach a specific leisure skill (i.e. modified musical chairs) to a small group of students. It is important whether you are teaching the skill in an individual or small group session that the students know exactly how to engage in the skill. There are many evidenced based strategies, but we will focus on the skill of video modeling.

Video modeling is a mode of teaching that uses video recording. The video recording acts as a visual model of the targeted skill or behavior. It can take many forms. The video can be of the student engaging in the skill or it can be of another individual engaging in the skill. The learner watches the video and then they perform the skill in the moment or at a later time. For example, if you are teaching students to play UNO® as a modified game; you could make a video of students playing this game the modified way ( i.e. matching just the color cards or playing minus the skip, reverse, wild and draw two). You would show the video to the students learning the game and then have them play the game. There is a lot of research that supports using this strategy to teach skills to individuals with autism and other disabilities. Below I will describe 2 modified leisure activities that I use with my middle school and high school students.

A favorite of game of my students happens to be UNO®. There are 2 ways to modify UNO® based on the level of learner you have in your group. For early learners, you can lay out one card of each color on the table ( yellow, red, green, blue) and put the other cards face down. You each take a turn picking a card and matching it to the cards on the table. If your students are ready for more of a challenge you can play uno the regular way but without the skip, reverse, wild and draw two cards. This is such a popular game and one that many families have at home. It would be great to work on this at school and let the parents know about all of the work that you have done. Playing UNO® at home would be a wonderful way for your student to spend quality time with his family, while generalizing this leisure skill to new people and new environments.

Another game that many of my students enjoy is playing Scrabble®. We each pick seven tiles and take turns making words on the board. The modification is that the words do not have to be connected in any way. This is what makes Scrabble® so difficult! I allow the students to make a word anywhere that they want on the board. If you have a student in the group who is having difficulty making a word on their own, grab a dry erase board and write down a word for them that they could make with their tiles. They can pick the tiles and match them to the word and transfer to the board. Viola a wonderful way to enjoy a cooperative group activity with students of varying ability levels.

Being able to participate in age appropriate leisure skills gives students the opportunity to practice social language skills and helps them to feel more included with peers and their family members. Working on leisure skills can be enjoyable for all; I hope that these strategies will help you incorporate this instruction into your therapeutic practice.

 

Rosemarie Griffin is a speech language pathologist, board certified behavior analyst and product developer. She is the creator of the Action Builder Cards. To learn more about modified leisure skills or to gather information about using applied behavior analysis to help students increase their communication skills, check out her website www.abaspeech.org or like her Facebook page here: ABA SPEECH ON FACEBOOK.

 

 

Related

Don’t miss out!

Previous Post: « Low Cost Adult Therapy Materials Online
Next Post: Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19 »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

About Me

Darla Gardner

Darla Gardner is an ASHA certified Speech Language Pathologist with extensive experience in both the skilled nursing and educational settings.
“Ms Gardenia” was created after an adorable and otherwise quirky second grader with autism lovingly referred to her by that name on a daily basis despite multiple attempts to correct. Although he is no longer on caseload, many more students like him remain and his nickname is used as a reminder that although therapy can be frustrating and challenging it is the most rewarding and life changing field to be a part of.
This site was created as a resource for parents, therapists and other professionals to share therapy ideas and activities, to encourage therapists and parents who feel overwhelmed and to promote products that improve communication across settings.
If you would like to read more about my professional journey please click the read more link below. Read More…

Let’s Connect

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Categories

Sign up for emails

msgardeniasspeechroom

Fairy Tales week in #speechtherapy will be coming Fairy Tales week in #speechtherapy will be coming up soon! Do you target dragons during that theme too? I’m fairly certain this knight ornament (and his 10 buddies) that I got for 10 cents each will also be making an appearance😳👉🏼swipe to see my latest hoard...
#slphoarder #preschoolslp #slp #eccslp #msgardeniareads #readalouds
Of course I have a hedgehog that makes actual grun Of course I have a hedgehog that makes actual grunting noises when he is squeezed. What kind of self-respecting #slphoarder wouldn’t?
#earlychildhoodeducation #slp #prek #speechtherapy #ihaveissues #hedgehogsofinstagram
Do you ever get a book and JUST KNOW your kids are Do you ever get a book and JUST KNOW your kids are going to love it? Like, you can visualize their actual faces and hear the laughter long before you even read it aloud?
.
I always try to preview a book online in a YouTube read aloud before purchasing. That way I know if it’s a good fit for my classroom.
.
I always include several books with videos in each week’s lesson plans. You can get the 🐧 and 🐻‍❄️ lesson plans in my highlights or click this picture in my profile link!
.
#booksharetuesday #slp #earlychildhoodeducation #prek #readaloud #msgardeniarecommends #booksilovetoread
It is snowing in Texas! ❄️❄️❄️ this ha It is snowing in Texas! ❄️❄️❄️ this happens about every 5-6 years so we are really excited over here!
I read Sneezy every single year. Your students wou I read Sneezy every single year. Your students would love it too! Download this free story helper from the link in my profile. 
.
#speechtherapy #prek #kindergarten #earlychildhoodeducation #slp #snowmanactivities #snowmantheme
Crafts in speech. You either love them or you loat Crafts in speech. You either love them or you loathe them. Over the years, I have figured out how to use crafts in speech and make it efficient & functional for everyone, even in mixed groups. 
.
Your turn:
What do you love or loathe about crafts in #speechtherapy ?
.
Tell me below or check out my stories to vote and leave your opinions!
Santa needs all the help sorting toys this year! A Santa needs all the help sorting toys this year! After reading Dear Santa by Rod Campbell, we continued the descriptive vocabulary practice by flipping through the toy catalog!
.
#anchorcharts #santashelpers #prek #ecc #slp #ashaigers #speechtherapy
My students totally believed me that these @lakesh My students totally believed me that these @lakeshorelearning Shapes Discovery Boxes were presents!
.
Just. Add. Bow. Everything becomes instantly magical!🎅🏻
.
#preschoolslp #earlychildhoodeducation #slp #ashaigers
What’s in your #slpbag this week? I’m carrying What’s in your #slpbag this week? I’m carrying home Christmas books to make visuals for my students to use with our lessons! Where did I get that cute bag? From @marleycarolinejewelry of course! She’s giving away a bag to one of you too!
Just go to my stories or the link in my profile to enter the 25 Days of Giveaways!
.
A winner is chosen at 9PM CST each night!🎄
.
#slpgiveaways #slp #speechtherapy #aac #wantcoffee #slpa #ashaigers
It’s been a while since I shared a book for #boo It’s been a while since I shared a book for #booksharetuesday ! I’m officially on the scratch and sniff book bandwagon. Do you know of any more?
Last week I shared The Gingerbread Family. This week I highly recommend The Sweet Smell of Christmas!
.
Do you know if any others?
.
#msgardeniarecommends #booksirecommend #preschoolslp #earlychildhoodslp
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2021 Ms. Gardenia's Speech Room · Log in