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using The Very Quiet Cricket in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/l/ initial
/w/ initial
/r/ initial
/n/ initial
/s/ initial
/h/ initial
/b/ initial
/k/ medial
/p/ medial
/th/ medial
/er/ final
/kr/

Themes:

spring
bugs
perseverance
self-confidence

Book Details:
Diverse Characters: N/A
Age Recommendation: Early Childhood, Elementary, Late Elementary

The Very Quiet Cricket

By Eric Carle

One day a tiny cricket is born and meets a big cricket who chirps his welcome. The tiny cricket tries to respond, but there is no sound. The quiet cricket then makes his way into the world, meeting one insect after another, each of whom greets the little cricket with a cheery hello–the hum of a bee, the whirr of a dragonfly, the whisper of a praying mantis. The cricket rubs his wings together each time, but nothing happens, not a sound. Until the day he meets another cricket, a female, and something different happens . . . As children turn the page on this wonderful moment, they are greeted with a surprise–an actual chirp!

This sweet rhyming, repetitive spring and bug themed book can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional issues like perseverance and believing in yourself. It is also great for predicting,  and for targeting /kr/, /s/, and /n/ sounds as well as for describing! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using The Very Quiet Cricket in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

action sequence

Narrative Concepts:

vocabulary
sequencing
predicting

illustration study
social/emotional
adjectives
verbs (linguistic)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (present progressive)
negative (not)​
repetitive text

Sequencing:

order of animals who say “hi” to the quiet little cricket

Vocabulary:

egg, cricket, chirp, whizzed, locust, praying mantis, bubbled, spittlebug, froth, screeched, cicada, clinging, hummed, whirred, dragonfly, gliding, luna moth, stillness

Social/Emotional:

Everyone comes to say hi to the quiet little cricket. When they do, he tries to make a sound but nothing happens. He tries and tries again and finally when it’s quiet outside and there’s no pressure, he speaks to another quiet cricket.

Grammar:

adjectives
verbs (linguistic)
verbs (regular past tense)
verbs (present progressive)
negative (not)
prepositional phrases

Text Features:

italics
exclamation marks
repetitive text

Predicting:

Who do you think will come say hi to the little cricket next?
What do you think the little cricket will do each time?
When do you think he will make a sound?
What do you think will happen when he sees another quiet cricket?

If you are interested in seeing other spring books to use in therapy, then check out the Seasonal Teaching Points Book List for a printable copy.​

​If you are interested in seeing other bug books to use in therapy, then check out the Themed Key Teaching Points Book List for a printable copy. ​