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speech and language teaching concepts for Dude in speech therapy​ ​
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/d/ initial and final (Dude)
/b/ initial (beaver)
/v/ medial (beaver)
/er/ medial and final (beaver)
/pl/ initial (platypus)
/s/ initial and final (surf, surfboard) (platypus)
/sh/ initial (shark)
/k/ final (shark)
/ar/ medial (shark)
/r/ blends (ice cream, friends, crash, cry, great, prize)
Themes:

ocean
non-seasonal
wordless
friendship
Book Details:
Diverse Characters: N/A
Age Recommendation: Early Childhood, Elementary, Late Elementary
Buy the Book on Amazon
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Dude!

By Aaron Reynolds

Dude! You have to read this book. It’s totally about this platypus and this beaver who are friends. They want to go surfing but dude, there’s this shark who’s in the ocean, too. But don’t worry. This shark approaches and you’ll never guess what happens.

This fun, almost wordless ocean book can be used in speech therapy to address friendship, inferencing and predicting. It is also great for noticing text features and illustrations. Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Dude in speech therapy below:

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode
wordless
Narrative Concepts:

social/emotional concepts
illustration study
inferencing
predicting
text features
repetitive text
sequencing
Sequencing:

order of events on the beach day
Social/Emotional:

Beaver and Platypus notice that Shark is not scary, but instead Shark is sad.
Both Beaver and Platypus set out to do something to make Shark feel better.
They include Shark in their surfing activity.
When the surfboard breaks, Shark gets creative and becomes the “surfboard” for Shark’s new friends.

facial expressions and body language
emotion behind the text features (ALL CAPS, elongated words, exclamation points) and symbols (lines around faces)
Text Features:

community sign (caution)
capitals
ellipses
change in text color
change in font
exclamation marks
question marks
elongated text
repetitive text (Dude!)

There is only one word throughout the story (exception of SPLAT, which occurs one time); therefore, the text features carry the whole story.
Inferencing:

How does Platypus feel about surfing?
Why did the color of “Dude!” change when Beaver said it?
Why are there more “u”’s when they are heading into the water?
How do they feel in the water?
What did they think about the bird?
Why is Beaver laughing?
How does Platypus feel?
Why are Beaver’s eyes wide?
How does Shark feel?
What about the others?
Why do you think Shark is sad?
Why did Beaver bring Shark ice cream?
Why did Platypus bring Shark a surf board?
How do they feel when they all go out in the water?
How do they feel on shore?
Why is Shark the only one who is happy?
How do Beaver and Platypus feel?
How do they feel about their scores?
What are the other animals thinking when Shark goes on land?
How do they feel at the end?
Predicting:

What do you think they will do today?
What do you think they will see out in the water?
What will they do when they see the shark?
What do you think is wrong with the shark?
What do you think Beaver’s idea is?
What do you think Platypus’s idea is?
What do you think will happen to them?
What do you think Shark’s idea is?
Problem Solving:

Beaver and Platypus set out to have a fun day. When they get scared by Shark, they realize that Shark isn’t really scary but instead is lonely. They try to cheer him up by including him in their day, even when things don’t always go to plan.

Check out our podcast episode, Deep Dive into Using Ribbit! and Dude! in Speech Therapy for more ideas! We discuss Dude! starting at 18 minutes and 42 seconds. 

If you are interested in using Dude! and other summer- themed books in speech therapy, then check out these print-&-go cheat sheets. Perfect for when you don’t need a full book companion. 

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