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using Slugs in Love in speech therapy
Frequent Speech Sounds:

/r/ initial and medial
/l/ initial
/r/ vocalic

Themes:

Valentine’s Day
love

Book Details:
Diverse Characters: N/A
Age Recommendation: Elementary

Slugs in Love

By Susan Pearson

Marylou loves everything about Herbie―how his slime trail glistens in the dark, how he can stretch himself thin to squeeze inside the cellar window, and how he always finds the juiciest tomatoes. But Marylou is a shy slug. How can she get Herbie to notice her? Find out how Marylou woos her beloved in this must-have love story that’s perfect for Valentine’s Day.

This delightful Valentine’s Day book can be used in speech therapy to address social/emotional issues like liking someone and not giving up. It is also great for rhyming and for targeting grammar including a variety of adjectives, verbs, prepositions and complex sentences as well as for inferencing. It can also be used to target /r/ vocalic and /l/ initial sounds! Discover more of the speech and language teaching concepts for using Slugs in Love in speech therapy below: 

Key Teaching Concepts

Narrative Structure:

complete episode

Narrative Concepts:

theme/message
vocabulary

character analysis
sequencing

inferencing
social/emotional
predicting
adjectives
verbs (mental state)
prepositional phrases​
complex sentence structure
text features
phonological awareness​​

Sequencing:

Marylou and Herbie write poems back and forth to each other and finally meet at the end.

Vocabulary:

glistened, handsome, hoe, ivy, wheelbarrow, blushed, complete, glad, scarecrow, zucchini, wit’s end, rhyme, sublime, tongue-tied, be mine

Character Analysis:

At the beginning of the story, Marylou loves everything about Herbie but is too shy to talk to him. She comes up with a plan to write poems for him and then Herbie writes her back. Without them knowing, something keeps happening to the poems but nonetheless they keep writing poems to each other and finally find a way to meet at the end.

Social/Emotional:

liking someone
love poems
perseverance

Grammar:

adjectives
verbs (mental state)
prepositional phrases​
complex sentence structure
WH questions (where)

Text Features:

change in font
poems
italics
moving text
large text

Phonological Awareness:

rhyming

Inferencing:

How did Marylou feel about Herbie?
How do you think Herbie felt when he found the poem?
What will Herbie think when he finds the poem on the wheelbarrow?
How will Marylou feel when she reads the poem on the fence?
What does Herbie think when he talks to his friend Sammy?
How do you think Marylou feels after reading her poem on the zucchini?
How did Herbie feel if he was at his “wit’s end”?
How did Marylou feel if she could “hardly contain herself”?
How do you think they will feel when they finally find each other?
How did Herbie feel if he was “tongue-tied”?

Predicting:

What do you think Herbie will do after reading his poem?
What do you think Herbie will do to try and find Marylou?
What do you think could happen to the poem on the fence?
What do you think will happen to the poem on the scarecrow?
What do you think will happen to the poem on the watermelon?
What do you think Herbie can do to finally find Marylou?
What do you think Marylou will do in the barn?
What do you think will happen at the end?

If you are interested in seeing other Valentine’s Day books to use in therapy, then check out the Narrative Teaching Points Book List for a printable copy.