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Home
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- Meet Ashley
- Privacy Policy
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- Newest
- Literacy-Based Speech Therapy
- Monthly Therapy Plans
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  - June
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spring-picture-books-for-speech-therapy

Our Favorite Spring Picture Books for Speech Therapy – Episode 43

favorite-valentines-day-picture-books

Our Favorite Valentine’s Day Picture Books in Speech Therapy – Episode 38

favorite-wordless-picture-books-part-two

Our Favorite Wordless Picture Books in Speech Therapy: Part Two – Episode 37

favorite-wordless-picture-books

Our Favorite Wordless Picture Books in Speech Therapy: Part One – Episode 36

favorite-winter-picture-books

Our Favorite Winter Picture Books in Speech Therapy – Episode 32

favorite-Christmas-books

Our Favorite Christmas Books in Speech Therapy – Episode 29

thanksgiving-themed-books

Our Favorite Thanksgiving Books – Episode 26

alternatives-to-halloween-books

Our Favorite Alternatives to Halloween Books – Episode 22

halloween-themed-books

Our Favorite Halloween Themed Books – Episode 21

pirate-themed-books

Our Favorite Pirate Books – Episode 19

fall-picture-books

Our Favorite Fall Picture Books – Episode 16

childhood-apraxia

Our Favorite Books with Repetitive Text for CAS – Episode 13

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Here’s why this matters clinically: Children with

Here’s why this matters clinically: Children with language disorders need explicit exposure to sophisticated vocabulary words WITH contextual support. Picture books provide rich, rare vocabulary alongside illustrations and narrative context that make these words learnable. This contextualized presentation is exactly what helps children build the foundation to eventually understand these words in more abstract, academic contexts.

You cannot build inferencing skills on a shaky fou

You cannot build inferencing skills on a shaky foundation.
I used to wonder why my students struggled so much with “why” questions during read-alouds.
Turns out? I was asking them to do high-level comprehension work without teaching them the FRAMEWORK that makes it possible.
That framework is story grammar.
Story grammar is the predictable structure that holds narratives together:
* Setting (who, where, when)
* Problem/Initiating Event
* Internal Response (feelings/reactions)
* Plan → Attempts → Consequence → Resolution
Our students with language impairments can list events: “First this happened, then this, then this.”
But they can’t tell you WHY the character made that choice or HOW the problem connects to the solution.
Because they don’t understand the architecture of stories.
When we teach story grammar explicitly—naming these elements, pointing them out across books, helping students identify them—we give them a mental template for EVERY story they encounter.
Then the magic happens:
“Why” questions make sense because they understand problems drive character choices.
Predictions become logical because they see the attempt-consequence pattern.
Themes emerge because they connect problems to resolutions.
Story grammar is WHERE we start. It’s the foundation for literal comprehension, inferential thinking, predictions, theme identification—all of it.
Research confirms this (Petersen et al., 2010): explicit story grammar instruction significantly improves narrative comprehension for students with language disorders.
So before you get frustrated that your student can’t answer inferencing questions, ask yourself: have I explicitly taught them the story structure that makes inferencing possible?
Start with the foundation. Build from there.
Who else is adding story grammar to their sessions? 🙋‍♀️

Comment SLP list to get this freebie! I promise yo

Comment SLP list to get this freebie! I promise your future self will thank you when you come back from Thanksgiving break!

Part 2: More books that FORCE students to infer Be

Part 2: More books that FORCE students to infer
Because literal comprehension isn’t enough.
Real comprehension requires inferencing:
→ Understanding WHY characters act
→ Predicting what happens next
→ Connecting causes to effects
→ Reading between the lines
These 3 books require it:
Doctor DeSoto → Can you trust the fox?
Click, Clack, Moo → Infer negotiation strategies
Bad Case of Stripes → Connect problem to cause

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