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Home
About
- Meet Ashley
- Privacy Policy
Blog
- Newest
- Literacy-Based Speech Therapy
- Monthly Therapy Plans
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  - February
  - March
  - April
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  - June
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This or That

this-or-that-leprechaun-book

This or That: Using How to Catch a Leprechaun and How to Trap a Leprechaun in Speech Therapy – Episode 45

this-or-that-valentines-day

This or That: Using The Day It Rained Hearts and Pete the Cat: Valentine’s Day Is Cool in Speech Therapy – Episode 39

a-thing-called-snow

This or That: Using The Mitten and A Thing Called Snow in Speech Therapy – Episode 33

this-or-that-Christmas-edition

This or That: Using How to Catch an Elf and Mooseltoe in Speech Therapy – Episode 30

this-or-that-turkey-edition

This Or That: 10 Turkeys in the Road and Turkey Trouble – Episode 27

this-or-that-with-halloween-books

This or That: Halloween – Episode 23

this-or-that-leaf-theme

This or That: Leaf Man and The Leaf Thief – Episode 17

apple-themed-picture-books

This or That: Apple Themed Picture Books – Episode 15

this-or-that

This OR That: David Goes to School and Clark the Shark – Episode 11

this-or-that

This OR That (Comparing There Was an Old Lady… and Sharing a Shell) – Episode 5

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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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