It’s a type of person. They help people communicate and sometimes work in a school! haha! Look no further for all the describing activities you’ll need for speech therapy!
Describing has always been one of my favorite skills to tackle in speech-language therapy, but it can be daunting! Describing requires so many different language skills (expressive language and receptive language skills). It’s truly mind blowing. First, you have to some background knowledge and basic vocabulary to be able to label an item. You have to be able to categorize, use adjectives (color, shape, etc), understand basic concepts (size, etc), answer questions (where can you find it, etc), compare/contrast, and the list just goes on and on.
Since describing requires the marriage of so many different skills, it truly gives you the biggest bang for your buck. You get to sharpen all sorts of skills when working on describing. It’s one of the best ways to build a child’s vocabulary and sentence formulation skills. It can vastly improve a child’s expressive language abilities!
I’m so excited to finally get to share the toolkit I created to help speech-language pathologists work on this critical skill! It can be found in The Speech is Sweet Club!
I like to think of teaching describing as building a house. First, you have to build a solid foundation (basic vocabulary), then build the walls (categorize), you put on a roof and paint (use adjectives), etc. Then you can do some landscaping if you want (provide extra information/fun facts about the item). It truly requires patience (just like building a house), because it doesn’t happen overnight.
This toolkit is set up in a way that allows you to teach each component of describing piecemeal and then it features speech therapy activities to bring it all together! Let’s peek inside:
Describing Rubric
First thing first.. you have to figure out where your students are. I believe that the most effective way to assess describing is with a rubric! There are so many components to describing, that we can’t simply say yes the child can describe or no the child can’t describe. I recommend using this rubric after your speech therapy sessions to monitor your students’ progress towards their language goals. There is a progress chart on the bottom, which is a super helpful visual for students and parents!
Parent Letter and Handouts for Describing
This letter is super handy for speech therapists! It’s just a simple way to keep parents in the loop. Yes, they attend IEP meetings.. but this letter will give them a heads up on what is currently going on in speech! It also provides a few tips on working on describing at home! Unfortunately, I can’t find the picture of the handout, but you can get a peek of it on the left-hand side of this photo! This handout will be perfect for sending home, taking to meetings, or parent-teacher conferences (errr… slp-teacher conferences haha). It basically breaks down all of the components of describing. I think the handout will be a helpful tool for parents to help aid their child’s language development and provide them with home practice.
Describing Speech Therapy Visuals
This visual strip is perfect to keep on-hand at your table. You may even want to tape it to your table, especially if it’s a language skill you work on frequently. You can also give a copy of these strips to your students so that they can have it on hand in their classroom and take home.
This toolkit also has mini posters that break down the components of describing. These will be great to put on a binder ring for easy access and even great to create a bulletin board! Gotta love functional decor! Your speech therapy students will love these visual supports.
Describing Speech Therapy Information Sheets
I broke down each component of describing and each has it’s own informational sheet. Each sheet has an explanation of the component at the top, examples, and then a section for students to practice. These sheets are great for making sure your students have a strong foundation for this skill! Describing can be quite taxing on children who have language delays, so explicitly teaching one component at a time is ideal.
Describing Activities Speech Therapy Worksheets
There is a sheet with a completed example and then a multitude of sheets for students to drive right in and start practicing! These worksheets feature a variety of different objects for students to describe and they’re all items that is relevant year around. I highly recommend sending them home for speech homework too!
Sentence Writing Worksheets
Once students can list all of the various attributes of the object/person that they’re describing, it’s time to take it a step further! These sentence sheets have a fill-in the blank exercise on the top and on the bottom students can write their own paragraph! These sheets will give your students ample practice with writing complete sentences. All of the worksheets included are designed to help improve a child’s descriptive vocabulary.
Describing Pictures Clip Cards
These clip cards integrate seamlessly with the other activities, I was mindful and used the exact same visuals that are found on the visual strip and on the worksheets on these card games! Students can move a clothespin along the side of the card as they list each attribute. This is a great way to switch things up and practice in a different way! It’s a fun activity and super versatile! Clip cards are great interactive resources that can stand alone! I’m a sucker for some cute little clothespins, I’ve collected quite a few styles over the years to add a little spice to my clip cards! lol!
This toolkit has everything you need and I truly believe your students will love these describing activities for speech therapy! This toolkit is also great for the speech therapy classroom, special education, or regular education classrooms during their english language arts block! Describing is an important skill for all students to have and fostering descriptive language will have a tremendous payoff in your classroom!
Where can you find it? There are two options:
The Speech is Sweet Club
Describing Toolkit on TPT
Want describing activities that address themed vocabulary? I have two amazing add-on bundles that compliment this toolkit perfectly:
Seasonal Describing Bundle
Holiday Describing Bundle
Looking for more toolkits to make your life easier?! Check out the WH Questions Toolkit blog post!
Thank you for stopping by! Have a great day!
