Book of the Month: October
As a speech language pathologist, there is a certain strategy that goes into picking a book that can be used with multiple kids of multiple ages, with multiple abilities. For the month of October, Little Blue Truck’s Halloween will not be leaving my therapy bag!
Five Reasons Why I Love This Book:
The flaps increase engagement while I am reading the story. Having something to manipulate increases joint attention to the book and increases curiosity.
The animal sounds make it fun and encourage simple verbal productions for little ones who are just beginning to develop their speech output. If your child has trouble with sound production the simple and repetitive word combinations are perfect for providing several opportunities to practice simple productions.
The repetitive use of “ It’s me! It’s me!” makes the story predictable and creates opportunity for imitation and the introduction of personal pronouns. You can easily take the phrase “ It’s me! It’s me” and incorporate it into other activities. Perfect for our gestalt language learners.
The pictures have so much to look at and observe. Whether it be the big moon in the sky, the funny costumes, or all of the animals, there is ample opportunity to introduce descriptive wording such as you look over the pictures with your child.
As the story progresses, there are several opportunities to work on responding to various “Wh” questions. For example, in the text, “ Who do you see?” is repeated with every turn of the page. However, you can easily add in “Where” and “ What” questions as the characters join the truck ride and show off their costumes.
Tips for our kiddos that may need some assistance with expressing themselves or participating in the story:
Use visuals! Whether it’s pictures, a communication device, or animal figures, these visuals can really help kids with processing differences, respond to some of our questions and even initiate conversation about the animal they love the most.
Use buttons or a device with auditory output. For children that have difficulty with verbal expression, you or the child can activate the animal sounds on a button or device with each opening of the flap.
For our gestalt language learners, work on mitigation strategies. For example, bring attention to the costume reveal and mitigate “ It’s a ____!” by naming the costume. “It’s a witch!”, “ It’s a dragon!”, etc. As the book progresses pause and give a child a moment to see if they will independently begin to mitigate while looking at the book.
Who knew Little Blue Truck would check all of the boxes when planning for the month of October? Grab yourself a copy and enjoy. Happy Halloween!