The Stories Children Love: Increasing
Language through Storybook Activities
By Milaura Spelman, MS, CCC-SLP
Do you remember your favorite story as a child? I remember feeling so excited about our weekly visits to the library and looking for several favorite stories- in my case these included the Madeline books, Corduroy, Curious George, and Harold and the Purple Crayon. Oh, how I wished that I could have a mysterious and magical purple crayon like Harold. In fact, every time that I read this book as a child, I pulled out my purple crayon and drew my own adventures. I then shared it with my mother, who was willing to overlook the basic line drawings and who discussed my adventures with me. You can do the same with your child to increase their language skills. I have listed three classic children’s books and some related language activities- but be creative and make up your own activities based on your child’s favorite books. There are so many wonderful stories to choose from!
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Joff Numeroff
1. Draw or print pictures of the items that the mouse asks for. Cut them apart, mix them up, and put the pictures back in order. Retell the story using the pictures.
2. Make some salt dough. Create a variety of “cookies”. Draw, write or retell the recipe steps needed to make the salt dough. A recipe can be found at www.multihobbies.com/saltdough/index.htm
3. Discuss words that begin with the letter “M” as in mouse. Make up silly words. Find words in the story that start with “M”. Find items in your house that start with “M”. Name three animals that start with “M”. The possibilities are endless!• The Grouchy Ladybug, by Eric Carle
1. Discuss ladybugs and other insects: take a walk in the yard to look for ladybugs and other insects. Show pictures of the stages of insect development and sequence the pictures. Look for/buy a cocoon and watch the metamorphosis.
2. Discuss color words. Each animal that the ladybug challenges is a different color- draw pictures of the story characters using the appropriate color.
3. Using words from the story, clap out the number of syllables you hear in each word. You may need to show your child how to do this. For example, you would say to your child: “Say this word after me. Clap for each syllable you hear. Lunch (1 clap). Mantis (2 claps). Gorilla (3 claps).”• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs¬, by Judi Barrett
1. Discuss the kinds of food that fell from the sky and what types of food categories they would fall into. Create a picture collage of the different food categories. Discuss the food pyramid and healthy vs. non-healthy foods.
2. Discuss different types of weather that the town might have if it were a normal town. Find pictures on the internet of different types of clouds and draw them, and use describing words to tell about them.
3. Segment words from the story into individual sounds. For example, ask your child: “What sounds do you hear in the word cheese? The word grape?” This skill may be difficult for children under the age of five.
Mrs. Spelman is a speech/language pathologist and certified Wilson Reading
instructor, an Orton-Gillingham based program. She provides comprehensive
evaluations and remediation to students with dyslexia and other reading difficulties.
She also provides speech/language therapy services. She can be reached at
407-792-9552 or through email at spelmanspeech@earthlink.net. For additional
information, please visit her website at www.spelmanreadingtherapy.com