HALLOWEEN Playing the Auditory Verbal Way!

 
 

Kids love listening, thinking, and learning spoken language with my Halloween Mystery bowl. Give it a try with toddlers through early elementary-aged listeners. It’s great for using all season long. Level it up or down to match the children’s goals.

You Will Need
A clear bowl or container for peeking and spying through the sides 
Small seasonal items - acorns, leaves, pumpkins, Halloween objects, and Dollar Store finds
Dry pinto beans
A swag of artificial autumn leaves to cover the bin and keep the item(s) hidden

Listening and Spoken Language Tips
To encourage auditory learning
- Sit beside the child, on their best hearing side, in a quiet room.
- Remind the child to attend to the auditory information. Point to your ear and say, Listen.
- Speak before the child searches or sees the object. EAR contact before EYE contact.
- Increase or decrease the listening set size of objects to meet the child's goals.
- Develop confidence by playing at a level where the child is successful most of the time.

You Can Target:
Plan ahead. Consider the goals and level up or down the activity.
The child is to find the object that corresponds to the description.

Auditory identification 
Bury an object without the child seeing it.
Remind the child to attend to the auditory information by pointing to your ear. Say, "listen".  
OOooooOO! Boo! OOooooOO! I hear a ghost.
Sing, the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Following directions and recalling critical elements 
Look for the bat.  
Find the bat then, make it sleep upside down. 
Uncover the skeleton and have it do a monster dance.

Categories
Find something that -
can fly
is scary
has a face
is an insect
is make-believe
grows on trees
is found in a pumpkin patch

Auditory memory
Find the apple. 
Find the scarecrow, the wagon, and the black cat.
Find all the animals except the crow.  

Inferences 
I can walk through walls. I’m white. I like to say “BOO!” Find me.
I am green. I wear a pointy hat. I fly on a broom. Find me.
I am round. I am orange. I sit outside. My first name is Jack. Find me.

Expressive language and descriptive skills 
Give the child a turn to bury a toy and describe it to the other players.

Happy Halloween!

Try This Easy Listening and Spoken Language Snack Activity For Autumn

 
 

Cooking provides authentic opportunities for children to listen, follow directions, and develop self-help skills. An enormous amount of learning takes place during daily routines of preparing food, cooking, and cleaning up.

An irresistible Autumn snack of candy corn and peanuts is the perfect combination of salty and sweet. It’s so simple to make with kids on your caseload or at home!

FIRST - Confirm no one has peanut allergies!

You’ll need a bag of candy corn and a can of salted peanuts.
In a medium bowl add the peanuts and the candy corn and mix. Ta-Dah!

 
 

This handout contains targets and ideas for involving children in food preparation, cooking, washing dishes, and cleaning up. It is designed for families and therapists/teachers guiding and coaching caregivers.

TARGET IDEAS FOR:

LITTLE LISTENERS - Listen and learn while pouring, mixing, tasting, and eating this snack.

PRESCHOOLERS - Talk about opposites.
Peanuts & Candy Corn are salty - sweet | crunchy - chewy | brown - colorful | bag - can.

SCHOOL AGE - Brainstorm compare & contrast.
Peanuts and candy corn are BOTH snacks.
Peanuts come in a can WHILE Candy Corn is sold in a plastic bag.
Keep it going!…

Active Kids Listening and Following Fall Directions Game

 
 

Who doesn’t know active kids who need practice listening and following one-step, multi-step, sequential, temporal, conditional, and complex directions? The game targets action verbs and conjunctions to grow listening and spoken language skills. The secret is the kids are expanding receptive language skills, increasing their auditory memory and processing skills while being engaged and active.

HAVE FUN WHILE TARGETING:

✧ Action verbs - Pick, scurry, jump, drop, fly, pop, swoop, shake, fall, stretch, roll, scavenge, waddle, hang

✧ Conjunctions- and, or, before, after, either, while

✧ One, Two, and Multi-Step Directions - Following basic directions start with simple, one-two steps including an action verb and a noun. Multi-step directions involve following two or more directions at a time.

✧ Sequential Directions - Sequential directions involve following directions in a specific order. "Hang like a scarecrow, pick an apple, and jump in the pile of leaves."

✧ Temporal Directions - These target a child’s ability to follow directions containing the words “before” or “after” in a variety of positions within the utterance. For example, in some instances, the term “before” is located in the middle of the direction: “Pick an apple before you shake like a tree.” The listening direction may be positioned at the beginning such as, “Before you fly like an owl, stretch like a cat.”

✧ Conditional directions - Listeners decide what actions to do based on the given condition(s). “If your a bat, jump into a leaf pile.” If not, then waddle like a turkey.”

✧ Complex Directions - These increase auditory memory and processing demands when critical elements are included such as adjectives, quantities, sizes, and more. "Fly like the SLEEPY, OLD owl." "Waddle like the scared THANKSGIVING turkey."

 
 

You’ll love this no-planning activity that requires easy one-time Prep. Just print out the activity cards and cut them on the dotted lines. Done!

  • It's fast, fun, effective, and can be played over and over again.

  • Terrific for children of different ages and stages that can be leveled up or down to meet their needs.

  • It's great for children who are deaf and hard of hearing and those who can benefit from practicing listening skills.

This activity is ideal for …

Face to face in therapy, school, and at home

Teletherapy and Virtual learning Play across a screen in teletherapy