Prepositions got you feeling like a Bad SLP? (or Bad Teacher?)

Do you feel like you are aimless or not at the top of you game when working on prepositions?

I can totally relate. I work with a lot of special education students. I tried taking pictures of students under tables, in chairs, next to each other. They enjoyed the activity but it didn’t stick.

I tried having them take turns putting a fun toy on the chair or taking it off the chair. Again fun, but not getting the concept.

I tried it with matching puzzle pieces, with apps, and games. Still no lasting success.

Talk about feeling like a Bad Therapist.

But I kept trying.

Then a combination of learning experiences came together. I noticed that teaching opposite prepositions didn’t work.  I noticed that kids got distracted by little details in pictures. I went to an amazing presentation by Dr. Elena Plante, research SLP from University of Arizona and she talked about the importance of errorless learning and teaching one concept at a time.

I learned about fast-mapping. Fast mapping is the psychological term for learning a new concept after a single exposure to information.

Students with SLI and cognitive impairments are not able to fast-map like their typical peers.

So….

I tried making a book with simple visuals and white background. This way the focus was only on the relationship of the objects to each other.

There is a picture strip with words at the bottom of the page, always the same “Where is the _____”(object) The next page always has   ______ (target preposition) the ___________ (relationship word).

Object remains the same. For example in “The Under Book” the object is always a banana, it is always under something. Going through the book once gives 12-15 repetitions.

The other important piece is that the skill needs to be taught in more than one setting. So with all of the prepositions books I offer examples for how to extend the new concept into different settings.

I’m still doing more investigating in this area but I can say, I’m having good results with these books. So are the people who have bought them.

” I am so excited about this book! I have several students who are working on positional concepts and it just takes so many repetitions to learn the concepts. I love that this book is full of repetitions. I am looking forward to more in the future!” ~Buyer

Here is the new “Next To Book”.  This completes the first three prepositional concepts that children with typical language development acquire at the age of 3:  “on” and “under” and “next to”. I’ll be working on the next ones soon.

While I was doing my research, I put together this handy little chart. This will be great as a parent/teacher handout and just to keep for your own reference. I’m giving it to you for FREE, just click here. As a Beautiful Speech Life follower, you are getting it early! I already gave it to my TPT followers, but if you missed it, here it is again. I’ll be putting it in my TPT store later. (It’s also included in The Next To Book)

You might also be interested in The Under Book and The On Book. Coming soon…The In Book.

So take charge of those prepositions and SLP Like a Boss,

 Anne

 P.S. Did you like this post? I’d love it if you’d share it with your friends. Subscribe at the bottom of this so you don’t miss any of the fun.