So this might be an unpopular opinion… but I really don’t use Old Lady Books with kids above preschool (or a preschool language level). You know the books, “There was an old lady who swallowed a” … whatever. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE them. But I don’t think they are great for answering WH questions, sequencing, or retelling. I am going to share with you Three Ways to Use Old Lady Books in Speech with Preschoolers.
In my opinion, they don’t really have a cohesive plot for sequencing or retell and any WH questions are really just memory tasks not language tasks BUT… there are 3 ways that I love to use them with preschoolers.
1. Story Engagment
You know those kids who just. can’t. listen. to. a story? You know the type. They really would benefit from literacy based therapy eventually but how the heck do you build up their story endurance? OLD LADY TO THE RESCUE
These stories are great for this because
- They are highly engaging and the kids love how silly the old lady is
- They are short
- If you need them to be shorter its easy to cut little bits out without losing the “story”
I also up the story engagement by giving my kids a story map/coloring sheet to color while we read. I call it a “hunt” as we read and have them color what the old lady eats as we find it in the story. There are lots of versions of this, you can find my version in my OLD LADY ALL YEAR kit.
2. Sentence Structure/Length
Old lady books are PERFECT for working on MLU expansion and sentence structure because there are so many repetitive phrases.
“She ate (swallowed) a …”
I love to use a sentence strip and really work on that 4 word utterance. I tell you, it is magic.
You can find this old lady all year flip books with sentence strip visuals for all TWENTY old lady books HERE
3. Seasonal/Thematic Vocabulary
Old Lady Books are also a great way to work on seasonal and thematic vocabulary in context. There are literally stories for almost every season, holiday, and theme you can think of. PLUS, something about feeding an “old lady” (read: laminated piece of paper glued on a shoe box/paper bag/etc) is the best thing ever! My Old Lady for a Year Bundle includes an adorable little old lady for feeding and printable pieces to feed her, but if you have the real thing (or toys!) that’s even better!
I absolutely adore using these books with my lower level preschoolers. Are you doing teletherapy and wondering how this might work for you? Don’t you worry! My Old Lady All Year Kit includes a boom card version of ALL of these things to make distance speeching (or teaching) a snap!
You can find all of the Old Lady Books in one easy list for purchase HERE
I hope you find these three ways to use old lady books with preschoolers in speech helpful! Let me know if you have any questions!
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