Better late than never, right? In the month of April we have been talking all about the core word “help” in speech with my early communicators! Curious how we did it? Keep reading for information all about how to target the core word HELP in speech.
The logistics
By now if you’re been following along with the series of core word posts you know a little bit about how I structure these sessions.
If you aren’t caught up you can check out the posts about the core words MORE, STOP, and IN for information all about my circle time set up, AAC integration, etc. Want more information
JUST about the circle time logistics? Let me know I would be happy to do a post about just that!
The Songs
For the core word “help” there are four songs that I found that are PERFECT (and one per week of the month, even more perfect, right?)
I modeled with my giant core board while we sang (learn how to make your own HERE)
The Books
The interactive story “I Can Help” is part of my Core Word Kit for Help, and we read it on LOOP this month. We tried using the Boom deck on the SmartBoard this month too (with varying success), but it is worth a try!
This was a great time to model the word help, continue to model with the core board or other AAC device, and work on task completion and simple following directions.
The Toys
Next, we pulled out the toys and activities. There are SO MANY great activities for this core word. Really anything that students might find they need help with is great. Here are some of the things I stocked in my caddy this month.
- Bubbles: most of my kids cannot blow bubbles on their own and need an adult to blow for them
- Play Doh: those play doh cups are TRICKY to open
- Wind Up Toys: in my experience about 75% of my students wind them backwards and need help, which is fine by me
- Stickers: most of my students need help getting them off the sheet, and peeling stickers and putting them on paper can be endlessly entertaining for a lot of my friends
- Critter Clinic: again, opening those doors is tricky and a lot of HELP is needed sometimes
- Ball Poppers: another one that most students can’t work on their own and need a lot of HELP with
- Food: In a difficult to open container
Those toys have gotten me through the month so far, and most of them are cheap, small, and easy to use to push into classrooms!
As always, we finish up using a bingo dotter to select our core word as a form of comprehension and wrap up, I write a note to their parents quick to let them know what we practiced, and that’s it! And targeted core word lesson with some structure to help you keep your sanity!
