How can we used Christmas stories to work on a child’s skills?
1. Improve vocabulary by teaching meanings of unfamiliar words first, review, then read the story and talk about the words.
2. Answer comprehension questions (consider asking: who, what, where, when, why questions, or yes/no questions depending on your child’s level and what they work on in speech)
3. Sequence the story (what came first, what was next, after that, what happened last?). Give some choices or have them place pictures from the story in order for example.
4. Make predications. (Do you think he will find it? What do you think is inside? Etc)
5. Assume feelings of characters and come up with solutions for when the character may have a negative emotion (how do you think they feel? If the character might be sad, see if the child could come up with ways the character could solve a problem and no longer be sad)
6. Use sensory/touch and feel books for your child with sensory needs.
7. Have your child work on book orientation (holding it right side up, flipping pages one at a time and only forwards not backwards, showing understanding of a “word” verses a “picture,” the cover, etc).
8. Have your child work on sitting and attending to a book until it’s finished. Consider shorter books and interactive books for this skill if it’s challenging for your child! Give high fives, praise and allow them to sit in a space that allows some movement or fidgeting (like in a rocking chair or on a cushion/pillow they can wiggle on) throughout the story for remaining seated and attentive.
9. Rhyming in books! Work on ending sounds if your child deletes and omits the last sounds in words. Also, rhyming improves comprehension skills.
10. Opposites in books to improve comprehension and vocabulary skills. If the book mentioned “cold” ask for the opposite to have them think of “hot.”
11. Have child imitate/repeat sentences and statements from story. (For improved recall and memory)
12. Seek and find items/pictures on the pages, or act out actions mentioned in the story along the way.
“Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
(Higher level story).
Potential Vocabulary words:
You don’t have that story? That’s okay! Just look up “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas read aloud” online.
“I’m the Grinch.”
Potential Vocabulary words:
Don’t have the story? That’s okay. Check out an online read aloud. Like this one here
Other stories to consider:
“Polar Express”
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas”
“The Cool Bean: As Cool As It Gets” (great for building understanding of some different more complex feelings and emotions, such as being nervous), found here
Emily Gantt Cantrell, M.Ed, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist