How I Use Sentence Strips in Speech Therapy
Sentence strips. I think we have all used them at some point, right? They are now a therapy staple for me. They are so versatile and lend themselves to a ton of speech therapy activities! I don’t think there is a day that goes by when I do not use them. So, I want to tell you the top 3 ways I use sentence strips in my speech therapy sessions. I hope you get some new ideas!
Introduce New Vocabulary
Sentence strips are great because you can visually show a child a variety of vocabulary words. You can show them various nouns, verbs, adjectives, and even adverbs. For example, you want to represent the word “slowly” with an action? Make a sentence strip with a picture of the action (e.g. walking) followed by a picture of a turtle to represent the concept “slowly.”
Increase MLU
This is a no brainer. I use sentence strips to help increase MLU. Having that visual really helps my little ones use not only more words in their phrases, but also leads to an increase in the variety of the types of words they use in their phrases (see above about vocabulary). When using sentence strips you can even have visuals to represent articles (the, a) and morphemes (-s, -ing). Maybe it is just the graphemes as your visual. That’s ok! Having it laid out there for the child to see will help them mark those morphological endings in their expressive language.
Speech Therapy Materials for Articulation Activities | Articulation Carrier Phrases
Articulation Carrier Phrases
This is my absolute favorite way to use sentence strips! I use them when I want to increase the complexity of the articulation task just a little, but my client needs more support to actually remember the phrase or sentence I want them to use.
You see, I often work with 3-4 year olds, and they don't always have the greatest attention spans and they can’t read! By the time they tell me about the acorn they found, the time daddy said the %^&* word, and what the potty at Target looks like, they have completely forgotten what phrase I wanted them to say with their target sound. I can’t show them one big picture to represent “I found a _____” because they don’t remember to use all the words in the phrase.
So, sentence strips allow me to simply point to the individual pictures to help the child recall the phrase exactly without having to hear it modeled directly from me, the SLP! Removing that direct model is key to increasing complexity. The strips also reduce the cognitive load of having to remember the carrier phrase and allowed the child to really focus on making the correct speech sound. Double win!
Different Types of Sentence Strips
There are a few different types of sentence strips. There are ones with stock carrier phrases like “I want ___” or “I see_____.” These are great for certain tasks, for sure.
However, I want you to consider MY favorite type of sentence strips. Check them out HERE! These are strips that are already loaded with a specific articulation sound. So for example, you have CH sound strips like “Choose the ____” or “_____ in the chest.”
Why do I love these? Because they can do double, even triple duty. You can use them with you students to work on vocabulary, increasing MLU, and for articulation practice! They are great for mixed groups because the child working on language can use the SAME strip as the child working on articulation.
Speech Therapy Materials Articulation Carrier Phrases
Furthermore, I know you can use “I like ____” and insert CH word here. But why not include the CH word in the phrase to begin with? Then you are exposing the child to new vocabulary as well as keeping things interesting by not using the same old, boring phrases.
You can also REALLY increase the complexity by having the CH in the carrier phrase AND in the fill-in-the-blank spot (e.g. “Choose the cherry”).
There is so much flexibility with these types of strips and that’s why they are always in my therapy bag.
In Conclusion…
So that’s it. The top 3 ways I use sentence strips in my speech therapy room. Do you use sentence strips? If so, drop some ideas for use in the comments below! I love to hear from you!
