Book Review: Helping Children to Improve their Communication Skills

I spotted this book at my local library and decided to check it out. The author, Deborah M. Plummer, shares various games designed to target communication skills - such as vocabulary, pragmatics, etc. Each game describes intended targets and ideas for modifications. The games are suggested for children ages 5-12. I was hoping to get some great ideas to share with parents and use in my own therapy room. I work in a setting where I see kids 1:1, so there wasn't much I could use in my therapy room. But, if you work with kids in larger group settings or in a classroom setting, there are tons of great ideas in here! I found myself wishing I had this book when I first started doing push in therapy during my years in the schools! 

The book says that it is for parents as well as teachers and parents, but I felt that it may have been written in a little too technical of language to simply hand it off to parents without some further explanation. 

The book starts with background on development, how speech and language skills impact other areas of development. It explains how we can be effective game facilitators and gives ideas for effective praise (I loved these ideas!). I also loved that it gave a series of questions for you, as a facilitator, to reflect on so that you can identify areas for improvement. The author also gives tips to improve child participation. I love that she uses the SCAMPER acronym (developed by Bob Eberle) to give facilitators a guideline for altering games to accommodate students or to build on skills learned. 

The next portion of the book explains various games that can be played with groups of kids. Each game has directions to help you explain it to the children, possible targets, modifications that could be made, and follow up questions/activities for the children. The games are broken into various categories: Beyond the Beanbag, Big Space Activities & Games, Being Creative with Paper and Pencil Activities, Role Play Storytelling and Guided Imagery, Conversation Games, Thinking Skills Activities, Construction Games, Parachute Games, Music and Movement Activities. If you are familiar with Tera Sumpter's Seeds of Learning, some of the ideas in the Role Play, Storytelling, and Guided Imagery section and the Thinking Skills Activities Section could be incorporated into therapy following her guidelines/principles for treating the underlying causes of deficit. 

If you've been around here long, you know that I am a big proponent of outdoor time. I loved that this book encouraged outdoor play and gave specific activities to do outside. I also loved that so many of the activities were geared towards movement. There are a few worksheets included in the book, but the author encourages play based activities. 

My only complaint was honestly just about formatting! I wish the games were listed one per page so that you could easily copy them to give to teachers/parents or to refer to when facilitating in the classroom. I would've also liked a little more room to write ideas and comments related to each activity. 

You can purchase it here if you are interested.