Categories, Describing, & More: The Why’s and How’s in Speech Therapy
Why do we work on categories in speech therapy? Describing? Attributes?
How do we target categories and describing in speech therapy?
What are some good measurable goals to track progress?
I’m glad you asked!
Why We Work on Categories in Speech Therapy
There are two ways to describe how we learn vocabulary, or semantics. Fast mapping is when we hear a word paired with an object and then we know what that object is called. We don’t understand all the nuances, but we’ve been exposed to the word/object pair and generally understand it. Slow mapping happens over time, with repeated exposures. It refers to the depth of knowledge we have about the object. Slow mapping is great because the more we know about an object, the more our brain can make connections and associations between words, making it even easier to retrieve words efficiently.
Our kids with language impairments struggle to learn new words, but they also struggle to learn deeply about the words they know. They need intervention to make deeper connections with words to help them maximize their word retrieval.
One way to look at a child’s semantic knowledge is to check out their verbal defining skills. Even preschoolers can define words with function, physical, locative, and categorical properties of objects.
Categories of objects give us so much information! Most items from the same category will share other attributes, like physical attributes, movements, and functions. If our students can just remember categories, it will open up a lot of information and semantic knowledge!
But again, the research shows that our language impaired students are less accurate using categorization cues. It’s our job to help make up the difference!
How: Early Describing and Categorization
For my youngest students working on categories and describing in speech therapy, I created my Early Describing and Categorizing Packet. This HUGE, comprehensive packet was designed to really break down each concept and give lots of visual support to teach several different semantic mapping features.
The packet includes several different visuals to help your students really internalize each concept: categories, functions, size, color, location, and parts. There are lots of worksheets for practice and 110 icon sized cards, perfect for describing AND cut & glue activities.
Categories
You can use my categorizing packet to work on convergent naming (naming the category a group of items belongs to) and divergent naming (naming items that fall within a given category).
After introducing the concept with the visuals, I move on to sorting mini object cards into their categories. Sorting, sorting, sorting! If you want the task more difficult, increase the number of category options for sorting. There is also a sentence strip at the bottom to help your students verbalize the name of the category in a complete sentence!
One thing I should note is that the way you use this packet is flexible! You can print, laminate, and Velcro the pages and reuse the icon cards. OR, you can use these activities as “cut and glue” activities. The option is yours! Because I’ve been swamped lately, I’ve been doing mostly cut and glue type activities but hope to laminate and Velcro some sections when I have a chance!
Once your students can do the previous 2 activities for categories, I would recommend moving onto the worksheet section. These worksheets all include icons to glue in the boxes on the right side so you can always make these activities receptive!
Colors
Next up after identifying the category is identifying the color. Many of my kiddos halt after learning the category and have trouble understanding that an item can be described using a huge variety of words. That’s why I like to introduce describing the color second. It’s easy to understand, but solidifies the concept of describing these items in many ways.
Size
From my experience, teaching our students to label the size of items shown in picture can be tricky! I think this is often because objects look the same size in pictures. Think of two pictures, one of an elephant and one of a frog. The elephant and frog are probably similarly sized in the pictures, and we all use our world knowledge and experience to remember that elephants are, in fact, much larger than frogs. Because of this tricky topic, I attempted to include a wider variety of worksheets and visuals in this section.
Putting It All Together
Three mini books that take you through each topic (location, size, color, category, parts) to reinforce the idea of describing items in multiple ways. Then I go through the extra worksheets to really reinforce all of the concepts.
In my early therapy sessions, I will use the product to drill the concepts. I want to make sure my students know what I mean when I ask them what category something is in! So we’ll practice with the mini cards. I find that a lot of my students can’t name a lot of categories, so the icons give them lots of ideas.
Once my students have the concept down, I like to make it more functional! We might do a scavenger hunt and describe the categories of the items we find, or do a craft and describe the category of the things we use or make.
Some of my teachers like to focus on feature, function, class goals and this product is perfect for that as well!
Data: My Goals and Data Tracking for Describing and Categorization
I have lots of great goals I’ve used over the years in my goal bank. Here are my favorites for working on describing:
- Given a visual, NAME will describe a familiar object by its category in 4 out of 5 opportunities.
- Given a sentence starter, NAME will describe an object by its category and 1 or more additional features in 4 out of 5 opportunities.
(My favorite describing sentence starter is “A _____ is a _______ that _______ and _________”)
- Given a familiar visual, NAME will describe pictures by category and two or more key attributes in 75% of opportunities.
- NAME will describe a pictured object in 3 or more ways in 8/10 opportunities given a familiar visual.
I find that writing a good, measurable goal is the best way to set yourself up with easy data tracking! These goals are all easily tracked with a simple +/-, with a description of any prompts needed to get there.
Below is a picture of the product “in action” with my EET:
I love, love, love using this packet with my EET cards. It is perfect for those kiddos who need a little more visual supports than the EET provides.
Wanna check this product out? Take a look at my Early Describing and Categories Packet in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!!
For More Information
McGregor, K., Friedman, R., Reilly, R., & Newman, R. (2002). Semantic representation and naming in young children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2002/026)
Brackenbury, T. & Pye, C. (2005). Semantic deficits in children with language impairments. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2005/002)
Have any questions? As always, feel free to email me at speechymusings@gmail.com anytime!
{thanks for reading}
This is fantastic!! I have just started using EET with all my students. Great resource!
This looks amazing!!! Would love a copy of this!
Wow I absolutely love this! Such a good idea. I’ve made my own small versions but this is amazing, good job!
Wow this would be perfect for my little guys who would benefit from the visuals!!!
This is amazing! I use EET all.the.time.
Wow this looks like such a great resource for my elementary language students…you always do such wonderful work! I have several of your products and have found them all VERY useful!
I use the EET with all my language delayed students! Having these extra materials targeting the EET would be amazing. Thanks so much for the opportunity to win this packet!! Katy in Phoenix
This looks wonderful! I just got my own copy of the EET kit, so this would be a wonderful addition to it!
Looks great! I’m always looking for materials like this for my younger kiddos!
This is fabulous! Perfect for my kids on the spectrum! Love the visuals!!!
Pick me! I’m a broke graduate student doing my school extern placement!!! This would be extremely helpful to me and very beneficial to my kids who do best with visuals!
This looks amazing and I would love to use this with my students. Thank you for all the great products you make available to us on TpT!
This looks wonderful. Your products are worth more than we pay for them!
I would LOVE to win this packet of great resources! I was just researching the EET program and kit over the weekend! Your packet of materials are impressive – how wonderful! This would be great for many of my clients.
I love the EET. I am a first year SLP and I work with children with severe autism. This would be perfect for them! I have spent so much time making materials already this year, this would be amazing!
This looks awesome! I just got the EET and am so excited to start using it!
I love the EET and would love some extra visuals for my little ones! This would make such a great tool to add to my material! So cool!
I would love to win this! The EET is at the top of my wish list!
This looks great! I LOVE all of the clear and concise visuals which would benefit all of my students on my caseload.
This looks great! I wish I was this creative! Sure to be a hit with language students everywhere!
This is amazing! Thanks for the chance to win!
Very comprehensive! Thanks for putting this together!
I’ve had my eye on this and am just starting with the EET this year! It would be a great item to win!
I haven’t bought the EET yet, but it’s at the top of my wish list. This packet would be wonderful in helping me get started.
Always looking for new ways to teach describing. This packet looks great!
Love it!! This would be PERFECT for my elementary kiddos.
This looks wonderful! Such a great resource!
Great packet!
Looks amazing! I’ve been trying to figure out a good way to use this more efficiently with my littles. Might have to treat myself to an early bday present! Awesome work!
This looks incredible! Thank you for taking the time to create this and then share it.
I am a big fan of EET. Your materials provide great visual support and practice!
This is great! Thanks for putting this together. I would love to use this for my students who struggle in this area. I hear ya, start of CF is insane!
This is awesome! Just what I need to use with my Pre-K kids.
This looks amazing!!!
Wow. I am always working on these skills. This is fantastic.
Wow!!! What an awesome resource this is, especially as a companion to the EET! We are just starting to use the EET in our district, and a copy of this packet would really help our program grow!! Thanks 🙂
Looks great!!! This would be a great tool for the kiddos I work with!!
Love this! It’s on my wish list, but I’d love to earn it through this giveaway!
I’ve had my eye on this! It would be awesome for my preschoolers and minders!
Kinders* oops!
This is heaven, right? Because…well…awesome stuff!!!
So comprehensive, I can’t stand it! What a great resource for all my little ones. Excellent work….crossing my fingers that I am picked! 🙂
THIS IS AMAZING! Seriously! I love EET, I use it with my artic and fluency kiddos too! (those working at the sentence level) I definitely think this could be the ultimate “go-to” therapy item for me! You rock!
I am starting my CF this month and can totally relate to what you’re saying! I am working with mostly Pre-K students and my school’s materials are seriously outdated and not functional for the goals I am addressing. Your materials have always been so colorful and professional while still being simple enough for the kids and I to easily use. Would really appreciate adding this to my little bag of tricks!
This looks fantastic! You put in a lot of work–looks like a great resource!
This packet would be so helpful to have as a resource and addition to my EET kit- we as SLPs are so busy and have little time to plan and prep, this would be perfect to laminate and re-use year after year!
This packet is sooo comprehensive and wonderful for preschoolers -systematic! The visuals are detailed and easy to comprehend! Love this!
This is a great resource! It would be great to use with our school’s newly purchased EET. Thanks for taking the time to create these materials!
What a wonderful resource! I love how it systematically organizes activities and visuals to use with students in teaching how to describe using various attributes. Vocabulary development is an integral part of keeping our students engaged in the curriculum. This packet hits the nail on the head for targeting early language development!
Wow! What an amazing resource! I just got the EET this year and can’t wait to use it. This packet would be so helpful to go along with it!!
Another (broke!) CF here and I would love this packet! It targets so many different skills in one fun activity!
Wow, this looks incredible! I’m beyond excited–I just convinced my special ed director to purchase the EET and I can’t wait for it to arrive so that I can implement it!! Your packet would be a tremendous resource to accompany it 😀
What a great resource! Describing is such an important skill and I love the EET. But, I agree that it’s hard for some of the really low kids to get the concepts. This packet makes things very concrete and simple! Wonderful!
What an amazing resource! I am in my CF as well and would love something like this 🙂
Wow!!! Love it, so comprehensive!
WOW! I was just commenting to an old college friend that I needed something great to help expand my students’ expressive vocabularies! This is an amazing packet! Love the colors and the effort you put in!
Wow. You put a lot of work into that. It looks awesome. I love materials that can be paired with EET.
I would love this!! I just started in a new district with much fewer materials than I’ve been used to!
I have soooo many kids working on these sorts of goals and have found the same thing- some need more visuals than the EET provides! Looks awesome!
What a fantastic resource! I cant imagine how much time and effort went into this project. Fingers crossed! alewis725@msn.com
I’m planning on purchasing EET soon, I would love this resource — especially with my preschoolers and low kiddos.
This would be so wonderful to have as I have SOOOOO many students who need these basic skills. I do not have the EET kit, and not likely to get one, as I live in CA, which is the land of cheap school districts, and they do not fund much for Speech. I do have an awesome principal who can fund some things, but EET is beyond what she can do, so I keep trying to write grants. Enough pity party, this looks so GREAT!
I love the different formats! You never know what is going to click with a particular student.
This looks amazing. I am in my second week of being an SLP for my prek kiddos at our school district. With that being said, I have a lot of shy on that I have no been able to elicit speech from them. Because I am two weeks in, I do not have a lot of material not do I have the flexibility to purchase anything right now.., this would be such a great help for me !!! 🙂 I know the kiddos love these type of interactive books and material!!’ This is deficit key something I would purchase if I was able to!
I love your materials and EET.
How awesome! As a first year graduate student, this would be such a great resource to have under my belt! With little time to create materials, I would be so grateful for such a creative and helpful tool! thank you for sharing!!!
This product is amazing! I have quite a few kiddos working on these skills and it would be a great companion to the EET which I will begin using this year. I love how concrete you’ve made the skills.
This would be perfect for my classroom! My kiddos would benefit from it so much!!
Wow! So incredibly useful for so many of my little “Speech Friends”. Your hard work making these packets is truly a blessing to so many of us…Thank You 🙂
Targeting describing this semseter!
This product looks amazing just like all your rest. Please continue to make products you are truly talented! Your products have helped me with numerous clients while in grad school and give so many great ideas. Thank you and keep up the great work 🙂
I just got the EET kit and this would be a wonderful addition!
This looks great!! So thorough!!
Love this! I have the perfect students in mind.
This looks fantastic!!
Wow! That is a very comprehensive packet! I would love to win that to use with EET!
This product looks amazing! Thank you for offering your work. The format and visual support will be so very helpful to many. Thanks for the opportunity to win this product.
PreK kiddos will love this!! Thank you for the completeness of the packet. WOW!
This kit is excellent – such a great resource to go beyond a simple visual and allow the children to interact with the concepts. 🙂
This packet is WONDERFUL !!! I have several kids that will benefit from this!!! On September 12th pick my name PLEASE!!!! lol Thank-You
This is great! It can be used in so many ways.
I don’t have an EET kit and have shied away from using materials that explicitly reference that color scheme, etc. Your kit does a beautiful job of covering the standard components of a definition in a more generic way. It is adaptable for a wide range of ages. I love it!
This would be very helpful for working with so many of my students! I have found that they have such difficulty describing and comparing/contrasting, and this would really help them to see the similarities and differences between objects!
I have started using EET and I would love some additional resources!!! PICK ME!!!
Never done this before but here I go!! ::) I love this product! First year therapist on the look out for new materials! Thank you!
This looks fantastic! I have just moved to a new caseload and it would be perfect for some of my students! I don’t use EET, but am definitely going to look into it! Thanks!
WOW this looks awesome!! I’m in my CFY and I could definitely use this packet 😉
This looks wonderful and so useful with my pre-k kids!
Wow! This looks great. I could use this with a ton of my students.
As I was reading your post, I was thinking of ways that the materials would support one of my ASD students while working with the EET. You’ve done an awesome job! Thank you for giving us another resource!
I just met a couple new students this week thatbthis set would be oerfect for! I also am interested in the EET……I’m thinking it would be a great thing for some of my kiddos!
This is a fantastic product! Thank for the great giveaway!
This looks perfect to help teach one of my friends with autism to describe! Thanks for your energy and creativity!
This looks like an awesome product. I have been working on these skills with lots of my students and feel that this product might reach some of my lower students who are visual / prompt dependent. I can’t wait to try it out. Thanks for all of your ideas and putting together such a useful product.
This looks wonderful! You always put a lot of hard work into your products and it clearly shows in this newest packet.
Wow this is an amazing product! Always have kids targeting this area.
Looks like a great resource! I can already imagine how well some of my students would respond to this. Thanks for always making such useful products!
This looks so incredible. My students struggle with so many of these skills and using well structured and planned out visual supports are so important for making progress. Fingers crossed for this amazing giveaway!
Love EET and the visuals in this packet. What a great resource!
I love that you can use this in SO many ways, and I’m always looking for something new to use with my EET! Awesome!
I use the EET all the time and this would be a great addition to it!
I work with describing all the time! I feel like 90% of my students would benefit from describing goals and to have visuals to go with it would be amazing!!
I love the EET! This packet you’ve created is so detailed and complete. I have many language impaired students who would benefit from this. I think the visuals you’ve provided are the missing link! I’m thinking of using this with my autism group, too.
I am a brand new SLP grad student and I absolutely love all of your creative therapy materials! I especially love this describing and categorizing packet, the visuals supports are amazing and would be so helpful for many of my young kids and those with autism.
Looks like a great packet to use with my language kiddos and a great addition to my EET kit 🙂
Wow. I’m impressed! This is perfect for some of my students at work! I definitely need to get myself a copy of this!!!
[…] right above is part of a packet I made that works super well with the EET (or without it). Click here if you’re […]
I love using the EET with my students. This would be an amazing resource to have!
This looks amazing!! It would be a great activity for me to use with my students. It would address many of their expressive needs!
This is wonderful. I would love to win this. I have just began using EET and I love it and this would help a lot to be able to teach and generalize it
Can you post pictures or a video of how you set this up. I have a million pieces laminated, and think I over did it. Now I have confused myself. I love the idea of this product, and think once I start using it I will love it, as I love EET! Thank you!