What’s the EBP on WLPBs for SLT? Say that 5 times fast! I am a big fan of Wordless Picture Books (WLPBs) and there is a ton of Evidence Based Practice (EBP) on the benefits of using WLPBs in Speech-Language Therapy (SLT).
Read along as I summarize and share 5 EBP studies for WLPBs and how to use the EBP in SLT.
1st EBP on WLPBs for SLT and how to use this EBP in SLT:
Knudsen-Lindauer (1988) suggested that wordless picture books offer numerous pedagogical benefits for emerging readers, including the development of pre-reading skills, sequential thinking, a sense of story, visual discrimination, and inferential thinking. (Lindauer, 1988)
How we can use this EBP in SLT:
- Book handling, title identifying, and illustrator name identifying. These are important pre-reading skills that can easily be addressed when simply picking up and starting a WLPB.
- Sequential Thinking can be used while reading WLPBs with questions like, “what do you think is going to happen next?” (this is also inferential thinking). When you are done reading the WLPB, sequence the story while using transition words like: first, next, then, last. You can use simple drawings to help retell the story.
- Visual discrimination is important when comparing and contrasting one page’s illustrations to the next. Scanning for details is a crucial cognitive strategy.
2nd EBP on WLPBs for SLT and how to use this EBP in SLT:
Arizpe (2014) outlined the demands that wordless picture books place on readers. In order to make meaning in transaction with these visual narratives, Arizpe suggested five things that readers of wordless picture books must learn to do:
- Give voice to the visual narrative by participating in the story sequence
- Interpret characters’ thoughts, feelings, and emotions without textual support for confirming these ideas
- Tolerate ambiguity and accept that not everything may be answered or understood
- Recognize that there are a range of reading paths to explore through the visual narrative
- Elaborate on hypotheses about what is happening in the narrative sequence
How we can use this EBP in SLT:
- Sequencing through different perspectives. This will target first person, second person, narrative language, etc. What a great way to indirectly target pronouns and perspective taking.
- Perspective Taking. Reading facial cues, body language, what you know so far about the character, the setting, your past experiences, etc. all plays into perspective taking.
- With WLPBs, we can only infer what the author is trying to say. This also targets different perspectives and ideas by accepting ambiguity. This also allows you to discuss that there may be different paths through different perspectives.
- Inference and elaborating on the sequence is a fantastic way to discuss the clues like the setting, the characters, etc. and what might happen next!
3rd EBP on WLPBs for SLT and how to use this EBP in SLT:
When students read picture books with adults and peers, they are provided with the opportunity to acquire vocabulary and build oral language through storytelling. Wordless picture books have been found to be an exceptional way to accomplish these skills. (Jalongo, et. al., 002)
How we can use this EBP in SLT:
- Peer models and therapist models to build vocabulary.
- Expand one vocabulary your students use with richer nouns and adjectives.
- Using reading skills vocabulary to model: “I am going to make an inference that this is going to happen next!” or “The illustrator drew the wind in the sky so maybe a storm is coming?”
4th EBP on WLPBs for SLT and how to use this EBP in SLT:
Narrative Language! Empirical findings showing a robust association between early narrative skill and later academic skills (Reese et al., 2010).
Focused practice, supported by modeling and corrective feedback, will enhance the children’s ability to use the skills spontaneously in non training environments. With respect to narratives, this means that children must have ample opportunities to tell or retell stories. Listening to stories may improve comprehension of stories and have marginal impacts on narrative expression, but to hasten children’s ability to tell/retell stories, they must practice it. More practice is better.
To avoid promoting the memorization of specific stories, several examples (i.e., different stories with the same story grammar components) should be used as models in consecutive intervention sessions. (Spencer, et.al., 2020)
Story generation procedures are often associated with limited linguistic output from young children (McCabe & Rollins, 1994), whereas story retelling supports young children in providing richer and more robust narratives (Merritt & Liles, 1989).
How we can use this EBP in SLT:
Spencer and Peterson go on to describe principle-driven narrative intervention guidelines:
1. Build story structure before vocabulary and complex language
- Again, talk about the sequence of the story to build your framework
2. Use multiple examples to promote metalinguistics and generalization
- Inferencing, ambiguity, predicting, etc.
3. Promote active participation
- Take turns “reading” each page
4. Contextualize, unpack, and reconstruct stories
- Retell with visuals for sequencing, make connections
5. Use visuals to make abstract concepts concrete
- Figurative language can also be taught with WLPB
6. Deliver immediate corrective feedback
- We know all about this!
7. Use efficient and effective prompts
- Use sentence stems, “First ___”, “Then ___”, etc.
8. Differentiate, individualize, and extend
- Compare and contrast point of views of different characters, pages, settings, etc.
9. Arrange for generalization opportunities
- Make connections with real life or pat events
10. Make it fun
- Use manipulatives, visuals, act it out!
5th EBP on WLPBs for SLT and how to use this EBP in SLT:
Evaluations! One study reported correlations of .77 and .61 between a measure of 5 to 6-year-old children’s narrative complexity and measures of receptive vocabulary and reading comprehension, respectively, 3 years later (Pankratz et al., 2007) Meaning narrative skills are a good predictor of comprehension language skills.
How we can use this EBP in SLT:
Evaluating how your student narrates a WLPB would be a great piece to add to your dynamic assessment. Quickly assess their:
- Pre-reading skills
- Sequencing skills
- Predicting skills
- Perspective taking skills
- Grammar
- Vocabulary
Here is a link to a post on my 5 favorite WLPBs to use for evalulations.
So now we know the EBP on WLPBs for SLT. (🤣 Gets me everytime!) But which WLPBs do we use? I’m including affiliate links below (affiliate links give authors a small kick-back but cost you nothing. Thanks for supporting this work!) Here are some of my favorites:
Flotsam by David Wiesmer | “A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam–anything floating that has been washed ashore. But there’s no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share . . . and to keep.” | Recommended for ages 4+ years |
Goodnight, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann | “It’s bedtime at the zoo, and all the animals are going to sleep. Or are they? Who’s that short, furry guy with the key in his hand and the mischievous grin?” | Recommended for children 1+ years |
Unspoken by Henry Cole | “A young girl’s courage is tested in this haunting, wordless story.” | Recommended for ages 3+ years |
Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell | Winner of the 2018 Caldecott Medal“A girl is lost in a snowstorm. A wolf cub is lost, too. How will they find their way home? Paintings rich with feeling tell this satisfying story of friendship and trust.” | Recommended for ages 2+ years |
Flashlight by Lizi Boyd | “Both lyrical and humorous, this visual poem—like the flashlight beam itself—reveals there is magic in the darkness. We just have to look for it.” | Recommended for ages 2+ years |
A Boy, A Dog, and A Frog by Mercer Meyer | A boy and his dog go walking in the swamp.They spot a frog in the water.Can they use a net to catch him? | Recommended for ages 2+ years |
Linked are some more websites with extensive lists of WLPBs.
- Reading Rockets Favorite WLPBs
- We are Teachers favorite WLPBs for the classroom. Great for pull-in!
- Happily Ever Elephants list with tips on how to read WLPBs and great description a huge list of books.
- And my favorite list yet! Speech and Language at Home wrote a blog on how to use WLPBs in therapy AND has several lists organized by categories like: toddlers, adventure, older readers, and special interests. It looks like you can sign up to get her list emailed to you, too. Nice!
Leave a comment below to tell how you use WLPB for SLT! Was any of the EBP surprising to you? TTFN! TTYL! 🤣 Ok, that’s enough of that.
Sources:
Lindauer, S.L.K. Wordless books: An approach to visual literacy. Child Lit Educ 19, 136–142 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01127091 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01127091
Arizpe , E. ( 2014 ). Wordless picturebooks: critical and educational perspectives on meaning making . In B. Kümmerling-Meibauer (Ed.), Picturebooks: Representation and narration (pp. 91 – 106 ). New York, NY : Routledge .
Trina D. Spencer, Douglas B. Petersen (2020)
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools doi:10.1044/2020_LSHSS-20-00015 https://pubs.asha.org/doi/abs/10.1044/2020_LSHSS-20-00015 Trina D. Spencer, Douglas B. Petersen (2020). Narrative Intervention: Principles to Practice
Jalongo, Mary & Dragich, Denise & Conrad, Natalie & Zhang, Ann. (2002). Using Wordless Picture Books to Support Emergent Literacy. Early Childhood Education Journal. 29. 167-177. 10.1023/A:1014584509011.
McCabe, A., & Rollins, P. (1994).Assessment of preschool narrative skills.American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 3(1), 45–56.https://doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360.0301.45
Pankratz, M. E., Plante, E., Vance, R., & Insalaco, D. M. (2007).The diagnostic and predictive validity of the Renfrew bus story.Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 38(4), 390–399.https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2007/040)
Hudson, J. A., & Shapiro, L. R. (1991).From knowing to telling: The development of children’s scripts, stories, and personal narratives. InMcCabeA. & PetersonC. (Eds.), Developing narrative structure (pp. 89–136). Erlbaum.
Reese, E., Suggate, S., Long, J., & Schaughency, E. (2010).Children’s oral narrative and reading skills in the first 3 years of reading instruction.Reading and Writing, 23(6), 627–644.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-009-9175-9
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