"Bring It Around Town:" Driving Speech & Language Skills Home
Courtney Goodridge
ID-2031
School Name:Osceola Elementary
Grant Request Grade:K-5
Grant Request Subject:Special Needs Students
Additional Details
“I’m ready! I’m ready! I’m ready!” My students are as ready as SpongeBob SquarePants to increase their speech, language, literacy, and social skills. Many students can demonstrate a skill during structured speech-language therapy, but have difficulty applying it independently in the classroom, at home, or within the community. "'Bring It Around Town:' Driving Speech & Language Skills Home" will support a town-themed, community-focused framework where students can practice skills through meaningful, functional, and academically relevant experiences that mirror life beyond the therapy room. Throughout the school year, approximately 35 kindergarten - 5th grade students will make "stops around town" to generalize skills in articulation, comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, describing, sequencing, storytelling, inferencing, problem-solving, social communication, and literacy. The project supports the school district's priority of student access to enriching learning, self-sufficiency, and high achievement.
Each month of the school year, students will get to "visit" various places - home, beach, school, hospital, grocery store, restaurant, bank, post office, library, park, fire station, police station, train station, airport, mall, theatre, zoo, farm, museum, and stadium. Students will use developmentally appropriate materials - such as pretend money, menus, mail, grocery items, and medical devices, as well as storytelling cards, problem-solving tasks, and literary prompts - to develop their speech and language skills. This project addresses multiple areas of need based on students’ individualized communication goals outlined in their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs): intelligibility, morphology, syntax, answering "WH" questions (i.e., who, what, where, when, why), and retelling stories. Strategies will include explicit instruction, modeling, guided practice, repetition, visual supports, hands-on learning, role-play, structured conversations, and collaborative problem-solving.
Students can:
- Read a menu at a restaurant and place an order while practicing their articulation skills.
- Answer “WH” questions about professions or vehicles around town.
- Sequence and tell the steps involved in visiting a library.
- Compare and contrast animals at the zoo.
- Identify the main idea and supporting details after listening to a description of a movie or play at the theatre.
- Make predictions based on scenarios at a beach or park.
- Solve a problem involving a missed train or flight.
Moreover, the project directly supports classroom instruction by providing students with opportunities to strengthen academic language skills.
For example, students will likely be better equipped to generalize their skills across:
- Reading (schedules, signs, menus, and short informational texts)
- Writing (letters, shopping lists, and explanations)
- Math (money, prices, quantities, time, schedules, and comparisons)
- Social Studies (community roles and civic participation)
- Interpersonal Relationships (perspective-taking, problem-solving, and self-advocacy)
This approach allows students to see that the skills they practice in speech-language therapy are not isolated - they are skills they need to communicate, lead, and succeed in the world.
Students will demonstrate improved ability to learn and apply speech-language skills featured in their IEPs, such as:
- Articulate the “l” and “r” sounds at the conversational level.
- Answer and ask “WH” questions.
- Formulate increasingly complex sentences.
- Make predictions and explain reasoning.
- Sequence events and communicate organized timelines.
The project's success can be measured through a combination of speech-language data, student work, observations, and input from the entire team.
Evidence may include:
- Progress toward IEP speech-language goals
- Speech or language samples
- Student work samples
- Speech-language pathologist and teacher observations
- Caregiver input
- Student self-reflections
- Quality and quantity of student participation
Ultimately, student success will be demonstrated by measurable improvement in their ability to use targeted skills with greater accuracy, independence, and generalization.
"'Bring It Around Town:' Driving Speech & Language Skills Home" aims to link communication skill development with real-life application. The grant funds will provide approximately 35 kindergarten - 5th grade students receiving speech-language services with high-quality, long-lasting, town-themed materials that will engage them in functional, meaningful, and engaging therapy activities targeting a variety of speech and language concepts. Through an organized roadmap, mission-driven locations, and effective learning aids, students will increase their ability to be active and confident members of their community.
Requested resources include:
- Academic speech and language resources
- Practical literacy materials
- Interactive educational games and activities
- Pretend play items and manipulatives
The tools will be reused across small-group therapy sessions for the entire school year and subsequent years, ensuring a sustained impact on students and maximizing the value of the funding.
The ultimate goal is: Learn it. Practice it. "Now, it's time to bring it around town."
630.76
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