My daughter bought a “Wreck this Journal” several months ago at a book store. I really did not know much about them. Then, she asked for another one for Christmas. So, I started looking at them. Man!!! How cool would these be to use in speech therapy?! Yes, even as a mother, I look at EVERYTHING from an SLP viewpoint. “How can I use this in therapy?” crosses my mind probably 10x a day (and that is on the low side). And OF COURSE, I bought her more than one!
Back to the journal…these things are so cool! If you are not familiar with them, they work like this: each page tells you something to do with the journal or that page. For instance, the page pictured below, asks the child to fill the page with circles they find. As you can see, my daughter found a bottle cap, a button, a coin and a sticker from Target.
Here’s Why I Love Them for Speech Therapy
I think these would be fun for speech therapy, especially for older elementary kids up to middle school. It would be a great conversation starter as well as a fun activity for students to complete. Give each student a page or complete the page together in the group-either way it will be beneficial.
- Descriptions: Several of the pages includes describing words such as “Place Sticky Things Here.”
- Being Observed in the Environment (which can lead to conversation!!) since there is a page that asks you to document time in a new environment
- Categories: Write down all the street names in your immediate vicinity.
- Asking Questions/Making a Request: Get this page stamped by someone.
These are just a few ways you could use these books in speech therapy. There are several books to choose from. Your book may not have the same prompts as the one I used here. Spontaneous conversation is a major added bonus that comes with completing the tasks in these books.
