Often teachers and parents have concerns about the listening and comprehension skills of their students. There are many reasons why a student may have difficulties with these skills. It can be the physical conditions of the teaching environment, health issues of the child, lack of experiences or cultural differences to name a few.
An ASHA (American Speech and Hearing Association) certified speech and language pathologist should be consulted, if you have concerns about a student’s language development. These are professionals who can conduct an assessment and make recommendations based on that assessment. If necessary, a program can be developed to address individual needs. I can not guarantee student progress from the materials on my blog without that professional direction.
The activities on this page were originally created for students who had difficulties with expressive and/or receptive language skills and had goals to address them. You may feel free to use any of the materials and activities on this page for students on your caseload, in your classrooms, or your individual child. They are not meant to be copied for commercial purposes or moved to another site. I encourage you to refer or link back to this site.
Answering Questions
- Why questions : Cards used to practice answering why questions, make inferences, and elicit sentences with “because”.
- When questions: Cards used to practice answering when questions. They can be used to elicit complex sentences using temporal words.
- Who questions: Cards used to practice answering who questions, introduce occupation vocabulary, and elicit adverbial phrases such as ( ________ is a person who___)
- What questions: Cards used to practice answering what questions and descriptive information.
- How questions: Cards used to answer how questions. A student can also get practice using because and or in sentences, looking at more than one perspective, and making comparisons.
- How and Why question comparison. Students answer questions after reading a short paragraph. These cards are great for those students who get confused answering “How” and “Why” questions.
- There are nine sample cards for you to try out here. You can purchase the complete set at Teachers Pay Teachers. Click on the cover for a direct link.
- Answering How Questions: You can try nine sample card here
- You can purchase the complete set at Teachers Pay Teachers. Click on the cover below for a direct link.
Comprehension of Complex Sentences
- Comprehension of Complex Sentences: 9 cards, Text only, to practice comprehension of connecting words such as instead of, either/or, neither/nor, until, while, except, and position.
- Comprehension of complex sentences includes pictures and a double sided feature. This is a sample set of 9 cards, with pictures to give you an idea of what the full set on Teachers Pay Teachers is like. Click here
- You can purchase the complete sets at Teachers Pay Teachers. Click on the cover for a direct link. EASEL activities are also included with these sets. Students to interact with prepared activities digitally.
Sentence Reversals
- Antonym Sentences: Text only. Read the sentences to the student and see if they can form a sentence that means the opposite.
- Antonym Reversal Sentences: A version that is double sided so that it provides a front and a back with sentences using antonym pairs so that the cards become self checking. Click here for a free sample. Click on the cover for a direct link to the full set on Teachers Pay Teachers.
- Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions: 4 stories that are somewhat vague so a student will need to draw conclusions from the clues. The stories also contain vocabulary prominent in 3rd and 4th grade curriculum.
- Listening activities online: A site that has interactive activities that require listening for details or directions.
Tips to Share with Teachers
Great list of tips for teachers on this site. “How to get Students to Follow Directions:”