Today I am sharing a resource I love to use in therapy, why I love it, and how it can be used in adult speech therapy!
Do you use The Learning Network in your adult speech therapy sessions? If not, you are in for a treat: This website is rich with relevant, interesting content that can be used to help target a variety of speech therapy goals.
First, let me give you a little background on The Learning Network. This is a blog based on material from the New York Times, but it is designed for students age 13 and up so it is more reader-friendly than the true NYT content. It is updated daily, and did I mention…it’s FREE!
Why I Love The Learning Network:
The website is updated daily, so it’s a constant source of relevant topics, with no prep required by the SLP (Time-saver!). The content is rich, interesting, and about real life things. There are MANY ways to use the content to target speech therapy goals. It took me a little bit to learn my way around the website, so I’ve compiled a list of sections that I think are most applicable to use in speech therapy.
How I Use The Learning Network for Speech Therapy:
1. News Q’s: In the blink of an eye, you can have a real-life, relevant article, followed by comprehension questions. All you have to do is click the link for the full article, print it out, and then return to the first page to use the comprehension questions.
2. Student Question: This section is a great opportunity to target higher level formulation, reasoning, divergent problem-solving, or organizing information to support/persuade. You can use the summary or click the full article to increase the amount of content you use.
3. What’s Going On In This Picture? : This is a really fun and interesting way to look at problem-solving, reasoning, attention to detail, and critical thinking! I have a patient study the picture and formulate a hypothesis about what is happening, then read the article or caption to see if they are on the right track.
4. On This Day in History: This section gives some new inspiration for short-term memory or new learning tasks. We might discuss 1-5 facts about something that happened in history on the same day, and then check recall over a delay.