Therapy Themes: Pizza Party
Lately, I’ve been doing more themed therapy sessions. Having a theme (e.g., pizza party, pirate, beach) helps add structure to Zoom sessions and motivates my kiddos.
Today, I’m sharing ideas for a pizza-themed therapy session for emerging Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) users. These activities are adaptable based on the age and language level of your kiddos. I’ll focus on AAC users within the context of this blog post, but this is by no means all encompassing. While I’ve carried out these activities via teletherapy, they can also be implemented in person. Flexibility is the name of the game with therapy materials and home practice.
Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party by Eric Litwin and James Dean: Pete the Cat books often incorporate repeated and predictable storylines, which are effective to use with emerging communicators. Repeated line books (i.e., a line or phrase is repeated throughout the book) and predictable line book (i.e., a word or phrase is repeated with a slight variation throughout the book) help elicit language. As words or phrases repeat, kids anticipate what is coming next and are able to fill in the lines with a vocalization, gesture, expectant facial expression, sign, word, and/or phrase. Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party is an example of a repeated line story as the animals continue to add silly toppings to their pizza and sing, “It’s a party, a party, a pepperoni (+ additional toppings) pizza party!”
As we read this book during a session, parents and I model on a child’s AAC system. This means that we touch buttons on the child’s speech-generating device (SGD) or point to picture symbols on their low-tech communication board while reading. Remember, it’s important to model without expecting any sort of response from your child. Incorporate pauses as you model to see if your kiddo will participate by using his or her AAC system. Here are some examples of ways we can model core vocabulary words (i.e., most frequently occurring words) for varied communicative functions as we read Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party.
Directing Attention:
“‘Look’ at the what they put on their pizza.”
Describing:
“They ‘put on’ popcorn?”
Commenting:
“‘Yuck,’ papaya on pizza?,’ “I ‘like’ pizza too!,'“ “‘Yum!’”
Requesting recurrence:
“They want ‘more’ on their pizza.'“
Pizza Party Super Simple Songs: Super Simple Songs on YouTube are amazing to use during therapy sessions, as they are engaging for young kiddos. I often incorporate a song halfway through my sessions as a movement break. This pizza party song is perfect for this pizza-themed session. As we watch the music video, I intermittently pause the song to observe how a kiddo will request continuation of the video using their AAC system. If they don’t use a word (e.g., “More,” “Go,” “Watch”) or phrase (e.g., “Turn on,” “Do more”) to indicate they want the video to continue, the child’s communication partner can model use of these words or phrases on their AAC system. For some of my kiddos, I occasionally mute the video to observe how they request assistance (e.g., “Help,” “Need help”) or direct me to turn the volume up (e.g., “Make loud,” “Turn up”).
Errorless Learning Boom Card Activity & ABCYa Make a Pizza: Both of these activities allow kiddos to make a virtual pizza. These are awesome ways to target core words and phrases to direct actions, such as “Put on,” “Go there,” and “Get more.”
Make a Pizza Craft: For kiddos that enjoy hands-on activities, this craft allows them to cut out toppings and glue them on their pizza. I’ve used this activity to target the following goals:
Following 1-step and 2-step related directions
Understanding spatial concepts (e.g., under, next to, above)
Using core vocabulary words to direct actions (e.g., “Put on”), request recurrence (e.g., “Need more”), and request assistance (e.g., “Help me”)
What are your favorite themes to incorporate in your therapy sessions?