Using Wrapping Paper in Speech-Language Therapy

Dec 8

I love using wrapping paper in therapy around the winter holidays (as well as during student birthdays throughout the school year). It's a festive way to change up your themed therapy and students love it when you introduce a new way to target goals. Playing with wrapping paper is also AFFORDABLE (I have teachers, friends, and family save their wrapping paper scraps for me) and fun for kids of all ages.

POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES FOR WRAPPING PAPER

Holiday Trashketball
Take trashketball to the next level by having students create their own ball using wrapping paper.
Holiday Tree Craft
Glue strips of wrapping paper into the shape of a tree (a triangle). Draw a tree trunk at the bottom and glue circles onto the tree as ornaments. Write articulation words on the ornaments.
Fillable Plastic Ornament Craft
Give each student an empty plastic ornament to be filled. Students can request small bits of paper to put into the ornament. You can also work on following directions or targeting the word "in" or "put".
Create an Ornament Craft
You've likely seen crafts where you glue tissue paper onto a printed paper with a design. I've printed off pictures of ornaments (such as the free pictures seen here) and given small squares of wrapping paper for the student to glue onto the picture, creating a colorful montage. You can give the pieces to students for each correct production, for example.

POSSIBLE TARGETS FOR THESE ACTIVITIES

Categories
Practice categories by sorting the wrapping paper by color or pattern. Put all the red paper in one pile, striped paper in another pile, and shiny paper in another pile! You can also sort the paper by size (big/small pieces) or cut pieces into shapes and sort them that way.
Pronouns
While sorting the wrapping paper, talk about which paper is "your paper", "my paper" and "our paper", as well as "his paper", "her paper", "their paper", etc., depending on your group of students.
Verbs
When crafting with wrapping paper, talk about what you're doing. You can cut, rip, tear, glue, color, etc. You can also throw, crumple, and roll the paper!
Expanding MLU
Practice expanding upon a child's labels! When a child says "want" or "more paper", model "I want paper" or "I want more blue paper".
Prepositions
Place wrapping paper on various parts of the body (example: on your head or under your food) and discuss where it's located. This can also be paired with any activity (pretend food, dollhouse people, etc.)
Requesting
If making a craft with wrapping paper, model requesting the paper from each other. This is especially beneficial if you have more than one child in your group because you will have plenty of opportunities for requesting.
Turn-taking
Take time to model "my turn" and "your turn" when you're using wrapping paper to complete a craft.
Following Directions + Basic Concepts
Give 1-2 step directions using basic concepts when completing wrapping paper activities. For example, "Cut one short piece and one long piece" or "Glue the red wrapping paper under the shiny wrapping paper".
Articulation
Model articulation in a natural conversation using whatever activity you're completing. You can also write target words on pieces of paper that you've crumpled up, and let the student "unwrap" the paper (uncrumple it). Students can also glue pieces of wrapping paper onto a sheet of construction paper and write target words on it. You can also have students practice a word for "x" number of times before earning a piece of wrapping paper.