Five ways to use "I Spy" in therapy

I Spy books are excellent tools for language therapy because they engage kids while targeting a range of speech and language skills. You can also make the objectives easier or more difficult depending on the child's skill level! Here are 5 ways to use I Spy books in therapy:

1. Vocabulary Building

  1. Goal: Expand expressive and receptive vocabulary.
  2. How: Have the child name objects they find or describe them before naming. Introduce new or uncommon words like “goblet” or “thimble” and talk about their use.

2. Descriptive Language & Attributes

  1. Goal: Use adjectives and phrases to describe objects (size, color, shape, category, function).
  2. How: Say “I spy something small and shiny” or “I spy something that you can wear.” Encourage the child to describe an object for you to guess.

3. Following Directions

  1. Goal: Improve listening comprehension and the ability to follow multi-step directions.
  2. How: Give the child tasks like “Find something red, then point to something round” or “Circle the object you can eat, then clap your hands.”

4. Question Formulation

  1. Goal: Practice asking questions and using correct sentence structure.
  2. How: Have the child ask yes/no or WH-questions (e.g., “What is that?” “Can you find the object that is used for writing?”). Take turns being the guesser and the clue-giver.

5. Articulation Practice

  1. Goal: Practice target sounds in a fun and functional way.
  2. How: Choose pages with lots of words containing the child’s target sound (e.g., /s/, /r/, /l/). Have them say the word correctly before circling it or using it in a sentence.

Emily Miner, M.S., CCC-SLP