Describing can be hard for all of us. 

Have you ever switched words when you couldn’t come up with the intended one?

Have you ever shortened a story because the other person seemed lost?

Have you ever stopped yourself from saying something because you couldn’t figure out how to fully express yourself?

For those of us with Speech-Language and/or Cognitive deficits, fully expressing ourselves can pose even more challenges. 

One activity I love to play with my clients is an adapted game I simply call  “The Picture Game”.

It goes like this: 

1. Close your eyes

2. Make a picture in your head of your story

3. Tell 3 sentences about your story

For extra support, have the 1st sentence begin with “First”, the 2nd with “Next”, and the 3rd with “Last”

Example:

1. First, we went to the store.

2. Next, we walked down the aisle.

3. Last, we found the milk and paid for it.

When we are telling a story, we are reliving that story while we tell it, even if we are unaware of it. That’s calling visualizing. That’s why we are able to tell a story effectively, or not. If we stop visualizing, our story may lose its focus or get confusing. 

Visualizing is a skill that you acquire and hone, just like playing an instrument or learning to drive. The difference between these skills and the skill of visualizing is that many kids are not explicitly taught how to visualize. If kids struggle to visualize, they will likely have challenges with expression and also with comprehension. 

The great thing about this game is that it doesn’t require any materials, and can be played anywhere! Start by giving your clients or kids a simple example of a 3 sentence story that you visualize and then share with them. See if they can summarize the details of that story back to you. Then, ask them to “make a picture in your head” of their own story. If they are struggling with this aspect, you can ask them to recall a video that they saw recently instead. 

If you try this activity with your clients and/or your own kids, let me know how it goes! Was it easy or difficult for you? How about for them? Did you need to make adaptations along the way? Were you able to transition from this activity to using it while reading a book together?