Cognados académicos
Emparejar cognados que se parecen en los dos idiomas: familia-family, animal-animal, hospital-hospital.
Words
Match
How to run it
Read both members of each pair aloud together, because the connection is heard before it is seen and the spelling differences can obscure it. The last two pairs are the valuable ones — observar and comparar are academic verbs that appear in test instructions, and a student who recognises them has a route into English rubric language through Spanish. Ask what changes between the pair: the -ar to -e pattern in observar and observe is a rule that unlocks a long list of other verbs.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- HintGive a clue about the word's category, what it does, or where you find it.Log as cued
- Two choicesOffer two answers, the right one not always second.Log as cued
- ModelGive the answer in a sentence; the student says it back and uses it once more.Log as cued
Adjust it
Use fewer items and start with the ones the student already knows, such as 'familia' and 'animal'.
Ask for the word in a sentence of the student's own, or a second example from the same group.
Matching IEP goal
Given vocabulary cards, Student will name, sort or define target words in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than an indirect cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Twelve academic cognates matched across the two languages: familia and family, animal and animal, hospital and hospital, doctor and doctor, música and music, problema and problem, número and number, planta and plant, círculo and circle, historia and history, observar and observe, comparar and compare. For a Spanish-speaking student, cognates are vocabulary already owned in one language and waiting to be claimed in the other.
What to listen for
Watch for the student generating new pairs. A student who offers celebrar and celebrate has found the pattern rather than memorised twelve items, and that is the whole point of cognate instruction. Notice the pronunciation shifts — hospital is spelled identically and stressed differently, and a student may not recognise a word they know when it is said in the other language.
Carrying it home
Cognates are worth pointing out in whichever language a family is reading in. When an English word looks like a Spanish one, saying so takes a second and builds a strategy the student can use on their own.
What's in this activity
- familia family
- animal animal
- hospital hospital
- doctor doctor
- música music
- problema problem
- número number
- planta plant
- círculo circle
- historia history
- observar observe
- comparar compare
Questions
- Is this activity in Spanish?
- It works across both languages — each pair has a Spanish and an English member. The page is in English so an English-speaking clinician can evaluate it, but the board is bilingual by design.
- Do I need an account?
- No, it plays free in the browser.
- Why are cognates worth teaching explicitly?
- Because the transfer does not happen automatically. Students often fail to notice that a word they know in Spanish is nearly the same word in English, and pointing it out converts existing knowledge into usable English vocabulary.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.