About this activity
A seven-part story about Lucía finding a lost puppy in the park — el perrito tenía hambre, hicieron un cartel, el perrito se llamaba Coco — followed by three tasks: retell it in Spanish, retell the same story in English, and then answer which language was easier and which words were missing in the other. That last question is the whole activity.
How to use it in a session
Do not correct the language mixing. A bilingual child who reaches into the other language mid-retell is doing something normal and informative, and stopping it removes the data. Take both retells before discussing anything, then use the final question to talk about which words were available in which language. Fifteen minutes covers the story and both retells with a short comparison.
What to listen for
Compare the two retells against each other rather than against a standard. A student whose Spanish retell has full story structure and whose English one is a list of events has a language-specific vocabulary gap, not a narrative difficulty — and that distinction changes the whole plan. Watch for the emotional line surviving in both: estaba triste, pero contenta is the part that most often disappears in the weaker language.
Carrying it home
Ask for the same story twice at home in whichever two languages the family uses. Retelling in the home language first usually produces a fuller version and gives the child something to work from.
Questions
- Is this activity in Spanish?
- The story is in Spanish and the last two tasks ask for a retell in each language. The page is in English so an English-speaking clinician can evaluate it.
- Do I need an account?
- No, it plays free in the browser.
- Should I stop the student from mixing languages?
- No. Mixing is normal bilingual behaviour and it is informative here — where a student switches usually shows where a word is missing in one language, which is exactly what this activity is designed to reveal.