Describe It: Attribute Vocabulary
Draw, then describe using category, function, size, color and texture -- expressive vocabulary in both directions.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Let the drawing be quick and bad. The picture is a scaffold for the talking, not the product, and a child who spends eight minutes colouring has spent eight minutes not talking. Ask for the three attributes explicitly after each drawing — name, function, and one physical property is the frame — and count them out loud so the child knows what a complete answer is. Twelve minutes covers two or three prompts properly.
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 'shape'.
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
Eight prompts that ask for a drawing and then a description: draw something round, red and sweet, then tell me three things about it; draw an animal with fur and tell me its size, colour and what it eats; draw a tool and tell me its name, what it does and who uses it. Drawing first means the child describes something they chose, which produces far more language than describing a picture handed to them.
What to listen for
Listen for which attribute types are missing. Most children give colour and size readily, function sometimes, and category almost never — an apple is a fruit is the attribute that goes missing and the one that matters most for word retrieval. Watch the compare prompt, where heavy and light have to be used relative to each other rather than absolutely.
Carrying it home
Describing games work in a car with no materials: I'm thinking of something round, red and sweet. The child guessing is doing the same work as the child describing, and both are useful.
What's in this activity
- Draw something round, red and sweet. Then tell me three things about it.
- Draw something you can ride. Say what it is made of and where you use it.
- Draw an animal with fur. Tell me its size, its color and what it eats.
- Draw something cold. Tell me how it feels and where you find it.
- Draw a tool. Tell me its name, what it does and who uses it.
- Draw one heavy thing and one light thing. Compare them out loud.
- Draw your favorite food. Describe its color, shape, taste and smell.
- Draw two things that go together, then explain why they belong together.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through third, and it works for older students with word-finding difficulties.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight prompts play with no account.
- How does describing help word finding?
- Because it builds the routes into a word. A student who knows an apple's category, function, colour and shape has several ways to reach the word, where a student who only has a picture memory has one.
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.