Interactive Notebooks: Preschoolers with Language Delays!

updated 1/2023 Do you use interactive notebooks with preschoolers with language delays? Your early intervention families will love this strategy! I use it with students with language delays in the home setting by incorporating an interactive notebook with my version of the “plan-do-review” approach. Parents and SLPs write target vocabulary words and images in the notebook and periodically review them.

Why Interactive Notebooks with Preschoolers?

1. Students feel ownership of their learning through their involvement in the process and their own creativity. Put the preschooler’s name on the front cover. Let them decorate it. Call it their “word” book or another special name.

2. The notebook serves as a portfolio to help parents and SLPs track progress over time. Parents are thrilled to see words that their preschoolers couldn’t say a short time ago!

3. By using the notebooks, you are teaching students to organize their thoughts and ideas! You are essentially providing them with a planning and recall framework that they will use in some fashion their whole lives.

4. You are building and strengthening parent-child-SLP avenues of communication. Interactive notebook also serves as a method of communicating progress and activity ideas to families.

5. The language-literacy connection is strengthened by writing down the target words and providing pictures and/or hands-on experiences.

Here’s what you need:

A notebook or photo book. Anything will do, really. All you need is a place to write down words, draw pictures, tape photographs, and adhere stickers. I’ve also had parents use old adhesive photo albums.
Art supplies: writing utensils, crayons, markers, stickers, tape. Use whatever you have on hand.

How Do I Use Interactive Notebooks to Promote Language?

Instruct parents in the plan-do-review approach using the interactive notebook. This is where parents involve their child in the planning and review of an activity (not just the “do” part).

Plan:
Parents choose targeted vocabulary words or phrases to work on with their child during a selected activity. Targeted words are written down in the notebook with the child before the activity.
Do:
The children and parents enjoy the planned activity. The targeted words are verbalized, repeated, and acted out. We do whatever is helpful to give meaning to the words.
If the child imitates the words after the parent, that’s great! If not, it might be more likely that imitation occurs in the “review” step.
Parent Review:
After the outing, parents sit down with the child and add a picture, color, stickers or other items to personalize the experience. Parents might add new vocabulary from the activity.
They discuss the experience, talking about it while personalizing their notebook entry.
SLP Review:
When the SLP visits, you can review the notebook together. It’s another chance for the child to hear and imitate the targeted vocabulary. It’s helpful to see what words the child is retaining during the review process too!
I always add an entry to the notebook highlighting vocabulary from my visit and I include either a hand-drawn picture, board maker picture, stickers, magazine cut-outs or other images.
Bonus: My students also love to share their “word books” with grandparents and siblings!

A word about format:

In traditional interactive notebooks, teacher input goes on the left page in the open book and student output goes on the right. You could choose to follow this format or design your own format!

You might also be interested in this post on Using the LUI for preschool pragmatic’s assessment.