The Carrot Seed - And Some Tips for Using Literature with Lower Functioning Kids

 The Carrot Seed is a classic book by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson. This is a short simple story about a boy planting his carrot seed and waiting for it to grow.

I love to use this book with my younger, lower functioning children. The book is extremely short, has very simple pictures, simple vocabulary, and simple language.

Many years ago, when I first started working as a therapist, I was afraid of the lower functioning kids. Like so many, I like to see that spark in a kids eyes when they "get it." Lower language functioning kids didn't always give me that immediate feedback that I needed. Now, after many years doing this, I feel that working with the lower functioning groups is one of my stronger areas. Silence does not always mean that something is not happening.

So what do I do? Well, some of this is a bit obvious, but there may be a few tips for the less than experienced therapist.

First, know your audience. This book is perfect for ones that can't attend very long or can't handle a lot of busy pages.

Preteach any vocabulary that may be new.  I know I was taught this as a sacred rule somewhere along the way, but here's my confession. I don't always preteach the vocab! Sometimes the vocabulary lends itself to being taught in context of the story. I may ask personal questions about the topic the book covers. For instance, for The Carrot Seed I may ask, "Has anyone every planted anything before?" If I am working with verbal children I may get an answer that we can discuss. Then I tell them we are going to read a book about a little boy who plants a carrot seed. We explore the cover of the book, and if the group is high functioning enough, we may ask for predictions.

Next, and this is obvious, I read with expression. I'm not one to have different voices for every character or to go over the top; that just doesn't feel natural to me. But, I always put some excitement into what I am reading.

One thing I love to do with this book is to act out the actions because they are so simple: plant, water, pull the weeds, etc. This is a great way to keep your kids engaged and can be done hand over hand. I believe movement with language builds strong pathways neurologically.

I try to work with assistive technology as much as possible. This may be as simple as bringing in a single switch device loaded with a repetitive phrase from the story. In this case, "It won't come up," is the phrase I chose.  While one child activated the device I had the others shake their fingers and heads while the phrase was being said.

I ask questions throughout the story. I ask children to identify different objects or people on the page.We make predictions if appropriate.

Finally, when we are done, I go through it again with their help. I make places for pauses so that they can fill in the blanks.


I always try to do some extension activities with my lower functioning kids. I may have a fingerplay or song or rhyme. For this book I bring in different gardening tools, in this case a shovel, rake, pot, seeds, gloves etc.  (The toy lawnmower would have been fun but my thearpy bag was too full so I had to leave it!) We identify and go through the actions of using each device. Because it was the beginning of the year when I did this, I also brought in some school supplies. My higher functioning kids made two piles, one for garden items and one for school supplies. You could also have pictures on your phone or ipad or off the web if you are a traveling therapist.

And, because parent communication is one of my goals this year. I sent home a take home language sheet where the parents can reinforce some of the ideas we covered in class.You can get that FREE sheet from my TPT store here.

Simple book. Simple tips. Maybe a few new ideas.

I also have a language unit to accompany this book that covers sequencing, vocabulary, colors, letters/sounds, categories, counting, comprehension and object function that would be appropriate for lower level kids. You can get that here.

*One thing you should note about the book- it does have the father with a pipe. My kids didn't really even notice, but I would want you to know that ahead of time.

How are you overcoming the challenges of using literature with lower functioning kids?

Happy New (School) Year

At the beginning of every school year I always make some new year's resolutions. I try to pick 2-3 things that I want to improve upon. The past couple of years have been about stepping up my language group planning and how I track their progress. This year communication with parents and teachers is a top priority. I have also had resolutions concerning testing more quickly, making articulation groups more fun, staying more current on research, etc. Just like real New Year's Resolutions I don't meet all of my goals every year. But I am constantly self assessing and seeing the areas that I feel need improvement.

Many times, as a speech therapists, we are on our own. We are not closely supervised in the therapy room nor do we have a set curriculum. Most of the time, as long as our paperwork is done on time and correctly our supervisors are happy.

The endless paperwork is not my favorite part of the job. The way that I can still be creative in the therapy room and have the freedom to change what isn't working are some of my favorite parts of the job. But, I feel like there is a need to be able to honestly assess our own strengths and weaknesses, which can be hard.

Here are a few ways I have found helpful to assess myself.

1.)  Am I aligning what I am doing with what is most important in the classroom, at home, and to the child?

2.)  What was a supervisor or parent not pleased with last year? (This is an obvious one. I think that we all tend to dwell on this beyond what we should.) Recognize when you've made a mistake, take responsibility, try to fix it, and move on.

3.)  Where am I seeing the least amount of progress? What can I do to improve that? Collaboration is key here. What are good therapists doing to be successful in the areas with which I am struggling? Do I need more continuing education in an area or just some fresh ideas? Social media has made it so much easier to find out what others are doing to be successful.

4.)  Where is the greatest amount of my stress at work coming from? What are steps that I can take to reduce that stress? We can't always change the things that stress us out, but I have found that there are many ways to make situations better. (i.e. more parent communication, being more organized, more communication with classroom teachers, etc.)

5.)  What do I need to do to help myself stay excited about what I do?


I have read through ASHA's performance assessment guide. I was scared and inspired at the same time. I don't live up to all of the standards yet. Do I want to? Yes. I hope to live up to these standards and my own by making improvements every year.

Do you make New School Year Resolutions?