Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! You may be familiar with this phrase from a well-known and loved children’s book. Reading books such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom can be an excellent activity to utilize in therapy sessions, small group reading instruction, or in the home environment. As parents, teachers, and therapists, we are often in search of resources that are not only functional but those that can also be catered to adapt to and address a variety of different needs and learning levels. Reading a book together is a wonderful way to embed literacy into your session, target a variety of goals, and work on joint attention during a shared activity. Small group reading instruction may be embedded into speech-language therapy sessions to help with improving literacy abilities as well as a variety of goals. If you are looking for a simple way to engage your student and enhance communication skills, ABA SPEECH is excited to offer another fun and engaging book companion to be used with the well-known and loved book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! 

What Is A Book Companion?

What is a book companion, and why are they advantageous? Book companions provide a simple lesson plan to guide sessions and small group reading instruction. They are a great resource to aide in working on a variety of skills and skill levels; they also help embed literacy during therapy and small group reading instruction. Book companions can be easily used by parents, speech-language pathologists, teachers, and others when engaging with a child. Overall, they can make sessions more organized, allowing goals to be targeted more efficiently and effectively!

What Goals Can I Address In Therapy?

What types of goals can be addressed when using books and book companions during therapy and small group reading instruction? For example, when implementing Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, you can begin by showing the child the first page of the book and singing the alphabet. A few goal ideas which may be easily targeted are as follows: one-step directions (i.e. “Get the book;” “Turn the page.”); fill in the blanks (i.e. “A, B, C, __ (D); L, M, N, O, __”); and joint attention (shared activity). This book also provides many opportunities to introduce and review a variety of vocabulary (i.e. beat, meet, whole, tag-along, enough, everybody, uncles/aunts, skinned, stubbed, tangled, knotted, etc.) which can, in turn, help improve receptive and expressive language skills. Additionally, this book offers multiple opportunities to work on prepositions/spatial concepts (i.e. “top of the coconut tree”).  

To help better engage those with visual and/or kinesthetic learning styles, you can easily implement additional manipulatives along with this book and book companion, such as a real coconut. Let the child hold and touch the coconut and have him/her describe how it looks/feels. This offers an excellent opportunity to work on naming the category (“fruit”) to address convergent thinking skills and listing other items within the fruit category (i.e. apple, banana, strawberry, mango, etc.) to address divergent thinking skills. Not only do book companions help build language skills, they also help facilitate social engagement which, in turn, aides in building the foundation for more advanced conversational skills. 

What About Generalization of These Skills?

What about carryover? To help achieve carryover of skills, it’s advantageous for children to receive similar instruction and practice in multiple environments. Potential for maximum growth occurs when parents/caregivers work on similar skills/activities at home as those being addressed in therapy. This provides increased opportunities for carryover of skills into multiple environments. Books and book companions make sharing activities with multiple providers simple, helping with carryover of skills as this offers increased consistency for the child.

Get Your Free Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Literacy Companion

We hope you enjoy using our new book companion in your therapy sessions, in small group reading instruction, and even at home! Be sure to scroll down to the bottom, and input your e-mail to get your free Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book companion! This is the perfect supplement to ease your planning for teletherapy, in-person, mixed level groups, all ages, and small group reading instruction!