Using Picture Scenes in Speech Therapy Sessions

My love for using speech therapy picture scenes started, oh, around my very first day as a teletherapist in 2014. Boom Card didn't exist yet, so I relied heavily on the only digital format I knew– PDFs.

With my novice technology skills, I often kept things simple by sharing a picture scene on the screen and using it to target so many different skills. Answering WH questions, describing, making inferences, building sentences, and having conversations... I realized I could do it all from a single image.

Those early teletherapy activities may have been basic, but they sure were effective and easy to use. I discovered that picture scenes could keep younger and older students engaged and talking. And the more detailed the scene, the more language opportunities it provided.

More than a decade later, picture scenes are still one of my favorite tools for in-person and virtual speech therapy. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) find them versatile and engaging for students of all ages. Whether you're targeting receptive or expressive language skills, working with mixed groups, or looking for low-prep speech therapy activities, picture scenes are a great resource for addressing just about all communication skills. 

What Are Speech Therapy Picture Scenes?

Picture scenes are detailed (usually full-page) illustrations that show people, objects, animals, and events within a single setting. Unlike flashcards or isolated pictures, they provide meaningful context that encourages students to observe what's happening and make connections throughout the scene. 

Some picture scenes are simple (featuring just a few people or objects), while busy picture scenes are packed with details that offer even more opportunities for students to observe and discuss. Simple picture scenes can be less overwhelming for younger students or those who benefit from fewer visual distractions. Busy picture scenes (or even real photo scenes) are usually better suited for upper elementary, middle school, and high school students who are ready for more complex language tasks.

Why Use Busy Picture Scenes in Speech Therapy?

Picture scenes help SLPs support a variety of different goals, which is ideal for group therapy and students working on multiple goals. Rather than practicing skills in isolation, students use language in meaningful contexts as they see and talk about what's happening in the scene.

Some of the many benefits of using speech therapy picture scenes include:

• Targeting multiple skills with a single activity

• Providing meaningful context for targeting goals

• Easily differentiating activities for students with varying ability levels

• Encouraging higher-level thinking through inferencing, predicting, and problem-solving

• Providing conversation starters and incorporating various social skills

• Reducing therapy prep by using one activity in multiple ways

• Including in in-person therapy and teletherapy lesson plans

• Supporting individual therapy sessions, small groups, and mixed groups

How to Use Picture Scenes in Speech Therapy

Picture scenes are incredibly flexible and can be used however best for your students and setting. Print them in color for individual therapy or small groups (especially if you want to reuse them), or in black and white so students can color, circle, label, or write directly on their own copy. You can also send picture scenes for homework to give students an easy way to practice language and speech skills outside of therapy.

Another way to use picture scenes is to print them on large paper and hang them on a wall or bulletin board. You can keep one up for a month or even an entire season and use it as a quick prompt whenever you have a few extra minutes to work on speech therapy goals.

Darla from Ms. Gardenia's Speech Room did just that with this pumpkin patch language scene in the hall outside her therapy room!

Picture scenes also work well digitally. Use interactive picture scenes like the Boom Cards mentioned above, or simply display a static PDF on a computer, iPad, or interactive whiteboard, or other large screen to use the scene with in-person or virtual students, small groups, or even classes.

Goals You Can Target with Picture Scenes

You can access picture scenes in different ways, but their versatility doesn't stop there! A single picture scene can meet a wide range of goals by changing the questions and prompts provided. Let's take a look at some of the many language skills you can target with picture scenes.

LANGUAGE

You can address many language skills using picture scenes. If you work with language groups, you can choose the prompts for each individual student based on their unique goal(s). 

Vocabulary

Use the scene to target multiple aspects of vocabulary, including:

• Naming and identifying objects, people, and actions

• Identifying categories

• Describing attributes

• Basic concepts, including spatial concepts (in, on, between), size concepts (big/little), and quantity concepts (more/less)

  
  

Formulating and Expanding Sentences

Picture scenes provide a natural way to practice sentence formulation. In these language-loaded scenes, students may describe what they see, answer questions using complete sentences, and expand their sentences with additional details from the scene.

WH Questions

Picture scenes also make it easy to practice different types of WH questions, including who, what, where, when, why, and how. Start with questions about information that is directly visible, then gradually move toward questions that require inference or reasoning as students' skills grow.

Grammar

Use picture scenes to target nearly any grammar goal in a meaningful context, including:

• Verb tenses and subject-verb agreement

• Conjunctions

• Negation

• Pronouns and possessives

• Plurals

  
  

Narrative Skills

Students can use a picture scene to describe characters and the setting, sequence events, retell what happened, create short stories, and identify narrative elements such as beginning, middle, and end.

Following Directions

Busy picture scenes give students a visual context for listening and responding by finding, circling, coloring, etc., different elements of the scene. These following directions coloring sheets include seasonal picture scenes with ready-to-use directions with 1 step, 2 steps, and spatial, temporal, quantitative, and negation concepts.

ARTICULATION

Picture scenes are also a great way to target speech sounds. Students can practice single words, but they can also use the picture's natural context to formulate phrases and sentences for each word. Picture scenes are even a versatile tool for structured articulation carryover.

Articulation Picture Scenes

The picture scenes with language targets mentioned above (as well as this version for older students) also include prompts for various speech sounds right on each page, making it easy to incorporate articulation goals.

Interactive Scene-Based Activities

For even more engagement, digitally interactive picture scenes allow students to arrange different elements on the screen. Each Create-a-Scene Boom Cards deck includes movable parts that students use to build their own scenes. Students get to practice their target sounds as they describe the scene. 

SOCIAL SKILLS

Picture scenes can also help SLPs target social skills and social interactions. In a group setting, they provide a natural reason for students to talk with one another, encouraging social communication while giving the SLP opportunities to target specific goals.

Using social interaction picture scenes, students can use reasoning and make inferences about people and everyday situations to:

• Describe how people might be feeling

• Identify what people might be saying 

• Consider how different people might view the same situation (perspective-taking)

• Predict what might happen next

• Identify problems and possible solutions

  
  

Incorporating Themes

Picture scenes are a great way to extend a theme you're already using in speech therapy. A themed picture scene gives students another opportunity to practice the same vocabulary in a different context and target multiple speech and language goals at once.

Highlights' Hidden Pictures are a great free resource for picture scenes. They include themes such as dogs, camping, and birthdays. These web-based picture scenes let students locate and click objects, lighting up each one they find. They even provide optional hints to help students find each item. 

Free Picture Scenes

If you're an email subscriber, I have two camping-themed picture scenes in the freebie library for both younger and older students! The free downloads include both articulation and language prompts right on the page, making them easy to grab and use with students right away... especially if you're using a camping theme.

In the freebie library, email subscribers also have access to birthday stickers that students can use to create a birthday party scene. The free set includes a background Google Slide where students can add the stickers to create their scene. SLPs can use the activity to target vocabulary, describing, WH questions, sentence formulation, articulation, and more. It's a simple, fun digital activity to use for student birthdays. 

Whether you're a speech therapist seeing students in person or via teletherapy, picture scenes are one of the most flexible therapy materials you can use. A single scene can target a wide range of speech and language skills while keeping students engaged with something visual and interesting. From simple to busy picture scenes and printable to digital picture scenes, there are so many ways to make them work for your students.

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