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Are you a speech and language therapist looking for new therapy ideas for your clients with word finding difficultes? Have you considered "wordless videos"?
Wordless videos are short animated clips or films which have no words to them. They are ideal for clients with aphasia or brain injury.
Below is an example of a wordless video called "the Egyptian Pyramids" that I found on youtube:
and another one
called Adumu.
Why are they so useful as a therapy tool? Well there are numerous ways you can use these wordless videos.
Comprehension
You can ask simple questions about the content of the videos for example:
Y/N questions - Is there a lion in the video?
- Is there a camel in the video?
- Is the man in egypt?
- Does the lion eat the man?
Or you can ask more complex questions such as "WH" questions
WH questions - Who runs after the man?
- Who is chewing the paintbrush?
- What rises up from the ground?
- What does the tribesman give the hunter?
- When does the door close on the pyramid?
- When does the hunter get scared?
- Where does the pyramid come up from?
- Where does the lion hide?
- Why does the hunter run away?
- Why does the camel look surprised?
- How does the man get out of they pyramid?
- How does the hunter end up on the ground?
You can scale the questions up or down for degree of difficulty and if you are asking more complex questions that require an answer in sentence form - you can structure the sentence for your client so they only have to use one or two words.
You can also stop the films at a particular scene and ask your clients to follow instructions such as:
Following instructions - point to the lion
- point to the arrow
- point to the camel and the pyramid
- before you point to the arrow, touch the ground
- find all the animals
- point to all the clothing
Word retrieval (combine with semantics below)
You can use the video's for the following word finding/sentence structure activities:
Object naming - What is the name of this?
and don't forget the use of cueing
Phonemic cueing - Tell me the name of something beginning with "c" or "g"
Sentence Production
Story recall - Tell me what happened at the beginning/middle/end of the video
and don't forget the use of sentence cueing and structure. For example it might be easier for you to complete most of the sentence yourself and then have the client fill in the missing words - the missing words could either be nouns or verbs or what ever your therapy target is.
Semantics
You can use higher level category sorting activities to improve semantic functions.
Divergent naming - here is a camel. What are the names of some other animals you
might find in the desert?
- The man is wearing a hat because it is hot. What are some other
things you might put on when you are out in the sun?
- or just, name me some more countries
Convergent naming - Africa is what? Can you name some other ..........?
- Lion belongs to what category of words?
To make the activity harder you can ask for more higher level categories such as jungle animals vs domestic animals etc
You can ask your client to find objects/people/structures by material or action
- Find me an object made from wood
- Show me the one who is running, sitting, laughing, crying
- Show me the one that "fires"
- Show me something we look through
Following on from this, you can also ask the client to name some other objects/materials/actions in the same category
Attention
You can use longer films to help improve your client's ability to sustain attention. Just concentrating and watching the video can help them improve their attention and concentration span.
Memory
Asking your client to recall aspects of the beginning, middle or end of the video can help with memory recall.
You can also stop the video at a certain point and ask them to study the picture for 2 or 3 minutes (make sure that you have made a note of where you have stopped the video) and either add a distraction task first and then go back to the recall task, or jump straight to asking them to name as many things as they can recall from the picture (scene).
Sequencing
You can stop and print the videos in various sections, laminate the pictures, and then have your client put them in the right order. You can also add words underneath to make it easier for your client (if they can read).
Inferencing
You can ask about feelings, conclusions, what would happen if........... type of questions.
Problem Solving
You can ask questions about hypothetical or real problems that occur in the videos.
So overall there are plenty of activities that you can use wordless videos for. Not only that but they are fun and each one can be individualised to suit your client.
For more free resources using wordless videos, head over to Speechtherapystore where Melissa has made available 31 wordless videos with accompanying "wh" questions, story recall, problem solving and pre-made sequencing activities. The videos were originally for children but can be used for the adult population. Everybody loves an animated movie!!
Have fun 🎈🎉😀
Let us know how you go in our comments section 💕💬