GRAMMAR Resource

I am starting to question if I can legitimately refer to our blog as a "Monday" blog, since I haven't been writing them until Wednesday lately?  Retirement does change ones life and reduce those feelings of "it's got to be done NOW!"  Monday or Wednesday, it doesn't really matter does it, so long as we share some useful information with you.  Right?


Today you are in for a real treat.  We are sharing with you a resource from Dr. Larry Rider, a retired Communicative Disorders professor from University of Redlands, California.  I have to interject here that I have personally "talked" with him via email and he seems to be a very delightful person. He appears to be one you could share a cup of coffee with, and just chat.  Our sincere thanks to you, Dr. Rider, for allowing us to share in your knowledge.  

This is a fabulous site that will serve as both a refresher course in grammar, and as a helpful tool for making decisions regarding the order in which things should be taught.  Whose memory is sufficient enough to retain all this information at will? Not mine, so I find this particular resource priceless.  I wish I had had this available to me when I was still working! 

The listed grammatical categories are: prepositions, pronouns, verb tenses, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections and question forms. 

Dr. Rider says, "The items listed in each grammatical category are ordered from easiest to hardest to master. Regardless of the age of the child with whom you are working, an appropriate therapy goal would be to understand the child's present level of functioning and then teach the next most difficult linguistic form the child has not mastered yet."

The most effective way to utilize this site is to follow Dr. Rider's advice of  selecting the category you wish to teach, find the appropriate level for your student/client, then look for materials to use in your therapy.  

NOTE: some of the resource links may not be functional, but there are tons that still are and it is definitely worth your while to investigate for yourself those you find interesting.  

Let me stress to you that just reading his comments regarding teaching each of the grammatical forms is worth your time. It is so worth bookmarking this site if you used it only to help you recall the developmental order in which these forms are acquired. 


As you know we love to share tips and tricks and apparently Dr. Rider does too, as you will find "tricks" listed for many of the grammatical forms.  An example of one: 

 "When forming the comparative adjective you simply add 'er' to the end of the adjective. The exception is: when the adjective is three syllables or more, you use the word 'more' before the adjective and do not mark the end of it with 'er'." 

 I never knew that about the number of syllables in the word denoting when to use the word more. Did you?


I hope I have shared enough with you to make you want to fully explore the wonders of this site:
 
http://newton.uor.edu/FacultyFolder/Rider/


Have fun with your kids this week in therapy!
Leah and Dean

http://www.2galsspeechproducts.com