Describing using Compare and Contrast

The ability to describe an object, a place, or an event is not only an extremely functional daily living skill, but also a critical social skill and safety skill. Consider describing something that you have lost to someone at an information desk, describing your location over the phone to someone you are trying to meet, or describing an accident you witnessed earlier in the day. The dynamic nature of the events in Floreo lessons gives Learners opportunities to practice describing. You can begin by helping Learners compare and contrast salient features of objects, places, events and more. 

Here are some simple ways to start contrasting (describing differences) using the Floreo lessons: 

• Try using Crosswalk Button Challenge and Check for Cars to notice whether or not the street has cars. 
• Use Find Your Bus: This is Your Bus and contrast with Find Your Bus: With Other People  to notice whether or not there are other people at the bus stop. 
• Use Hang Out in the Aquarium, and Find the Fish to notice the presence or absence of fish. 
• In the "Security Savvy" lessons (Airport Security Check and Security Savvy: TSA Search and Questions) help the Learner notice whether there are people or not in the line.
• Use Choose Your Police Encounter to notice whether the lesson starts in a daytime scene or a nighttime scene. 
• Use Intro to Small Talk: May Shares an Opinion and Intro to Small Talk: May Shares Her Concern to give Learners opportunities to describe whether May is in a really good mood, or whether she might be hitting a bit of a snag in her day.  

The Spatial Concepts lessons (Spatial Concepts: Up & Down, Spatial Concepts: In & Out, and Spatial Concepts: Left & Right) are designed as contrasting lessons. 

Comparing items or events involves finding similarities. This can be a little trickier than finding differences for some learners Some lessons that can be used for comparing may include the following: 

• Use Orienting to the Grocery Store and Scan the Store Shelves to learn, and then identify items on the shelf which belong to the same category (juice, dry goods, etc.) 
• Try Listen & Find: 1 Animal, by Name to find all the animals that are (tall, far away, etc.) 
• Play Move Giraffe! It's Time to Swing to find all the people in the scene. 
• Use Chit-Chat with Alejandro, to find all the similarities among the various children in the hallway. 

Comparing and contrasting is a skill often targeted in language arts writing assignments. If your Learners find this type of assignment challenging, consider giving them some practice with some of the Floreo lessons to ensure they know how to approach it.

Floreo's Director of Applied Digital Therapy, Rita Solórzano MA, CCC-SLP, is a Speech Language Pathologist with over 30 years of experience.