StoryBoards

StoryBoards is a simple and fun game resource to help children with language and communication difficulties develop their narrative skills. Using game boards and colourfully-illustrated picture cards, StoryBoards helps children to visualise and practise telling a story through identifying the essential elements, how these should be sequenced and providing a basic vocabulary.


There are individual boards for four players - larger groups can work in pairs to develop individual stories or work on a single story as a group. Each story element - location, time, transport, object, feeling and weather - is colour-coded for ease of identification.

The activity is presented at two levels - a simple picture framework excluding the concept of time, and a higher-level activity that includes time.

By picking story cards from the different sets, stories can be silly or sensible and children can either stick with their choices or negotiate for a change, which encourages discussion and reasoning. For example, if a child is going to the zoo, would they travel there in a submarine?

Hugely flexible, other activities include: Throwing a story; Lotto; Find a pair; Vocabulary ladders; and Asking questions. StoryBoards can also be used for news time; preparation for visits or holidays; and narrative development.

StoryBoards will develop basic vocabulary and encourage active listening, turn-taking, topic maintenance and inferential reasoning. It will help children to contribute at 'News time' and to describe what happens on their school trips or holidays.

A structured and accessible resource, StoryBoards is ideal for use with individuals or groups by teachers, speech & language therapists and teaching assistants working with young children. It can be easily incorporated into classroom activities and relates directly to the English National Curriculum Key Stage 1 and 2