Published in the May 2026 issue of the ISHA Voice.
By Laurel Teller, member of the Evidence-based Practice Committee
Peterson and Ukrainetz (2023) completed a single-case research design via teletherapy to investigate the effectiveness of Sketch and Speak for three adolescents with language-learning needs. Sketch and Speak combines explicit strategy instruction for (a) taking notes using pictures and words and (b) oral practice. Students are encouraged to take simple notes, create a sentence about each note, and practice the sentence again with revisions as needed. They then give oral reports with and without notes. The most consistent benefit of the intervention was for oral report quality and note quantity and quality in practiced texts relative to baseline. Generalization of skills was evident in non-practiced texts for note quality for two of three participants and for all participants on a separate expository task. Consider trying Sketch and Speak with your school-age students as a systematic way to combine note taking and oral practice. Scoring rubrics are provided with the article.
Peterson, A. K., & Ukrainetz, T. A. (2023). Sketch and Speak expository intervention for adolescents: A single-case experiment via telepractice. Language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 54(4), 1208-1232.https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_LSHSS-22-00192
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