Interactive Thinking Stories for Children

The short stories in this volume can be used to facilitate the development of oral communication and problem-solving skills as children talk about the problems encountered by the story characters. Problems commonly experienced by young children in their daily interactions are presented in the stories. Issues relating to being honest, keeping promises, showing concern for the feelings of others, accepting individual differences, etc. are incorporated into the story action. The materials were developed primarily for use with students in the elementary school grades. The stories in this volume can be used by classroom teachers, speech-language pathologists, special education specialists, and others in a variety of educational settings.

The individual stories can be presented orally by the teacher or read by the student. Basic sight words are emphasised in the stories so that they can be read independently by young readers. Questions that may be asked when the stories are presented to individual students are presented on each story page in this manual.

The short stories will be most effective in the development of problem-solving skills if presented within a context in which students interact with one another. By encouraging social interactions in which children discuss various problem-solving strategies, students will acquire greater skill in using language to solve problems.

Role-playing activities can be incorporated into the instructional program to provide students with practice in using oral communication to solve problems. Divide the students into small groups and have them act out solutions for the problem situations described in the stories. Role-playing makes it possible for students to learn by observing others as they use various communication strategies.