The Functional Toolbox posts explore how we could use functional, real-life items in speech therapy, to exercise language or cognitive skills, or practice strategies that improve function. Some patients have a negative reaction to worksheets, so using functional, tangible items is another vehicle we can use to target patient-centered goals or strategies.
Today I am sharing speech therapy ideas using menus! See below for ideas + links to menus of many popular chain restaurants in the US!
Toolbox Item: MENUS!
By using a menu (chosen by the Person you treat!) to practice cognitive-communication skills, you are increasing the chances of using language/topics that will have a lasting impact beyond the therapy room! This is all about person-centered care! You can directly help with the participation of going to a restaurant/coffee shop/ brewery/ etc., and practice activities such as reading a menu, ordering, calculating the tip, or dealing with poor service!
How do I do this?
*You may know from the initial interview/evaluation that eating at a restaurant is an enjoyable activity for the Person you are working with–or they hope to return to this! Depending on interests and challenge areas, why not incorporate this into therapy?
*Home Programs: I love giving functional tasks as a home program to target a certain skill/strategy. Depending on the situation, you could assign the Person to practice a Script for ordering at a drive through or restaurant, schedule lunch with a friend for real-life participation and communication practice, try ordering without help from a spouse, or write down 5 favorite items they like to order and how much they cost, place a to-go order online, etc! The possibilities are endless and depend on the Person you are working with.
Do you need help getting access to menus? Here’s a jumpstart for you! This list is compiled from the most-popular fast food and restaurant chains in the US. Just click the name to go to the menu.
Applebee’s
Burger King
Carrabba’s Italian Grill
Cheesecake Factory
Chick-Fil-A
Chili’s
Cracker Barrel
Dunkin’ Donuts
Longhorn Steakhouse
McDonald’s
Olive Garden
Outback Steakhouse
P.F. Changs
Red Lobster
Red Robin
Ruby Tuesday
Subway
Starbucks
Texas Roadhouse
T.G.I. Friday’s
Wendy’s
Sample Therapy Ideas:
I hope these ideas are useful or help you easily target a person-centered goal using a relevant topic! If you would like other ideas like this, please check out my Home Sweet Home Series and Back To Work Series.
| To Target Strategies or Skills in This Area: | The Patient Could Do This: |
| Verbal Expression | *Use Script Training to practice ordering, asking a question, or chatting with the wait staff.
*Describe a favorite restaurant with a loved one, using taught word-finding strategies |
| Written Expression | *Write or text food choice (Consider CART protocol!)
*Write a comparison paragraph using restaurants (price, food choices, quality, experience, etc) |
| Auditory Comprehension | *Category or specific item identification using a menu
*Answer sentence-length open-ended questions about a menu |
| Reading Comprehension | *Simplify menu to make it more accessible for the Person to use / order
*Use category cues/headings independently to find certain items on the menu |
| Motor Speech | *Challenge ability to carry-over motor speech strategy or skill while ordering or talking in a restaurant environment |
| Attention | *Sustain attention: Locate item on menu without redirection.
*Alternate attention: Decide which 3-4 items you would like to order while alternately participating in conversation or therapy task *Divide attention: Scan menu and decide order, while also listening to TED Talks, participating in conversation, or other language task |
| Memory | *Short-term recall for menu facts, info, prices; can add multiple units of info to increase complexity.
*Prospective memory: Plan to order meal online on a certain day in the coming week. |
| Thought Organization | *Organize photos by topic or timeline
*Create written guidelines for how to organize photo albums *Describe step-by-step procedure for saving photos or retrieving them off phone |
| Problem-Solving / Reasoning | *Explain how you and family/friends choose which restaurant to attend.
*Divergent problem-solving: Name other options if the waitress says they are all out of the meal you ordered. *Calculate cost for your meal. Compare cost across multiple locations. *Explain how to handle poor service at a restaurant. What would poor service look like? |
| Executive Function | *Evaluate strategy success during task, or plan how to adapt strategies for new situation.
*Plan home program task that could be a similar challenge (see functional home program ideas above). |
| Pragmatics | *Use appropriate social language for interacting in the drive through, with a waitress, at the checkout counter, etc. (Give an appropriate amount of information, turn-taking, etc)
*Use appropriate eye contact, facial expression, gestures for presentation. |
What else do you like to use in your “Functional Toolbox?”
If you want more ideas like this, check out the Home Sweet Home Series, Back To Work Series, and previous Functional Toolbox posts (Garden Seed Packets, Cookbook, Tool Kit, Photos).
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