Let's Talk Speech & Language Guest Post: Following Directions with Origami

The below information is a guest repost from the blog:  "Let's Talk Speech and Language", I want to thank Ms. Sohan for providing "creative and affordable therapy tools" on her blog.  Stay up to date on information by following Ms. Sohan on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. 

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Following Directions With Origami {Review}


The free ‘How to Make Origami’ app is a fun, simple tool to utilize with students who are bored with worksheets. This app will walk you and your students through the steps of how to make over 70 popular origami figures (crane, rabbit, giraffe, goldfish, tulip, etc) while using 3D animation of the folding process. Steps range from a simple 6 step walk-through on how to make a boat all the way up to the 78 step ‘how-to’ on creating a spider!   Users can easily go forward/backward through the steps as well as replay the animation. Each figure is rated for difficulty from easy to middle to hard. Directions for images rated easy and middle are provided for each step. For the images rated hard, no written directives are provided.


This can be turned into a great pragmatic language lesson wherein a student can take the lead and instruct others on the next step, engaging in a back and forth dialogue. Students have the opportunity to ask for clarification, repetition, or assistance; necessary social skills a lot of my students do not possess. Additional IEP goals related to following directions, auditory memory, sequencing, sentence formulation, can also be targeted. 

For additional reinforcement related to the skills targeted, graphic organizer can be used to recall and organize steps used to create the origami image. Further working on receptive and expressive language.

Below are a few screen shots of one my favorite figures from this app.... a pig! 

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Each image is presented on the screen prior to steps being introduced.

Each step is animated and accompanied with written directives at the bottom of the screen (for easy and middle images only).

All steps can easily be replayed. Users can go forward or back through steps.

App Compatibility:

The ‘How to make Origami’ App is available on all Apple products (iPhone and iPad) as well as all Android products (phone and tablet). I have the app on both my Android phone and iPad.  In the therapy room setting I prefer using the iPad where it’s large screen is a perfect size for my small group sessions.

Have fun folding!

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Author Bio:  Ms.Sohan is a Middle School Speech-Language Pathologist from New York. She is the author of the blog Let’s Talk Speech and Language where she posts about behavior management, free apps, therapy techniques, and more.

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