Children find describing What’s Wrong pictures a fun carryover activity for articulation, grammar, and vocabulary. When a child is shown a picture of the Statue of Liberty holding an ice cream sundae, an instant smile appears!
This speech and language task also allows a child to demonstrate the ability to link visual and cognitive skills, which is crucial for pre-reading. A child has to carefully examine a What’s Wrong picture, just as he needs to look closely at printed words to notice blends.
When a child focuses on and attends to a silly picture and can explain why it is crazy for a polar bear to be on the beach, he uses reasoning skills and makes inferences.
Picture completion (pictures that have something missing) subtests appear on intelligence tests, such as the WPPSI (Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence), the WISC-IV (Wechsler Intelligence Scale For Children), and the Stanford Binet (Picture Absurdities). When asked to identify a missing part of a familiar pictured object, a child’s visual acuity and reasoning skills are measured.
Children can practice “what’s wrong” and “what’s missing” in special coloring books. What’s Wrong? by Anna Pomaska is a good starting point. Then, try What’s Wrong with this Picture?, also by Pomaska. As part of their homework, children can discuss one page daily with a parent. Also, read Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss together.
Stephanie is a pediatric speech therapist in Manhattan.