How to Teach a Child to Use Irregular Past Tense Verbs:

In this video, speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark shows you how to teach a child to use irregular past tense verbs.

Past Tense Verbs Therapy Kit

Teaching Past Tense Verbs

No-Prep Therapy Kit

Sample Goal for Irregular Past Tense Verbs:

Client will correctly use past tense verbs (irregular and regular) with at least 80% accuracy during unstructured conversational speech when discussing past events.

Therapy Phases for Teaching Irregular Past Tense Verbs:

  1. Regular Past Tense Verbs in Short Sentences: Client will correctly use regular past tense verbs (by adding “-ed” to the end of a verb) in short sentences with at least 80% accuracy when answering “what happened” about a past event or picture.
  2. Irregular Past Tense Verbs in Short Sentences: Client will correctly use irregular past tense verbs (by changing the verb to the correct past tense form) in short sentences with at least 80% accuracy when answering “what happened” about a past event or picture.
  3. Mixed Past Tense Verbs when Answering Questions: Client will correctly use regular and irregular past tense verbs when answering questions about a story or picture with at least 80% accuracy.
  4. Mixed Past Tense Verbs in Structured Conversation: Client will correctly use regular and irregular past tense verbs when providing answers to open-ended questions or prompts (such as “tell me about your last birthday party”) with at least 80% accuracy.
  5. Mixed Past Tense Verbs in Unstructured Conversation: Client will correctly use past tense verbs (irregular and regular) with at least 80% accuracy during unstructured conversational speech when discussing past events.

Tips for Teaching Irregular Past Tense Verbs:

Use Before and After Pictures:

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Show the before and then the after and ask “what happened?”.  The child must use the correct past tense to talk about what happened.

Or, Act it Out:

Tell the child “watch me” and then do an action that you know has an irregular past tense verb.

Then, ask the student “what happened?” and have the student use the past tense to describe it.

Practice them Over and Over Again:

Much of using irregular past tense is just having to memorize what each one is.  There aren’t a ton of rules and the rules that do exist have a ton of exceptions.  It’s best to just explicitly teach each one and practice them over and over again.

Start Correcting and Reminding in Conversation:

Once they start to get the hang of it, start correcting them in conversation or repeating back their errors to see if they can fix it themselves.  You want them to hear that it sounds wrong.

Past Tense Verbs Therapy Kit

Teaching Past Tense Verbs

No-Prep Therapy Kit

Carrie Clark, Speech-Language Pathologist

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I sunburn very easily, it’s kind of ridiculous.  I have to be very careful when out in the sun, especially if we travel South at all.

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