This article was written by guest blogger Candace Denver for speakplaylove.com. More than one million children in the US receive school-based speech and language services. It was necessary then, for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to maintain clinical speech-language services via teletherapy during the COVID-19 pandemic closures. Studies indicate that over 60% of responding SLPs provided teletherapy to all or some students on their caseloads through Zoom and Google Hangouts. Despite 25% receiving no support or training from their district to maintain service provision, many SLPs were largely successful in their efforts.   Even as things go back to normal, the delivery of some SLP services will likely continue this way. There are plenty…

I wanted to do a bit of a “brain dump” of all the spring speech therapy themes I could think of. My hope is that reading through these theme ideas will get your creative juices flowing when it comes to planning your speech therapy sessions this spring! Spring Speech Therapy Themes: Baby Animals: matching baby animals to parents (animal vocabulary) Learn about baby animals (answer Wh- questions) bunnies/carrots chicks (make a chick craft) Flowers/Gardening: flower shop pretend play (free flower describing board to use for “ordering” flowers) plant life cycle (sequencing) learn about flowers (flower vocabulary, Wh- questions) parts of a flower (flower vocabulary) plant a seed  (following directions, sequencing)…

As a speech and language pathologist, there are a lot of fun themes to work on in the winter! Below I will share winter speech therapy activities, theme ideas, winter speech therapy books, and craft ideas. These ideas are mostly for students who are working on language goals – from emergent communication (think pre-k or minimally verbal students) as well as students working on language therapy skills such as following directions, inferences, and WH- questions. There are also a couple of articulation activities on the list!   This post contains affiliate links, which means we could receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have…

Those 2-3 weeks in December before school gets out can feel like an eternity. (When is break starting!?!) However, it can also be a time to add some fun, Christmas speech therapy activities into your sessions!   This post contains affiliate links, which means we could receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. Christmas Speech Therapy Themes: To get your mind thinking about different possibilities this season, here are some theme ideas! Cookies/Baking Gingerbread (houses or cookies) gifts – receiving and giving (see social skills idea below) Reindeer Mail (Letters to Santa or Holiday Cards) Stockings Christmas trees/pine trees Decorating Hot Cocoa…

I know that a lot of my students have found coloring to be an engaging and calming activity. I also know that in one of my school-based positions, I had  A LOT of students working on auditory comprehension goals – so I was always on the lookout for following directions speech therapy activities to use! Following Directions Speech Therapy Activities and Worksheets So now I just create my own Following Directions Coloring Activities! I wanted something that included a range of directions including simple one-step directions, directions with 1-2 modifiers, 2-step directions, and temporal directions (e.g. first/then, before you X, color Y). The first one I created was this “Around…

Do you love buying those mini-pumpkins as much as I do? When I went to Trader Joe’s this year, they had tons of adorable mini-gourds too! It got me thinking about pumpkin speech therapy activities. Here are some ideas: Pumpkin Speech Therapy Activities Ideas:   Pumpkin Speech Therapy Craft – 3D Pumpkin This adorable 3D pumpkin craft reminds me of the mini-pumpkins from Trader Joe’s: win-win! Plus students will love to take home the little pumpkin for carry-over! It includes articulation targets and language targets (like categories, synonyms, irregular plurals, and more) on the sides of the pumpkins that you can work on as students color, cut, assemble and glue…

Do you use wordless picture books for speech therapy? They are great for getting language samples! Just open the book and have the student tell you what they think is happening. But wordless picture books can also be used to target skills such as making inferences, creating a narrative, and answering questions. This post contains affiliate links, which means we could receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. Wordless Picture Books for Speech Therapy: Good Night, Gorilla: This silly book is great for younger children. As the zoo keeper says goodnight to all the animals, the gorilla secretly lets them all out…

Ahh, fall . . . sweater weather, warm drinks, and pumpkin everything. I love fall – and fall speech therapy activities are no exception! These ideas include lots of ideas for students who are working on language goals – from emergent communication (think pre-k or minimally verbal students) as well as students working on language therapy skills such as following directions, inferences, and WH- questions. There are also a couple of articulation activities in the list! This post contains affiliate links, which means we could receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended. Fall Speech Therapy Activities: Fall Crafts for Speech Therapy I…

Using YouTube videos for speech therapy can be a great way to grab students’ attention and to target so many language skills. The following YouTube videos are ones that I used when working with preschool and elementary-aged students on the autism spectrum, many of whom were minimally verbal and used AAC. Best YouTube Videos for Speech Therapy: Target: “Quiet Hands”/Impulse Control I loved to use this catchy music video with cookie monster to start off my small groups in the preschool classroom. I had visual icons of “quiet hands” and of “play” ready to go. Then I would set a moderately desirable toy set in the center of the table.…