My favorite contextualized language intervention approaches to use as an elementary school based SLP is Literacy Based Therapy + Narrative Language Intervention!
Literacy-based therapy and narrative language intervention not only provide multiple opportunities to support communication skills in a meaningful way, but they also help build essential language skills in a fun and engaging way!
To make your planning easier, I’ve curated a list of fantastic books that I think are some of the best books you can use in speech therapy each month of the year!
I've also suggested some skills that are perfect for targeting with each book.
Whether you're looking to improve articulation, language comprehension, vocabulary, pragmatic skills, or narrative skills, these carefully selected books will provide the perfect context for your therapy sessions!
The Best Books For Speech Therapy
🔴 August - Back to School
🟠 September - Pirates & apples
🟡 October - Fall & Halloween
🟢 November - Food & Thanksgiving
🔵 December - Winter & Christmas
🟣 January - Hibernation & Fairy Tales
🔴 February - Dragons & Valentine's Day
🟠 March - Spring
🟡 April - Earth Day & Dinosaurs
🟢 May - Space
🔵 June - Summer
🟣 July - Camping & Zoo Animals
August - Back to School
Favorite Book: 🖍️ How the Crayons Saved the School
Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunctions and/but, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation
Resources: Printable book companion
Honorable Mention: 🦃 Turkey Goes to School (book companion)
September - Pirate & Apples
Favorite Pirate Book: 🏴☠️ Pirate's Perfect Pet
Skills: story grammar & retell, various settings, "where" questions, vocabulary, past tense verbs, adjectives, describing, conjunction "but," /r/ sound
Honorable Mention: 🏴☠️🐿️ Squirrel Me Timbers (book companion)
Favorite Apple Book: 🍎 Apple Trouble
Skills: story grammar & retell, comprehension questions, vocabulary, synonyms & antonyms, describing, adjectives, past tense verbs, conjunctions and/but, teamwork/cooperation
Resources:
October - Fall & Halloween
Favorite Fall Book: 🐿️ The Golden Acorn
Skills: story grammar & retell, wh questions, vocabulary, prepositions, past tense verbs, conjunction "but," teamwork/cooperation, articulation /r/ and /r/ vocalics
Resources:
Honorable Mention: 🎃 The Biggest Pumpkin Ever (book companion)
Favorite Halloween Book: 🎃 Turkey Trick or Treat
Skills: story grammar & retell, multiple attempt sequences, wh questions, vocabulary, prepositions, past tense verbs, conjunction "but," teamwork/cooperation, figurative language, articulation /r/ blends
Resources:
Honorable Mention: 🧹 How to Catch a Witch
November - Food & Thanksgiving
Favorite Food Book:
Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, past tense verbs, describing, adjectives, compare & contrast, antonyms, conjunctions and/but, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation
Resources: Free book guide
Favorite Thanksgiving Book: 🦆 No Turkey for Thanksgiving
Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, prepositions, past tense verbs, conjunction "but," problem solving, emotions, articulation "er" and "k" sounds
Honorable Mention:
December - Winter & Christmas
Favorite Winter Book:
🐻❄️ Polar Bear Island
Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms, describing, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunctions and/but/after, diveristy & inclusion, articulation /r/ vocalics
Resources:
Honorable Mention: ☃️ Sneezy the Snowman (book companion, adaptive book visuals)
Favorite Christmas Book:
Skills: story grammar & retell, multiple attempts, summarizing, vocabulary, describing, subjective pronouns he/they, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunctions but/so/after, rhyming, articulation /s/
Resources: Build a Reindeer extension activity for younger students & AAC users
Honorable Mention: 🎅🏽 How to Catch Santa Claus (free book guide)
January - Hibernation & Fairy Tales
Favorite Hibernation Book:
Skills: sequencing, synonyms, antonyms, prepositions, third person singular verbs, conjunction "but," subjective pronoun he, articulation /k/ and "air"
Resources: Printable book companion
Favorite Fairy Tale Book:
Skills: story grammar & retell, wh questions, vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunction so/but, sequencing
Honorable Mention: 🧌 Jellybeans for Giants (free book guide)
February - Dragons & Valentine's Day
Favorite Dragon Book: 🐉 How to Catch a Dragon
Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunction but/so/after, subjective pronoun he, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation, articulation /r/ sounds
Resources:
Honorable Mention: 🌮 Dragons Love Tacos (book companion)
Favorite Valentine's Day Book: ♥️ Turkey's Valentine Surprise
Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms, describing, prepositions, past tense verbs, conjunctions and/but, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation, figurative language
Resources: Printable book companion
Honorable Mention: 🐐 Mr. Goat's Valentine (free book guide)
March - Spring
Favorite Book: 🥕 Too Many Carrots
Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, sequencing, vocabulary, prepositions, past tense verbs, subjective pronoun he, conjunctions and/but/so/after, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation
Resources:
Honorable Mention: 🍀 Bear Wants More
April - Earth Day & Dinosaurs
Favorite Earth Day Book:
Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, verbs, conjunction so, subjective pronoun she, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation, articulation /r/ blends & /l/ blends
Resources: Digital book companion
Honorable Mention: ♻️ Michael Recycle Meets Litterbug Doug (free book guide)
Favorite Dinosaur Book:
Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, verbs, conjunction but/after/so, subjective pronoun she, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation, articulation /r/ blends & /l/ blends
Resources:
Build a Scene extension activity for early language skills & AAC users
may - Space
Favorite Book:
Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunctions so/after, subjective pronoun "she"
Resources: Digital book companion
Honorable Mention: 🚀 There Was an Old Astronaut That Swallowed the Moon
June - Summer
Favorite Book: 🍋 Cooler Than Lemonade
Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, vocabulary, describing, plural nouns, third person singular verbs, compare & contrast, conjunctions and/but/so/after, problem solving, articulation /f, k, l/ & "sh" sounds
Resources:
Honorable Mention: 🏖️ How to Code a Sandcastle
July - Camping & Zoo
Favorite Book:
Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunction "and", subjective pronoun they
Resources:
Honorable Mention: 🏕️ The Camping Trip
Favorite Book:
Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, making predictions, conjunction and, problem solving, subjective pronoun he, sequencing
Resources: Animal Early Language Activities
Honorable Mention: 🦁 My Room is a Zoo
I hope this has been helpful! Happy reading! 📖
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