10 Terrific Storybooks for Speech Therapy and How To Use Them.

What are your favorite storybooks for speech therapy? 

That is what I asked the bloggers at Speech Spotlight, and I am excited to share their favorites with you. Speech Spotlight is my other blogging home, where I collaborate with nine talented SLP blogger friends. Stop by and visit, if you haven't already!

Is your favorite for literature-based speech therapy here?

If you have visited me before at Speech Sprouts, you know I think literature-based therapy is terrific. The cat's meow. Awesome. Outstanding. The bee's knees. Fabulous. (Maybe I like synonyms and idioms a little bit too?)

I will be definitely be headed to the library to check out this list of delightful children's books. 

There are some new ones in here for me. I'll tell you about one of my new favorites too!

1. The Pout-Pout Fish Goes To School by Deborah Diesen

Build vocabulary with
The Pout-Pout Fish Goes to School

Ashley from Sweet Southern Speech posted about her favorites in her post Building Vocabulary With Back to School Books. She writes "The Pout-Pout Fish series of books offer an excellent opportunity to use imagery for vocabulary building. Just look at his face on the cover!" 

2. Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One by Kate Duke

Susan from Kids Learn Language said, "One of my favorite books for therapy (only one???) is Aunt Isabel Tells a Good One, by Kate Duke." It's an engaging story that walks kids through how a story is written - what elements you need to have. 

Aunt Isabel tells her nice and nephew about stories, as she makes up a story from elements they all suggest - and the heroine saves everyone. Her kids have always loved it! Susan has a companion resource for this book in her store. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/.../Story-Elements...


3. Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert

Ashley also shared this lovely book in her blog post Fall Books and How I Use Them in Speech Therapy. She targets compare and contrast, sequencing, vocabulary and superlatives. It's also a terrific book for incorporating fall art in speech therapy. 

4. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

Linda from Looks Like Language  loves using A Bad Case of Stripes to help students make inferences and work on social skills. It helps students understand that other people have different perspectives. Linda reads it with her students to work on interpreting facial expressions and talk about how people feel about each other.  

5. Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague

Linda also really likes this book for teaching students to look for pictured clues to make inferences, compare and contrast, and for talking about how different people can have different viewpoints in the same situation. 

6. Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Teach Describing words with Dear Zoo.

Colette from Alberta Speechie shares this favorite in her blog post on Bringing Children's Lit Into Speech. She says Dear Zoo is not only great for teaching the names of different zoo animals, but it also uses describing words such as jumpy, fierce, grumpy and naughty which might be new to the children. Children love to act out the different descriptions! 

7. The Apple Pie Tree by Zoee Hall

This favorite is from Ashley at  AGB Speech Therapy. She loves to use this book for teaching seasons and sequencing. The book is colorful and engaging, and has a delicious apple pie ending! I can see myself making some mini-pies with my students after reading this one.

8. Press Here by Herve' Tullet

Follow one-step directions
with Press Here 

Jennifer from Speech Therapy Fun says she loves Press Here because it's so different from the average book. It's great for one step directions and the students love seeing what happens when they follow the directions. I definitely agree, Jennifer! It's one of my favorites, and you can read a review of this book HERE at Speech Sprouts.

9. The Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Sarah of Speech is Beautiful picks this adorable book as a favorite of hers. The main character is a little green pea who does not want to eat his candy. (What a fun turnaround to read with any veggie-hating children!) This simple story is perfect for initial /p/ and story retell.

10. Peck, Peck Peck by Lucy Cousins

Final /k/ loaded!
Read my review HERE

This story about a young woodpecker and his daddy is one of my newest favorites at Speech Sprouts. You can read the full review  HERE. I am always looking for sound-loaded books, as you may know if you have read about my sound-loaded storybooks for articulation freebie. This book is repeats the word "peck" over and over as the little woodpecker flies off to try out his new skills. Perfect for teaching final /k/. It's also great for where questions, categories and rhyme too. 

There you have it! 

I hope you have discovered a couple new titles for your therapy room.

I know I can't wait to try out some new storybooks with my students. You can always find my reviews of more great children's books by clicking the Storybook category at the top of my blog on my home page. I will be adding new ones to my Best-ever Storybooks series, so check back often, and let me know if you have a favorite you think I would like. 

Now, where's my library card?  I'm going to need it!

Until next time my friends.