10 Must Have Books for Speech Therapy
This is a list of my favourite books that I use over and over again in the clinic! Having read many children’s books, I tend to be quite choosy about the ones I use. They need to be hardy and durable for use day after day. They also need to give me the right response from a variety of children (‘Do again!”). I also like to have books that can be used for a variety of goals – speech sound , vocabulary building or rhyming.
My top ten books listed below can all be used for different targets which makes it economical!
1. What’s in the Witch’s Kitchen?
A flap book with a difference. Kids love the way each page can change from something ‘nice’ to something ‘yukky’. Do you want strawberry tea or goblins wee?!
Speech Sounds – ch / j (witch, kitchen, fridge, cheese, cherry tart, chocolate, pyjamas, jar)
Language – prepositions (in the toaster, in the jar, in the fridge)
2. Toes, Ears & Nose
A colourful lift the flap book for toddlers and preschoolers. Under each flap is a body part. Lift up the ear muffs and there are the ears! Lift up the glasses and say eyes.
Speech Sounds – t (toes, tummy, tongue, teeth, feet.)
Language – body parts vocab
3. Maisy Grows a Garden.
Beautifully selected vocabulary for this theme. There are fruits, vegetables, insects and plenty of words like digging, pouring and watering. A side panel on each page has some of the target pictures for your toddler to find on the page. There are some nice pop up pictures too to keep it interesting.
Language – Vocab -garden, fruits/vegetable (carrot, strawberry, watering can, sunflower, apple, lettuce) and Verbs (dig, pour, water)
4. Pirate Pete
This is a great book to be used in so many ways! Each page has 6 cut out pictures to choose from which can then be slotted into the page to create your own story. What a fantastic way to get loads of practice with the same book!
Speech Sounds – p (Pirate Pete, pig, purse, party hat, pirate hat, parrot, patch.)
Language – prepositions, (on the boat, in the chest, on his head) & simple sequences
5. Mrs McNosh Hangs out the Wash
A crazy mum hangs out clothes and then everything else she can find on the line. A phone, newspaper, the cat etc. A straightforward sequence with lots of colourful pictures.
Speech Sounds – sh (McNosh, wash, washing line, shorts, shirt, shoe)
Language – Clothes vocab, rhyme, simple sequence
6. One Mole Digging a Hole
This is a counting book with one action on each page. It also has an easy rhythm. One mole digging a hole, two parrots pulling up carrots and so on!
Speech Sounds – f (four, five, foxes.)
Language – verbs, (dig, pull, pick, prune), animals vocab, (Mole, parrot, fox),rhyming.
7. Oh dear!
Another Rod Campbell classic. Follow the little boy as he looks in each animal’s home to find the eggs for breakfast. Name the animals as you go (horse, pig). Also you can introduce a negative (‘no eggs‘) on each page until he finds them at the end. Younger babies can just shake their head.
Speech Sounds – animal noises for copying
Language – negatives,(no eggs) prepositions, (in the barn, in the nest), animal vocab.
8. Pip & Posy. The Super Scooter
The Pip and Posy series are very cute with clear illustrations and simple story lines. They are suitable for toddlers and young preschoolers. In this story Pip has a new scooter which everyone wants to ride. Posy snatches it and then falls off in the park. Lots of other animals in the park on the swings and slide come to help.
Speech Sounds – s blends (scooter, snatch, swing, slide, snail.)
Language – simple narrative, verbs
9. Songbirds series
This whole series by Oxford Reading Tree is fantastic! These early readers are short in length with decodable text for beginning readers. However, of course they are wonderful for non-readers too working on speech sounds. Each book has a target which is repeated throughout (eg ‘th’).
Speech Sounds – s blends, sh, ch, triple s blends, k – the list goes on!
10. My First Lift the Flap ABC
This is a large board book with busy pages full of photographic images. The first opening has a load of pictures starting with A – D, the next E – H and so on. Each page opening has up to 20 different pictures with the word written underneath and about a third of these have a flap to lift open. Younger children love searching the page for the little flaps. It is an easy way to gets lots of naming words.