help for toddler speech delay

10 Best Books to Help Your Toddler With Speech Delay

books for toddlers speech therapy

Touchy-Feely Books

The best books to help with toddler speech delay (our favorites), 1. my toddler talks: strategies and activities to promote your child’s language development by kimberly scanlon., 2.the speech teacher’s handbook: a parent’s guide to speech and language by molly dresner., 3. counting kisses by karen katz., 4. the pigeon has feelings too by mo willems., 5. if you give a mouse a cookie by laura numeroff., 6. that’s not my puppy by fiona watt., 7. first 100 words board book box set by roger priddy., 8. hickory dickory dock and other favorite nursery rhymes illustrated by sanja rescek., 9. barnyard dance by sandra boynton., 10. the napping house by audrey and don wood..

By Lori Ennis, M.S. Ed.

books toddler speech delay

If your toddler has a speech delay , you’ve most likely found yourself googling, best books to help with toddler speech delay , in hopes of helping your child develop his or her speech. We know that reading makes a difference in the language and vocabulary acquisition of all children.

In fact, a recent study found that reading to our children every day gives them exposure to nearly 1.4 million more words by the time they enter kindergarten as compared to their peers who are not read to consistently. Other studies have found that reading to your children gives a better predicted reading success rates. In his research , Dr. Dominic Massaro found that while talking to your children definitely gives them better vocabulary, reading to them is even more effective.

It’s particularly important to find books to help toddlers with speech delay because reading those to them can go a long way in helping them develop word mastery. Dr. Massaro studies language acquisition and literacy and found that when it comes to looking for books to help toddlers with speech delay, picture books are two to three times as likely to expose your child to new words and pronunciations.

books toddler speech delay

What To Look For In Books To Help Toddlers With Speech Delay

When it comes to finding the best books to help with toddler speech delay, you’ll want to pay attention to several things. Toddlers love details and will scan picture books for things they recognize, are unfamiliar and things about which they are curious. The best books to help toddlers with speech delay will have clear and colorful illustrations and/or drawings. Toddlers love photographic images as well, and love to find the similarities to their own lives in them. It’s important, though, that the illustrations are not too busy and distracting because sometimes they’ll focus more on what they see over what you’re saying. Point out words to describe the images for a better connection.

As well, when looking for the best books to help toddlers with speech delay, remember that toddlers love the neat little facets of books that keep their interest. They love to touch and feel, so books that pop-up or have lift-the-flaps or things that they can rub for sensory input are great to keep them interested and listening. 

When it comes to content for books, remember that when choosing books to help toddlers with speech delay, you’re not necessarily looking for big concepts or to teach them something new. There are plenty of great books out there that they’d love and you can read to them that will do that, but when looking for toddler books to help with their speech delay, you want to find books that pay particular attention to every-day vocabulary.

Toddlers love to make connections, so books about animals and environments with which they’re familiar are always winners. As are books about families and friends, food and playthings. When you’re reading, make connections with them; “Yes, you have a raincoat just like the one she is wearing!” Those connections help solidify basic vocabulary concepts as you’re reading.

books toddler speech delay

And while you may find lots of books with tactile opportunities for toddlers, you still may find you’ll want books that will grab and keep their attention. Those books tend to be ones that have rhyming patterns, lots of opportunity for inflection and intonation. Books with alliteration and onomatopoeia are always hits and especially when caregivers have fun in the reading, so don’t shy away from sound effects!

There are so many authors and books that we adore to help your toddler’s speech develop, so this is by no means an exhaustive list. We also know that there are tons of books to read to your child, but also some you might want to read for yourself and we’ll throw those in too.

Comparison Chart

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My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities to Promote Your Child’s Language Development

books for toddlers speech therapy

The Speech Teacher’s Handbook: A Parent’s Guide to Speech & Language

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Counting Kisses

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The Pigeon Has feelings, too!

books for toddlers speech therapy

A Mouse Cookie First Library (If You Give…)

books for toddlers speech therapy

Thats Not My puppy

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First 100 Board Book Box Set (3 books)

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Hickory, Dickory, Dock: and other favorite nursery rhymes (Padded Nursery Rhyme Board Books)

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Barnyard Dance! (Boynton on Board)

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The Napping House board book

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This is a great resource for parents and caregivers who believe their toddlers may have a speech delay. Scanlon is also the author of Learning To Read Is A Ball, and knows the connection between developing language and reading skills in later school. She gives parents and caregivers fun and practical ways to help facilitate language development and advice parents can use that doesn’t frustrate them or their children. The book also offers various play routines (because children learn best through connected play) that will help develop speech and language skills, and step-by-step directions for caregivers and parents who are first working with toddlers who have speech delays .

books for toddlers speech therapy

Dresner is a Speech-Language Therapist and Feeding therapist who believes that helping your child develop speech and language skills should be fun, whether you have a toddler with speech delay or not. She incorporates fun and functional tips and activities that you can use with your child to boost their language development, and she does so with your child’s daily routines in mind. She offers milestone information and fun activities to help your child meet them, and it’s another great parent reference for working with toddlers who have speech delays.

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Author and illustrator Karen Katz use this delightful book with colorful imagery to engage toddlers as they’re read to by parents, grandparents, and caregivers. She uses functional daily words but also adds vivid adjectives to give your toddler the exposure. It gives repetition in counting kisses, as well as simple sentences you and your toddler can say together and repeat with each other.

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Iconic children’s author Mo Willems offers toddlers little doses of his famous pigeon in this book that gives children exposure to feeling words as well as the opportunity for listening to and learning appropriate inflection and pragmatic reflection. His books are wildly popular with kids of all ages, but with their very basic wording and engaging images, toddlers with speech delays will feel comfortable listening to and repeating pigeons strong feelings and emotions

books for toddlers speech therapy

We love all of Numeroff’s Circle stories but have a special place in our hearts for the one where we first met Mouse. Toddlers LOVE the antics of Mouse and the repeated characters with minimal text on the pages make it perfect for allowing your toddler to take in the scenes and the words. There’s lots of opportunity for conversation. “Is Mouse silly? Yes, Mouse is SILLY!” and this collection has not only If You Give A Mouse A Cookie but If You Take A Mouse To School in board book form, perfect for toddlers.

books for toddlers speech therapy

Any of the Usborne’s “That’s Not My…” series books are perfect books for toddlers with speech delay because they offer so much tactile opportunity. The repeated text is perfect for toddlers to giggle with anticipation over, and to mimic in their own daily routines with practical wording. They introduce basic vocabulary with some enriched adjectives but with minimal phrasing, so toddlers are not overwhelmed as they feel the different features of the puppy. You can’t have enough of these books!

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This is a must-have set of board books (also makes a GREAT baby shower gift!) for any parent of a toddler but definitely for parents of toddlers with speech delays. His colorful pictures with literally nothing but the object word allow toddlers to hear you say the word and to have an understanding of what they’ve heard (with the help of the picture). This is pivotal to their language acquisition as toddlers with speech delay will learn best by hearing the word and having a connected understanding of the word for reference. We love that they’re real pictures as toddlers will be able to make real-world connections.

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Books based on classic nursery rhymes with sing-songy tempo are perfect for toddlers, particularly if they show interest in music anyway. The repeated text is a great listening and learning tool for toddlers and the timeless words can be put to music. Sometimes toddlers with speech delays will be able to ‘sing’ or ‘hum’ when they can’t otherwise ‘speak,’ so giving them a repertoire of rhymes with pictures to make a connection is a great way to build vocabulary.

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Sandra Boynton’s books are fabulous resources for toddlers with speech delays because they have plenty of repeated text, colorful imagery, and fun antics that keep toddlers engaged and participating in the story! Toddlers love dancing and stomping with the barn animals, and that added sensory input as they’re hearing and processing what they hear helps bring the words to them in a more concrete way. We love the verbs she gives toddlers with each animal’s activities and there’s minimal text on the pages for better interest in illustrations while listening.

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Another toddler favorite, it’s especially great for toddlers with speech delay because it uses repeated speech for a connected story from plot to resolution. It has been enhanced with beautiful imagery and attention to detail that toddlers will happily enjoy. There’s plenty of opportunity for authentic conversation with your toddler, “What’s going on here? Where what’s the dog doing? Where’d HE come from?” and it’s a story they’ll want to hear over and over. And that’s exactly what you’re looking to have happened!

These are but just ten of our picks for the best books to help with toddler speech delay. Any book with colorful images, minimal and/or repeated text and authentic conversation opportunity can make a difference and be a best book for toddlers, but the most important thing is the vocal exposure.

Happy reading!

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The Pedi Speechie

Speech Therapy for Toddlers

Are you looking for ideas for speech therapy for toddlers? Whether you are a speech-language pathologist (or a parent), this blog post is stuffed with ideas, suggestions, and great activities to try with young children! You will find suggestions for toddler books, fun activities, language modeling strategies, and resources for SLPs.

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This post contains affiliate links, which means we could receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended.

Speech Therapy Books for Toddlers (and Preschoolers)

Are you looking to build a great selection of books to use with toddlers and preschool students? From interactive books, repetitive books, lift the flap books, and wordless picture books, I’ve created a list of my favorite books get you started! Children’s books are an effective tool for targeting language.

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It’s especially important to choose books that are interactive and fun! Here are some great book recommendations for a speech therapist to try using in therapy:

  • The Big Book of Exclamations – this interactive book is a fun way to work on imitating actions, gestures, sounds, and exclamations in therapy! Bonus: It’s written by a speech language pathologist!
  • Don’t Push the Button – this is SO much fun, and a great way to work on following simple directions and imitating sounds and actions.
  • Five Little Monsters – this is another fun interactive book that my students enjoy
  • No No Yes Yes – this book is hilarious and will provide easy opportunities to work on gesture and word imitation
  • Yummy Yucky – here is another fun book from Leslie Patricelli that will have your youngest clients engaged and laughing!
  • Little Blue Truck – the fun sounds and rhymes in this book, paired with engaging illustrations, make it a kid-friendly hit! Plus, it’s easy to practice animal sounds and vehicle sounds using this book!
  • Bear Wants More – part of the bear series, this book has beautiful, bright illustrations and focuses on the friendship between Bear and his friends! Plus, it’s a fun way to introduce animal names.
  • The Snowy Day – this classic book is absolutely magical to pull out in the winter- or any time of year!
  • Full, Full, Full of Love – this comforting book shares a special day between a boy and his grandmother- and the rest of the family- as they gather for a meal
  • Peek a Who – this book is quick and fun- plus, it’s a great way to work on sound imitation!
  • Where Is Baby’s Belly Button? Children the lift the flaps and can learn about body parts, such as the mouth and eyes.
  • Fluffy Animals (Baby Touch and Feel) – little kids will love this hands-on book!
  • My First Book of Baby Signs: 40 Essential Signs to Learn and Practice – for children with language delays, introducing some basic sign language can be very beneficial!
  • Where the Wild Things Are – this is an absolute classic written by Maurice Sendak, and is absolutely still popular and fun for kids today!
  • There Was an Old Lady – the old lady series is always a great go-to with younger kids- and even older children, too! Plus, this book series has colorful illustrations that appeal to kids of all ages.

Speech Therapy Books for Parents

If you want to recommend a book or two to parents, I especially love recommending My Toddler Talks by Kimberly Scanlon. This book explains language modeling strategies that parents can use to encourage language development at home.

Another great recommendation for parents is Let’s Get Talking by Mehreen Kakwan. This book helps encourage the modeling of functional first words.

Speech Therapy Activities for Toddlers (and Preschoolers)

Are you looking for some fun activities to try with younger children? Typically, hands-on, interactive, and child-led activities are best! This can mean going with the flow during speech therapy sessions.

Here are a few ideas!

speech therapy activities toddlers preschool

Put it in, take it out:

There’s really nothing more motivating for toddlers than stuffing real objects in- and taking them out- of other things. So, find a large dump truck toy , and have other small objects or vehicles nearby. Kids love putting objects in the dump truck. You’ll be able to model vehicle sounds and exclamations easily with this activity.

Toy Car Garage Play:

I love this Melissa and Doug parking garage set with wooden cars! Work on vocabulary such as ‘up’ and ‘down’, ‘fast’ or ‘slow’, or ‘in’ and ‘out’.

Tunnel play:

Pop-up tunnels are fun to crawl through. Hide real objects or pictures in the tunnel, and work on sounds, exclamations, and core vocabulary.

Feed the … activity:

You can make a “feed the monster” (or crocodile, or ANYTHING, really) activity. This will be a big hit! Buy a trash can with a flippable round lid, or even an empty Cascade box would work! Attach eyes to it, and you’re ready to go! For children with a speech delay, focus on early syllable structures such as VC (eat!) or CVC (yum!). For children with language delays, you can target core vocabulary words like ‘eat’ and ‘in’ while you feed the monster.

Little People Figurines:

Easily work on language therapy objectives using Little People Figurines ! Model language using parallel talk and self talk.

Sensory Play:

Sensory bins are other forms of sensory play (such as play doh) are very important! For ideas on sensory activities and sensory play, check out the book Sensory Play for Toddlers and Preschoolers by Casey Patch. I often have my students engage in sensory play WHILE I am reading aloud a story to them!

MagnaTiles:

Build creations and let imagination take over while modeling speech and language objectives.

How Language Is Learned

It is important to note that modeling speech and language should involve face-to-face interaction . Language acquisition is meant to happen through shared social experiences. Singing, talking, nursery rhymes, playing, and reading are all great places to start.

I do caution parents to limit screen time when possible. As a mom, I know this isn’t easy in today’s world. Research shows, however, that this is very important.

As speech therapists, know parent involvement is so important in early intervention.

Language Modeling Strategies

SLPs can explain some language modeling strategies to parents.

I explain to parents that they can simply never talk enough to their children. I tell parents to talk all day long about what their child is doing or experiencing. This is known as parallel talk .

Likewise, parents should also talk all day about what THEY are doing, seeing, hearing, and feeling. This is known as self-talk .

Other language modeling strategies can include expansion . If a child says a word, like ‘car’, the adult can repeat that and add a word (“Blue car!”)

I also encourage caregivers to use animated facial expressions . This is a fun way to elicit sound imitation. Also, it is important to help teach children to watch an adult’s mouth as words are modeled.

Speech development can also be encouraged by modeling vowels clearly . We often think of consonants, but many young children who are unintelligible or not yet speaking may be having some motor speech difficulties. SLPs might do this by modeling- “OH- Go!”

One final tip that speech therapists can give to parents is to decrease communicative pressure . As a parent, I know it can be frustrating when children don’t repeat words you’d like them to repeat. I explain the best course of action, however, is to simply model, model, model!

Resources for SLPs

Here are some resources for Speech Therapists to use when encouraging a child’s language development:

  • This research article discusses the importance of gestures and early intervention.
  • This article provides guidance on coaching parents with language modeling strategies.
  • This ceu course, by Cari Ebert, teaches autism strategies for early intervention

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books for toddlers speech therapy

Book Share Time

A selection of some of the best children’s books for encouraging speech and language development in young children. Use the filter function to search for specific speech and language goals within these books.

Filter books Clear all

  • Baby & Toddler
  • Household Items
  • Occupations
  • Descriptive Sequence
  • Action Sequence
  • Reaction Sequence
  • Abbreviated Episode
  • Complete Episode
  • Complex Episode
  • Interactive Episode
  • True Narrative
  • Character Flaw
  • Conquering the Monster
  • Finding Tale
  • Journey Tale
  • Losing Tale
  • Meeting Tale
  • Rags to Riches
  • Repetitive Tale
  • Tale of Fear
  • Warning Tale
  • Wishing Tale
  • Traditional Opening
  • Character Description
  • Initiating Event
  • Direct Character Speech
  • Repetition for Emphasis
  • Descriptive
  • Functions of Items
  • Parts of Object
  • Differences
  • Similarities
  • Explain Means to a Goal
  • Identify Obstacles to a Goal
  • Definitions
  • Adjectives (Describing Words)
  • Comparatives
  • Conjunctions (Joining Words)
  • Copulas (Is/Are/Was/Were)
  • Plurals - regular
  • Plurals - irregular
  • Possessive Nouns
  • Prepositions
  • Pronouns - objective
  • Pronouns - possessive
  • Pronouns - reflexive
  • Pronouns - subjective
  • Superlatives
  • Tense - present progressive
  • Tense - third person singular
  • Tense - past
  • Tense - future
  • Verbs - irregular (past tense)
  • Verbs - action
  • Verbs - mental
  • Copying Sounds
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Dobbing/Tattling
  • Family Dynamics
  • Following Rules
  • Good Behaviour
  • Greeting/Farewell
  • Negotiating
  • Problem Solving
  • Taking Turns
  • Voice Volume

Sorry, there are no books matching your search criteria.

We are working hard to get more books up, so keep checking back regularly.

Perhaps reduce the number of targets selected or reset your search to show all books?

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100+ Children’s Books for Speech Language Development

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100+ Children’s Books for Speech-Language Development

Categorized by target sounds.

Reading to your child is so important, especially if your child has a speech or language disorder. Reading aloud to your child will activate their imagination, expand their understanding of the world around them and help them develop their expressive (talking) and receptive (listening / understanding) language skills. Your child’s brain is developing each and every day from birth, so start reading to your children daily, right away.

Need help finding a book? The speech and language pathologists at Kidmunicate have compiled a growing list of 100+ Children’s books for speech language development. We arranged the list based on sounds. So if your pre-schooler or school age child is having a problem producing a particular sound then choose a book from that sound category and emphasize the sound. It’s important to note that a child practicing a sound incorrectly can be counterproductive. It’s always a good idea to work with a pediatric speech pathologist first. A good pediatric speech pathologist will teach your child how to produce the sound correctly and will also show you how to coach your child.

We also assembled a list of books that build a child’s vocabulary. We have arranged a list of books for animals, clothing, body parts, counting, colors, food, and prepositions. Check them out below.

Here are some tips for reading children’s books for speech-language development:

Tips for reading to infants and toddlers

  • Read to your child daily because his or her brain is developing every day.
  • It’s ok to read your child’s favorite book over and over again. The repetition will help, but continue to expose them to other great books.
  • Chose books with rhymes.
  • Choose books with a wide variety of vocabulary words. (Animals, colors, body parts, clothing, numbers, etc.)
  • Build up their reading time tolerance. Start with shorter sessions and continually add time.
  • Point to and talk about the pictures.
  • Ask your child questions. Where is the dog?
  • Read the story and then pause to let them fill in the words. Use real objects like plastic animals, cars or food to allow your child to see, hear and feel the objects you are reading about.
  • Relate the story to them if you can. The bear is a baby just like you.
  • For toddlers, follow the words spoken with your finger to connect the words with the sounds.

Tips for reading to pre-schoolers and school children

  • Read to your child daily. Again his or her brain is developing every day.
  • Read books that are on their reading level.
  • Emphasize sounds or syllables that your child may be struggling with. We have listed the books by sounds to help you find some great books to use to practice particular sounds.
  • Ask your child questions about the sounds. What sound does baby? – Pointing to it to start. What other words start with a /b/ sound?
  • Relate the story to them if you can.
  • Encourage them to read as much as they can. When they get tired, you can pick up where they left off.
  • It is still a good idea to read to them often even after they know how to read.
  • Read the story and then pause to let them fill in the words. (Emphasize trouble sounds)
  • Use real objects like plastic animals, cars, or food to allow your child to see, hear, and feel the objects you are reading about.
  • If you have both an infant or toddler and a school-age kid, it’s ok to read to different stages at the same time because children love stories. Read a book for the school-age child, then have the school-age child help you read a book for the infant or toddler.

The children’s books for speech-language development listed below are linked to Amazon. Full disclosure, if you purchase a book through our site we receive a small commission that we use to run the site and create more content. Thank you for supporting our site with your purchases.

The Sound
/b/
/ch/
/d/
/f/
/g/
/h/
/j/
/k/
/l/
/m/
/n/
/p/
/r/
/s/
/sh/ by Joy Cowley (Age range 4-8)
/t/
/th/
/v/
/w/ by Joy Cowley (Age range 4-8)
/y/ by Carol Pugliano-Martin
/z/
Animals by Carol Pugliano-Martin by Joy Cowley (Age range 4-8)
Body Parts
Clothing  by Jonathan London. (Age range 2 to 5)
Colors  by Matthew Van Fleet. (Age range 1 – 6)
Counting
Food
Prepositions  by Felicity Brooks. (Age range 2 and up) Any book, like Find the Duck and Find the Kitten in the Find Its Series is great for prepositions.

One Comment

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Thank you for this wonderful list!

I’ve created a FREE eBook that is perfect for October. It is targeting the “g” sound but all of my K-2 students seem to love it. I hope you’ll check it out and pass along the word: https://www.amazon.com/Ghostly-Night-Jeanette-Stickel-ebook/dp/B01MCSV4KE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1476444928&sr=8-2&keywords=jeanette+stickel

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Great Books for Toddlers with Speech Language Delays (with Therapy Activities!)

first words book

This morning a mom who read my “First Sessions” toy list asked me if I would send her a list “just like that” for my favorite books to use with toddlers during those first few speech therapy sessions. This post is my answer to her request!

Before I share my list of GREAT Books for Toddlers, let me pass on my BEST tidbits of wisdom I’ve discovered during my 20+ year career for using books with toddlers with speech-language delays. The first recommendation is critical:

If a young child HATES books, don’t force him to read!

Some parents and therapists are surprised at this advice because we all know how beneficial reading is for kids, but let me tell you why forcing a toddler to read is counterproductive.

When you force a toddler to participate in a truly non-preferred activity, particularly during the first few therapy sessions when you’re just getting to know each other, he’s not going to learn anything other than YOU are someone he DOES NOT LIKE because you make him do things he HATES. Therefore, he may begin to HATE you too. (Sad, but true!)

As a parent, we have to make our own children do things they don’t want to do every day – take baths, brush their teeth, change a dirty diaper, turn off the iPad or TV, go to bed, take medicine, and on and on and on…

But as a speech pathologist, you really don’t have to do things a toddler doesn’t like, especially in the beginning. During those first few sessions concentrate on building your relationship, or as I like to think of it, developing a special friendship with a child. I don’t understand why a therapist would want anything else. My cornerstone philosophy is this…

I want the child to like me.

So do you!! Here’s why…

When a child likes you, he wants to be near you. Being near you is necessary because he has to be near you to learn ANYTHING you want to teach him.

When he’s running away from you, he’s not learning. When he’s hitting you, he’s not learning. When he’s crying, he’s not learning. When he’s doing anything except looking at you and listening to you and engaging with you, he’s not learning. Period.

As I tell parents all the time, I want your child to come to associate me with fun and to believe that I am “the giver of good things.” In order for that to happen, I have to give a child something he likes, rather than something he HATES.

If you continue to insist that a toddler read a book with you and he doesn’t like it, he’s naturally going to do everything he can to resist. Ignoring you, moving on, running away, hitting, biting, or just plain checking out. As we’ve already established, NONE of those behaviors facilitates learning.

So it’s YOUR job, as the therapist or a parent, to make this activity something he doesn’t want to resist. If you can’t figure out ways to help him happily participate in reading, then my best piece of advice would be:

Don’t try books… yet…

Establish a child’s participation with you by playing together doing whatever he loves FIRST and then gradually move toward including books as a part of your therapy session. For additional information about why I believe it’s important to choose things a child likes during therapy, take a look at this post:

Why Motivation is Important

The good news is…

I have some super tricks that will make reading much more fun for many of our little friends who don’t necessarily HATE books, but who don’t exactly love them either. I’ll be including those tips as I present my list of books.

If you’d like to dig in with a more comprehensive discussion of these ideas, a couple of years ago I did a whole series of podcasts about books called “Making Books Better.” It includes milestones and theory in addition to a TON of practical, usable information and more specific “how to” guidance than I can list here in a post. Here are the links to those shows for you:

Making Books Better Podcast

Other quick tips to make reading books with toddlers with developmental delays easier for YOU:

1. Choose CARDBOARD books for toddlers and preschoolers . A long, long time ago I realized that I tend to get a little cranky when one of my little friends rips a page… To avoid that unfortunate but very common occurrence, I use only cardboard books!

2. Consider when you read with a toddler. Pick a time when a child is more likely to participate. If a child is all wound up, it’s probably not a good time for a book. If a child needs to run around to release some pent up energy, let her do that first, then read. If a child is hungry, feed him first, or better yet, let him eat while you read. Choosing better timing is all it takes for some children to begin to like books.

In sessions with busy kids, I try to pull out a book when a child is seeking comfort or is settling down. This is why reading at bedtime is so popular.

It’s also why reading during a therapy session can be a challenge. Sometimes we’ve worked hard to rev up a child’s little system to get him to the point where he can talk and perform, and then we switch gears and expect him to listen to a book. This can be too passive for many of our little friends, especially when they don’t really understand the words they’re hearing. We’ll have to tweak when and how we present the book to make it more active and more meaningful during therapy. These same strategies can work at home too for a child who has rejected a parent’s attempts to introduce books.

3. Sit together to read. I hold toddlers in my lap all the time to read books. Body on body contact is regulating and calming for young children, particularly when a toddler has a tough time sitting still. Holding him or her will also help build that all important social and emotional connection with a child. As therapists who work in early intervention, establishing this connection should be one of our first and primary goals. If a child will let you connect with him like this, it is a great beginning.

For toddlers who don’t like to be held, sit across from them and hold the book facing them to show them the pictures. If you’re having a hard time establishing joint attention while reading, meaning that the child no longer includes you in reading once he sees the book, sitting across from him will make it much more likely that he remembers you’re still there! Sometimes I even place a kid on a low coffee table or couch. I sit on the floor so that my face is level with the book and it’s more likely they’ll notice me as we read together.

4. Do your best to maintain control of the book. If a toddler gets upset and won’t let you hold the book, do your best to stay engaged and making yourself a necessary part of the activity without forcing him into a meltdown. No child learns language during a power struggle, so do everything you can to avoid them!

When a child won’t look at books unless she’s in total control, reading is not a shared activity. Until a child lets you participate and listens to you talk about what she’s seeing, there’s no language component to this activity. Remember the way children learn the language:

A child has to hear words before she learns to understand words.

A child must understand words before she learns to say words.

In a nutshell, an adult has to be a part of reading books in order for books to “count” as helping a child learn language. You can make an argument for providing books as a valuable solo activity for all children. However, for a toddler with a language delay, there’s no real language teaching going on unless you’re helping a child learn to link meaning with the pictures they’re seeing.

Upon closer inspection for some of these children, you may realize that she isn’t really even looking at the pictures. She may flip pages hurriedly or hold her face close to the page. In this instance, the child is engaging in visual self-stimulation, or “stimming,” and a book is not going to be your best tool to teach that child to understand and use words. Back up and teach this child to play together with you and include you in her activities. My best resource for this is Teach Me To Play WITH You.

Now that we’ve covered those basics, let’s move on to my list of Great Books for Toddlers! I’m also going to share with you a few of the ways I use these books during therapy sessions because frankly, you should be using different books for different purposes to target different goals with different kids. Do you see a theme here? You should tailor the book to the child and the specific skill you’re working toward. Of course you can use the same books for multiple purposes, but as you read, you’ll see what I mean…

1. Photograph Books with only 1 or 2 pictures per page

I LOVE Roger Priddy’s simple picture books and own so many that I can’t pick just one! Here are a few of my favorites for toddlers who don’t understand very many words yet.

Because you’re using photographs instead of cartoons or drawings, these pictures are more like REAL LIFE. This is particularly important for children with global, cognitive, and receptive language delays who may have difficulty understanding any kind of symbolism or have difficulty making associations and connections. They may not “get” that the picture of the sippy cup in the book is the same as their own sippy cup. When we use simple, realistic pictures, books become more meaningful for these toddlers.

The most obvious way to use this kind of beautiful book of real photographs is to teach early picture identification. You’ll do this by first “teaching” the words, which means you should point to the picture as you say the name of the picture OVER and OVER and OVER again. To learn to understand words and to eventually be able to point to pictures, a child has to hear the word OVER and OVER and OVER. There’s a theme here! It’s repetition .

When you are working with any late talker, one of the first things you have to do is to make sure is that a child understands words. If a two-year-old cannot point to several familiar pictures on request, and by that I mean consistently looking for and finding the right picture when you say, “Where’s the ____?” then he likely has a receptive language delay. This means a child doesn’t understand words as well as he should for his age. Many, many, many parents miss this important reason a toddler isn’t talking. If you suspect this could be a remote possibility for your child, please read this post:

If you’re thinking, my child knows the pictures, but he just won’t point when I ask him AND if this same child doesn’t consistently follow simple directions, then I would also, very gently, encourage you to consider the possibility of a receptive language delay. Receptive language delays are so overlooked in early intervention and even by pediatricians who mean well, but who don’t really understand language development themselves. I specialize in receptive language delays in toddlers and have some super information in my DVD series Teach Me To Listen and Obey 1 and 2 . Take a look at those fantastic resources for hands-on and immediate help for you! Just today a mom emailed to tell me how effective the DVD has been for her son after she implemented my “Tell him. Show him. Help him” approach.

Back to photography books…

The very BEST way I use simple picture books is to teach a child to follow directions using a book like this one.

Using this cute book about babies, you would teach very simple actions such as:

Kiss the baby. Pat the baby. Tickle the baby.

This kind of teaching is wonderful for kids who like books, but who don’t have great play skills yet or who have difficulty following verbal directions. In addition to working on receptive language, what you’re really teaching a child here is to imitate actions. This is the one of the first developmental steps in learning how to talk. Here’s a little summary of how I introduce this kind of activity with a book:

Keep your language very simple. Avoid over-talking since you can overstimulate a child with too much language and actually drive him away. Label the picture and keep your comments brief. Then once you’re sure the child is staying with you, begin to model the action you want him to complete. For example with this book with babies, this is what I would say:

“Baby! Ahhh baby! Look! Baby! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss the baby! Kiss! Give baby a kiss.”

Model and practice that same action several times as you’re saying “Kiss!” If a child doesn’t lean in to try to kiss the baby, move the book toward the child’s mouth. Don’t force him, but do help him. Keep it light and fun and keep kissing the baby’s picture yourself as a “model” for what you want him to do.

Patting is another action to try. Say something such as:

“Pat, pat pat! Pat the baby! Ahhh…. Pat! Pat that baby.”

If a child doesn’t pat the baby’s picture, offer hand over hand assistance and help a child complete this action.

Other movements you can try are tickle, hug, and give the baby a “high 5.” With a few props you could teach: wash the baby, feed the baby, hide the baby, etc…

If a child doesn’t like babies, find a book with something he does like. Here are other ones I’ve used based on a child’s individual preferences.

Here’s another hint…It doesn’t even have to make sense to you! If a child LOVES trucks, then you could even use a book like this one to teach him to imitate actions and follow directions – I  have! My little friend who was obsessed with trucks was fine kissing and patting his beloved “tu.”

Certainly you can extend this concept with other kinds of books. If you’re using a book with a picture of a door, model knocking on the door. If there’s a flower, pretend to smell the flower. Imitating actions is always a great beginning goal for late talking toddlers and using a book can be a very successful way to help a child learn how to do this!

Here’s one more suggestion in this category of simple photo books. I bought this book several years ago and have replaced the batteries, but it’s still going strong!

As a rule, I don’t like many “sound” books or books with buttons, but this one is EXTREMELY enticing for toddlers who don’t usually attend to books. You’ll want to be sure a child doesn’t perseverate or become “stuck,” pushing the buttons. To prevent that, MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE BOOK! Here’s the BEST way I begin with this book to focus on learning words rather than pushing buttons…

Open the book. Point to the picture as you’re naming the picture several times. Then say, “Let’s find it! Where’s the ____?” as you point to the buttons. If the child has difficulty finding the correct button, use your hand and arm to cover most of the buttons except the correct choice and 1 or 2 other options. Provide gentle hand-over-hand assistance if he needs help to push the button or can’t locate the correct button. Let the child push a couple of times, then return your attention to the pictures. It may help to flip the page to redirect the child’s attention. I also tap the picture several times to call attention to the picture. Some toddlers become fascinated with that tapping sound and will begin to imitate pointing.

2. Books Based on Songs

When a child likes music, books based on songs are a natural extension of this interest. If I’m working with a child who loves for me to sing, but hates reading books, this is my go-to trick! The song is your “hook” to capture a child’s attention.

Begin by singing the song as you normally would, and then the second time you start to sing the same song, pull out the book based on the song. Point to the picture that corresponds to the words you’re singing. It’s important to continue to sing the song in the same way you always do so that the child stays with you and begins to associate the book with the song.

Over time, move from true singing to using a more sing-song kind of speaking voice, and then to a more natural (but still animated!) reading voice with the same books. After a while, introduce other kinds of books still using your sing-song voice since you know a child responds well to this strategy.

Here are a few other titles to consider:

If you need some help remembering children’s songs or simple games and could use a little guidance with how to make these activities FUN for children who love music but who don’t interact or play with others very well, take a look at the description of my book Teach Me To Play With You  in that link.

3. Moo Baa La La La

All of Sandra Boynton’s books are precious, but my favorite is the one I have here, Moo Baa La La La. I’ve adapted this book to use with my little friends who are so BUSY that they can’t sit still for a book.

It’s easier to explain this on video than in writing, so watch this Therapy Tip of the Week video to see how I’ve modified this kind of book and then make it even more fun by adding other options for the pictures.

When you adopt the book, you’ll be giving a child something to do with the book, which means that he or she now has a reason to stay with you. Personally, I’ve had so much success with this method for years during speech therapy. After I published this Therapy Tip of the Week video last year, SLPs and Moms have emailed me to RAVE about how well this idea has worked.

It will take some extra time and a little investment to prepare this activity, but it can result in dramatic improvements.

4. Happy Colors – Bright Baby Books

This darling set is similar to the books listed in #1, but the complexity increases since there are several pictures per page. The activity I’m going to share is so special that it’s worth its own category! Here’s the book I used to set up this activity in 2010 and I’m still using the set today!

In this activity you’re teaching a child to match pictures to objects. For this activity, you will need to do additional work, but the results will justify your prep time! Let me share all the types of kids who will benefit from this activity:

  • A BUSY toddler who needs something more to do with a book than listen in order to keep his attention, but who is ready for a slight increase in difficulty.
  • A young child who understands some words and is following a few simple directions like those in #1, but who does not “get” pictures yet and is not pointing to pictures when you ask “Where’s the ___?”
  • Kids who only ‘tolerate’ books love this activity and with exposure to books in this context, they learn to like reading.
  • This is my favorite ‘beginner’ activity with books for many toddlers when language delay is the only or primary issue.

To organize this activity, you’ll gather objects to match pictures in the book. Try to match objects and pictures as closely as you can so that it makes sense to the child. It will not be necessary to find an object for every single picture, but try to get at least a couple of objects per page/s.

Because this is one of my standard therapy activities, I keep all of these things together in a bag so they’re ready to go when I need them. Moms I’ve worked with have also put together their own bags and have even taught babysitters and grandparents how to use this activity.

I also like to have a container or a bucket for the child to put the object away after she’s selected it to keep her on task and coming back to the book – otherwise, she may decide just to play and not come back to you and the book!

When you’re a first beginning, you’ll only ask a child to find one object for each page so that you can keep it moving pretty fast. I like to start with objects and pictures I think a child already knows so we build in a pattern of success from the beginning.

Here’s how to play:

Set out a few of your objects – don’t overwhelm a child with too many choices – pick 2 or 3. Say something like, “Look! Let’s find this one!” as you point to the picture and then say, “Where’s the ________?” as you say one of the objects you have available for her. Praise her liberally when she finds it or provide additional cues if she doesn’t.

I also have a child turn the pages if it seems to keep them involved in the book AND if it doesn’t provoke them into wanting to hold the book.

If  you’ve bought my first course on DVD  or if you’ve seen me teach that course live, I show a CUTE clip of my little friend Kellie and me using this activity in the Receptive Language Section. Take a look at that for a refresher!

This matching activity is a great way to keep kids involved, but it isn’t solely dependent on the book. Beyond teaching matching, you’re helping kids who don’t seem to understand the symbolism of pictures. You’re teaching them that the picture represents the object.

This one way of integrating real objects has been hands-down the most successful strategy I’ve ever used to help a child learn to identify pictures and to participate with books when he or she has shown little interest in the past. If you’re the kind of person who says, “Just give me one great take away idea …” then this one is it!  Get this book or a similar one, dig through your toys to find matches, or if you have to, get to Dollar Store and find the objects for your book. You’ll prep for this one time and then you have the activity FOREVER which is totally worth it!

5. Little Blue Truck

This has become my standard therapy activities in the last year because it’s SUPER engaging, especially for little boys who are fascinated with trucks and other things that go! The book has been even more fun now since I began to read it with “props.” As we did in the last activity, find toys that look very, very, very similar to the pictures in the book and then act out the story as you read.

As with the last activity, you’re giving the child something to do besides sit there and listen, which is huge for our busiest little guys who become “antsy” when they aren’t moving. This strategy has also helped several of my little friends who love books, but who don’t know how to play with toys. The book serves as a “script” for what to do and how to use the toy.

I implement this idea in therapy by reading a page and then playing with the toys. If a child doesn’t catch on immediately, I slow down a bit, read a line in the book again, and then very purposefully show a child exactly what to do with the toys. As I play, I rephrase any words I don’t think he understands.

I’ve taught this method to several families (and therapists) over the last year for kids who like books, but who have significant language delays and limited play skills. My Little Blue Truck bag has become a staple for their therapy programs and at home with parents to teach them how to play and associate the words in their books (or movies!) with real life. It’s also been helpful in teaching a child to consistently follow your directions with very few of the “compliance” issues we can sometimes see because they think they’re just playing. I’m sneaky like that and it works so well!

Last Christmas I videoed an extensive version of this idea. Before you watch, let me caution you… DON’T BE INTIMIDATED by the lengths I went to in order to recreate this book. My “every day” therapy sets of books with toys don’t have nearly the number of objects I included for the video. Start small! My original set for the Little Blue Truck I have linked here consisted of a blue truck, a dump truck, and several of the animals in the book. Over time, I built up inventory of potential props and I went all out for this Christmas Little Blue Truck since I was making a video for a course I was teaching.

6. From Head to Toe

I love any book by Eric Carle, but this one has become my favorite. Let me tell you who it works for:

  • “Busy” kids who can’t sit still and need to move.
  • Kids with limited vocabulary words – teach ACTIONS or verbs!
  • Groups of kids (You know when you walk in the daycare and suddenly, you’re the teacher!?!?)
  • Toddlers who are isolated and unaware of others but who respond to books.
  • Children with limited social skills who are ready for the next step. They may notice peers during gross motor activities like running on the playground, but they don’t yet participate in true parallel play.

Your goal is to get a child to imitate and perform the action in the book. Introduce the book by saying something like, “Let’s do what’s in the book!” Read a page, show a child how to copy the action, and encourage the child to imitate too. Everyone present should participate, including mom, siblings, or other children in a child’s class if you’re using this as a group activity. Read the entire book keeping it light and fun, even if the child isn’t 100% compliant. Use hand over hand assistant to help a child perform the movements if it’s not too disruptive and it doesn’t evoke negativity or an avoidance reaction from the child.

This book is repetitive so there’s a Verbal Routine. The repetitive line is, “Can you do it? I can do it!” I think it’s always fun if you can get your group to “yell” that line with you after they’ve heard you read it a time or two. The group yelling usually entices little ones who are reluctant to participate to try the action and they begin to anticipate the words. You may even get some early word attempts as their friends or family “yell.”  This technique is called Vocal Contagion and it’s so effective for late talkers!

The two important language strategies you’re using with this book are teaching a child to imitate body movements and verbal routines. You can find detailed instructions for using those techniques in my book Building Verbal Imitation in Toddlers.

7. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

If you’ve followed teachmetotalk.com for very long, you may be surprised that this book made my list since I PREACH teaching words that are meaningful and functional for late talkers.

Let me restate this… you should not worry about teaching a late talker letters, numbers, colors and shapes. Working on those words makes no sense at all when a child is not talking! A child should learn to say words he needs and can use all day long rather than ABCs, counting, or any of those other “academic” concepts. We should never focus on teaching this kind of vocabulary until a child is communicating pretty well. I encourage parents of the children I treat to hold off on teaching colors, shapes, numbers and letters until a child is consistently using short phrases.

There are some children who seem to have taught themselves letters, numbers, colors or shapes. I’ve seen children who were fascinated, almost obsessed , with this kind of visual information. When I see a child with this “splinter skill” for therapy, I use it as my way “in” with that child. I teach him to include me in his play by sharing his interest.

For young children like this, start with a book that includes his preference. With a child who is fixated on letters, I introduce this book and target listening practice by reading the book and then asking him to “Show me the b,” or “Where’s that r again?” or “Find the g and the h,” or “Where’s the yellow t?” You’ll make him feel successful since this is what he LOVES, but here’s what else you’re doing in those early sessions:

  • Making a connection with a child who may be difficult to engage
  • Targeting language processing or “listening” since he’s following directions
  • Building compliance since he’s responding to what you ask him to do
  • Meeting him where he is by using his quirk as a STARTING point and then bumping up the complexity as you become more creative about what you ask

I add magnetic letters like those you put on your refrigerator and “act out” the book with the letters as I read. You can use the side of the refrigerator. I’ve made a tree from construction paper and taped it on a metal cookie sheet for the background to play with the letters. It’s a great way to draw a child’s attention to me when he tends to leave me out of reading books.

Children who are “echolalic” with their favorite books, meaning they memorize and repeat the book out of context, often are initially confused when I demonstrate the book or what they’re saying, but if you keep at it, they will become intrigued. In some instances I’ve quickly noted huge progress in how they connect with me during an activity like this using their “echoed” topic.

If you have a child who FREAKS OUT over numbers, then I’d go with this version:

Here’s a Therapy Tip of the Week video where I’m discussing using a child’s special interest in this way with books:

  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear

I’m going to end this list with the quintessential speech therapy book that every SLP can quote in her sleep. We ALL own and use this book. Let me share a few of my best ways to use this book with toddlers.

For starters, the version I’ve posted here has a very cool sliding feature that even the “most belligerent hater of books” kid cannot resist! I’ve seen children dramatically improve their ability to point after we’ve practiced with this book because they learn to isolate their finger to slide the page.

Our little friends who are iPad-addicted like this version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear because it’s like ‘swiping’ an app! If you’re trying to help a little one break their addiction to technology (and I’m not even kidding!) or if you’ve become too app-dependent yourself in therapy, this is a great transition activity to help either of you back to interacting during real life with real people with more traditional activities!

Other excellent ways you can use Brown Bear:

  • Teach the signs for the animals. It’s a great vocabulary extender!
  • Do one Google search for matching pictures and use them on AAC devices!
  • Copy and laminate your pictures to use with Velcro like we discussed for book #3 or matching objects as I talked about for book #4!

But my second FAVORITE thing I do with Brown Bear is teaching…

Play Sounds!

Many toddlers begin speech therapy with the ability to make an animal sound or two and aren’t ready to jump to single words. Spend some time in this vocal play stage since you know this is where they can be successful! Check out this post for more ideas with play sounds… Let’s Make Some Noise! (For SLPs who need more help knowing the prerequisites for talking, get your hands on my CE courses on DVD – Early Speech-Language Development: Taking Theory to the Floor or Steps to Building Verbal Imitation in Toddlers !)

My BEST way and my FAVORITE way I use Brown Bear is to teach the word (or sign) for “me.” The word “me” is the last word of every page so it’s repetitive and qualifies as a Verbal Routine. A child begins to expect that word and if you set it up right, will often blurt it out before he even knows he’s talking.

Once a child has mastered the word “me,” I try to elicit “see” using the same strategy of reading the book until a child becomes familiar with the word and anticipates it.  I use my facial expressions, my body language, pacing my voice so that it primes his little pump to talk, and then the PREGNANT PAUSE, where he fills in the word. I don’t have a great clip of this to post today, but I’m going to do one soon just so you can see this SUPER SUCCESSFUL strategy.

This also has been the book I use most often when I’m working on teaching the vowel sound “eee.” Vowel sound errors are common in apraxia, a motor speech sound disorder. For more information about apraxia, check out my DVD Teach Me To Talk with Apraxia and Phonological Disorders .

—————————————————————–

While there are DOZENS of other books I like, these books are the ones I use over and over and over because they work !!

The books and the activities I’ve shared have been the most successful for me during therapy sessions AND, more importantly, in helping (moms and dads) know how to work on language when I’m not there!

Get the books.

Copy the activities.

HAVE SOME FUN!

Until next time…

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I love your work! I am a professor of early childhood special education and a speech language pathologist! I have worked to help children learn to communicate and I know how valuable the information you share is for both early interventionists and pediatric speech language pathologists!

Thank you for systematically organizing and explaining essential steps for young children to learn and develop. You are having a great impact on our profession, the ECE profession and families!"

"Thank you. If this is Laura herself reading this email let me take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you have put forth for us professionals. I own every manual (except the autism manual) and have watched every course on DVD. I have listened to countless podcasts. All of what I’ve come to be as an Early Intervention speech therapist was absolutely to your credit. With your resources at my side I have never needed to scramble for answers and strategies and above all the clear language I use when communicating with parents. My fun, animated affect and key phrases I use have been learned through watching your example. So….thank you! May you be blessed." Chaya

"I just wanted to thank you so much for your incredible help! You are so kind and lovely and every time I implement something you've taught in your manuals or videos it is always a success, I cannot thank you enough. I really appreciate how specific you are in giving us examples of wording to use and how to use a toy in therapy with your videos, it is exactly what I need to properly help my little students. I also really appreciate your list of books of list of toys. I have seen my little students make significant progress thanks to you. I'm looking forward to watching more of your videos, taking more of your CEU's, and reading more of your materials. From the bottom of my heart: thank you so much again!!"

"Dear Laura,

What an inspiration!

Thank you for helping me be a better Developmental Therapist. I often listen to your podcasts which help me help families.

Your enthusiasm, professionalism and the sheer volume of information is so great.

You are part of my team.

I just wanted you to know I appreciate you."

Thank you for your generosity in sharing so much knowledge in such a clear and enthusiastic way.

As a retired audiologist with a fabulous and language delayed grandson, I used your podcasts and outstanding publication, The Autism Workbook, to inspire and guide me over the past year.

It works!! He went from barely verbal, no gestures, didn't respond to his name etc etc to a verbal, social, curious, ready to imitate anything, fill in the blanks on familiar "set" speech, generate his own totally appropriate and mostly understandable sentences...not just short phrases anymore... full little paragraphs...about imaginary things, what he did during the day, what he wants. True communication!

You make a powerful difference in this world! ❤"

"Laura Mize, you are a Godsend. I don’t know how one human can have so many helpful things to say in a beautifully organized way, so often. Always amazes me when another super helpful email comes from you, and for free. With free YouTube videos and cheap CEUs. THANK YOU!!!"

Sheila, Canada

"I purchased the book on autism and have watched the #400s series podcasts. Laura Mize has been more effective in teaching autistic tendencies, than many professors, shadowing professions, and the 100s of books, articles and classes or videos, or live workshop speakers, have been at teaching effective practices for a child with ASD. Some of the many lessons she has taught, which I will now use, to be a more effective Interventionist, include but are not limited to: red flags, typical behaviors, self-stimulating behaviors, not taking away toys, rather showing child to play with toy appropriately. She gives examples of child's actions, "inappropriate," explains the reason for: why the child is engaging in these behaviors and how they can be replaced with more appropriate, effective fuctional and age-appropriate skills."

"I’m sure Laura gets these messages all the time, but I thought I’d share. I stumbled across Laura‘s "Autism or Speech Delay?" YouTube video when I really needed it. This video finally listed and explained some of the red flags my son was showing for autism. I share the link anytime a parent is questioning in my FB autism group. This mother I don’t even know said Laura's video changed her life. I know exactly how she feels because It changed families too. Thank you to everyone at Teach Me To Talk."

"Good Morning Laura, I received your book (The Autism Workbook) yesterday and it is absolutely amazing! As I evaluate young children (0-3) for developmental delays and write plans for them with their parents, there are a ton of ideas that are ready to use. Others that reinforce what I have been doing, and saying, all along. Thank you so, so much for writing this incredible book and pulling everything together in one place!"

FRANCINE IN MICHIGAN

"Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge, experience, and guidance. I’m a parent who bought the autism workbook and it’s the only clear resource I found to make a change in my son. I’m really thankful to Ms. Laura for helping out people like us all over the world."

"Laura Mize, all I have to say is that ALL YOUR STRATEGIES WORK."

ANNE, YouTube viewer

"We have 7 SLPs in our preschool (public) program for special needs children (ages 3-5) and we use your courses, books, and techniques every day! :-) We have seen our preschoolers make such great gains!"

"I just received Teach Me to Play With You, and it is ALREADY WORKING! WOW!

Girl…my son is 3 years old, and he NEVER asks for something using words. We were playing “Get Your Belly” (from Teach Me to Play WITH You), and after several times, he laughed and screamed "BEWIEEE!!!"  It was a hoot. And I can't believe he said it! I have played with him like this before, but this time I took your advice and acted CRAZY!! I will act like a total lunatic if it will get him to talk to me!  Now I can give him "the look" from across the room, and he will say it. That manual is so amazingly practical, and it is a GODSEND right now! Thank you SO MUCH!”

" I wanted to send you a quick email to say thank you. I started watching your videos/podcasts about 4 months ago. My son has gone from losing words he previously used, only having about 7 words at his 2 year check up in August (assessed at a blended 10 month language level) -- to now having so many words, increased social engagement, following commands, spontaneously requesting things, and naming letters & numbers (not in order) as well as colors. We had our monthly meeting with our SLP through the state infants & toddlers program and it felt like we were just bragging the whole time, but I knew in the back of my head it was because I have been using strategies you taught me. We still have so much work to do with our sweet boy, but I know in my heart he would not have succeeded without the education you provided. I will continue to read your emails & watch videos as we go along this journey and face challenges, but credit is due to you, Laura. Thank you so much, endlessly."

"I just want to tell how fortunate I feel to have found your website and you!! I became a special instructor in EI almost a year ago and I started with hardly any applicable training. I felt so lost and confused as how to help the kids I work with learn how to use words and play. Honestly, I didn't even understand the importance of play, although I always played with my kids. But, once I started to watch your podcasts and get some of your manuals I felt a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and that I could finally teach these kids and their families something of value from a real therapist and based on research!. Thank you so much for seeing the need to help other EI service providers and providing a forum to share your knowledge and years of valuable experience. I'm sure you get a lot of these emails every week if not every day, but I wanted to make I could add to those notes of gratitude!! THANK YOU again!!"

"Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for these emails and your books, I have them all and they have seriously saved and improved my sessions with my kiddos. Huge thank you."

"I was very frustrated with how speech therapy was going for my child. I would take him and drop him off and not hear much of anything from his therapist and teachers other than, "He had a good (or a bad!) day." Your materials were invaluable for us because I learned how to work with him on his speech. I learned how to teach him to talk and play. I learned how to pay attention to his cues and work with him to teach him to communicate. Without it, I have no doubt he still wouldn’t talk."

"Hi! I just wanted to say (from an SLT perspective) how incredibly useful I am finding absolutely all of your articles, blogs and resources - I only discovered your site last month and have just received all your books which I feel I am learning more than on my entire university training course!! But also the way in which you give specific, realistic, fun, encouraging ideas for working with parents is really just fantastic, I only wish I have your site sooner! Thanks so much from the UK! Kind regards."

"I just wanted to reach out to say thank you for making things a little easier to manage for me this year. I made the transition from school SLP to private therapist about a year ago. While the change was welcome, it was a lot, and I was just getting my footing in the clinic when I began teletherapy full time. Your website has been a huge lifeline in helping me work with late talkers and coach their parents in an accessible but effective way, even remotely. I look forward to getting your emails each week. I am floored by the amount of valuable, free information that your website provides, and I’m looking forward to investing in your workbooks soon. A sincere thank you for all you do!"

"You are an inspiration! I am truly grateful for the way you put into words and writing how to do what we do as SLPs. At this time in my 13 years of practicing, I find your encouragement keeps me going. As a single mom, I find it a stretch to buy materials these days and I am so thankful for the freebies you so generously share that help me teach my families. I don’t have much time to put together lists or quick references for parents!! Much gratitude!!"

Laura thank you so much. Btw, you have transformed my therapy- I have become such a competent and strong therapist after watching probably like 350 of your videos and podcasts over the past few years. And I am a seasoned therapist with almost 25 years experience. (Yes prob 350 episodes ha!) But there was still a lot I learned from you. I have such a thorough understanding of birth to 3 development and how to properly incorporate appropriate therapeutic goals, techniques and strategies now, thanks to you. Kelly

Hi Laura, I want to thank you so much for the resources you provide, my daughter has delayed speech and though she qualifies for CDS. Honestly the most progress she has made in her speech/language development has been after I implemented your 5 top strategies for delayed talkers! She is now almost 2.5 and her vocabulary is well over 75 (I haven’t counted recently, could be over 100) words when at 2 she barely had four words. Honestly the last few months have been a transformation for her.

Anna-Dee-SLP-Preschool-Speech-Therapy

A website dedicated to helping SLPs use PLAY-BASED speech and language therapy so they can save time and have fun!   

The best books for preschool speech therapy.

books for toddlers speech therapy

How do you teach toddlers and preschooler to love books? By making them an active part of the reading process!!

Books are a perfect speech therapy tool for targeting everything from articulation, to wh-questions, to expressive language, to apraxia of speech! Not to mention they are a great way to build vocabulary and story retell skills.

I am sharing FOUR types of books (and my favourite five of each type) that keep toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners students engaged the entire time - even the wiggly ones!

1) Lift the Flap Books: There is something about that element of surprise that children just love! You can easily build anticipation by showing just a part of what is under the flap or slowly lifting the flap.

books for toddlers speech therapy

Some of my favourites are:

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell - watch it on Youtube here

Where is Maisy by Lucy Cousins - watch it on Youtube here

Peek a Who by Nina Laden - watch it on YouTube here

Do Crocs Kiss? by Salina Yoon - watch it on YouTube

Let's Go to the Farm by Fisher Price - watch it on YouTube

2) Repetitive Books: The benefits of repetitive books are that children can predict what is going to be on the next page, making it easy for them to fill in the blanks. The familiar text also helps them comprehend the story. Some of my favourites are:

books for toddlers speech therapy

Oh No! It's a Boo Boo! by Anna Dee SLP

Dada by Jimmy Fallon - watch it on YouTube here

Everything is Mama by Jimmy Fallon- watch it on YouTube here

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can you?- watch it on YouTube here

Who's Making that Mess? by Phillip Hawthorn - watch it on YouTube

To read all about all of the benefits of repetitive books, check out this blog post!

3) Action Books: Books that encourage kids to MOVE are perfect for little ones. Some of my favorites are:

books for toddlers speech therapy

Shake a Leg by Constance Allen - watch it on Youtube here

Repetitive Season Books by Anna Dee SLP

Dance by Matthew Van Fleet - watch it on YouTube here

We're going on a Bear Hunt by Micheal Rosen & Helen Oxenbury - watch it on YouTube here

Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig and Marc Brown - watch it on YouTube here

4) Interactive Books: Books with moveable pieces and tasks for littles ones to complete are a serious game changer. There is something about giving a child a job to do that makes them super accountable and focused. Some of my favorites are:

books for toddlers speech therapy

Tails by Matthew Van Fleet - watch it on Youtube here

There's a Monster in Your Book - watch it on Youtube here

Hi-Five Animals by Ross Burach - watch it on YouTube here

Never touch a monster - watch it on Youtube

Poke a Dot Book Series (They are all SOO good

I hope this list helps you find some new favourite books that you can use with your little ones.

Want to grab a free repetitive and interactive book from my store?

books for toddlers speech therapy

Grab Is that your Poo for free - it's available as a BOOM card or PDF !

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books for toddlers speech therapy

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books for toddlers speech therapy

  • Play Based Speech Therapy Ideas
  • Speech Therapy Tips and Tricks

Related Posts

Play Based Articulation using a Toy Farm

Castle Theme in Speech Therapy

The Ultimate List of the Best Toys for Speech Therapy

Speech Therapy Store

15+ Best Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

I’m excited to share today’s blog post outlining a few of my favorite interactive books for speech therapy and some great ways Speech-Language Pathologists can use them in their speech therapy sessions. 

In addition, I’ve included digital versions of the following books.

Interactive Speech Therapy Books

Here is a list of over 15 of the best children’s books perfect for a speech therapist or parent looking for a fun and engaged way of working on different articulation and language skills.

Be sure to check out the additional free supplemental resources at the bottom of this page and add some of these interactive books to your school supplies list this year.

**Please be sure to preview the digital versions of the books prior to reading or watching with your child or student. I have previewed all the videos myself, but you know your child or student best and your/their comfort levels with different words or visual illustrations.**

interactive-books-for-speech-therapy

1. Dear Zoo – Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

Dear Zoo is a highly engaging flap book about a young boy who writes to the zoo asking them to send him a pet. The illustrations along with the lifting of the flaps helps to encourage joint attention in a fun and interactive way.

Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book

Articulation

  • B Initial – This book is perfect for working on the b sound because on every page you send the animal ‘back’ and each animal comes in a ‘box’.

Language Skills

  • Basic Concepts – You can have the child or student work on the concepts ‘ open ’ and ‘ close ’ as they use the flaps. In addition, each animal is given a description, such as “the elephant is too big ” or “the giraffe is too tall ” allowing the student to work on even more concepts.
  • Answering WH-Questions – This book is perfect for wh-questions. For example, after reading the story together you could ask, “Why couldn’t the boy keep the giraffe for a pet?” The child could then answer, “Because the giraffe is too tall and it couldn’t fit through the front door of the house.”
  • Answering Yes/No Questions – As you go through the story you could point to an animal and then ask a yes or no question about that specific animal. For example, you could point to the elephant and ask is an elephant purple?
  • Vocabulary – You can have your child or student practice filling in the blanks at the end of the repetitive sentences by naming the animal under the flaps.
  • Symbolic Noises – Have your child identify the different animal sounds as you come across each animal in the story. 
  • Multisyllabic Words – Another fun activity you could try would be to count or clap out the number of syllables in naming each animal. For example, el-e-phant has 3 syllables.
  • Categorization – Categorization is a great vocabulary activity. Have your child or student identify animals that fall into all three animal categories of pets, farm animals, and zoo animals. If you have some play animals you could have the child practice separating out the play animals into different categories.
  • Reasoning Skills – You could also work on reasoning skills by asking your student what their favorite animal is and have them explain why it is their favorite animal.

Digital Version of Dear Zoo

2. Press Here – Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

Press Here is one of the most favorite books amongst speech therapists working in the special education population and a huge hit with the littles. This story is a fun imaginative story filled with verbs allowing your child to work on their fine motor skills of following the directions of the action given, such as press here and then making more dots appear. 

Press Here (Herve Tullet)

  • Colors – This book is great for your young children working on identifying colors. Simply give them a simple direction, such as “Tap the red dot.”
  • Following Directions – Read the story and have your student follow the 1-step directions. For example, “blow on the page” or “tap the circle.” Some of the directions do get a little more complex, such as “tap only the yellow circles” or “tilt the book to the left”.
  • Basic Concepts – Descriptive Concepts (small, medium, large, colors, gently, hard), Quantity Concepts (counting, all, just, only, more, once, twice), Location Concepts (left, right, middle).
  • Vocabulary Action Verbs – shake, tap, blow, rub, turn, tilt, or clap.
  • Past Tense Verbs – Have the student retell what action they or their classmate just took. For example, Sam could say, “Jason just tapped the red dot.”
  • Answering WH-Questions – Ask your students simple questions about what they or their classmates just did. For example, “What color of dot did you just tap?” 
  • Predicting – Have the child or student try to predict what will happen before you turn the page. “What do you think will happen next?” My students always loved the fun element of surprise when reading this story.
  • Expressive Language – Have your student explain what happened on each page. For example, if you have them tap the red circle 5 times and the next page shows 5 red circles in a line your student could explain that when they tapped the red circle 5 times it made 5 individual circles appear on the following page. 

Digital Version of Press Here

3. Pete the Cat Old MacDonald Had a Farm

Pete the Cat Old MacDonald Had a Farm is a fun twist on a classic book that is perfect for your preschool students. 

Pete the Cat: Old MacDonald Had a Farm

  • K Sound – cows, cats, cock-a-doodle, MacDonald, ducks, turkeys, donkeys, cluck, oink, quack, honk
  • M Sound – moo, meow, maa, MacDonald, farm
  • F Sound – farm
  • Z Final – dogs, cows, pigs, turkeys, donkeys, frogs
  • S Final – chickens, horses, cats, goats, ducks, roosters, geese, 
  • Vocabulary Farm Animals – As you go through the story have your child or student label the different animals. You could do this by singing the song and then pausing to let the child fill in the blank with the animal name. If they don’t know that animal yet you can then label it and then see if they can label it again with you. 
  • Regular Plurals & Irregular Plurals – Have your student identify the plural form of each animal as you read the story. (chickens, dogs, cows, pigs, horses, cats, goats, ducks, turkeys, roosters, donkeys, frogs, sheep, and geese)
  • Answering WH-Questions – Ask your students simple wh-questions starting with “who”, “what”, and “where” are the easiest. For example, “what does a pig say?”, “where is the turtle?”, or “who is driving the truck?”
  • Identify Attributes – Have your student identify the different attributes of the farm animals, such as sizes and colors. For example, the horse is big and brown.

Language Expansion

If you have toy farm animals, paper pieces, felt pieces, a barn, or even just stickers to play with then here are a few additional ideas to expand on the book activity.

  • Following Directions – Give the student a 1-step or 2-step direction to follow using their farm animal. For example, have the horse jump over the fence. 
  • Spatial Concepts – Have the student practice putting different animals, “in”, “out”, “beside”, “under”, “behind”, or “on” the barn.
  • Answering WH-Questions – Ask even more questions that are discussed in the actual story about a farm. For example, “When does a rooster crow?, “Who works on a farm?”, “What animals say ‘quack’?”
  • Identify Body Parts – Take an animal and have your child or student name different body parts on the animal, such as ‘tail’, ‘ears’, ‘beak’, ‘hooves’, ‘paws’, etc.

Digital Version

4. Where is Spot – Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

Where is Spot is a great way to work on language development as children try to find Spot throughout this fun and engaging flip book.  

Where's Spot?

  • S & S-Blends – Sally (Spot’s mom), s-s-s (snake sound), Spot, snake, stairs.
  • B Initial – bag, behind, bed, bear, box, basket, blanket, baby, book, boy.
  • D Sound – door, dinner, under, bed.
  • T Sound – time, naughty, basket, Spot, eat, blanket.
  • Vocabulary Animal Names – As you go through the story have your child or student label the different animals.
  • Prepositions – Have the student identify where the different animals are in the story. For example, “under the bed” or “in the box”. 
  • Answering Yes/No Questions – Practice asking yes or no questions, such as “Is that Spot?” or “Is that animal a monkey?”
  • Answering WH-Questions – Ask your students wh-questions. For example, “who is under the bed?” or “where is the monkey hiding?”
  • Requesting – You could also have your child request to listen to more of the story or to open the flap.
  • Predicting – Have the child or student try to predict the next part of the story. “What do you think will happen next?”

5. Goodnight Moon – Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

Goodnight Moon is perfect for all of those language concepts on your caseload. The repetitive text helps children to anticipate what might come next in the story. 

Goodnight Moon

  • B Sound – bear, bowl, balloon
  • G Sound & G-Blends – goodnight, great, green
  • L Sound – little, light, lady, old, telephone, balloon, bowl, full
  • M Sound – mitten, mouse, mush, moon, jumping, comb, room
  • Vocabulary – As you go through the story, have your child or student label the different household items, toys, animals, and clothing. (moon, light, clock, sock, star, bear, chair, red balloon, cow, telephone, mittens, toy house, comb, house, and brush).
  • Prepositions – There is a mouse hidden in every picture which is great for working on prepositional phrases.
  • Colors – This book is great for your young children working on identifying colors. Simply have them sort the different vocabulary words by color.
  • Categorization – As you read the story, have your student category sort the different vocabulary words into one of the following categories, such as toys, clothing, animal, or furniture.

Here are a few additional ideas to expand on the book activity.

  • Categorization – Give your child or student a room within their school or their house and have them say night night while naming 3-5 objects within each room. For example, if you give them the kitchen they could say, “night night refrigerator”, “night night oven”, “night night toaster”, etc. 
  • Following Directions – If you have a playhouse or toy animals you could give the student a 1-step or 2-step direction to follow using the toy objects. For example, “put the bear on the chair.” 

speech-therapy-interactive-books

6. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear is a fun and adaptive book that you can use to work on animal vocabulary, animal sounds, sequencing, and answering wh-questions. This story is similar to Brown Bear, Brown Bear in that each animal introduces the next animal and the sound it makes.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? My First Reader

  • Vocalic R – roaring, leopard, ear, snorting, snarling, hear, polar bear, boa constrictor, zookeeper
  • Initial H – hear, hippopotamus, hissing
  • L Sound – lion, leopard, flamingo, elephant, snarling, yelping, walrus, bellowing, whistling, children, growling, polar bear, fluting, 
  • Vocabulary Animal Names – As you go through the story have your child or student label the different animals (lion, polar bear, hippo, zebra, snake “boa constrictor”, elephant, peacock, leopard, walrus, and flamingo).
  • Answering WH-Questions – Answering the question, “[animal name] what do you hear?”

Here is an additional idea to expand on the book activity.

  • Categorization – If you have some play animals you could have the child practice separating out the play animals into different categories. For example, you could have your child or student identify animals that fall into all three animal categories of pets, farm animals, and zoo animals. 

Ends at 3:45

7. Little Blue Truck – Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

The Little Blue Truck is perfect for those students working on language intervention, such as phonemic awareness. The story is about a kind little blue truck that helps a very rude construction truck that gets stuck in the mud. The children learn that when you are kind and helpful others will be kind and helpful back. 

Little Blue Truck

  • K Sound – cow, chicken, truck, chick, duck, quack, stuck
  • G Sound – goat, gallop, pig, big
  • D Sound – dump, duck, road, toad, friend
  • H Sound – horse, help, honk, heavy, hop
  • P Sound – puddle, push, pig, peep, beep, sheep, dump, help, hop
  • R Sound – road, room, roll
  • R-Blends – truck, green, friendly, brown
  • S-Blends – stuck, swerve, scared
  • Phonemic Awareness – This is an important skill helping children learn that words can be broken down into individual sounds or phonemes. An effective tool to help learn phonemic awareness is rhyming. This story is filled with rhymes making this story perfect for working on phonemic awareness, a therapy tool that is an important skill needed for reading.
  • Vocabulary Animal Names – As you go through the story, have your child or student label the different animals.
  • Spatial Concepts – The following location words are used in the story, “in”, “on”, “between”, and “next to”.
  • Basic Concepts – Descriptive Concepts (big, little, fast, colors, curve, dirty, clean).
  • Answering Yes/No Questions – Practice asking yes or no questions, such as “Is the dump truck friendly?” or “Does the little blue truck help the dump truck?” or “Is the dump truck stuck in cement?”
  • Answering WH-Questions – Ask your students wh-questions. For example, “Who got stuck?” or “How did the dump truck get stuck?” or “Where did they get stuck?”
  • Categorization – Categorization is a great vocabulary activity. Have your child or student category sort the animals that fall in the farm animal versus the zoo animal categories (giraffe, rhino, cow, sheep, lion, tiger, elephant, horse, or chicken).

Social Skills

  • Friendship – This book discusses the importance of being kind and polite to others. You can use this story as a jumping off point to discuss the importance of the life skills needed to be a good friend and what the characteristics are of being a good friend. For example, you could ask the question “What makes the little blue truck a good friend?”
  • Color Sorting – If you have toy trucks or cars you could have the child sort the toy trucks and cars by colors. 
  • Story Retell – After reading the whole story have your child or student retell what happened in the story. For some extra fun during your story retelling grab these animal finger puppets and little blue truck to help retell the story.

End at 7:50

8. Don’t Push That Button – Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

If you’re in need of one of those interactive busy books for your littles then be sure to check out Don’t Push That Button . The story is about a cute purple monster named Larry who is constantly changing from page to page after the child “shakes the book” or “pushes the button”, etc. My students loved how interactive this book is and requested it over and over again.

Don't Push the Button!: A Funny Interactive Book For Kids

  • L Sound – Larry, look, little, let’s, almost, yellow, polkadot, only, seriously, tickles, couple, rule, all, normal
  • SH Sound – should, shake, push, pushed
  • T Sound – twice, two, times, tummy, tickles, button, better, pretty, little, extra, scratch, don’t, about, it, can’t, mustn’t, psst, just, polkadot, get, almost, but
  • M Sound – my, mustn’t, more, maybe, almost, normal, tummy, times, welcome, name
  • N Sound – name, normal, no, nice, now, one, only, think, don’t, can’t, mustn’t, end, button, even, happen, again, fun
  • K Sound – kinda, polkadot, okay, tickles, book, think, look, heck, shake, back
  • TH Sound – there, think, though
  • Following Directions – Have the child or student follow the directions on the page, such as “shake the book”.
  • Negations – Discuss what phrases such as “don’t push the button” really mean. Here are a few other negations you could discuss as well (no, not, don’t, can’t, never, none, won’t, nothing).
  • Following Mutli-Step Directions – Create your own buttons out of paper in different colors and give your child or student directions to follow. You could even do multi-step directions, such as “tap the blue button before you put the yellow button on top of the green button”.
  • Negations – To continue to work on negotiations you could set out 3 different objects and then tell your child or student which object to not pick up. For example, “Don’t pick up the [object name]”.

There are several different holiday versions of this book as well. There is a Halloween , Christmas , and Easter version to add to your thematic lesson plans.

SEE ALSO: 430+ Free Multisyllabic Words List Activity Bundle

9. secrets of the seashore – interactive books for speech therapy.

Secrets of the Seashore is a wonderful Shine-a-Light series within the Usborne books that any child will surely love! I mean what kid doesn’t love using a flashlight? Especially, when you get to use the flashlight to find a hidden animal.

Secrets of the Seashore (Shine-A-Light Book)

  • Vocabulary Ocean Animals – As you go through the story, have your child or student label the different animals, such as a crab or the pink dolphin.
  • Inferencing – This story is perfect for inferencing because you can have your student use clues from the page to help them guess what animal is hiding. Then once the child or student realizes their answer was correct or wrong you can go back and review the different clues. 

**END Video at 12:56 min.

10. Llama Llama Red Pajama – Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

Llama LIama Red Pajama is a great board book to discuss bedtime and how children can experience a lot of different emotions around bedtime. The story illustrates that the little llama is always safe because mama is never far away.

Llama Llama Red Pajama

  • L Sound – llama, little, loves, listens, alone, always, hollers, pillow, loudly, calls, softly, snuggles
  • L-Blends – please, sleep
  • R Sound – red, reads, run, right, story, starts, downstairs, whimpers, dark, covers, hair, near, here
  • R-Blends – fret, drama
  • Story Retell – After reading the whole story have your child or student retell what happened in the story.
  • Sequence Your Bedtime Routine – Have your students draw to review what their bedtime routine looks like and have them sequence out the events.
  • Emotion Vocabulary  – Read through the story and discuss all the different emotion words and their meanings. (alone, fret, moan, pouts, shouts, weeping, wailing, and being patient).
  • Discuss Appropriate Reactions  – This book demonstrates how little llama is impatient when his mama doesn’t come right back. You can use this opportunity to discuss other ways that you can practice patience while you wait. For example, taking deep breaths, counting to ten, telling yourself a story, etc. 

Ends at 4:45

11. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is perfect if you’re looking for a repetitive text that follows a family getting out into nature and exploring the world before coming back home.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt: 30th Anniversary Edition

  • B Sound – bed, beautiful, bear, big, back, bedroom, and stumble.
  • S-Blends – snowstorm, stairs, splosh, splash, swishy-swashy, stumble, squelch, squerch, and scared. 
  • K Sound – cave, covers, catch, can’t, back, dark, and thick.
  • W Sound – wavy, wet, we’re, what, whirling, and we.
  • Story Retell/Sequencing – Due to the repetitive nature of the book along with a clear sequence of events makes this story a great one for story retelling/sequencing.
  • Spatial Concepts – Have the student practice putting the bear, “over”, “under”, “through”, “up”, and “down”. You can grab a bear cutout here .
  • Descriptive Words/Opposites – As you come across the different descriptive words throughout the text have your students identify the opposites for example, long/short, cold/hot, deep/shallow, wavy/straight, thick/thin, big/little, dark/bright, wet/dry, narrow/wide.
  • Answering WH-Questions – Ask your students wh-questions. For example, “who is going on a bear hunt?”, “what animal are they hunting?”, “where are they now?”
  • Vocabulary – As you go through the story have your child or student label the different nature nouns (snowstorm, bear, mud, cave, grass, river, forest, and trees). You can grab some of these vocabulary words from this Boardmaker Board simply sign in to download your copy here .

This book is filled with different sound effects so here are a few additional ideas to expand on the book activity.

  • Sound Effects – Have your child or student act out the different sound effects, such as “splashy river” or “howling snowstorm”.
  • Prepositions – Have your child act out the different prepositions (over, under, and through) with hand gestures, or have your child on a bear hunt by printing out some bear pictures or grab a couple of stuffed animal bears and hide them around the house. Then have your child tell you where they found the bears. For example, “the bear was under the chair”.

interactive-books-speech-therapy

12. The Little Old Lady That Wasn’t Afraid of Anything

The Little Old Lady That Wasn’t Afraid of Anything is a wonderful interactive story. This story follows a little old lady who goes on a walk through the forest looking for herbs, nuts, and seeds and on her way home meets various clothing items that try to scare her, but she keeps telling them that she is not afraid of anything! 

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything

  • L Sound – lady, little, left, long, look, locked, old, walk, silver, suddenly, stumbled, whistled, bravely, silly, middle, wiggle, still
  • L-Blends – clomp, gloves, black, clap, closed
  • S Sound – seeds, suddenly, so, safe, sat, saw, said, seemed, forest, whispered, whistled, inside, once, nuts, pants, pace, us
  • S-Blends – spices, started, stopped, stop, sliver, stumbled, scary, scare
  • Z Sound – closed, was, herbs, spices, seeds, shoes, gloves
  • R Sound – ran, rocked, afraid, afternoon, forest, orange, early, farther, through, shirt, scary, started, herbs, dark, whispered, garden, sliver, her, far, were, hear, faster, near, door, chair, fire, answer, ear
  • T Sound – time, two, talk, tall, afternoon, cottage, started, faster, nuts, pants, startled, brighten, whistled, left, not, went, forest, collect, night, shirt, white, hat, out, quite, fast, sat, quiet, next
  • Clothing Vocabulary – As you go through the story, have your child or student label the different clothing items (gloves, hat, shoes, pants, shirt).
  • Verbs – Have the student retell what action each clothing item took. For example, “The pants wiggled.” To take it one step further you could have the child act out the action verb.
  • Answering WH-Questions – Ask your students wh-questions. For example, “Which item goes clap, clap?”, “Why was the old lady in the forest?”, “Where was the old lady headed to after it got dark?”, or “What action does the hat do?”
  • Sound Effects – Have your child or student act out the different sound effects, such as “pants wiggling” or “gloves clapping”. (Shoes – stomp your feet, Pants – wiggle your body, Shirt – shake your arms, Hat – nod your head, Gloves – clap your hands).
  • Categorization – If you have some play clothes or pictures of clothing items you could have the child practice separating out the clothes into different categories. For example, you could have your child or student identify clothing that falls into summer clothes versus winter clothes. 

SEE ALSO: 21 Best Reinforcement Games for Speech Therapy

13. the mitten – interactive books for speech therapy.

The Mitten is a perfect book to use during early intervention therapy. It’s a beautiful story about a young boy named Nicki who wanted white gloves, however, his grandma Baba was worried that Nicki might lose the white gloves in the snow. She decides to knit them anyways and Nicki does end up losing them in the snow.

It isn’t long before an animal burrows inside to stay warm. He is then followed by a series of forest animals. Lastly, a mouse joins the mitten and sits on the bear’s nose causing the bear to sneeze. All of the animals come exploding out of the mitten. Nicki then finds his missing glove, however, his grandma is confused as to why the mitten is so stretched out. 

The Mitten: Oversized Board Book

  • M Sound – mittens, made, mole, moment, moved, muzzle, meadow, mouse, admire, himself, grandmother, commotion, comfortable, plumped, enormous, come, home, warm, came, room, climb, thumb, steam
  • N Sound – Nicki, named, new, not, knit, never, next, nose, once, inside, finished, one, grandmother, wasn’t, enormous, until, under, mittens, animals, warned, talons, tunneling, directions, soon, down, began, acorn, ran, mitten
  • W Sound – wool, who, white, warned, were, want, went, wriggled, wet, wasn’t, when, will, winter, whiskers, window, burrowed, drowsy, snow, new, saw
  • R Sound – rabbit, right, room, rose, first, argue, grandmother, tired, warned, discovered, covered, appeared, disappeared, lumbered, herself, comfortable, warm, attracted, burrowed, kickers, warm, diggers, enormous, force, never, after, admire, winter, over, under, air, badger, bear, bigger
  • S-Blend – snow, still, stay, snowshoe, stopped, snuffling, spent, swooped, started, snug, steam, spied, swelled, stretched, space, sneeze, sky, scattered
  • Story Retell/Sequencing – Due to the repetitive nature of the book along with a clear sequence of events makes this story a great one for story retelling/sequencing. For example, retell the sequence that the animals entered into the mitten, “First the mole squeezed in, then the hedgehog, next the…”.
  • Vocabulary Forest Animals – As you go through the story have your child or student label the different animals, such as hedgehog, snowshoe rabbit, badger, fox, bear, mouse, and owl. 
  • Vocabulary Action Verbs – Discuss all the different past tense verbs: hopped, poked, knitted, dropped, swooped, tunneled, snuffled, swelled, lumbered, caught, scattered, and tickled.
  • Answering WH-Questions – This book is perfect for wh-questions. For example, “What animal is about to enter the mitten?”, “Why would the mitten be hard to find in the snow?”, “Who lost a mitten?”, or “Why do the animals go inside the mitten?”.
  • Spatial Concepts – You can stress the spatial concept of “in” each time an animal goes inside the mitten and then at the end of the story you can stress how all of the animals come “out” of the mitten.
  • Superlatives – You could review how the animals go from smallest to bigger and biggest. And how as the animals get bigger the mitten also goes from smallest to bigger, to biggest by the end of the story. 
  • Describing – Have the student describe the different animals. For example, the book says that the hedgehog is covered in prickles. You could then have your student or child describe, “What do prickles feel like?” or “What are other things that are prickly?” 
  • Complete Sentences – If you have a student working on MLU or using complete sentences you could use the sentence frame “The ________ went inside the mitten.”
  • Predicting – Have the child or student try to predict what animal might crawl into the mitten next. “What animal do you think will crawl into the mitten next?” You could also give the student a sentence frame, such as “I predict that the ______ will go inside the mitten next, because _________.”
  • Inferencing – Ask your student or child different inferencing questions, such as “Why do you think Baba didn’t want to make Nicki white gloves?”, “What do the animals think when another animal joins the mitten?”, “What does Nicki’s grandma Baba think when he leaves the house?”, “How does Nicki feel when he finds his mitten after it was lost?”, or “Why does Baba smile when she sees the stretched out mitten?”
  • Categorization – If you have some play animals you could have the child practice separating out the play animals into different categories. For example, the animals in the story are forest animals so you could have your child or student identify animals that fall into three different animal categories such as forest animals, farm animals, or zoo animals. 
  • Basic Concepts – You can have the child or student work on the concepts ‘ big ’ and ‘ small ’ as they compare different animals that enter the mitten. For example, the bear is “ big ” and the mouse is “small” or how one mitten is “small” and the other mitten is stretched out making it “big”.

14. I Went Walking – Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

I Went Walking is a perfect book to use for auditory bombardment of the w sound due to the story’s repetitive nature. The story follows a young toddler on a walk who meets different animals along the way and then we get to enjoy his excitement when he realizes that the different animals are following him. 

I Went Walking

  • W Sound – went, walking, what, saw
  • L Sound – looking, yellow, walking, animals, following
  • Story Retell/Sequencing – Due to the repetitive nature of the book along with a clear sequence of events makes this story a great one for story retelling/sequencing. For example, retell the sequence that the animals started to follow the toddler.
  • Vocabulary Animals – As you go through the story, have your child or student label the different animals, such as a cat, horse, cow, duck, pig, and dog. 
  • Answering WH-Questions – This book is perfect for wh-questions. For example, “What animal is red?”, “Who is sitting on the red cow?”, or “Who is petting the cat.”
  • Colors – This book is great for your young children working on identifying colors. Simply have the child or student identify the different animal colors. 
  • Inferencing – Ask your student or child to make an inference of what animal might be next based on the previous page image, such as “What animal is pink and brown and has hooves?”
  • Requesting/Colors – You could do a fun coloring activity where you have the student request different colors to draw the animals from the story (black cat, brown horse, red cow, green duck, pink pig, and yellow dog).

15. The Tiny Seed – Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

The Tiny Seed is a fun story to use during the spring time in therapy. The story is about a tiny seed that grows up once it gets water and sunlight to help it grow. It ends up growing taller than the houses and trees around it. Then at the end of the story, the flower opens up and releases a group of tiny seeds to continue the cycle from seed to plant once again.

The Tiny Seed/Ready-to-Read Level 2 (The World of Eric Carle)

  • T Sound – tiny, tall, toward, autumn, mountain, water, winter, after, waiting, springtime, eaten, footsteps, melts, petals, hot, rest, fast, desert, burst, fat, sunlight, giant, bright
  • S Sound – seed, sun, sails, settle, soft, sunlight, summer, seven, icy, across, ice, eats, mouse, footsteps, nights
  • R Sound – red, rays, rest, rain, round, roots, carries, across, burn, desert, dry, bird, earth, hungry, burst, hurry, warm, flower, air, far, smaller, higher, never, over, water, winter, weather, neighbor, faster, summer, taller
  • R-Blends – grow, drowns, drifts, ground, trip, breaks, grew, three, friend, trees, drop, bright
  • S-Blends – strong, smaller, stops, small, sleep, snow, still, spring, start, stems
  • L-Blends – blowing, flower, flies, fly, blanket, plants, play
  • Story Retell/Sequencing – This story is perfect for story retelling and sequencing of the full life cycle of a little seed.
  • Vocabulary – This story has a lot of spring/weather vocabulary (spring, summer, winter, drift, settle, sway, sail, and bud).
  • Answering WH-Questions – This book is perfect for wh-questions. For example, after reading the story together you could ask, “What color was the seed?”, “What carried the seed away?”, “What made the seed grow?”, “What happens to the seed in the winter?
  • Describing – Have the student describe the flower throughout the story. For example, when the flower is a seed you could then have your student or child describe the seed, “The seed is brown” or “The seed is tiny”. Then later on as the seed becomes a flower they could describe the flower.
  • Cause & Effect – This story is also perfect to review cause and effect. You could ask questions, such as, “What causes the seeds to scatter?”, “What effect does water have on the seed?”

Here are some additional ideas to expand on the book activity.

  • Sequencing – A fun expansion activity would be to plant your own seeds and watch them grow. You could have your student sequence out the steps of how to plant a seed and make it grow.
  • Compare & Contrast – You could get a few packets of seeds from the store and then have your students compare and contrast the differences between the different types of seeds (tiny, round, bumpy, or smooth). 

SEE ALSO: 179+ Free Speech Therapy Wh Questions Printable

16. the gingerbread man – interactive books for speech therapy.

The Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt is a great winter themed story to add to your lesson plans. This version starts out with a little old lady and a man who bakes a gingerbread man for a little boy. They tell the boy to not open the oven until the gingerbread man is done cooking, but the little boy can’t help himself and he takes a peek causing the gingerbread man to pop out of the oven, and then the chase begins.

The Gingerbread Man (Easy-To-Read Folktales)

  • M Sound – man, mouth, woman, time, him, come
  • N Sound – now, once, gingerbread, opened, upon, man, woman, one, pan, oven, garden, kitchen, down, run, soon
  • S-Blends – smell, steps, stopped, snip, snap
  • R Sound – run, ran, rest, rakes, road, gingerbread, garden, farmer, faster, bear, closer, door
  • L Sound – little, looks, old, wolf, called, smell, call
  • Vocabulary – This story has some great vocabulary, such as wavy, glue, more, round, cut, pretty, bow, sticky, and circle and it also has some great tier 2 vocabulary words, such as gobble, chase, and stream.
  • Story Retell/Sequencing – After reading the whole story have your child or student retell and sequence the events of what happened in the story.
  • Answering WH-Questions – This book is perfect for wh-questions. For example, after reading the story together you could ask, “Who chased after the gingerbread man?”, “Why did the old woman, old man, and little boy take a break from chasing the gingerbread man?”, or “Who let the gingerbread man out of the oven?”
  • Antonyms – After reading the story you could work on the following antonyms (fast/slow, wet/dry, hungry/full, stop/go, and shallow/deep).
  • Categorization – If you have some play food you could have the child practice separating out the play desserts versus fruits and vegetables into different categories. 
  • Compare & Contrast – You could read another Gingerbread Man story, such as the Gingerbread Baby, and then have your students compare and contrast the differences between the two versions of the same great story. 

interactive-speech-therapy-books

Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

Here are some resources to help you get started using your interactive books for speech therapy today!

Here are some teachers pay teachers free boom cards that are great supplemental resources for the books above. 

  • Going on a Bear Hunt Book Companion Boom Card Deck, Reading Comprehension by Kelsey’s Speech Table – This set of boom cards is perfect for your students working on answering story comprehension wh questions. 
  • Educator Resources for The Mitten Book Companion Unit – Boom Cards by Target Every Goal Speech Therapy – Use this resource to work on your child’s story comprehension, grammar, vocabulary, syntax, story retelling, and describing skills.

Book Attachment

If you want additional resources that you can attach right into the books themselves or want velcro pictures be sure to check out the following freebies.

  • Little Blue Truck Freebie by BunnyHoney – Grab these clipart images to help your students with story retelling or simply to use as you read the story together.
  • Little Blue Truck Communication Board by The Styled Speechie – Here is a helpful communication board full of all the animals from the story the Little Blue Truck.
  • The Mitten by ThinkSpeechandLangauge Kim – Here is a set of images that can be used for labeling, identifying, following directions, sequencing, or story retelling.
  • Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything Sequencing by Jessica Elaine – Use these images to help sequence the story.
  • Bear Hunt Story Retell Prompt Visual by The Speech Cupboard – Grab these images to help your child or student retell or sequence this super fun story.

Want Even More Lesson Plans for Speech Therapy?

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Speech & Language Therapy Resources

10 Repetitive Picture Books to Use In Speech Therapy

01/31/2022 by Jenna 2 Comments

books for toddlers speech therapy

Do you need some ideas of repetitive picture books to use in speech therapy? Why are repetitive texts a good idea to use with students? Let’s discuss why they are important and some ideas of repetitive books you can use during therapy or at home.

PREDICTABILITY

Repetitive texts are valuable in so many different ways for children. For one, they are predictable . Students that are learning to read will have more confidence while listening and trying to follow along when words repeat themselves. Children actually enjoy predictability in their day because it gives them a sense of calm, even when reading! 

ELICITS EARLY LANGUAGE SKILLS

Next, repetitive books help elicit early language skills especially in early childhood stages. When stories are predictable, children will try to read along as well. Why? Because they have knowledge now of what the story “says” and it feels good for them to try to read along with you confidently. These books with predictable, repeated text also help students with decoding as well as fluency. 

HELPS ATTENTION SPAN

In addition, books that repeat themselves actually help capture a child’s attention during reading. When a child has less to think about, there are more cognitive opportunities for them to use and think about language. The predictable nature of these stories just requires less cognitive ability from them; essentially it decreases their cognitive load. When children have less to think about, then they can focus more on what’s happening during the story! Hence-this gives opportunity for growing their comprehension!

NEW VOCABULARY EXPOSURE

Finally, new vocabulary words are repeated MANY different times throughout the story. Also- books that are repetitive provide frequent practice for targeted speech sounds that a student may be working on. This is a HUGE win for speech therapists and clinicians and a big reason why I love using repetitive picture books. 

books for toddlers speech therapy

Let’s look at 10 repetitive picture books that are great:

#1 Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle

books for toddlers speech therapy

Every child should be exposed to this story. It is absolutely a classic and probably my favorite predictive text! It helps young students with so many skills- predictability, colors, animal identification…the list goes on. Search on Pinterest for activities to go with this story and you will be overwhelmed at the opportunities for lessons!

#2 That’s Not My…

For these adorable repetitive stories by Usborne books and Fiona Wells, there are many different topics to choose from:

That’s not my llama.

That’s not my lion.

That’s not my unicorn.

THat’s not my plane.

That’s not my train.

(That is just a FEW.) These books are great because it’s simple to choose a topic to match what you’re learning about in therapy. Plus, there are only 6 sentences per story. This is a great book to target the sight words- That, not, my and even have students come up with their own ending!

#3 Sandra Boynton Books

Sandra Boynton is a queen of repetitive text. She has a multitude of titles when it comes to choosing predictive text. Some favorites are Blue Hat, Green Hat and Moo, Baa, la la la!

#4 Lisa Patricelli books

Like Sandra Boynton, author Lisa Patricelli has a flair for repetitive text. Her books are simple, to the point and easy for young children to follow along.

#5 Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

This is one of the most beloved books of all time. It is now part of my collection that I read with my toddler as well. The quiet poetry of the words and soothing illustrations makes Goodnight Moon the perfect book for the end of the day. “In the great green room there was a telephone and a red balloon… Goodnight moon. Goodnight mouse. Goodnight house…” This story is a true classic and one that every child should be exposed to. 

books for toddlers speech therapy

#6 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Chicka Chicka boom boom….will there be enough room?! This is a classic story to use with younger students learning their alphabet letters. There are also tons of fun crafts and activities to use with this book. It is great for preschool and kindergarten age students.

#7 Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

In this sweet story, a child writes a letter to the zoo asking for a pet. On each page, a new animal appears from the zoo but each is unsuitable to be a pet. (Animals are also behind flaps which kids LOVE!) The last animal ends up being perfect and is the only one not sent back to the zoo.

#8 Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by Eric Litwin

books for toddlers speech therapy

Pete the Cat books have excellent repetitive text: Poor Pete keeps losing his buttons. Pop goes a button. Did Pete cry? Goodness, no! Buttons come and buttons go. He kept on singing his song: “My buttons, my buttons, my three groovy buttons. My buttons, my buttons, my three groovy buttons. This story is also great to sneak in a quick social skills lesson on always finding the good and not overreacting. 

#9 Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee

This is an adorable story in which parents beg their very spunky child to please behave! Great use of simple repetition-”please, baby, PLEASE!” 

#10 Go Sleep in Your Own Bed! By Candace Fleming and Lori Nichols

books for toddlers speech therapy

This book typically makes kids giggle. Each animal goes to bed and finds another animal sleeping in the wrong bed. It repeats “Go sleep in your own bed!” throughout the story. 

Are you ready to grab some repetitive books for your students yet? Which ones would you add to the list?!

books for toddlers speech therapy

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02/15/2022 at 2:56 pm

Fantastic resources! Those are all great books! I appreciate the reminder to use them! Sometimes things are right under my nose and I just forget to use them! You are amazing! I don’t know where you have time for all of this! Thanks a million!

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02/16/2022 at 1:54 am

Another Rod Campbell book called ‘Oh Dear’. Buster visits Grandma on the farm and she sends him to collect the eggs. He checks all the animals but ‘No eggs here’ ‘oh dear’.

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books for toddlers speech therapy

10 Books That Get Toddlers Talking

books for toddlers speech therapy

September 29, 2022

books for toddlers speech therapy

As a speech therapist specializing in working with toddlers, books are a go-to activity for me!  Here are a few that have become all time favorites over the years:

My First Learn to Talk Book:

We typically hear little ones imitate fun sounds before they imitate words. This book, written by a Speech Pathologist, is full of these sounds. You can model sounds and gestures to encourage your little one to imitate. It also has a wonderful close-up pictures of toddlers saying the sounds!

books for toddlers speech therapy

Brown Bear :

I love to sing this one to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle.” Add the animal sounds in to encourage imitation. Pause on wait before saying, “me” and model gesturing to yourself

books for toddlers speech therapy

Dada/ Everything Mama:

I love the repetition of these books. You can incorporate pausing and waiting to encourage your little one to imitate, “Mama” or “Dada”

books for toddlers speech therapy

Who Says Peek-a-Boo?

I love this whole series! Encourage imitation of animal sounds throughout the book.” There is a mirror at the end you can encourage your little one to watch your mouth as you say, “Boo!”

books for toddlers speech therapy

Peek-a-who?

This book is so fun and I love that it rhymes. It also encourages lip rounding, which we need for the vowels o like “no” and oo such as in “two”

books for toddlers speech therapy

My First Noisy Books :

The sounds in this book are perfect for encouraging your little one to imitate. You can also target a word like “push” or “help” throughout

books for toddlers speech therapy

Oh No, Poo Poo/Pee Pee:

This silly book was written by a Speech Pathologist. Practice telling the dinosaur and puppy, “No, no” or encourage your little one to imitate “eww” if they are beginning to imitate sounds Link here (not available on Amazon): Bjorem Speech Books | Speech Therapy | OH NO Poo-Poo – Bjorem Speech®

Lift the flap books are great because they add an interactive component. Use this book to model animal noises. You can also model knocking on the boxes to encourage imitation of gestures and signing/saying open before you open each box

books for toddlers speech therapy

All Better!:

For beginning talkers, I ignore the text and simplify the language such as, “Puppy went boom!” You can model gesture such as blowing a kiss and words like boo-boo and ouch!”

books for toddlers speech therapy

Goodnight Moon:

This classic book is great for imitation of the gesture and/or sound “shhhh!” If your little one is beginning to use more words, they might enjoy saying, “Night Night” to all the animals

books for toddlers speech therapy

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books for toddlers speech therapy

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Ivy Rehab for Kids – Seven Fields

Ivy rehab for kids.

2100 Garden Drive Ste 101 Seven Fields, PA 16046

Phone: +1 724-890-5190 Fax: +1 724-359-4865

Hours of Operation
Monday8:00 am – 7:00 pm
Tuesday8:00 am – 6:00 pm
Wednesday8:00 am – 7:00 pm
Thursday8:00 am – 7:00 pm
FridayClosed
SaturdayClosed
SundayClosed

Expert therapy that’s close to home.

  • Opening summer 2024
  • Located next to The Shoppes at Adams Ridge
  • Pediatric Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapy

books for toddlers speech therapy

Available Therapy Services

Our clinic provides a wide range of therapy programs, personalized to deliver the care you need.

Pediatric Occupational Therapy

Pediatric Occupational Therapy

We go above and beyond when it comes to the treatment of our young patients. Our goal is to make their experience as close to “playtime” as possible. 

Pediatric Physical Therapy

Pediatric Physical Therapy

Pediatric Speech Therapy

Pediatric Speech Therapy

Ivy Rehab for Kids is proud to be a member of the Ivy Network.

The Ivy Network is made up of hundreds of locations, including Ivy Rehab for Kids. Our mission is to deliver an unparalleled physical therapy experience that exceeds expectations and provides the highest level of service, care and respect. Book an appointment with one of our physical therapists today.

books for toddlers speech therapy

Begin your journey close to home.

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Give us a call and speak directly with an Ivy team member.

Come visit us in person and say hello.

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Feeding intake paperwork | ivy rehab for kids, feeding welcome letter | ivy rehab for kids, medical history form | ivy rehab for kids, request for medical records | ivy rehab network, billing | can i pay my bill online.

Yes! Pay your bill online by clicking here.

Billing | How can I request medical records?

To request medical records, you must complete a Request for Medical Records form. To obtain a copy of our medical records forms click here . 

Billing | I received a bill and have questions. Who do I call?

Please call the phone number listed on your statement if you have any questions about your bill.

Billing | What is an Explanation of Benefits (EOB)?

After your charges are generated in our billing system, our Central Business Office will submit your rendered services to the insurance carrier information you provide to us. As a result you will receive an “Explanation of Benefits” (EOB) statement from your insurance company. An “Explanation of Benefits” is not a bill. It is a statement from your insurance carrier informing you of the charges submitted on your behalf and how the charges were processed.

Patient Portal | How do I access the patient portal?

Click here to access our patient portal.

Patient Portal | What is the patient portal?

Our patient portal allows you to complete necessary paperwork, pay statements, view visit information, and communicate with our team. Prior to your child’s initial evaluation, you will receive login information via the email we have on file for you.

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IMAGES

  1. Speech Therapy for Toddlers: 151 Activities and Games for Optimal

    books for toddlers speech therapy

  2. Top 20 BEST Books For Speech Therapy

    books for toddlers speech therapy

  3. Speech Therapy for Toddlers by Kids SLT Publications

    books for toddlers speech therapy

  4. My Favorite Book for Toddlers in Speech Therapy

    books for toddlers speech therapy

  5. Speech Sprouts: Best-Ever Books For Speech Therapy: Peck, Peck, Peck

    books for toddlers speech therapy

  6. 25 Books for Toddlers to Copy Sounds

    books for toddlers speech therapy

VIDEO

  1. Speech Therapy: Working on saying the letter /F/

  2. Speech Therapy for #kids #toddleractivities

  3. #childrensbooks #story #readaloudbooks #books #kids #kidsvideo

  4. Why Parents Are The Best Speech Therapists For Their Children, Pt 2

  5. Reading Books in Speech Therapy

  6. How to teach spelling to a autistic kid ?| Day23/30

COMMENTS

  1. Children's Books for Speech Therapy: The Ultimate List

    If you are a speech-language pathologist searching for the best children's books for speech therapy, check out this blog post! Using books during speech therapy sessions provide a fun way to target articulation and language goals. This article explains why SLPs might use children's books in speech therapy. Additionally, it provides suggestions for how to

  2. 13+ Best Children's Books for Speech Therapy

    SEE ALSO: 430+ Free Multisyllabic Words List Activity Bundle. 8. Good Dog, Carl. Good Dog, Carl by Alexander Day is perfect if you're looking for wordless books. Using wordless picture books can be a great first step when introducing using books in therapy.

  3. 10 Best Books to Help Your Toddler With Speech Delay

    Touchy-Feely Books. The Best Books to Help with Toddler Speech Delay (Our Favorites!) 1. My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities To Promote Your Child's Language Development by Kimberly Scanlon. 2.The Speech Teacher's Handbook: A Parent's Guide to Speech and Language by Molly Dresner. 3.

  4. Speech Therapy for Toddlers: Develop Early Communication Skills with

    Speech Therapy for Toddlers is no different. The games and activities over-deliver. I can't wait for more books. Thank you! Read more. gemma lane. 5.0 out of 5 stars Such a treat for any parent and more so if you are worried about your kid's communication!

  5. My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities to Promote Your Child's

    Textbook theory and evidenced-based speech therapy techniques are applied in an enjoyable and user-friendly way. Whether you're a parent or a professional, Kimberly shows you how to engage your toddler with play routines that stimulate speech while having fun. The guide includes detailed steps, numerous examples, and play routine activities to ...

  6. Amazon.com: Speech Therapy For Children: Books

    The Parent's Handbook to Speech Therapy: Theory, Strategies, and Interactive Exercises for Enhancing your Child's Communication Skills (Successful Parenting) Part of: Successful Parenting (16 books) | by Richard Bass | Nov 27, 2023. 33. Paperback. $1795. FREE delivery Sat, Aug 31 on $35 of items shipped by Amazon. Or fastest delivery Thu, Aug 29.

  7. Best Books for Speech Therapy for Toddlers

    In my podcast #416 Making Books Better for Toddlers with Language Delays Part Two, I demonstrated strategies for the following goals with specific books for speech therapy sessions and recommend to parents. Here's that list for you. For detailed instructions for using these books to meet the following 6 early literacy goals for kids with language delays who are in the 18 to 36 month ...

  8. Speech Therapy for Toddlers

    Here are some great book recommendations for a speech therapist to try using in therapy: The Big Book of Exclamations - this interactive book is a fun way to work on imitating actions, gestures, sounds, and exclamations in therapy! Bonus: It's written by a speech language pathologist! Don't Push the Button - this is SO much fun, and a ...

  9. Children's Books for Speech Therapy

    Fabian Fish Finger: How to say the 'f' sound. Fabian Fish Finger is the third book in a series aimed at children who have simple speech sound delays. Fabian fish finger is fascinated by fish and desperately wants to be a fish himself. Join him as he tries to swim with them and, as a little magic happens, he learns to say the /f/ sound to make ...

  10. 100+ Children's Books for Speech Language Development

    The Sound Children's Books for Speech Language Development /b/ Bears in Beds by Shirley Parenteau. (Age range 2 - 5) Big Red Barn by Margaret Brown (Age range 2 - 8); Bob's Busy Year (Bob the Builder (Simon & Schuster Board Books)) by Tricia Boczkowski which is a favorite of ours from the series, but all Bob the Builder books are great for /b/. /. (Age range 1

  11. Great Books for Toddlers with Speech Language Delays (with Therapy

    Making Books Better Podcast. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Other quick tips to make reading books with toddlers with developmental delays easier for YOU: 1. Choose CARDBOARD books for toddlers and preschoolers. A long, long time ago I realized that I tend to get a little cranky when one of my little friends rips a page….

  12. 30 Picture Books for Early Intervention Speech Therapy

    Board books are popular choices in early intervention speech therapy due to their sturdy construction, repetitive text, engaging pictures and potential for incorporating songs. Here are some recommended board books: First 100 Words - This board book presents a variety of everyday objects, supporting vocabulary expansion, word-picture ...

  13. Ten Books Every Early Intervention SLP Should Own

    7) ' My Toddler Talks ' by K. Scanlon, M.A., CCC-SLP (@scanlonspeech). This book is great for early intervention SLPs/SLTs and parents. It comes with a range of play ideas, for common toys and games. There are language strategies explained and embedded throughout, too, which makes it perfect for therapy planning.

  14. The Best Books for Preschool Speech Therapy

    How do you teach toddlers and preschooler to love books? By making them an active part of the reading process!!Books are a perfect speech therapy tool for targeting everything from articulation, to wh-questions, to expressive language, to apraxia of speech! Not to mention they are a great way to build vocabulary and story retell skills.I am sharing FOUR types of books (and my favourite five of ...

  15. Amazon.com: Speech Therapy For Toddlers

    Speech Therapy for Toddlers: 151 Activities and Games for Optimal Language Development (Toddler Skill-Building) Part of: Toddler Skill-Building (4 books) 23. Paperback. $1409. FREE delivery Fri, Aug 9 on $35 of items shipped by Amazon. More Buying Choices. $13.39 (13 used & new offers) Other formats: Kindle , Hardcover.

  16. 15+ Best Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

    Digital Version. 15. The Tiny Seed - Interactive Books for Speech Therapy. The Tiny Seed is a fun story to use during the spring time in therapy. The story is about a tiny seed that grows up once it gets water and sunlight to help it grow. It ends up growing taller than the houses and trees around it.

  17. 10 Repetitive Picture Books to Use In Speech Therapy

    Some favorites are Blue Hat, Green Hat and Moo, Baa, la la la! #4 Lisa Patricelli books. Like Sandra Boynton, author Lisa Patricelli has a flair for repetitive text. Her books are simple, to the point and easy for young children to follow along. #5 Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown.

  18. 10 Books That Get Toddlers Talking

    As a speech therapist specializing in working with toddlers, books are a go-to activity for me! Here are a few that have become all time favorites over the years: My First Learn to Talk Book: We typically hear little ones imitate fun sounds before they imitate words. This book, written by a Speech Pathologist, is full of these sounds.

  19. Speech Therapy for Toddlers: A Parent's Guide to Improving Language

    🌟 Transform Your Toddler's Speech and Language Journey Today! 🌟 Embark on a transformative journey with your child into the world of speech and language development. This book features vibrant, full-color illustrations.This essential guide is your compass in navigating the critical milestones of your toddler's linguistic growth, offering invaluable insights and practical strategies every ...

  20. Speech Therapy for Kids: A Parent's Guide

    Speech therapy can help children excel in school by improving their ability to listen, follow directions, read, and write. ... Books and Websites. Numerous books and websites offer guidance and activities for parents of children with speech and language difficulties. Look for reputable sources that provide evidence-based information.

  21. Books For Speech Therapy For Toddlers

    Books For Speech Therapy For Toddlers. If you work with toddlers, you're likely familiar with the phrases, "llama, llama red pajama" from the Llama Llama book series and "I was rocking in my school shoes" from the Pete The Cat series. Reading books to toddlers is not only fun and entertaining but can also be highly beneficial for ...

  22. Pediatric Physical Therapy in Seven Fields, PA

    Experience exceptional care at Ivy Rehab for Kids - Seven Fields in Seven Fields, PA. Our Pediatric Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy & Speech Therapy programs help kids reach their full potential. Contact us or book online today!

  23. Amazon.com: Speech And Language Therapy: Books

    Speech Therapy for Toddlers: 151 Activities and Games for Optimal Language Development (Toddler Skill-Building) Part of: Toddler Skill-Building (4 books) ... Book 1 of 1: Speech Therapy for Toddlers | by Kids SLT Publications | Jan 8, 2022. 4.1 out of 5 stars. 181. Paperback. $18.99 $ 18. 99.

  24. Amazon.com: Speech Therapy Book

    Amazon.com: speech therapy book. ... 100 Key Phrases for Toddler Speech Therapy Picture Book: Real Life Pictures and Phrases for Toddler Speech Development. by Lily Wagner. 3.0 out of 5 stars. 1. Paperback. $8.95 $ 8. 95. FREE delivery Thu, Aug 8 on $35 of items shipped by Amazon.