Book Companions for Speech Therapy

Why should we bring book companions into speech therapy?

Using interactive books can help increase student engagement during speech therapy sessions! I love bringing books to life by pairing with real toys, using book companions, story maps, visuals, and interactive pieces. One book series my students (and my own children) have loved the most is “The Old Lady” collection by Lucille Colandro.

*be sure to buy the books separately

Great Reasons for Using Interactive Books in Speech Therapy

Incorporating books into speech therapy session increases exposure to language in general. Making the books interactive brings the opportunity for shared joy, joint attention, child led play (with books!), and targeting a variety of goals.

Having interactive pieces keeps kids engaged and busy. My students have loved moving pieces and having active participation during reading activities. You could also turn this into child-led play by allowing the child to retell the story with the pieces or play with them during the session. This can make speech therapy fun…instead of feeling like work. I have seen increased interest, engagement, and participation in my students with limited attention spans…when I make the book interactive.

If you work on the go, like me…you’ll find that you can easily package book companions to make them an easy and portable therapy tool!

What Kind of Goals Can I Target with Interactive Books?

What can’t you target? Really, we can do just about anything with a book:

Analytic Language Development (Expanding vocabulary, sequencing, basic concepts, etc)

Gestalt Language Development (moving through NLA stages)- you can learn more about this here.

Articulation (using books embedded with target sounds or adding articulation cards to your activity).

Basic Concepts (vocabulary, answering questions, following simple directions, core words, actions, etc)

Social Skills (both within the story and working with a teacher or small group)

The sky is truly the limit!

Are you curious about grouping Analytic and Gestalt Language Processors together? Pop over here and watch this video of how we did it at our house!

Pictured here is The Big Box of Articulation paired with The Old Lady Book Companion.

What Kind of Activities can I do with a Book Companion?

Reading together.

Looking at the pictures.

Story Maps for sequencing (you can laminate these and use them as playdough smash mats, for matching pictures, etc).

Worksheets for coloring, sequencing, and sending home.

Simple arts and crafts.

Dot art (use stickers, magnetic bingo chips, bingo markers, etc)- perfect for articulation and reinforcement.

Add a tray with fun manipulatives like mini objects, golden coins, etc.

Change out the old lady character in different outfits!

Use a paper bag, tissue box, mini trashcan, etc for attaching to the character for feeding.

How Can I store these?

I like using plastic envelopes to store each individual book set, task boxes for tiny pieces, and rubbermaid storage boxes for each collection of book compaions (ex. “Old Lady”, “Little Blue Truck”, etc). You can find most of these organized in my amazon storefront.