I love using books with students during therapy. In fact, reading books with my own daughter was a wonderful way to connect with her, build her receptive and expressive vocabulary, provide multiple opportunities for exposure, and encourage a love for literature. Here are a few of my favorite Summer-themed books and targeted goals that can be addressed using these books.
The Night Before Summer Vacation
by Natasha Wing
SOUND SYSTEMS: Target velars, fricatives, glides, and consonant blends easily with this adorable story! Students can even practice carryover of their sounds (k, g, s, l, ch, sh, th, r, blends) while targeting language concepts too.
LANGUAGE: Target identification and labeling of basic vocabulary found in the print and in the pictures, work on yes/no questions, description of items, irregular past tense verbs, and wh questions.
How to Catch a Mermaid
by Adam Wallace & Andy Elkerton
SOUND SYSTEMS: Target velars, fricatives, glides, and consonant clusters (k, g, s, l, sh, th, r, clusters) easily with this cute story about two friends who keep trying to catch a mermaid by setting different traps.
LANGUAGE: Target semantic features (functions, part/whole, description), adjectives, tier II verbs, answering wh-questions, and story retell!
Bear’s New Friend
by Karma Wilson & Jane Chapman
SOUND SYSTEMS: Target velars, fricatives, glides, and consonant clusters (k, g, s, sh, th, l, r, clusters) in this story. Students can work on the generalization of their articulation skills while summarizing the story.
LANGUAGE: Target vocabulary building for prepositions, using context clues to build vocabulary for Tier II verbs, and answering wh-questions!
If you do not want to go through the books and make your own lists, I have created an easy cheat sheet for articulation words and language concepts you can target for each book! You can grab your free cheat sheet below.