Getting Festive: Using a Christmas Theme in Speech Therapy
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‘Tis the season to be jolly, and what better way to inject some holiday spirit into speech therapy sessions than by embracing a Christmas theme? Incorporating a festive twist into therapy sessions can not only engage and motivate our kiddos (and we SLPs), but also provide them with a memorable and enjoyable learning experience. Read on to see the various ways I use a Christmas theme to enhance communication skills, promote language development, and achieve therapeutic goals during the most wonderful time of the year!
BOOKS
Books are some of the best resources that we SLPs have because they can be used to address so many of our speech and language objectives. Christmas books are captivating for children, so therapy becomes more exciting and inspiring. There’s no end to the ways books can be useful in our speech sessions: introducing and reinforcing vocabulary, teaching comprehension, targeting specific articulation goals, enhancing storytelling skills, sequencing, and promoting social interaction skills, fostering active listening, critical thinking, and expressive language skills. So let’s dive into some of my Christmas favorites! Check out my Christmas Book Blog to see all of the ways each story can be used for speech-language learning!
Books Your Kiddos Can Get Wrapped Up In:
1. Amelia Bedelia Wraps It Up by Herman Parish (Author), Lynne Avril (Illustrator)
2. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney by Mac Barnett and illustrated by John Klassen
3. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Sleigh By Mo Willems
4. Olive the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold
5. Moo Baa Fa, La, La by Sandra Boynton
6. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff
7. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
8. Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner and Mark Buehner
9. Little Red Sleigh by Erin Guendelsberger Illustrator Elizaveta Tretyakova
10. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess
GAMES
Games provide a perfect platform for practicing speech and language skills, making the process enjoyable for both the children and us! The kids love to play games, which stimulates communication and encourages social interaction. Games can help reinforce vocabulary, pronunciation, articulation, and language comprehension all while having fun!
Kids Will be Pine-ing for these Christmas Games:
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TABLE TASKS
We speech therapists sit at the table and do activities in our sessions because these tasks are structured and visually supportive. Table tasks effectively direct a child’s attention and afford ample opportunities for repeated practice.
Tree-mendous Table Tasks for Christmas:
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Christmas Stickers: All of my kids are really into stickers! Using them can make for a really productive speech-therapy session! I like to use this Make a Face Christmas Sticker Set, but you could use any holiday-themed stickers on paper or to make a bookmark for a simple reinforcement for articulation and language tasks.
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Smash Mats: Smash mats are simple but highly productive for repetitions and vocabulary. All you need is Play-Doh, and children can smash down the balls over targeted pictures after completing their speech-language task. My kiddos always love using smash mats. I have created various smash mats that target vocabulary, speech sounds, syllable shapes, and wh- questions, including Christmas vocabulary! They are a quick and easy no-plan activity for any session. Check out my Christmas Smash Mat!
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CRAFTS
Be-Yule-tiful Christmas Crafts:
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LET’S MOVE!
I always incorporate some kind of movement into all of my speech-language sessions. Getting up and being active is the best motivator for my kids because these activities are always the most fun!
Activities That Are Snow Much Fun
Bean Bag Toss Games: Kiddos love trying to win games against their SLPs, so bean bag toss games always serve as great motivators. These are easy, no-plan activities that are really useful as reinforcers for speech and language tasks:
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Merry Christmas!