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  • Home
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    • Meet Ashley
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  • Blog
    • Newest
    • Literacy-Based Speech Therapy
      • All
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      • Articulation Bookmarks
    • Monthly Therapy Plans
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Seasonal
SLP planner for back to school in speech therapy

Creating Speech Therapy Lesson Plans for Themes

As a school-based SLP, I typically like to follow a curriculum-based approach to therapy. I like to tie my speech therapy lesson plans to the

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24 Inferencing Picture Books in Speech Therapy (Free SLP List!)

I’ve got a great list of 24 inferencing books for speech therapy to share with you, but first, can we talk about the students who

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book list for articulation pin image

/J/ Book List for Articulation Therapy

I created a picture book list inventory of my favorite /J/ sound books for articulation therapy. It’s a free download, so you can put more

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Spring Book Companions For Speech Therapy

Who is ready for springtime in your speech therapy sessions?!? There are so many awesome picture books out there about gardening, bunnies, birds nesting, bugs,

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Winter Book Companions For Speech Therapy

5 winter books for speech therapy Skiing, penguins, and snow, oh my! So many fun narrative themes to incorporate into our speech therapy activities during

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christmas books for speech therapy

Christmas Book Companions for Speech Therapy

Merry Christmas! ‘Tis the season for Santa, decorating, caroling, giving, and serving! Do you have books you like to pull out for the Christmas season?

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Thanksgiving book companions

Thanksgiving Book Companions for Speech Therapy

Do you have books that you like to pull out for the Thanksgiving season? Seasonal books are so fun and offer opportunities to target specific

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articulation activities speech therapy

Articulation Road Map for TH, SH, CH, and J Sounds

I love implementing a literacy-based approach in my articulation therapy sessions. However, it is not always easy to identify books with a heavy load of

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Halloween Books Speech Therapy

Halloween Book Companions for Speech Therapy

Spiders, and monsters, and witches, OH MY!! This Halloween season, dive into some really sweet, spooky stories centered around kindness and friendship using my Halloween

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fall books for speech therapy

Fall Book Companions for Speech Therapy

There are so many great fall-themed books out there about the leaves changing color and falling to the ground. I chose 3 of them to

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SPEECH THERAPY BOOK COMPANIONS

Back to School Book Companions for Speech Therapy

Let’s start this year off right using literacy-based speech strategies in our therapy sessions! I have made this simple to use with your students in

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Valentine’s Day Book Companions For Speech Therapy

Love is in the air! Do you have books you like to pull out on Valentine’s Day? Seasonal books offer opportunities to target specific goals

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The Best Picture Books for Speech Therapy

Without a doubt, my passion is literacy-based speech therapy. I LOVE children’s picture books; they are an endless wealth for targeting articulation and language concepts.

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Language-based literacy intervention for SLPs.
Turn picture books into targeted therapy sessions.
Evidence-based strategies you can use tomorrow.

When a student’s retell is weak, the problem is no When a student’s retell is weak, the problem is not always story grammar. Sometimes the student understands the story but lacks the vocabulary needed to talk about it.

Mental state verbs help students explain characters’ thoughts, feelings, and motivations.

Examples:
• thought
• wondered
• realized

Without these words, character understanding stays hidden.

Causal language helps students connect events and explain relationships between them.

Examples:
• because
• so
• therefore

These words help move retells beyond a simple sequence of events.

Precise vocabulary makes retells more detailed and easier to understand.

Examples:
• enormous (instead of big)
• sprinted (instead of ran)
• exhausted (instead of tired)

Specific words create stronger narratives.

Before targeting retell structure alone, look at the language underneath it.

Do your students have the vocabulary to explain thoughts, connect events, and describe what happened with precision?

Sometimes improving vocabulary is what improves the retell.
Comment “inference” for my favorite books to targe Comment “inference” for my favorite books to target inferential comprehension. Move beyond retelling a story in perfect order. 👏
A child who says /r/ incorrectly is not automatica A child who says /r/ incorrectly is not automatically at risk for reading difficulties.

A child with weak underlying phonological skills might be.

Research has shown for decades that children with persistent speech sound disorders are at greater risk for reading and spelling difficulties, particularly when phonological awareness or language weaknesses are present.

This is why SLPs should be thinking beyond articulation accuracy alone.

The goal is not simply correct production.

The goal is helping children develop the sound based foundation that supports literacy.
We spend a lot of time planning activities, creati We spend a lot of time planning activities, creating extensions, and writing goals, but research has consistently shown that the quality of the text matters.

High quality books expose students to richer vocabulary, more complex sentence structures, stronger story grammar, and deeper ideas worth discussing.

When a book contains meaningful problems, character motivations, and opportunities for prediction and explanation, language intervention becomes more powerful.

A strong book gives you something to work with.

Before choosing your next read aloud, ask yourself:

• Does this book introduce vocabulary students are unlikely to hear in conversation?• Does it give students opportunities to explain why and how?• Does it encourage prediction, perspective taking, or inferencing?• Does it contain a meaningful problem worth discussing?

The right book can do more for language development than the most creative activity paired with the wrong text.
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