As speech-language pathologists, we are no strangers to mouths…. we spend a lot of time looking at them! Since February is National Children's Dental Health Month, it's a good opportunity to incorporate some tooth-themed activities in your speech therapy sessions.
- Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson is a fun book you can use with your younger students. Bear is a favorite character of mine and in this story, he is experiencing his first loose tooth. His forest friends help him through the process and even the tooth fairy makes an appearance at the end with a big plate of blueberries.
This (and all of the Bear series) have great plots and vocabulary, making them a perfect choice for your therapy sessions to target a variety of goals. If you want your planning done for you check out this book companion that is full of activities for your caseload.
2. Another book I really like for this theme is How to Catch the Tooth Fairy by Adam Wallace! This one is would be great for any of your elementary-aged students, it has good descriptive vocabulary and an entertaining storyline.
3. What about some Boom Cards? This Brush Your Teeth deck is an awesome no prep activity with TONS of speech sound practice. Students will practice the words, then cover them with toothpaste…once they are done, they ‘brush the teeth' and all of the pictures disappear with a bright and sparkly smile.
4. I'm sure you have a Big Mouth in your therapy closet…at least most of us do! You can use it to talk about brushing, flossing. YOu can have the students practice and discuss the steps to each, using this as an opportunity to target complete sentences, grammar skills, appropriate vocabulary, etc.
5. Have some littles that are working on brushing? Use this interactive book with them, it has printable and digital versions! It's a freebie in our crew library if you are already a member! Not in the club yet? You can grab it for free by entering your name and email address in the box below!
What other fun activities can you do for Dental Health Month?
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