How to Choose Great Books for Speech Therapy

There are so many amazing children’s books that it can be overwhelming to pick one! I'm sharing some helpful tips on how to choose books for speech therapy and get the most out of your sessions.

How to choose books for speech therapy; picture shows a woman reading with a child on the floor next to a book shelf

What books should we read?

When choosing a book to read in your therapy sessions, consider these ideas…

Classroom Themes: Find out what the students are learning in the classrooms and look for a book with the same topic. This is an excellent way to incorporate non-fiction texts! It also allows you to collaborate with the teacher and support your students in a meaningful way.
Current Events: Is there a holiday or a popular topic that your students will hear about? Using a book can help your student understand what is going on in the world and build background knowledge.
Student Interests: What topics are your students into? Do an interest survey to find out what your students are interested it. Then, you can choose books on the topics that peak their interest and engagement. My students usually always loved reading about animals!
Great illustrations: The pictures can be just as important as the text! These books will allow you to elicit more language through describing the pictures.
Specific Skills: Do you have students that need to work on specific speech sounds or language concept? Look for titles that will bombard them with a good model and allow natural opportunities for practice.
Wordless Books: These are an SLP treasure! Use these to target any skills because you and your students will create the language to go along with the illustrations. One of my favorite series of wordless books is about a dog named Carl by Alexandra Day.
Book Series: Finding a good children’s book series isn’t hard! This way, your students become familiar with the text structure and characters but can make connections between stories to build additional skills.
Time: It's important to choose a book that can be read aloud in about 10 minutes or less.
Crazy Speech World: I love to share ideas for books on my blog, Facebook, and Instagram, so make sure you are following me!
Instagram: There are SO many wonderful people sharing awesome books (and strategies) on the ‘gram. Here are a few of my favorites… @speechroomlibrary, @myliteracyspace, @tututeacher, @ramonarecommends, @mayasbooknook
Resources: Choose books based on a resource that is available. This lesson plan bundle includes books guides for 20 different children's books that are all perfect for therapy!