Using Books For Speech Development

Articulation

You can help your children with speech development by using different words or pictures in books to target specific speech sounds by having them repeat words. Try repeating the same word up to 5 times in a row. Be sure to model the correct production of sound and see if they can produce it with the same model. If a specific sound is known to be in error, try to pick a book that has that sound repeated several times.

Expressive Language

• Point at pictures and have them name the object.
• Children can ask questions about the book.
• Discuss how characters may be feeling by looking at expressions on their face and their body language.
• Have your child retell the story using their own words.
• Make up stories for picture books.
• Work on loud vs quiet speech.
• Create different voices for different characters.

Receptive Language

• Name an item in the picture and have the child locate it.
• Provide 1 step directions based off of book (point to ___, turn page, etc.)
• Inference what might happen next.
• Answer wh (who, what, where, when, why) questions.

Written by Karlee Bodine, MA, CCC-SLP