Fall is in full swing here in Northeast Ohio, and our Cleveland speech therapists love to tie relevant themes into our sessions to help the lessons stick. Right now, that’s everything autumn: Colorful leaves, crisp air and pumpkins!

Seasonal books give us a chance to target speech goals with themed vocabulary and content.

As parents, one of the best things you can do to help boost your child’s speech and language skills is to read to them every day. (We detailed these benefits in a recent Therapy & Wellness Connection blog.) So here, our speech therapists are offering up our favorite fall-themed books for story time to help with your kids’ speech therapy goals.

Leaf Man, by Lois Elhert

This is a short book, but it’s gorgeously illustrated and truly captures the feel of changing fall leaves. It’s a great opportunity to get your child talking, and also possibly to generate some creative craft ideas. This would be great for kids targeting sequencing, comparing/contrasting, counting, vocabulary and writing.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves, By Lucille Colandro

The Old Lady is back – and so is her insatiable appetite! Kids love this book because it’s so fun and silly, there’s repetition and rhyme and cute illustrations that draw them in. It’s great for practicing sequencing, vocabulary, articulation and memory skills.

The Golden Acorn, By Katy Hudson

This book has a great message for kids who are working on social skills. Ask your child about how the font and size of the text as well as the illustrations help tell the story. This book helps kids work on inferencing, verbs, grammar and vocabulary.

Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, By Julia Rawlinson

These watercolor illustrations are beautiful, and your little one will love this sweet story about an adorable, little fox. It’s great for helping kids learn about narrative text structure, sequencing, vocabulary and figurative language (there is personification on every page).

We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt, By Steve Metzger

This book has great visuals that can be not only read, but acted out and used for story retelling/sequencing.

These books are mostly great for children between the ages of 3 and 7. If you’re looking for something that is more tailored to your child’s age group but that targets their speech therapy goals, our speech therapists can help with recommendations. And we’d love to hear your suggestions too! (We’re always on the lookout for some great books to use in our therapy sessions!)

Therapy & Wellness Connection – your connection to a life without limitations – provides speech therapy to children in Akron, Cleveland, Brecksville-Broadview Heights and surrounding communities. We also offer summer camp, day programs, homeschooling, tutoring, vocational services and more. Call us at (330) 748-4807 or send us an email. 

Additional Resources:

A ‘million word gap’ for children who aren’t read to at home, April 4, 2019, The Ohio State University, Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

More Blog Entries:

Speech Therapy Tips to Make the Most of Reading With Your Child, May 28, 2020, Cleveland Speech Therapists’ Blog