Depending on where you live in the U.S., the weather may actually feel like fall, summer, or winter. Nevertheless, it is a good time to use fall themed books about gratitude and other fall topics in speech-language therapy, at home, or in the classroom. For the past few weeks, I have used fall themed children’s picture books to build receptive language, expressive language, and literacy skills in young children. Here are a few of my favorite selections and suggested ways to target increasing specific language objectives in children with communication and language disorders.

Thankful by Eileen Spinelli

This children’s story encourages young readers to reflect on everyday blessings in their lives. The author writes a simple yet engaging story about what many people are thankful for in their everyday lives. Children are introduced to many community helpers and occupations. This is a good book to use to work on answering who and what questions. A speech language pathologst can also ask preschool and elementary school aged children why questions to elicit basic reasoning or critical thinking responses.

Ladybug Girl Gives Thanks by Jacky Davis

In this book, Lulu, the main character gives thanks for her favorite things. This is an ideal book to read to toddlers and preschool age children. It has a simple yet meaningful storyline. She expresses her appreciation for her friends, dog, playing outside in nature, pumpkin pie, and most importantly her family. Children with language delays and communication disorders can practice:

naming nouns, verbs, and adjectives

describing pictures in sentences

answering basic who, what,where, and when questions

Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora

This is another great book recommendation about gratitude. This book is about a special elderly lady who cooks a delicious and inviting red stew. The aroma captivates those in her community. What will happen next? This book fosters important social-emotional skills of sharing, kindness, and being thankful for others. It is available online in English and Spanish. It is the 2019 selection by Jump Start, an organization that promotes the importance of building literacy skills of children around the world. This book is ideal for elementary school age children as a read aloud in speech-language therapy or the classroom. This book is appropriate for promoting cultural diversity, building sequencing skills, answering wh questions, and practicing verbal story retell. You can get a complimentary activity in my TPT curriculum store here.

Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano

This is a popular children’s story with a Thanksgiving and Fall theme. Farmer Jake is looking forward to selecting a turkey to cook for the Thanksgiving holiday meal. However, the turkey has a different idea. Speech-language therapists can purposefully use this story to provide a practice opportunity for elementary school aged children with language disorders to practice recalling and stating the story sequence of events, answering wh questions, and expressing problem/solution. You can get my free accompanying activity here.

Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish

This has been one of my favorite fall themed books for several years now. The main character, Amelia, visits her grandparent’s house. Her grandmother sends her on an errand to the farmer’s market with her grandfather for a special ingredient to make a delicious fall dessert. I recommend using this story with preschool and elementary school aged children to practice: answering wh questions, story retell, labeling nouns/verbs/adjectives, and building simple and compound sentence structures. Here is a complimentary wh questions quick listening comprehension activity to use as an after reading language activity. Click here to access the digital download from my TPT curricuulum store.

Sophie’s Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller

Bernice is the name of Sophie’s squash that she bought at the farmer’s market one autumn with her family. Sophie, the little girl, is oddly fond of her new squash and soon becomes a “friend” of her new squash. Her parents try to explain to her that it will spoil and rot if it’s not eaten soon. What will she do? This book is ideal to work on characters, character traits, adjectives, answering wh questions, reasoning skills, problem/solution, and story retell. I recommend it as a read aloud for elementary school children. This book was recognized as a Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor and a Charlotte Zolotow Honor.

Have you used these books in speeech/language therapy sessions before? What are some other fall language and literacy books that you enjoy using with young children to foster increasing communication and language skills. Let me know in the comments. Have a great week!