speech therapy art projects

Art Activities in Speech-Language Therapy

Image source: childminderwidnes.co.uk

There are two main styles of speech therapy: directive and naturalistic . A directive approach is more structured. The speech therapist might hold up an object, name it, and prompt the child to repeat the word. In contrast, the naturalistic approach may simply look like play. It’s less structured, and it often involves arts and crafts activities. Finding ways to fit art activities in Speech-Language Therapy is a rewarding exercise, and certainly worth considering.

Art activities in speech-language therapy are helpful for working on your child’s receptive and expressive language skills. Receptive language skills refer to your child’s ability to comprehend language. Your child can’t follow directions if he doesn’t understand them. For example, the speech therapist may ask him to draw a picture with a red crayon. The therapist might hold up the red crayon while he says this. In this manner, your child learns the color red, and he also learns to follow simple directions by taking the red crayon and drawing a picture.

Image source: arttherapywithoutborders.wordpress.com

Expressive language skills refer to your child’s ability to put words together and communicate effectively. One example of an arts and crafts activity that a speech therapist might use is the classic macaroni project. The therapist will direct the child to glue dry macaroni pieces onto a piece of paper or other object. While the child does so, he will be prompted to repeat what he is doing. For example, he will say, “I am putting glue on the macaroni… I am putting the macaroni on the paper.” This activity works on the child’s pronunciation skills as well as his ability to understand the directions, follow them, and repeat them.

Children who haven’t yet advanced to saying more difficult words like “macaroni” will benefit from simpler arts and crafts activities that allow them to work on individual sounds. The speech therapist might have your child blow bubbles. He will then use the opportunity to encourage your child to say “pop.” The bubble blowing game has a two-fold purpose. Not only does it help your child with the “p” sound, it also helps your child learn to build oral air pressure. This is helpful for children who have trouble pronouncing consonants.

Image source: readingkingdom.com

Arts and crafts activities can help your child enjoy speech therapy and learn new skills in a relaxed environment. He’ll be encouraged to “use his words” to request specific paints or crayons for his pictures. Your child can also be encouraged to talk about his art project. For example, instead of asking him if he painted a picture, the speech therapist can elicit more words by asking him what he painted and which colors he used.

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Your Guide to Spring Crafts for Speech Therapy

04/11/2022 by Kristina Maxfield Leave a Comment

Spring is around the corner so it’s time to plan ahead for all the fun crafts in speech therapy. Working on articulation and phonology are much more fun with a hands-on craft, don’t you think? Check out this guide to spring crafts for speech therapy to help you plan for success in speech this spring!

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Flower Chop

Speech therapy in the spring calls for some flower crafts! This spring articulation craft will work in your mixed groups or your speech sound groups. The flower is ready for a chop! Combine the two pages to make a flower from strips that you chop. Practice your speech sounds as you build the stem. This easy no-prep craft is ready to use just add a piece of long construction paper.

Sounds included:

F, V, K, G, S, Z, L, SH, CH, TH, R, AIR, EAR, IRE, OR, ER, AR, S Blends, L Blends, R Blends + Multisyllabic Words + Garden Vocab Sheet + Blank

No-prep craft, Print and go craft! I love this crafter because you can do as much or as little as would be appropriate for each student. Color and staple the two pages together if the “craft” is too much for some students. Got others who need to keep their hands busy? Let them cut out each “chop”. Your OT will love you for all the cutting practice!

In the Tall Tall Grass

“ In the Tall, Tall Grass “ has always been a favorite spring read aloud in the speech room for me. I like to create a whole lesson on it that can last for multiple sessions if necessary. This lesson always works really well for preschool-2nd grade.

First, have students make this easy Tall, Tall Grass Craft that I posted about WAY back in 2012! (Gosh I’ve been around for awhile!) All you need is large green pieces of construction paper like this and scissors to cut strips on one side. I feel like pictures of real items make this activity more fun and engaging for students (rather than board maker pictures).

Next, read the story, “ In the Tall, Tall Grass ” by Denise Fleming and look for the animals in your grass.

After reading the story and finding the animals together, it’s time to expand this lesson even further. Try pairing with the Spring Interactive Vocabulary Book Sets . These go along perfectly with this spring story.

Next, try some activities for your tactile learners and incorporate some sensory play. Simply grab a bucket and some Easter grass. Try having students “catch” bugs with tweezers to work on fine motor and vocabulary skills. Nonverbal students can work on CORE words with their AAC device such as “out, in, more, me, you.”

Rainbow Craft Made Simple for EVERY AGE

Next, what better spring craft is there than a rainbow? It screams spring and St. Patrick’s Day loud and clear. Do you have a vision of getting all of the winter snowflakes out of your room? Then this simple rainbow craft is PERFECT to adapt to ALL of your speech and language groups. I have used it with kindergarteners all the way to 6th graders before.

Here’s how:

• Print a simple rainbow template like this one . (Just google “rainbow coloring page” ) You will need at least 2 per student typically but can use anywhere from 1-4).
• Have students write their target words, sounds, etc. in sharpie on the rainbow (so they can color over it in crayon).
• Fold in half
• Assemble by gluing the half sheets back to back
• Punch a hole at the top and loop string
• Hang from the ceiling to make your room look super Springy!

Here’s the finished product:

Ideas for Differentiation Amongst Groups:

– FLUENCY: List a strategy on the cloud to practice with and sentences on the rainbow.

-SOCIAL SKILLS : Expected & Unexpected Behaviors on the clouds and different examples of how people might react.

-MULTIPLE MEANING WORDS: Write the word in the middle of the clouds. (Example-bark). Draw a picture to show the difference between the words on each cloud. Come up with a sentence for each usage of the word that can be written on the rainbow.

Try pairing with the book, “ Happiness is a Rainbow ” by Patricia Hegarty {ADD AFFILIATE LINK}.

Spring Paper Strip Art

Paper Strip Art might be my favorite type of craft project. Want to know why? Paper strip art is simple, easy prep and fun. I like to call this “fake crafting!” To make any art set, print the targeted paper strip page. I print on colored computer paper to make it pop. If you have students with difficulty cutting with regular paper, print on cardstock to increase the paper resistance. Use the examples included to make different seasonal art projects. If you purchase the Year Round Craft Paper Strip Art Bundle there are 12 projects total for every month.

St. Patrick’s Day Dot & Go Articulation & Phonology

If you are looking for a fun and engaging activity for St. Patrick’s Day, this is it. These “Dot and Go” activities are perfect for articulation and phonology skills practice for St. Patrick’s Day. The best part is that there are both printable and digital versions for you to use in therapy. The printable version is made to be able to use perfectly with bingo daubers. If you need some, this is a great set on Amazon (any will work though!) The Google Slides version is easily used with teletherapy or in-person as no-print therapy.

Build & Say SPRING Brick Activities

Finally, this low-prep Build & Say Spring Brick activity is great to pair with plastic building lego bricks! There are three spring designs for each sound (flower, umbrella and a ladybug). For each page, students will create a design that imitates the model. I recommend having your student put a plastic brick on the bottom of the page on top of each word. As he practices each word, he can earn the bricks and he can build the shape above. You can either build directly on the image or build on a block plate. Each page includes initial and final sounds. There is one set for articulation AND language and one set just for articulation .

Get Ready for Spring

Hopefully you found some fun ideas for spring crafts and activities for your speech room in this post! If you want even more speech and language ideas especially for preschool, check out our TpT Store and follow along on Instagram ! Thanks for being here!

Which spring craft are you planning to make with your students?

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Easy Summer Crafts For Speech Therapy

May 21, 2022

You either love or hate crafts as an SLP. While I am not a fan of messy crafts that involve glitter and expensive craft supplies, I am down to do crafts that help my students stay engaged. And, if you can use the craft as a functional therapy tool, it’s a go for me! Try these easy summer crafts for your speech therapy sessions when you need to find engaging activities that pair well with a summer-themed book.

The summer crafts in this blog post require minimal supplies that you can afford or hopefully find in your school supply room.

Craft Supplies You Need for Summer Crafts

Here are the things you will need (Amazon affiliate links included for your convenience):

• Construction Paper or Cardstock
• Paper Plates (You can find these at Dollar Tree)
• Speech and Language Word Lists or Pictures Paint
• Tissue Paper Squares or Dot Markers

Some of the crafts featured in this blog post are from the summer crafts for the speech therapy set .

Beach-Themed Crafts for Speech Therapy

If you are doing a beach theme, make a kid buried in the sand craft ! You will have one craft template and can print targets for your speech or language goals. Every student does one craft in your therapy sessions but has targets for practicing their goals.

Easy planning for you and keeps students engaged! And they can take it home for home practice.

Ocean-Animal Crafts for Speech Therapy

There are LOTS of fun low prep ocean animal crafts that you can pair with your favorite books. This craft is fun because you can glue targets on the inside of the craft and then use it to work on basic concepts and with your pretend play activities. For more ocean-themed craft ideas and books to pair with them, check out this blog post . 

Summer Crafts That Pair Well With The Summer Season

Making a sun with a paper plate or just with construction paper is perfect for summer because it’s hot outside! You can have students glue or write words on the sun rays or on the back of the paper plate.  If you are working on summer weather concepts, you can write activities you can do when it is hot outside. Or, write down things that are hot and cold!

For more ideas for how to use this sun craft, check out the REEL on Instagram .

You can also make a lemonade craft or easy tissue paper or paint crafts for a summer 4th of July BBQ. Check out the pictures below. The lemonade craft is part of the summer crafts for speech therapy resources . And, the watermelon and fireworks low prep crafts are from the summer push-in lesson plan guides . 

S’mores Craft For Speech Therapy

LOTS of kids are eating s’mores over the summer whether they are camping or having backyard firepit hangouts. This is an easy craft to do and pairs well with a camping theme! Need this template? It’s part of the summer craft set . 

Books to Pair With These Summer Crafts for Speech Therapy

Beach Day  by Karen Roosa has fantastic pictures! After reading this book, I had my students create a beach theme, and then they got to sprinkle natural sand on their craft with Elmer’s glue. You can read about it  HERE!!

A Camping Spree With Mr. Magee  by Chris Van Dusen is a great little story about camping. You can read about some of my  camping-themed therapy ideas  that I did last year.

When a Dragon Moves In  by Jodi Moore is a fabulous beach-themed book! You could create a sandcastle or dragon craft with this book!

Alex and The Amazing Lemonade Stand  by Liz & Jay Scott look like a fun read! I just ordered it. It would go perfectly with my  Ice Cold Lemonade Craftivity.

What Summer Crafts Do You Love to Use With Your Summer Themed Activities?

What crafts do you love to use for the summer season? If you have one that is easy to prep and engages your students, share it in the comments! As always, tag me on social media @thedabblingspeechie if you use one of these crafts so I can see what you are up to in your speech therapy room. 

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