Top 5 Ways to Bring Summer Fun into Speech Therapy Sessions

When summer rolls around, it’s the perfect opportunity to refresh your speech therapy approach with seasonal excitement! As students eagerly anticipate pool days and popsicles, you can turn speech therapy into something they’ll look forward to just as much.

Here are 5 creative ways to bring summer fun into your therapy sessions!

• Scavenger Hunts are perfect for outdoor learning. Hide objects and have your student search for specific items to target comprehension goals. For example, “Find something that is round, colorful, and played with on the beach.” Scavenger hunts are incredibly versatile—use them to practice articulation by hiding objects beginning with target sounds or reinforce spatial concepts by incorporating prepositions like “under,” “behind,” or “between” in your directions.

• Chalk and Bubbles make excellent summer therapy tools! Use them to practice requesting, commenting, and turn-taking in a naturally motivating environment.

• Water tables are a great sensory activity! Fill the water table with objects to practice action words such as “dive”, “splash”, “jump”, or descriptive words such as “slippery” or “shiny.” Water tables create the perfect environment for teaching basic concepts like “hot”/”cold” and “big”/”small” in a naturally engaging way. Try adding ice cubes or soap to your water table!
  
• Kiddie Pool Fishing can make articulation practice more exciting. Have students practice their target sounds or form a sentence each time they “catch” a fish!

• Beach Ball Toss combines movement with speech practice. Write target words on each color section and have students practice the word their thumb touches when catching.
  
• Water Balloon Activities add a splash of excitement to any session and can be adapted for various speech and language goals. Practice turn taking while tossing the balloons back and forth or target multi-step instructions like “Pick up the blue balloon, walk three steps, then toss it to me.”

• Parks and Libraries make excellent therapy settings (if permitted). Meeting at community locations adds variety and presents opportunities for modeling setting-specific vocabulary. Community outings are a great way to practice using AAC devices to comment on playground activities or favorite animals at the zoo.

• Sensory Sand Boxes bring the beach to you! Practice following directions and labeling summer vocabulary while digging in the sand. Target adjectives like “smooth” or “soft” to describe how the sand feels. For articulation practice, hide small toys or objects containing target sounds in the sand box to turn articulation practice into a treasure hunt!
  
• DIY Ice Cream Cones using construction paper and cotton balls let students describe their favorite flavors and practice conversational skills by role-playing ordering scenarios.

Summer doesn’t have to mean a break from speech progress! With these engaging activities, you can keep your sessions productive and enjoyable for both you and your students. Here’s to a summer of speech therapy that feels more like play than work!