Community Helpers Speech Therapy Activities
I enjoy using themes in my speech sessions because it helps streamline therapy planning. A community helper theme is excellent for speech therapy because of all the speech-language concepts you can target!
Community Helpers Themed Speech-Language Targets
- Vocabulary Expansion – Targeting vocabulary related to community helpers, tools, and work environments.
- Articulation – Practicing specific speech sounds within the context of community helpers.
- Expanding Mean Length Utterance – Creating grammatically correct and descriptive sentences about community helpers. For instance, “The firefighter uses a hose to put out fires” or “The police officer helps keep our community safe.”
- Wh- Questions – Asking and answering questions about community helpers helps practice comprehension and expression skills, such as “Who helps us when we are sick?” or “What tools does a construction worker use?”
- Describing – Encouraging children to describe community helpers by their uniform, tools, roles, or actions. For example, “The teacher wears glasses and helps us learn new things.”
- Following Directions – Giving and following multi-step directions related to community helpers. For example, “Point to the firefighter then touch the police car.”
- Social Skills – Practicing social interactions and communication skills related to community helpers. This can include role-playing scenarios like asking for help from a police officer.
- Storytelling – Encouraging children to create narratives or stories involving community helpers. They can use their imagination to develop exciting adventures or problem-solving situations.
Community Helpers Themed Wh Questions
Who is a community helper?
Who are some community helpers in a school setting?
Who delivers the mail?
Who helps your cross the crosswalk safely?
Who drives the trash truck?
What are some examples of community helpers?
What tools or equipment do different community helpers use?
What do community helpers do?
When do community helpers provide their services?
When do community helpers wear uniforms or specific attire?
When do you go to the post office?
When do you call an emergency number?
Where can you find community helpers in an emergency situation?
Where do community helpers work?
Where do you see contruction vehicles?
Why are community helpers important in society?
Why is it important to respect and appreciate community helpers?
Why is it important to go to the dentist?
Why do cars pull over or stop when there is an ambulance or fire truck?
Why do you need a ticket to go to the zoo?
Community Helpers Themed Books
These books introduce various community helpers and their important roles in our society.
- “Whose Hat is This?” by Sharon Katz Cooper – Learn all about the different hats worn by construction workers, police officers, firefighters, and more. An interactive, illustrated book with fun facts!
- “Helpers in my Community” by Bobbie Kalman – A book for introducing K – 2 grades to the important people who make our communities cleaner, safer, and better.
- “My 1st Book of Community Superheroes” by Sara Kale – A book geared for ages 2-5 years to learn how community helpers make a difference in our neighborhood and help them develop appreciation and gratitude towards them.
- “Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do” by Kathryn Heling – A rhyming book to learn about community helpers! It is great for inferencing and vocabulary building.
- “Lift the Flap: Community Helpers” by Wonder House Books – Great illustration and interactive to introduce various community helpers and their jobs.
- “What People Do: The Jobs to Be Done” by Alexander Lee – Two siblings play a magical game that leads them on an adventure exploring what people do, and the tools to help complete the job that needs to be done.
Community Helpers Themed Activity Ideas
Community Helpers Interactive Book – An open-ended book that allows flexibility in teaching many concepts! Includes additional pages to work on categories, associations, inferences, WH questions, and following directions while learning about community helpers!
Community Helpers Language Scene – A picture scene and activities to target many language goals! Great for mixed groups or to use with many students on your caseload. This is a fan favorite!
Community Helpers Digital Language Activities – A digital, self-grading activity to target: wh questions, inferences, categories, associations, and following 1-3 step directions. It includes fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice questions, and drag-and-drop features.
Community Helpers Barrier Games – Includes 5 barrier games: firefighter, police officer, mail carrier, doctor, and dentist. Target: expressive skills, receptive skills, social skills, basic concepts, vocabulary, categorization, sentence formation, and storytelling.
Fire Safety Life Skills – A hands-on interactive book to work on fire safety incorporating expressive and receptive language!
Who’s Calling? Inference Activity – Making inferences and target critical thinking skills with this fun, motivating inference activity! Also target categories, pronouns, expanding MLU, and WH questions. Phone calls from community helpers, characters, and animals.
Community Helpers Themed Toys
- Lakeshore Community Block Play People – I have yet to find a better set of toy people than this one! They are realistic and represent a good amount of professions and ethnicities.
- Community Helper Matching Puzzle – Match the helpers with their tools/vehicles/objects. The puzzles have real pictures!
- Magnetic Dress-Up Community Helpers – Includes 10 occupations, including a policeman, doctor, fireman, judge, and engineer.
- Spark Innovations Community Helpers Memory Matching Game – Includes two sets of 20 different occupations with 5 game ideas.
- Fisher-Price Little People Community Helpers Figure Pack – This figure pack includes miniature versions of community helpers, such as a police officer, firefighter, doctor, and teacher. It encourages imaginative play and can be used with playsets or on their own.
Community Helpers Themed Apps
- Community Helpers Play and Learn – Learn about the essential helpers in our community, what they do, ad what tools they use.
- Toca Life: City – This interactive app allows children to explore a virtual city and interact with various community helpers such as firefighters, police officers, doctors, and more.
- Tiny Firefighters – Help the tiny firefighters and policemen in our interactive activity world! Help the firefighters and policemen do their work. This has been a favorite for years and has many interactive components – you can even change the time of year!
Do you have any fun community helper themed activities you use in speech therapy? Comment below!
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