5 Easy Speech Therapy Ideas Using Common Christmas Items

Welcome and thanks to my guest blogger, Lindsay from Once Upon a Speech Room!

Christmas is one of my favorite times of year to plan therapy. I’m continually inspired to bring more new ideas into my therapy sessions, but my most favorite items to use are always simple, common Christmas items. They are easy to find, relatively inexpensive, and can be easily incorporated into therapy. However, the best part is that these items bring Christmas excitement and sustained engagement into all of my therapy sessions.

Christmas Advent Calendar

Christmas advent calendars are great because there are so many pockets! I fill each pocket with a card or pictures, and my kiddos will select one at a time to practice. This is a great activity to use if you want to get many trials in a short amount of time. Perfect for articulation or language.

Gift Tags

Gift tags are perfect time saver and a great low prep item. They are ideal to use on the go when I have a busy day with kiddos who all have different goals. I laminate them and write target words on them using a dry erase marker. After practicing each word, we use them to decorate a laminated Christmas tree or a Christmas scene.

Fabric Gift Bags

Fabric gift bags are great for hiding pictures, cards or items. I have a bag that is called Santa’s Sack. I fill it up with Christmas themed minis, including a few small bells to encourage engagement with those tough kiddos. Great for describing, labeling, phrase/sentence/question formulation, but can also be used as an artic reinforcer or for artic drill-based activities.

Plush Elf

A staple in my speech bag during December! Ideal for targeting early language skills such as requesting, labeling, commenting and imitation of early sounds. These little guys are also great to use with preschool kiddos who are working on following directions, vocabulary, pronouns and various word and phrase structures. I often pair them with action cards and have my kiddos perform various actions while they explain what their elves are up to.

Christmas cookie molds

Cookie molds are perfect to pair with play dough as a reinforcer, but also great to use when targeting following directions. There are a wide variety available, but my most favorite molds are Christmas lights and presents. We use to decorate and trim a laminated Christmas tree.