Summer is a fantastic time to incorporate new and exciting themes into speech therapy sessions! Not only will these themes keep your students/clients engaged, they will keep you entertained as well! Whether you're a speech therapist or a parent looking to support your child's speech development, these ten summer speech therapy themes will make therapy sessions & at-home play both fun and effective!
Let's dive into these top ten summer themes that will keep your therapy sessions lively and productive all season long! đď¸
1. Ocean Animals
You can't go wrong with a deep-dive into the world of sea creatures during your summer speech therapy sessions! Here are our favorite speech-language goals to target using  ocean-themed products :
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Describing : talk about animal parts, how they feel, and compare/contrast what they can do!
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Inferences: Use informational text to learn more about sea creatures & make inferences  about how they live!
- Prepositions:Â use reusable sticker sets to talk about where each animal likes to swim & explore!
2. Going on a Picnic
Expand descriptive language and sensory vocabulary using picnic pretend-play!
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Food Descriptions: Use various picnic foods to practice describing textures, tastes, and appearances.
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Picnic Packing: Plan and pack a picnic, to work on categorization of food types, sequencing, and decision-making.
- Opinion / Commenting : do you like each food? Why/why not?
3. Ice Cream Shop
Yummmm who doesn't love ice cream?! Use ice cream toys or puzzles in your summer speech therapy sessions to work on speech/language skills:
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Requesting:Â ask questions or give requests to place your order
- Actions: any activity with food lends opportunities to practice labeling actions! Scoop, serve, & stack your ice cream cones!
4. Beach Adventure
Explore the sand, waves, and heat of the beach!
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Seashell Sorting: Use the seashells in this Sophie's Seashell Scramble game or grab real seashells on your beach trip! Use different shapes, sizes, and colors of seashells to work on categorization, vocabulary, and descriptive language.
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Beach Ball Toss: Write target words or conversation starters on a beach ball and have clients say the word or sound when they catch the ball!
- Sand Tray Writing: Practice writing target words, drawing emotions, or following directions in play sand!
5. PIRATES!
Look out for pirates as you explore the open sea!
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Search for treasure! Make a treasure map of your speech room and hide these treasure chests for students/clients to find!
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Build a ship. Grab this pirate ship puzzle and build a ship for your pirate friends! Add other characters with target speech sounds to easily incorporate sounds into play.
- Tell a pirate story. Use this reusable sticker set to make your own pirate scene or grab these story cards to create a pirate story!
6. Mermaids
Make your summer speech therapy sessions magical with some mermaids!
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Can you catch a mermaid? Grab this fun book to explore ways to possibly catch your very own mermaid! Will it work? What would you try?
- Build a mermaid. What do mermaids wear? Make a few with this magnetic set or draw your own and talk about how they are the same or different!
7. Camp Out
Never been camping? No problem! Grab some pretend play props and have your own camp-out in your summer speech therapy sessions!
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Build a Campground. Use these camping tools or make your own! Talk about what tools you would need & build a tent using chairs and a blanket. Talk about different sensory experiences: What could you hear in the forest? What animals might you see?
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Tent Projector. Grab this tent projector to show images on your therapy walls as you hang out in your pretend campground!
- Go Fishing! Target size concepts, comparatives, & superlatives with this Reel Big Catch fishing game. Or, add target words to paper fish & pick them up with a magnetic want & paper clip!
8. Zoo Field Trip
Can't go on a real zoo field trip during your summer speech therapy sessions? No problem! Try these activities to bring the zoo to YOU!
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Build a zoo. Grab some zoo animals and draw some different shaped cages for each! Work on following directions using shape/color concepts: "Put the tiger in the square/red cage"
- Animal Escape! Use the cooperative game included for FREE with purchase of this Learning Resources Peekaboo Learning Jungle toy to help the animals get back into their cages before the guests arrive to the zoo! Or, hide the animals around the room and work on asking questions or spatial concepts to help find them and put them back into their homes.
9. Let's Go On A Trip
While we can't advise you to go on a real vacation during your summer speech therapy sessions, we CAN recommend some fun ideas to pretend!
- Choose Your Vacay. Print out pictures or real pictures and play "would you rather?" with vacation locations or activities. Grab this You Choose book for visual choices for location, food, clothing, & more!Â
- Explore Outside. Take the speech therapy session outside! Summertime offer tons of opportunities for language ~ what do you see? hear? feel? Grab these outdoor scavenger hunt cards to help guide your exploration!
10. Sensory Play
Finally, simply add a few sensory play activities to make any of these summer speech therapy themes even more engaging!Â
- Water Play. Take the speech therapy session outside & add some water exploration to your session plan. These Glo Pals are great for water tables or sensory bottles! They light up ~ and some change colors ~ as soon as they hit the water!
- Sand is always an easy addition to a sensory table or sensory bin. Grab this Playfoam Sand Sensory Kit for an easy start! Complete with 3 colors of sand and tools. Check out our favorite sensory bin fillers here for toys to add to your sand adventure.
Heidi Martino
Heidi is a pediatric speech-language pathologist with a passion for play-based therapy! She is the founder of Speech Cube, a subscription box for SLPs who love using themes in speech therapy, and the new owner of My Speech Shop where she can live her dream of owning a toy store with the BEST toys for speech-language development.