Why I Love Seasonal Crafts In Speech Therapy

Tis the season of Fall! AKA, the start to allllll the things seasonal and holiday for the next few months. There's a reason why SLPs love this time of year: therapy is FUN and therapy is EASY! Here's three quick reasons to sum up why I love doing seasonal crafts in speech therapy sessions (though I think I could name 3947038):

1. LANGUAGE!-Seasons and holidays have ENDLESS language opportunities as they are rich rich rich in content! We can describe the seasons, categorize what's involved with seasons, learn vocabulary with seasons, ask and answer all kinds of questions about seasons. The list goes on and on. Crafts keep those hands busy and bodies still during discussion. Crafts are also perfect opportunities to allow children to make requests, ask for help, and use their words. You can do a simple Pinterest craft and target any and every language goal you have.
2. Engaging and FUN- SLPs are constantly trying to keep our little friends engaged in our sessions. Crafts are SO good for that. (Side note: I like to have a completed one on display so that they can see what they are working towards and are motivated to have the same end result.) Plain and simple, therapy should be FUN. We want them to WANT to come to therapy. I bet they'll be more inclined to come to speech if you do a fun craft rather thank just drill for X amount of minutes. Keep those hands busy having fun while you indirectly target your goals. They might not even notice that they are working as well ;].
3. Easy to no prep- See this cute pumpkin craft below? Do you have computer paper, scissors, and glue? Literally all you need. I used orange paper but you can have them color white computer paper if you don't have orange. This is about as low prep as it gets. During the session, talk about fall. What do you think of when you think of fall? Talk about the weather, the colors, the activities, the holidays- so much to talk about before you even get to the pumpkin! Then we can describe the pumpkin: color, shape, texture, parts, object function, etc. I could go on and on but you get the picture. Few materials=happy therapist, fun craft=happy kiddo.

Basically, if you have a speech goal you need to address, you can pair it with a craft. Even if it is a speech sound kiddo, work on those while you complete the craft and STILL talk about the language aspects of it. Seasonal crafts in speech therapy sessions are a win win for both therapist and student. Happy crafting!

Want to read more about how I get high trials of articulation sounds with crafts? Read this blog post.