Best Fall Books To Use For BOTH Speech & Language Therapy!

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Do you love using fall books for speech and language therapy? Us too! But chances are you see a group of kindergartners working /s-blends/ followed by 2nd graders working on WH questions followed by 4th graders working on sequencing all before lunch time! Phew…that’s a lot! Planning engaging speech and language activities doesn’t need to be as crazy as your schedule. So let us help you by sharing our favorite fall reads you can use for BOTH articulation and language.

There so many awesome books out there that are not only cute and endearing stories, but also have the ability to support speech and language skills across many grade levels. Keep reading to find a fall book and companion activity that works for your mixed target caseload. Plus be sure to grab our TPT Freebie Fall Mini-Language Books.

Fall Books for Language

We love all of the following fall books because they can target so many different language concepts from WH questions to rhyming to taking other’s perspective. Research shows incorporating literacy into structured language activities has many, many benefits! Under each title you will find specific language concepts found in each book along with a link to some of our most used and loved companion activities.

Fall Books for Speech

Using books during speech sessions also can have a big impact on overall sound production and generalization. Many students that exhibit speech sound disorders struggle with reading so pairing the skills is even better. Students are exposed to target sound modeling, can read aloud using accurate sounds, and listen for their sound all while engaged in a fun story! Under each book title you will find a specific target sounds found repeatedly in each book along with a word list.

Grab this FREEBIE Fall Book Speech Sound By Book Title & Worksheet to have your students follow along during the each story and practice their specific speech sound!

Hello, Fall!

Language Targets

This books is FULL of wonderful, descriptive adjectives and unique nouns all related to the fall season. Perfect for an introduction to autumn and vocabulary enrichment.

We recommend a simple fall vocabulary game to go along with this sweet story. Check out our post on Fun & Easy Fall Vocabulary Games to practice fall themed vocabulary after listening to this book (and grab a fall vocabulary freebie too!).

Speech Sounds

One way to target more vocalic /r/ while reinforcing the autumn theme is to have your students color, cute, and paste their sounds with our Fall Day Speech Articulation Craft. Your students with language goals will also benefit as there is tons of fall vocabulary to discuss as well!

Leaf Man

Language Targets

This is one of our favorite fall books! With such beautiful illustrations and a repetitive story format, this story is great for small group language sessions. Have students identify animals and their locations throughout the story. In addition, state facial and body parts as their create their own leaf person with cut out leaves or real leaves!

Speech Sounds

• /l-blends/
  • blow
  • blew
  • plans
  • flew
  • gliding
  • flying
  • flock

Pair this Falling Leaves Articulation Craftivity with the Leaf Man story. All /l-blends/ are included individually as well as mixed. Target all sounds while coloring and creating a fall leaf scene!

Going On A Leaf Hunt

Language Targets

This book is not only a wonderful fall story to listen to, but also allows for some movement while reading! Set up a chair or two to have students stomp and squish through “the forest” along with the characters. After some movement, be sure to practice present progressive tenses within sentences as well as spatial prepositions.

We love this fall preposition activity from SLKey Therapy to help reinforce vocabulary as well as spatial prepositions!

Speech Sounds

• /s-blends/
  • step
  • squish
  • squash
  • swooshing
  • slip
  • slide
  • splish
  • splash
  • skunk
  • forest

To continue with the autumn speech fun, grab these Fall Cluster Reduction Smash Mats. Quick and easy no print worksheets that will make students will WANT to practice their speech sounds!

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves

Language Targets

This next fall book always gets our students giggling! While certainly not a very realistic story, students can answer why questions and explain the cause and effect relationships between each item the old woman swallows.

There are a ton of awesome book companion activities out there for not only this book, but all of the Little Old Lady” stories. We like this comprehensive BOOM card set from SLP Madness to target lots of different language concepts including comprehension, vocabulary, and describing!

Speech Sounds

• /s-blends/
  • swallow
  • sneezed
  • scarecrow
  • started

Ten Red Apples

Language Targets

We love this next book to help support sequencing and farm animal identification. Have students count along with the farmer as his apples disappear!

Use these super simple apple category sorts to further discuss farm animals and other basic categories from Lisa Reyes on TPT.

Speech Sounds

Pair this fun and engaging Apple Picking Articulation Craftivity to target all of the above sounds as well as every other target sound in every position. Great companion activity for more apple picking and sharing!

Leaf Trouble

Language Targets

Leaf Trouble is a sweet story about understanding the changing leaves in fall. Students can answer WH comprehension questions throughout as well as produce expanding utterances to describe the leaves in the story. Another easy companion activity is to compare and contrast different leaves such as maple, oak, hickory, etc. Have students state how the sizes, shapes, and colors are all different!

Speech Sounds

In addition to the FREEBIE Fall Book Speech Sound List & Worksheet, use these Fall Cluster Reduction Smash Mats to target every /s-blend/, /r-blend/, /l-blend/, and more! Easy, no prep activity to do after listening to the story.

Ten Apples Up On Top

Language Targets

Ah…no book list is complete without a classic Dr. Seuss book! We love this one because of the rhyming patterns. Have students identify the rhyming pairs on each page and then brainstorm more words that rhyme!

Another fun companion activity is to have students pretend to stack ten apples on top of their heads using spatial prepositions. Simply add an apple to the stack as you read the story then count together at the end.

Speech Sounds

• Final Consonant Deletion
  • on
  • up
  • top
  • look
  • can
  • hop
  • get
  • good
  • stop
  • not
  • drop
  • fun
  • eight
  • skate
  • it
  • come
  • make
  • ten
  • let
  • out
  • mop

Use these Apple Final Consonant Deletion Smash Mats to target all ending sounds. Students will love smashing play dough, coloring, or stamping each target word after listening to the story.

Leaf Thief

Language Targets

Who is stealing all the leaves? Don’t worry…it’s only the wind! Students will love this silly squirrel’s adventure in trying to figure out what is happening to his beloved tree’s leaves. There are many, many book companions out there for this funny story including products from My Fabulous Class, Simply Special Ed, Clutter-Free Classroom, and more. Lots of language targets from WH questions to sequencing to vocabulary practice.

Speech Sounds

• voiced and voiceless /th/
  • thanks
  • those
  • this
  • they
  • breathe
  • thief
  • them
  • things

Print these Fall Articulation Drill Punch Cards to target voiced and voiceless /th/ as well as every other speech sound in all positions of words. Students can use paperclips, paint dotters, hole punchers, or stickers to mark their target words after practicing.

Little Acorn

Language Targets

From the fall of the acorn to the top of the oak tree, this book is perfect for sequencing the life cycle of a tree. Have students state the different stages of becoming a tree. Use this free life of a tree visual from LB4Nature to help students tell their complete sequence or story retell!

Speech Sounds

We have the perfect speech sound companion activity for this book! Have students color, cut, and paste their acorns onto the fall background in this Collecting Acorns Fall Articulation Craftivity. What can we say…we just love a good theme!

The Ugly Pumpkin

Language Targets

Poor, poor pumpkin…or is he? The Ugly Pumpkin is a great fall book to target feelings identification including happy, sad, hurt, lonely, surprised, and more. While using the picture cues, students can practice taking the perspective of others. Use these BOOM cards from Hands-On Multilingual Fun to practice identifying emotions. Best part? The little faces are on fall acorns to support the overall fall theme!

Another hands-on activity to pair with this book is some good old comparing and contrasting. Have students compare gourds and formulate descriptive sentences about each one. We like to use simple adjective cards to help expand utterances.

Speech Sounds

After listening for target sounds and brainstorming more with the FREEBIE Fall Book Speech Sound List & Worksheet (found here in our TPT store!), have students pick their own pumpkins containing their target sound. Use this Pulling Pumpkins Articulation Craftivity to go along with this story as well.

FREEBIE Fall Mini-Language Book

Want your students to have their very own fall book for speech and language practice at home? Print these Freebie Fall Mini-Language Books to target direction following, vocabulary, spatial prepositions, and color identification. Students can following along and color their very own fall books in your speech and language sessions. Once completed, they can take them home for additional practice!

Click here to grab this TPT Freebie!

Now you are ready to tackle your mixed speech AND language sessions all season long. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and DM us your favorite fall book title along with what speech and language area you will be targeting!

Happy fall!

Talking Mama Bears