I love using repetitive books concurrently in speech therapy for childhood apraxia of speech. Repetitive and predictable children’s books are excellent for children in general. However, they are undeniably useful for children who have speech and language delays. I use books frequently as a therapy tool to promote literacy, since children with speech/language delays are already at risk for additional learning disabilities down the road.
Books provide new vocabulary in context while concurrently providing visuals to help aid in comprehension. Additionally, they can be used to address a variety of skills depending on how they are used including receptive language, expressive language, articulation skills, and fluency.
Childhood Apraxia of Speech, repetitive books are even more useful because the predictability decreases the cognitive load needed for comprehension, and allows the child to focus on production! The best book to choose will be a book that will allow the child to fill in the word without having to repeat. Not surprisingly, this task can be very challenging for our kiddos with apraxia.
Before my daughter was really speaking in sentences, she couldn’t formulate a 4-5 word sentence, but she could fill in “no more monkeys jumping on the bed!” to the story Five Little Monkeys.
Later on, I chose books that have a target she is currently working on. I used The Napping House and The Lonely Firefly when we were practicing /l/ blends. I have listed books I have used with my daughter and in therapy to promote speech, and in some cases, I add the link explaining how I used the book. If you have a book idea, please leave it under comments! Happy reading!
Laura’s Favorite Repetitive Books!
A Cozy Goodnight (Linda Ashman)
Are you a Cow? (Sandra Boynton)
Are you my Mother? (P.D. Eastman)
Bear Feels Scared (Karma Wilson) or any of the Bear books!
BedTime at the Nuts House (Eric Litwin)
Blue Hat, Green Hat (Sandra Boynton)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear (Eric Carle)
Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom (Bill Martin & John Archambault)
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type (Devon Kruse-Wu)
Duck on a Bike (David Shannon)
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (Eileen Christelow)
Goodnight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown)
Go Away, Big Green Monster! (Ed Emberley)
Groovy Joe: Ice Cream and Dinosaurs (Eric Litwin)
Groovy Joe: Disco Party Bow Wow (Eric Litwin)
Is Your Mama a Llama? (Deborah Guarino)
Jesse Bear, What Will you Wear? (Nancy White Carlstom)
The Gingerbread Man Therapy idea
The Grouchy Lady Bug (Eric Carle)
The Jacket I Wear in the Snow (Shirley Nietzel) Therapy activity
Hickory, Dickory Dock
The Little Blue Truck (Alice Schertle)
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything (Linda Williams) Therapy idea
Little Cloud ( Eric Carle)
Mrs. Wishy Washy (Joy Cowley)
The Napping House (Audrey Wood)
Panda Bear, Panda Bear (Eric Carle)
Polar Bear, Polar Bear (Eric Carle)
Peek a Moo (Marie Torres Cimarusti)
Pete the Cat (Eric Litwin)
Time for Bed (Mem Fox)
The Very Lonely Firefly (Eric Carle)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Erc Carle)
One of my absolute favorite books of all time is Dear Zoo. The repetitive phrase is “So I sent him back.” and then I add, “back to the zoo” every time. Even my kiddos that do NOT like sitting for books love Dear Zoo. There are a ton of extension activities, too. I do Dear Zoo lotto for matching pictures and use my Melissa and Doug mailbox to mail the animals back to the zoo.
Wow, I must get on Amazon now and order this book! Thanks for sharing!!
Awesome post thank you for sharing.
“Caps For Sale” and “Groovy Joe” books are both great ones and very interactive!
I haven’t even heard of these! I’ll check them out. Thank you!
Hi there! I’m at work browsing your blog frokm my new apple iphone!
Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to alll your posts!
Keep up the fantastic work!
Hi! Thanks for this info! Love your blog!.