Halloween Speech and Language Activities for Teletherapy
The anticipation of Halloween is something any speech-language pathologist can capitalize on in speech therapy (with students who celebrate, of course). From candy to costumes, SLPs can use the Halloween theme to evoke excitement, engagement, and participation in October teletherapy sessions.
Working virtually doesn't mean Halloween speech therapy sessions are any less festive. This blog post includes tons of fun activities to take your Halloween theme from ho-hum to ooh-ahh while still targeting communication skills this October.
Halloween Speech and Language Activities
Looking for fun speech therapy Halloween activities to use with your students? From articulation to language, Halloween is an easy theme to incorporate into speech therapy sessions. These activities include digital and printable options for a variety of ages and goals, making it easy to add a little fun to your caseload during the spooky season.
BOOM CARD ACTIVITIES
A Boom deck or two is an easy way to add some digital interaction to your speech therapy sessions. Here are a few of my favorite Halloween-themed decks for targeting a variety of speech and language goals.
Flashlight Search
In this activity, students use a flashlight effect to search for objects throughout darkened Halloween scenes (get it here on Boom). Preschool and early elementary students are intrigued to explore the language-rich picture scenes... while their SLPs target nearly any goal!
Make a Jack-o'-Lantern
Explore pumpkin carving with this versatile Boom Card deck (get it here on Boom). You'll be able to target sequencing, retelling, formulating sentences, and tons of other language goals– perfect for a small group!
Sequencing
This Boom deck includes 6 Halloween sequences (get it here on Boom), each with tons of language opportunities. The sequences range from 3 to 5 steps, so you have something for each student.
Spot the Difference Pictures
Spot the Difference (get the deck here on Boom) is always a fun activity to add Halloween themes to lesson plans. The 8 picture scenes provide a great opportunity to use expressive language goals, such as sentence structure, negation, and descriptive words. This activity includes a printable version (get the deck here on Boom) that your students will love during Halloween season.
Articulation Activities
For articulation students, this deck (get it here on Boom) includes 5 Halloween-themed activities for each of 16 speech sounds and clusters. From coloring and mazes to word unscrambles and word searches, there's something for every articulation student. On TpT, you also get a printable version that is a great way to encourage home practice!
PDF ACTIVITIES
Want a PDF that you can download and use with or without WiFi around Halloween? Check out these PDF activities!
Mixed Group Interactive PDF
This one PDF includes seven different activities to target various speech therapy goals with elementary students. The bright, colorful pictures draw students in, whether you use the activity on a teletherapy platform, iPad, or interactive whiteboard.
Ghost Search
In this free activity, students hunt for hidden ghosts throughout a haunted house scene. You can target anything from articulation and fluency carryover to prepositions and description. Download this freebie for a quick, easy activity to use as a warm-up or session finisher.
Picture Scene
This one-page Halloween scene is great for mixed groups! With the spooky picture, you can target articulation and language goals at the same time. It also makes a great speech therapy homework activity.
Bat Speech & Language Activities
Your animal-loving students will be fascinated to learn all about bats! In this PDF download, you'll use the shared context to target several speech therapy goals with elementary students, including vocabulary, verbs, prepositions, comprehension, and articulation.
Following Directions Picture Scene
This Halloween busy scene is a fun way to work on receptive language. Using annotation tools (on a computer or tablet), students follow directions containing 1-step, 2-step, or various basic concepts (negation, quantitative, temporal, and spatial concepts). An open-ended scene gives you infinite opportunities to work on any other language skills you'd like.
GAMES
Use this Halloween costume guessing game (similar to Guess Who) to elicit lots of questions and answers from your students in a natural, meaningful way! The Google Slides version is ready to go with movable pieces, or you can use the PDF with annotation tools in your teletherapy platform (or to print!).
For students who love a little challenge, this Halloween language and vocabulary Boom Card game (available here on Boom) never disappoints. Students race to find and call out the Halloween item that is pictured in both boxes. It's easy to incorporate any number of speech therapy goals throughout the game, too!
WEBSITES
In this PBS Kids game (called Arthur's Tricks and Treats), students virtually hand out candy to each character that comes to the door, while also trying to avoid some Halloween tricks. This activity is great for following directions and eliciting language in general.
Younger students may enjoy this Sesame Street activity where they spot differences in Halloween pictures. It's a great resource for targeting negation and even expanding language using contractions (i.e., "This jack-o-lantern has a nose, but this one doesn't.).
The objective of this Halloween Candy Hunt (from ABC Ya) is to click each semi-transparent (and semi-hidden) piece of candy in the photo. Simple, but fun!
ACTIVITIES FOR OLDER STUDENTS
You're never too old for some Halloween fun! So if you're an SLP for middle or high school students, there are several ways to add a Halloween theme, too!
Ghost Scene Creator
One option is this Boom Card deck (available here on Boom) where students create a haunted scene by positioning ghosts around an eerie picture. As they move each one, an articulation target is revealed for practice.
Videos
These Weird But True facts about Halloween from National Geographic Kids are also great conversation starters.
Check out this playlist of Halloween-themed Simon's Cat videos on YouTube... they're always a hit for older children!
Learn about one of Halloween's coolest animals– bats! This interesting video is a great way to learn some fascinating bat facts while building language and conversation skills.
Reading Passages + Activities
Want the bat video as a written passage with coordinating language activities to go with it? Check out this resource that has multiple format options, including Boom Cards, Google Slides, and a printable. If you only need the Boom deck, grab that here.
A similar resource with a different spin on Halloween is this haunted house-themed language unit (available here on Boom). It's sure to get kids talking about their own haunted house experiences while working on goals such as identifying the main idea and new vocabulary, making inferences, and more. It also includes a video read-aloud of the passage!
Funny Fill-in-the-Blank Story
A Mad Lib-style activity always makes for a fun session, and a Halloween-themed one makes it even better! Email subscribers can get a costume-shopping free download in my subscriber library. Here it is, shown with these sound-loaded word lists for the easiest articulation activity ever!
Need a little bit of everything for your speech therapy caseload this Halloween? Save money with this huge Halloween bundle. It gives you options for younger and older students, with nothing to prep!
And there's our round-up of Halloween fun for teletherapy! The question is not, "How will I make speech therapy fun this Halloween?" It's, "How will I narrow down the choices?" If Halloween is one of your students' favorite seasonal themes, you can always stretch it across multiple weeks throughout the fall... I'm sure they won't complain!
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