The anticipation of Halloween is something SLPs can capitalize on in speech therapy (with students who celebrate, of course). From candy to costumes, we can use the Halloween theme to evoke excitement, engagement, and participation in October teletherapy sessions.
Working virtually doesn't mean your Halloween speech therapy sessions are any less festive. Here are tons of activities to take your Halloween theme from ho-hum to ooh-ahh!
Halloween Boom Card Activities
In this activity, students use a flashlight effect to search for objects throughout darkened Halloween scenes. Preschool and early elementary students are intrigued to explore the language-rich picture scenes (while their SLPs target nearly any goal)!
Explore the activity of pumpkin carving with this versatile Boom Card deck. You'll be able to target sequencing, retelling, formulating sentences, and tons of other language goals– perfect for mixed groups!
Halloween PDF Activities for Speech Therapy
This one PDF contains seven different activities for working on 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.
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. Make sure you download this freebie for a quick and easy activity to use as a warm-up or session finisher.
This one-page Halloween scene is great for mixed groups! Using the spooky picture, you're able to target articulation and language goals simultaneously. It makes a great speech therapy homework activity for students as well.
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.
Halloween Games for Speech Therapy
Use this Halloween costume guessing game (similar to Guess Who) to elicit tons of questions and answers from your students in a natural and 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 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!
Halloween Website Activities for Speech Therapy
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 activity 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 simply click on each of the semi-transparent (and semi-hidden) pieces of candy in the photo. Simple, but fun!
Halloween Speech Therapy 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 include the Halloween theme for you, too!
One option is this Boom Card deck in which students create a haunted scene by positioning ghosts around an eerie picture. As they move each one, an articulation target is revealed for practice.
Check out this playlist of Halloween-themed Simon's Cat videos on YouTube... they're always a hit! These Weird But True facts about Halloween from National Geographic Kids are also great conversation starters.
Older students may enjoy reading this interesting passage about bats and completing any of the coordinating language activities. You have options of format, including Boom Cards, Google Slides, and a printable.
A similar resource with a different spin on Halloween is this haunted house-themed language unit. This one is sure to get kids talking about their own haunted house experiences!
And there we have 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 themes, you can always stretch it across multiple weeks... I'm sure they won't complain!
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