Fun Speech Therapy Themes for Summer

Ah, sweet summer— the perfect time to enjoy the sunshine, pool days... and a slowdown at work for many speech-language pathologists. 

While some SLPs may work less (or not at all) during the summer, others continue to provide speech therapy services through year-round schools, extended school year programs, or early intervention programs. 

It may be work, but summer speech therapy doesn't have to FEEL like work for those still working with students. By using fun activities tied to summer themes, kids can continue working on speech and language skills within relevant contexts... maybe without even realizing it! And SLPs can use the excitement of summer to facilitate speech and language goals.

If you're working in any capacity this summer, use these summer themes and ideas to create lesson plans for fun-filled speech therapy sessions!

Summer Speech Therapy Themes

Summer is loaded with fun themes that most students love to talk about. Many already have background knowledge about summer vocabulary and the activities, which makes them perfect for building language skills. These themes will help you make the most of summer sessions– while also decreasing your prep time!

Summer Holidays

Here are a handful of summer holidays that you can incorporate into your summer speech therapy sessions. For each one, you can talk about the history and introduce vocabulary related to the traditions that students and their families might take part in.

• Memorial Day (the last Monday in May) marks the unofficial kickoff to summer. Introduce new vocabulary related to remembrance and gratitude.

• Juneteenth (June 19th) commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It's often celebrated with family gatherings, festivals, and educational or religious events.

• The 4th of July is Independence Day in the United States, celebrating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 with fireworks, parades, food, and patriotic music.

• Labor Day (first Monday in September) is often considered the unofficial end of summer. It's a day to honor and recognize the contributions of the American workforce by discussing jobs, targeting work-related vocabulary, and categorizing professions.

Summer Activities

There's no shortage of fun summer pastimes. Many students participate in these warm-weather activities in summer months, and they're perfect to tie into speech therapy sessions.

• A beach theme is always a hit! Speech therapy may involve describing seashells, practicing speech sounds while talking about ocean animals, and answering wh- questions using a free beach-themed Boom deck.

  

  
  

• For those of us in landlocked states, adapt the beach theme to include other bodies of water (lakes, ponds, rivers, and creeks) to make it more relevant for students. 

• A camping theme is another summer favorite. Target sequencing (s'mores, obviously!), narrating skills (hello campfire stories), vocabulary, and more related to camping gear and activities. 

• The thrill of amusement parks is another fun summer theme. Incorporate social skills related to situations like winning or losing carnival games and waiting in line. And target language and articulation goals by designing your own amusement park.

• Summer sports like baseball, swimming, and water skiing make for action-packed sessions that integrate language and articulation goals.

• Traveling is a fun way to bring in map-reading, destination vocabulary, and even writing postcards. The activities are great for targeting syntax, storytelling, and functional language.

  

  
  

Summer Weather

Summer brings sunshine, heat, and (unfortunately) humidity. Use these topics to explore synonyms and antonyms (hot/warm, sunny/cloudy), solve problems ("What do we do when it’s too hot?"), and answer WH- questions related to clothing and outdoor safety.

Summer Plants and Animals

All that time outdoors in the summertime means tons of encounters with nature—perfect for therapy!

• Love them or not, insects and bugs are a staple of summertime conversation. Use plastic bugs to boost language and descriptive skills, or keep things digital with a virtual bug hunt or firefly capture activity– both are fun and engaging ways to target a wide range of speech and language goals.

• Ocean animals are often a favorite topic for kids and a favorite theme for SLPs! Dive deep into the vocabulary of sea creatures, including their habitats, prey/predators, and appearance. Students can even build an ocean scene while practicing articulation or language goals.

• Vegetable or flower gardening is a great topic to incorporate into language or articulation practice. Practice sequencing (growth cycles), compare and contrast, and work on categories work. Plant a virtual or real garden to spark conversation and vocabulary growth.

• Fruit harvesting is a sweet topic! Talk about strawberries, watermelon, and peaches while naming attributes (color, flavor, texture), and comparing similarities and differences.

Summer Foods

Last but certainly not least– summer foods! These yummy topics will make therapy engagement a breeze over the summer.

• All students scream for ice cream! Incorporate concepts of size, temperature, and favorite flavors and toppings while incorporating students' language goals and target sounds. 

• Nothing says summer fun like a barbeque, but this everyday activity is also a great way to incorporate vocabulary words (that just so happen to be great articulation target words) like “grill,” “skewer,” and “sizzle.”

• Picnics are an engaging topic that supports language skills like naming and categorizing foods (fruits, snacks, drinks), problem-solving (“What do we do if it rains?”), and answering WH- questions. Planning for a picnic is a great collaborative activity and packing a picnic basket is the perfect way to work on following directions.

  

  
  

And just like that, we’ve turned speech therapy sessions into a summer adventure! Whether you're an SLP, a parent, or just someone who loves a great way to sneak learning into playtime, these summer speech therapy activities will keep kids engaged. Plus, with all these themed activities, you might just find yourself enjoying the fun too!

Grab a free summer lesson planning spreadsheet to help you make this summer full of communication, connection, and of course, ice cream. 😜

📌 Got a speech therapy board on Pinterest? SAVE the love ❤️