Summer is such a refreshing time for speech therapy! It’s easy-going, which is a nice change of pace from the hectic school year! Whether you’re running a private practice, working the extended school year program, or squeezing in a few sessions here and there, this mega bank of summer speech therapy activities will make your lesson planning go smoothly! I’ve compiled some fun, effective, and engaging resources that your students will surely love! If you’re skipping off to your summer holidays, just bookmark this page for end of the year inspiration for next year! I think this blog post will be helpful for years to come!
Tips for Planning Summer Speech Therapy
I highly recommend planning your summer speech therapy sessions around themes! Themes allow students to become immersed in new vocabulary words and will help them make meaningful connections. Themes also help children create background knowledge, which ultimately supports their comprehension skills. Perhaps your students have never been to the beach, but they can still learn all about it! More importantly, themes are fun! That’s a good enough reason for me! haha!
More tips for ESY lesson planning:
- Use no prep materials – these save time, so you can spend evenings by the pool or take your family to the ice cream shop!
- Be flexible! Maybe things don’t go as planned, that’s totally fine! Ultimately, follow your students’ lead!
- Choose a few picture books to use over and over again throughout the summer! Repeated readings are extremely beneficial!
- Optional, but a really cool idea: Start with a broad theme and then niche it down each week during the summer. For instance, begin with an ocean theme, then a shark theme, then a beach theme, then a sandcastle theme, then a coconut theme. This will allow you to use re-use books and they’ll remain relevant. It will also create a very immersive experience!
- Join The Speech is Sweet Club – it’s home to ALL of my materials! It makes therapy prep super convenient and easy!
ESY Speech Therapy Themes
There is truly no end to fun themes you can use! I would recommend choosing a few themes, you may want a new theme every week or keep the same theme for two weeks! Do what makes your life easier and creates the most fun for you! If you’re having fun, your students are having fun! I love a good theme, so I’m using this as a compilation of all the summer themes I’ve curated over the years. Please don’t be overwhelmed, just use it as inspiration! Maybe select a few for this year and then save the others for the future! These themes are also great for end of the year speech therapy too! You may want to keep some in mind for future April, May or June therapy sessions!
Ocean Themed Speech Therapy
This is hands-down the most popular summer theme (but hey, it can be used year around too.. the ocean makes up 70% of the Earth’s surface, so it’s always relevant lol). I’m obsessed with marine animals, so I love this theme!
Check out my Ocean Themed Speech Therapy blog post for an extensive list of under the sea goodies! It features play-based therapy ideas, a fun book round-up, crafts, and resources!
I’m a huge fan of Shark Week, so I had to round-up some of my favorite sharky reads! Find ideas on how to use these Shark Themed Picture Books in speech therapy!
My favorite shark of all? Smiley Shark! I have another blog post dedicated just to him! Click Smiley Shark Freebie to get more ocean-themed ideas and a free printable! You can tackle so many different language skills with this book!
Sandcastle Themed Speech Therapy
Sandcastles is a fun twist on a beach theme! Your summer speech therapy students will love a full week of sandcastle themed speech therapy sessions! Check out my Sandcastle Themed Therapy blog post for tons of ideas and resources! It includes crafts, a book round-up, toys, and more!
Sandcastle Articulation Ladders is truly the perfect activity for summer articulation! It’s a great way to scaffold students across five levels of speech (isolation level, syllable level, etc). Read more about it HERE or snag it in my TPT Store! It’s also included in my membership!
Coconut Themed Speech Therapy
Coconuts is an unexpected theme! I’ve curated lots of different coconut-themed activities for your summer sessions! This micro-theme can also be incorporated into a larger beach theme or ocean theme!
You could even bring in various coconut foods and drinks to really bring this theme to life! Of course, first make sure none of your students are allergic! You can target so many language goals with food. Here are some fun ideas that will make you and your students feel like you’re on a tropical summer vacation:
- compare/contrast coconut milk and coconut water
- make a smoothie with coconut and work on following directions
- get a real coconut and use it as a bowling ball
- work on sequencing and make a fruity drink
Popsicle Themed Speech Therapy
Nothing says summer like a frozen treat! Popsicles are so fun and will be a great addition to your therapy plans! Check out my Popsicle Themed Therapy blog post for tons of fun ideas!
There are endless popsicle crafts you can create! There are a few options in the blog post above, but I’ve also shared another craft in the past! Check out this Popsicle Articulation Craft! You can create these for any target sound and they’re a sweet way to get in lots of repetitive drills!
If feasible, I highly recommend ending your popsicle theme with a bang and bringing in actual popsicles! ESY is all about fun and making things extra special!
Watermelon Themed Speech Therapy
What’s juicer than a popsicle – watermelon! I’ve curated some fun watermelon themed activities! Check out that blog post for some great literacy-based therapy ideas and more!
These watermelon activities can also be part of a larger picnic theme or summer foods theme!
Baseball Themed Speech Therapy
A baseball theme is perfect for the dog days of summer! This theme can even be revisited in the fall during the World Series! Check out my baseball themed speech therapy blog post for a great book round-up, no prep worksheets, and an apraxia freebie!
Sports themes are super fun and rich in Tier III vocabulary words! Tackling sports themes (no pun intended haha) is great for vocabulary development. Sports are a major part of school environments and childhood. If you can’t squeeze in a sports theme during your ESY sessions, I highly recommend planning one for the upcoming school year!
Summer Speech Therapy Activities
I absolutely adore creating seasonal resources! Seasonal themes are some of my favorite to create, because they’re relevant to our students’ lives. Students get to leave the speech room and then experience the things we talked about in the speech room firsthand! From AAC to stuttering, I’ve got your planning covered!
AAC Summer Speech Therapy Activities
I have created AAC book companions for 28 summer-themed books! They’re all included in my membership, The Speech is Sweet Club! The membership is designed for speech-language pathologists who want to save time and maximize fun! It provides ALL ACCESS to all of my materials. Consider your therapy plans complete when you join! haha
The story boards can be displayed on a tablet, but make sure you lock the screen so the pages don’t turn! Here is a quick list of the AAC and literacy packets I currently have available:
- Summer Volume One (also in a seasonal bundle)
- Bear’s New Friend
- There Was an Old Mermaid Who Swallowed a Shark
- Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee
- Mouse’s First Summer
- Summer Volume Two
- Commotion in the Ocean
- There Was an Old Pirate Who Swallowed a Map
- The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark
- Nugget and Fang
- Summer Volume Three
- Nugget and Fang Go to School
- Smiley Shark
- The Snail and The Whale
- Froggy Learns to Swim
- June First Edition (also in AAC for the Year Bundle)
- A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee
- Froggy Goes to Camp
- In the Small, Small Pond
- There Was an Old Pirate Who Swallowed a Fish
- July First Edition
- The Rainbow Fish
- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell
- The Pout-Pout Fish
- Clark the Shark
- June Second Edition (also in AAC for the Year 2nd Edition Bundle)
- The Night Before Summer Camp
- Tiptoe Joe
- The Camping Trip
- There Was a Coyote Who Swallowed a Flea
- July Second Edition
- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Cactus
- Jabari Jumps
- Tickly Octopus
- Gilbert the Great
Each packet contains four summer-themed book companions! Each book companion includes:
- story board
- retelling board
- retelling strips
- y/n question cards
- comprehension question cards
- communication pictures (can be used for sensory bins, feeding activities, picture exchange book, etc)
- file folder games
Apraxia Summer Speech Therapy Activities
Over the years, I’ve created a wide variety of apraxia activities including: Apraxia on the Go, Apraxia Snip and Stick, Apraxia Printables, and Apraxia Interactive Notebooks! Let’s peek inside the summer themed packets!
Summer Snip and Stick – Gotta love color, cut, and glue worksheets!
June Apraxia on the Go – This features a wide variety of games, coloring sheets, and worksheets!
July Apraxia on the Go – The primary theme found in this packet is an ocean theme!
Articulation Summer Speech Therapy Activities
Here is a quick list of some of the summer themed articulation activities I’ve created over the years:
- Summer Color, Cut, and Glue Worksheets
- Summer Interactive Articulation Notebook – blog post
- Ice Cream Articulation
- Summer Articulation Vocabulary Books
- Summer Articulation Printables (pool party theme)
- June Articulation Games – themes include camping, road trip, fishing, and beach!
- July Articulation Games – themes include beach, ocean, watermelon, and patriotic!
- Summer Spin-Go Games
- Summer Articulation Counting Books
Language Summer Speech Therapy Activities
Grammar, describing, WH Questions, Oh My! Whether you have mixed groups or groups that are focused solely on language development, I’ve got you covered!
Mixed Groups
My A Dab of Speech and Language line is perfect for mixed groups as it addresses articulation, language, and fluency/stuttering!
The summer packets include June (camping themed) and July (beach theme)! These are perfect for preschool and elementary students. I love bingo daubers, I think they can add novelty to any speech therapy session!
Language Specific Resources
I’ve created a variety of activities that hone in one specific language skills including:
- Summer Describing
- Summer Color By Pronouns
- Summer Barrier Games (great for working on spatial concepts, vocabulary, and following directions)
- Summer WH Questions (currently only in a growing bundle, but later the June and July packets will be available individually)
- July Language Notebook
Literacy-Based Summer Speech Therapy Activities
Books are my favorite therapy tools! They’re a springboard for language and I’ve created many summer themed book companions over the years to help make literacy-based therapy easier for you! Of course, they’re all included in The Speech is Sweet Club! Here is a quick list of fun book companions for you:
- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell – blog post
- A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee
- Down to the Sea with Mr. Magee
- The Snail and the Whale
- Nugget and Fang (another great shark book)!
- June Literature Flip Books – blog post
- July Literature Flip Books – blog post
- June Literature Flip Books 2nd Edition
- July Literature Flip Books 2nd Edition
Phonology Summer Speech Therapy Activities
My Phonology on the Fly Bundle features tons of games, worksheets, interactive notebook activities, and more for minimal pairs! These are great activities to tackle phonological processes. Let’s peek inside the summer editions:
Stuttering Summer Speech Therapy Activities
My Fluency in a Snap series features an entire year’s worth of no prep stuttering activities and games! The June version features a camping theme and the July version has a beach theme!
These activities are designed around the fluency shaping strategies of easy onsets and light contacts. There are also no prep pacing sticks included to practice flexible rates! I’ve also included stuttering education pages in every packet as well so that students can learn how to spot stuttering myths and learn about strategies!
Summer Speech Therapy Teletherapy
No print, no prep, no problem! I love digital materials, because they can truly be used on-the-go! I’ve created a variety of digital speech therapy games over the years that can be used for teletherapy or during in-person therapy on a tablet or computer! My entire speech teleteherapy library is available in The Speech is Sweet Club! Here are some quick TPT links too:
- Articulation Ocean Bubbles Games
- Articulation Fireflies Games
- Apraxia Fireflies Games
- Fluency Fireflies Games
These fun and interactive games are ideal for distance learning or the classroom!
Easy Crafts for Summer Speech Sessions
As speech therapists, we are juggling so much over the summer! Some of us are working ESY, planning vacations, embarking on road trips, or just plain ol’ relaxing! That’s why I love crafts that require no prep! Just print n’ go! Here are some of my favorite for summer:
June Speech Therapy Crafts – This packet features camping, beach, and pineapple themes! They address articulation, apraxia, language, and fluency! Perfect for mixed groups!
July Speech Therapy Crafts – These summer activities feature patriotic, watermelon, ice cream, and ocean crafts!
Popsicle Articulation Super Simple Crafts – So easy and fun! No glue required!
Conclusion
I hope this massive round-up of summer speech therapy activities has been helpful! Feel free to visit it time and time again, it’s your own little hub for ESY inspiration! I’ll continually update this post as I come up with more summery ideas and curate more relevant themes!
Don’t forget all of the resources found in this blog post can be found in my membership, designed for SLPs just like you, The Speech is Sweet Club!
If you would like ideas delivered straight to your inbox, please subscribe to my email community! Have a wonderful day!
