Books are a fantastic way to introduce and model vocabulary in your Speech Therapy sessions and at home. These 15 food themed books are a great addition to your food themed Speech Therapy sessions in early intervention and preschool.
My favourite food themed books for Speech Therapy
I’ve gathered together a list of my favourite food themed books that you can use in your Speech Therapy sessions. My son is 3 years old and he loves these books, so they’re kid approved and ideal for your early intervention and preschool therapy sessions. All of these books provide lots of opportunities to model food themed target words (i.e., nouns, verbs, adjectives, symbolic sounds, and more!)
Note, I’ve not included links for these books due to differences accessing these books around the world. But I have purchased all mine via Amazon UK, supermarkets, or local bookstores.
15 engaging food themed books for Speech Therapy and Early Intervention
• Ten Red Apples- Pat Hutchins
• Apple Farmer Annie- Monica Wellington
• If you Give a Mouse a Cookie- Laura Numeroff
• If you Give a Dog a Donut- Laura Numeroff
• Cookies!: An Interactive Recipe Book (Cook In A Book)- Phaidon/Lotta Nieminen
• Mr. Cookie Baker- Monica Wellington
BTW- All of these books compliment the vocabulary targeted in the Food Themed Early Language Unit, which is available as part of the Early Language Units Bundle. You can check this out in my TpT store here.
These books have a general food theme, and are great for any food-themed Speech Therapy sessions…
• Baby goes to Market- Atinuke
• Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose- Julia Donaldson
• Apples and Pumpkins- Anne Rockwell (Halloween theme)
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar- Eric Carle
• The Tiger who came to Tea- Judith Kerr
• Baby Touch: Food- (Touch and Feel board book)- Ladybird
• Wonderful Words: My Food- Miles Kelly Publishing
• Put it on the List- Kristen Darbyshire
• I’m Hungry- Rod Campbell
5 early language strategies to use when reading books
1- Offer choices- Offer the child a choice of which book to read; show them two options and allow them to choose by pointing, taking, etc. You model the name of the book for the child.
2- Pausing- Pause after offering a choice to give the child an opportunity to name or respond. Show the child you are waiting for a response by looking at them expectantly. Pause at the end of repetitive or familiar phrases in the book, so the child can fill in the gap.
3- Commenting- Comment on what food and drinks you can see, what is happening, etc. in the pictures.
4- Repetition- Name the foods and drinks and related actions while reading and looking at the pictures, repeat this a few times in a natural way.
5- Follow their lead- Observe what the child is focusing on when looking at the book, then follow and focus more on this, e.g., by commenting on the pictures rather than turning the page, etc.
More books for themed therapy sessions
If you love using books in your therapy sessions, check out these round-up blog posts with my other favourite themed books…
- Read all about my favourite books for teaching early verbs here.
- Check out these 5 awesome books for teaching body parts vocabulary here.
- If you like the ‘That’s Not My…’ books, discover the 6 skills you can target with them in your Speech Therapy sessions.
I hope you’ve found this round-up helpful. I would love to know, do you have any favourite food-themed books I’ve not included in this post? Drop a comment below and let me know.