Happy Mother’s Day from AASL! It is that time of year where we celebrate all the strong, wonderful women in our lives. Our SLP team is sharing four different children’s books that highlights motherhood in all different shapes and sizes. We hope you can use these books to engage with your child and work on some fun speech and language development along the way!
Love You Forever by Robert Munsch
Starting off with the ultimate tearjerker, this book is guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye as you watch this young boy grow from a mischievous child into a loving grown man. The story shows the beautiful arc of a mother taking care of her baby and in return a son taking care of his elderly mother. As you are reading this book, there are multiple ways to engage with your child and work on speech goals.
You can use what is called a “cloze sentence” to fill in the blanks of the repetitive “I’ll love you forever” song on each page. Sing this with your child and have them complete the sentences as they learn the pattern of the song. Each page of the book shows an incredibly detailed, descriptive scene in the child’s life span. You can ask your child all sorts of “wh-“questions (“What is the boy doing?”, “Where are they?”, etc.). As the child grows, he seems to cause of mess everywhere he goes! Ask your child what the problem is in the pictures, “is the vase about to fall?”, “should the food be on the floor?”.
Brown Bear’s Wonderful Secret by Caroline Castle
This book is extra sweet! The cutest Brown Bear has a secret she wants to share with her woodland friends, but no one can seem to figure it out! As her friends try to figure out what this wonderful secret could be, Brown Bear waits for winter to pass. In the spring, she reveals her beautiful, miraculous secret…. An adorable baby bear!
The illustrations in this book are a beautiful way to engage your child further in the story. Labeling is a wonderful way to practice speech sounds and expose children to unfamiliar words. Ask them to label each of the forest animals and what different season they are in. Brown Bear also gives many “descriptives” of what her secret could be (“My secret cannot fly”, “My secret isn’t cold”, “You wouldn’t want to eat it”, etc.). Have your child guess what THEY think her secret is? This targets early inferencing skills and making predictions. You can also work on sequencing skills! Follow Brown Bear as she asks each of her friends what they think, then ask your child to repeat “Who did Brown Bear ask first?,” “Then who did she ask?”, etc.
Everything is Mama by Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon has created a wonderful series of books such as “Your baby’s first word will be DADA,” “NANA loves you more”, and this book, “Everything is MAMA”, is a perfect addition to celebrate the amazing mothers in our lives! Each page shoes a cute new mamma showing her baby a new word, but all the baby wants to talk about is “mama”!
This book is great for developing early consonant sounds and CVCV syllable shape! You can focus on each new word the different duos are discussing “moon, balloon, noodles, pajamas.” The simple illustrations make it easy for you to describe what you see and working on labeling action words “she is jumping,” “she is blowing bubbles”, “she is eating noodles” etc. You can also work on “big vs little” by asking them “which owl is big?” or “which zebra is small?”.
Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman
This classic Dr. Suess story follows a curious little bird who hatches from his egg, but his mother is nowhere to be found! As she is out searching for food for him to eat, unaware of his arrival, he goes on a mission to find out who his mother is. He asks everyone he can find, from a cow to a car!
A great skill to work on while reading this book is learning location words. The lost little bird goes all over the place looking for his mother. You can ask your child “is the bird IN his nest or NEXT TO his nest?”, “is he ON the dog’s head or NEXT TO the dog’s head?”, etc. You can also work on yes or no questions! Ask your child, “is THAT the bird’s mother?”. Another language development skill you can work on is labeling feelings. As the bird is on the hunt for his mother, ask your child “is he feeling sad”, “confused?”, or “happy?” at the end when they reunite!
We hope you all have a beautiful Mother’s Day!
If your child needs extra support in their speech and language development, please reach out to our offices to speak with a highly trained team member!
DISCLAIMER: Information published about one particular disorder does not necessarily apply to every individual who has the disorder discussed in this article. Treatments, therapies and suggestions are highly individual and must be customized to the needs of each person to be effective. Do not make changes to your/your child’s treatment plan as a result of what you read in this article (or any content published by AASL) without consulting your/your child’s physicians and therapists. This content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of All About Speech and Language or it’s therapists. To understand the opinions and recommendations of your/your child’s AASL therapist, schedule an appointment with your therapist to discuss your concerns.
