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Speech Therapy Fall Activities

Writer's picture: Miss Josie LougeeMiss Josie Lougee

Updated: Oct 13, 2022

Language is so much more than colors, numbers, and letters!

This fall you can easily create a language rich environment, AT HOME!


Speech therapy fall activities
Falling leaves are a great FREE resource for language activities!


Hi! Welcome to Better Days Therapies of Augusta. We are a multi-discipline private practice located in Evans, GA. We are currently offering speech therapy and physical therapy, BUT.... we are not yet complete. Very soon we hope to also bring on an occupational therapists to our team. Anyone who is a therapist themselves or has had experience with therapy knows, OTs, PTs, and SLPs are the perfect trio. We love what we do and we want to share as much as we can!


Always feel free to reach out to us with questions or even just to say HELLO :)

Fall is proof that change is beautiful. Show our children that with the changing of the seasons, there is so much we can learn.

As a speech-language pathologist who specializes in early intervention pediatrics, I hear many parents ask questions like "what more can they do at home" or "what can I buy" to help their child's speech and language development. In my opinion, the answer is.... what you already have! Use the items already in your home that your child sees every. single. day. Children do no need fancy. They do not need elaborate. What they do need is: fun, engaging, and SIMPLE.


Here are some of my favorite at-home fall speech therapy activities:


1. Grab a book. I love interactive books (pop-up, texture, sounds) to get your child engaged. We all know most young children are so busy-bodied that they have difficulty sitting down to read a book, let alone make it through the entire book. Make the book interactive and fun! Change the sound of your voice, create suspense between pages, and try to find books that already have interactive features.


Think about the 6 "WH" questions when reading a book to your child: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY, HOW. Use this opportunity to expand on the book and encourage critical thinking skills at ANY AGE!



The best place to find fall books is to check out your local library. The library is a great resource for parents and children to experience multiple books without having to pay the full price to purchase the book. Also, your local library probably hosts fun activities for children of all ages, that are usually free or low cost. In this digital age we live in, the library is a great place to bring back the hands on learning and improve our children's literacy skills from an early age.




2. Gather your decorations. Use your fall pumpkins for a scavenger hunt or maybe even an I-spy game. The kids LOVE this. Gather your pumpkins (we usually stop around 5-10 total depending on the age of your child) and then start describing! Talk about colors and numbers, but also talk about sizes, textures, and shapes. Just like our kids, not all pumpkins are alike.



You can order the pumpkins from smallest to biggest, shortest to tallest, or even least favorite to most favorite. Putting them in some type of order changes the activity to become more of a discussion and opinion based activity as opposed to just information based. Challenge your children. If the order does not seem quite right, ask them to explain. For example you might say "hmmm, my eyes tell me that this pumpkin is taller, let's turn our head and look again." Or you could grab something, like a ruler or a wooden spoon to demonstrate to your child that one is taller than the other. Remember, its not about being right or wrong, its about LEARNING.



3. Describing "grab bag". This is my most favorite activity. I LOVE describing activities to expand a child's speech and language skills. This activity does take a little more planning on the parent. Choose a theme, or don’t, its totally up to you. For fall, I gathered acorns, leaves, pumpkins, apples, wheat strand, trick-or-treat candy, scented candle, blanket, and a book. Of course, take allergens and choking hazards out depending on your child’s specific needs.






The easiest way to expand language and describe items is to think about the 5 senses: touch, taste, sound, looks, and smell. Talk about each of the 5 senses for each item in your bag! I try to keep the bag closed between pulling items out. The kids love the surprise of reaching into a bag not knowing what’s inside.


Some times we over-complicate things. Here is an example, for an apple:


  • Eyes/see: It's red with green and yellow markings. It has a brown stem on the top where it was once attached to the tree as it grew. It is a medium sized apple, not too big, not too small. It originally had a sticker that we needed to scan at the grocery store to know how much it would cost. Talk about any imperfections the apple might have and brain storm what may have been the cause (bug/worm, falling from high in the tree, etc...)

  • Ears/hear: An apple doesn't talk heheh. But we can drop the apple on different floor types and listen for the variation of sounds. We might also roll the apple across the floor or down the stairs to listen to the sound it makes. THUD, THUD, THUD... :)

  • Nose/smell: I recommend washing the apple before you begin this activity, but if not, as a whole, the apple may smell like dirt. But chances are, it won't have a smell until you cut into it. Cut the apple in half and then you should smell the sweetness! If you've already talked about what it looks like, go back and now talk about the inside. If you cut the apple just right, the inside seeds will look like a star!

  • Hands/touch: Talk about how smooth the apple is on the outside or how juicy the inside might be after you cut into it. Once you touch the inside, your fingers and hands might become sticky! Time to head to the sink.

  • Mouth/taste: Lastly, and the best part, let's talk about the taste. Now of course, you can only taste the edible items, I DO NOT RECOMMEND putting non-food items in your mouth. And as always, make sure your child is appropriate and safe to eat the food item you chose for your activity. For the apple, it should be sweet or maybe sour depending on the apple you had around your house.

See... Look how easy it is to facilitate a language rich environment and target a variety of concepts, just with one simple apple. Now repeat with everything else in the bag. This activity should be a back and forth activity. Listen to your child. Hear what they have to say and expand on it!


Once you’ve emptied the bag and talked about the items, turn cleaning up into another fun activity. Name an item to have your child find and then put it back into the bag. From start to finish, your child is engaged!



4. Head to the kitchen. Fall is the perfect time to find a fun recipe to bake. Whether its pumpkin spice or caramel apple, the kids love it all. Tie on your apron and let’s get messy. Baking is a great opportunity to address your child’s following directions skills. Recipes are great because they show your child step by step instructions.



Think about all the fun describing words and action words you can expose your child to: delicious, mix, eat, sticky, hot, bake, pour, scoop, yummy, wait, and so many more.


You could also incorporate what us in the speech therapy world refer to as "temporal concepts." This is just a fancy term for words like: first, then, next, last.


These are just a few fun and easy speech therapy fall activities that do not require you to go buy extra items or spend a lot of time planning. Use what you have at home already and create a language rich environment for your kiddo this fall!



I hope this was helpful in showing you that you do not need to spend hours planning fun activities for you kids, but rather just using the simple things at home and being intentional about the words you expose you children to. Think more about concepts and actions as opposed to just names, colors and numbers!

Warm fall wishes,

Miss Josie SLP


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Clinic Address

805 Oakhurst Drive

Suite A

Evans, GA 30809

Service Areas 

  • Columbia county, GA

  • Martinez, GA

  • Grovetown, GA

  • Augusta, GA

  • Evans, GA

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Hours 

Monday: 8am-6pm​

Tuesday: 8am- 6pm

Wednesday: 8am- 6pm

Thursday: 8am- 6pm

Friday: 9am- 2pm 

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