Six Spooky Speech Therapy Crafts: Fall-ing Into Speech and Language Learning with Seasonal Crafts
As the leaves change colors and excitement for fall celebrations fills the air, it’s the perfect time to bring seasonal crafts into speech therapy sessions. Fall and Halloween-themed activities are not only fun and engaging, but they also provide countless opportunities to target speech and language goals in a meaningful way.
Why Use Crafts in Speech Therapy?
Crafts are more than just a creative break. They naturally support communication development by encouraging students to:
- Follow directions
- Practice sequencing skills
- Expand vocabulary
- Answer questions
- Use descriptive language
- Work on articulation targets
- Engage in social interaction
When students are actively creating something with their hands, they are often more motivated to participate and communicate. It can be especially fun to get creative with whatever materials you have at hand in addition to craft materials, such as items from outside (e.g., sticks, leaves, acorns, etc.), items from the pantry (e.g., noodles, candy corn, marshmallows, pretzels, chocolate, apple slices, etc.), or even items from the bathroom (e.g., tissues, cotton balls, Q-Tip’s, etc.). Have fun with it and make these crafts your own! Here are six ideas to get you started!
Favorite Fall Craft Ideas
- Leaf Monsters: Create silly monsters using colorful paper or real leaves, googly eyes, and craft sticks.
Speech and Language Targets:
- Describe colors, sizes, and textures
- Practice adjectives and expanding sentences
- Articulation drill words featuring target sounds
- Answer WH-questions about the monster
Try asking:
- “What does your monster look like?”
- “Where does it live?”
- “What does it eat?”
- Pumpkin Faces: Provide students with pumpkin cutouts and various facial feature pieces to glue on.
Goals to Target:
- Following one-step and multi-step directions
- Spatial concepts (above, below, next to, between)
- Requesting materials
- Expressive language
Students can also compare and contrast their pumpkins with peers.
- Acorn Name Craft: Students create an acorn featuring the letters of their name.
Perfect For:
- Letter identification
- Phonological awareness
- Initial sound practice
- Turn-taking and conversation
- Encourage students to think of words that begin with each letter.
- Halloween-Themed Speech Fun
- Paper Plate Jack-o’-Lanterns: Students decorate paper plates while practicing targeted speech sounds.
Examples:
- /k/: candy, costume, cat, cookie
- /s/: spider, scary, skeleton
- /r/: orange, treat, trick
Have students say each target word or sound before adding a decoration piece.
- Build-a-Ghost Craft: Create a ghost using cotton balls, tissue paper, tissues, paper bags, or construction paper.
Language Opportunities:
- Sequencing steps
- Retelling the crafting process
- Predicting outcomes
- Describing attributes
Use sentence starters such as:
- “First, I…”
- “Next, I…”
- “Then…”
- “Finally…”
- Spider Web Craft: Use black paper, yarn, and plastic spiders to create a web.
Target:
- Prepositions (on, under, above, between)
- Following directions
- Basic concepts
- Storytelling
- Ask students to place spiders in different locations and describe where they are.
Make It Speech-Language Focused
No matter which craft you choose, consider adding:
- Target word cards
- Target sounds
- Visual supports
- Conversation prompts
- Sequencing strips
- Carrier phrases: For example, students can practice saying, “I need the glue,” “I am cutting the leaf,” or “My pumpkin is happy.”
Benefits Beyond Communication
Seasonal crafts also support:
- Fine motor development
- Attention and focus
- Problem-solving
- Creativity
- Classroom participation
- Most importantly, they help build positive relationships and create memories associated with successful communication.
Fall crafts bring excitement, movement, and hands-on learning to speech therapy sessions. Whether you’re creating pumpkins, ghosts, leaves, or spiders, these activities provide endless opportunities to target speech and language goals while keeping students engaged throughout the season. So gather your construction paper, glue sticks, and a little autumn creativity. Your students will be practicing communication skills without even realizing how much they’re learning!
