A Favorite Spooky Season Book

It’s that time of year again when our imaginations can run wild—Halloween! One of my favorite ways to celebrate is by sharing seasonal stories with kids.

There are so many great Halloween reads, but one of my favorites is Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler. It’s a playful, heartwarming tale that kids love, and it’s also packed with opportunities to sneak in some speech and language practice. Here are a few easy ways to make story time both fun and enriching.

Articulation

Fall is the perfect season to curl up and practice speech sounds without it feeling like “work.” Room on the Broom is especially great for practicing r-blends (like cried, ground, broom, and dropped). You can gently emphasis these words as your read, or have your child echo them back in a playful way.

Rhyming Fun

This book is filled with rhyming words on every page. Pause for a moment when you hear a rhyme and see if our child can spot it too! Rhyming games like this help build phonological awareness, which lays the foundation for strong reading skills later on.

Question Time

Story time is the perfect chance to spark conversation. You can ask simple questions as you go along to help your child think about what’s happening in the story:

• Yes/No Questions: “Should there be room on the broom?” “Is this a monster?”
• What Questions: “What did the witch lose?” “What is she looking for?”
• Who Questions: “Who helped the witch find her hat?”
• Where Questions: “Where did the witch drop her bow?”

These small moments given your child a chance to practice language skills in a natural way.

Story Building

Older kids can dive a little deeper into the story. Talk about the “recipe” that makes up the tale: characters, problems, actions, and settings. For example

• The character is the witch.
• Her problem is that she keeps dropping things.
• She takes action by searching in new places.
• And with each new problem, a new character helps her find what she’s lost.

This helps kids understand how stories are put together (and makes them even better storytellers themselves!)

Sequencing Together

The repetitive, sing-song nature of Room on the Broom makes it a natural fit for practicing sequencing. The witch loses items in order and animals join the broom one by one. Ask your child, “What happened first?” or “Who joined the broom last?” They’ll enjoy retelling the story while practicing memory and organization skills.

Bringing it All Together

The best part? These activities aren’t limited to Room on the Broom. You can sprinkle them into so many other books you’re reading this fall. Try them out while sipping cider, under a blanket fort, or during a pumpkin glow story time.

Our speech therapists love finding ways to make learning feel fun! If you give these ideas a try, we’d love to hear how it went! If you ever have any questions about your child’s speech and language development, we’re here to help. Use our convenient self scheduling tool to book a free consultation with one of our pediatric speech therapists.