3 Books for Speech and Language Development

Reading with your child is a great way to facilitate language development and promote early literacy. Reading provides special, one-on-one time between you and your child, while also providing an opportunity for your child to listen and practice their own language and communication skills. Below are three books that target speech and language development for children 12 months to 5 years old.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle

Brown Bear is a great book for targeting speech and language development. With this book you can target vocabulary, articulation, sentence formulation, and sequencing. Brown Bear introduces a variety of vocabulary words including adjectives, colors, verbs, and personal pronouns. Brown Bear is filled with a variety of speech sounds your child can practice while engaging in shared reading. The repetitive nature of Brown Bear introduces simple sentences to your child and allows for reinforcement of basic sentence forms they can expand upon. You can also work on sequencing by asking your child which animal was first and sequencing the order in which the animals appeared in the story.

Where’s Spot? By Eric Hill

Where’s Spot is a great book for building vocabulary. This flipbook allows you to target nouns, action words, and location words. After lifting the flap either you or your child can label the animal underneath and work on building their vocabulary of different animals. Additionally, this book works on spatial concept vocabulary since all the animals are hiding either in, under, or behind something. You can also have your child request “open” to have you lift the flap.

Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton

Blue Hat, Green Hat is a great book for building vocabulary and working on two-word phrases. This book allows you to target colors, body parts, and nouns. The book uses two-word phrases throughout to label the items in the picture. Encouraging your child to repeat the two-word phrases that are repeated throughout the book is a great way to introduce and work on two-word phrases. Additionally, this book uses minimal language which allows you to look at the pictures with your child and discuss what is happening.