Why use themes?
Using themes in your therapy sessions can provide you with a great framework to build on and can help with carryover to real life situations. With a little effort, therapy can become interesting and a lot of fun – for both you and your clients.
How can I use one theme for so many kids?
Themes can be applied to a variety of speech and language goals. Use basic games with a slight twist for speech sound activities. You can also work on vocabulary, sequencing, following directions, and writing while using a theme as your framework.
There are also quite a few early education websites that have themed ideas. Use them as inspiration for your speech and language activities.
http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/
http://www.123child.com/act/
Becky,
I will be anxious to see your camping theme next month. I use themes with my speech therapy kids, in fact, I do a different theme every week. I have kids from 3-13 in the public school sector and find that using themes gives me a starting point or a jumping off point to making artic worksheets, language sheets, games, etc. I often use a book with the preschoolers (the book Books Are For Talking, Too is great for help in finding a book) and then do a hands on activity. The kids all seem to love it!!