by Sarah Dubrow
I always love pairing a fun book with a sensory activity to get kids excited about speech therapy, and any ocean themed book will work! Stories that are repetitive are much more engaging for children, because they can feel confident about what’s coming next.
This book, Way Down Deep in the Deep Blue Sea by Jan Peck and illustrated by Valeria Petrone is an awesome repetitive story that keeps kids engaged with vibrant pictures and words that kids can learn quickly.
Skills to Target:
| Language | – Ocean themed vocabulary
– 3 – 4 word utterances (e.g., I see a __) – Pragmatic skills like waving “hi” and “bye” to the animals
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| Speech | – Various speech sounds
– Syllable pacing (Turning books into a songs helps kids follow and sing along!)
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And… For the Sensory Activity!
Once we finished reading our ocean story, I let the kiddos find different sea creatures in a variety of sensory bins. They were able to find and label the various sea creatures they saw in the story. We also talked about the different kinds of textures and feelings in each bin (cold, rough, squishy, wet etc.).
From left to right, I used sand, water with blue food coloring, and water beads or Orbeez (you can get these on amazon or at Target).
Easterseals of Southeastern Pennsylvania 