Our Favorite Books for Speech Therapy – Elephant and Piggie

I remember being a student clinician and falling head-over-heels in love with books as a therapy tool. I became consumed with finding the perfect books for each client (I had a whopping 3 at a time back then) and spent long hours pouring over the pictures and text and making detailed lesson plans. I completed my clinical fellowship in early intervention and early childhood special education, which did absolutely nothing to quell my obsession. I had deep, unabiding jealousy of my mentor’s book collection and watched in awe as she skillfully used it to work with kids of every ability. This is one reason why this video in the Our Favorite Books series makes my heart so happy. Jeff is a speech-language pathology student at Pacific University who is completing an internship at our clinic. It’s so fun to see a new clinician learning about the power of books in therapy!

 

The other reason I love this video is that it highlights one of my favorite series of kids books: Elephant and Piggie. Mo Willems came on the scene as an author after I had completed graduate school, and by the time I was having my own kids, he was a full-fledged rock-star. With books such as Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Knuffle Bunny, and the Elephant and Piggie series, Willems is responsible for some of the most engaging children’s books in recent memory. Lucky for us, they’re also great for therapy! Their simple, comic style is fantastic for working on inferring and predictions, while the opposites-attract dynamic between the two characters is a wonderful way to work on understanding emotions.