Valentine’s Day-Themed Speech Therapy Activities

Valentine’s Day is a perfect opportunity to infuse fun and creativity into speech therapy sessions. By incorporating festive, themed activities, therapists can engage children and encourage progress on their speech and language goals in a playful and meaningful way. Below are some Valentine’s Day-themed activities tailored to various areas of speech and language development.

1. Articulation Activities

• Heart Word Hunt: Write target words on paper hearts and hide them around the therapy space. Children search for the hearts, read the words aloud, and practice their articulation targets.

• Cupid’s Tongue Twisters: Create Valentine’s-themed tongue twisters focusing on the child’s target sound. For example, "Silly Sally’s sweet strawberries" for the /s/ sound.

2. Language Development

• Valentine’s Card Writing: Encourage children to create and decorate Valentine’s Day cards. Use this activity to target sentence structure, vocabulary, and expressive language by prompting them to write sentences like "I love my mom because ___" or "You are special because ___."

• Love-Themed Story Sequencing: Use a simple love-themed story (e.g., "How Cupid Found His Bow") and break it into segments. Have the child arrange the story in the correct order and retell it to target sequencing and narrative skills.

3. Social Communication

• Compliment Candy Hearts: Use candy hearts or printable paper hearts with kind words like “You’re Awesome!” or “Great Job!” Practice giving compliments and appropriate social responses, teaching turn-taking and conversational skills.

• Valentine’s Role-Play: Set up a pretend Valentine’s Day party where children can practice social greetings, offering help, and thanking others. Role-playing builds confidence in social communication.

4. Fluency Activities

• Slow and Smooth Valentine’s Poems: Provide short Valentine’s Day poems for children to read aloud, focusing on smooth, controlled speech and proper pacing.

• Heartbeat Rhythm Speaking: Use a drum or clap hands to mimic a steady heartbeat rhythm. Have children practice speaking in rhythm, which can help with fluency control.

5. Vocabulary Building

• Valentine’s Bingo: Create a bingo board with Valentine’s-related words (e.g., love, heart, chocolate, cupid). Call out definitions or synonyms, and have the child find the corresponding word on their board.

• Heart Sorting: Write vocabulary words on paper hearts and sort them into categories, such as synonyms/antonyms or verbs/nouns, to target word knowledge.

6. Auditory Processing

• Cupid’s Directions: Give multi-step directions with a Valentine’s twist, such as "Pick up the pink heart, place it in the envelope, and then give it to Cupid."

• Listening for Love: Read a Valentine’s-themed story and ask comprehension questions, encouraging active listening and recall.

7. Crafts with a Purpose

• Heart Garland Speech: Have children create a garland by stringing together paper hearts. Each heart includes a target word, phrase, or sentence. This hands-on activity reinforces articulation or language practice in a fun way.

• Cupid’s Arrows: Make pretend Cupid arrows using craft supplies. Have children label each arrow with a target sound, word, or sentence, then "shoot" their arrow at the correct target.

Valentine’s Day-themed speech therapy activities add an element of fun while targeting important skills like articulation, language, fluency, and social communication. By aligning activities with festive themes, therapists can create memorable sessions that keep children motivated and engaged. With these creative ideas, love is in the air—and so is progress!