If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you’ll see that we are passionate about literacy-based intervention (using books for speech therapy). Why? Using books in therapy is functional, multiple speech therapy goals can be addressed, it ties into the core curriculum, the same books and strategies can be carried over into the classroom and home environments, it is engaging to the children we work with, and it makes our jobs easier when we are able to use one or two books to plan our intervention sessions for the week.

Which 20% of your books are used 80% of the time?

At our office, we have shelves upon shelves of books, but like a closet full of clothes, we have those 20% of books that are used 80% of the time. We have found that that 20% of books that are our usual “go-to’s” have some things in common: they have many opportunities to work on a variety of goals, beautiful illustrations, and are available in English and Spanish. Also like a closet full of clothes, we tend to gravitate to the same designer/brand/style, right? Same with the books we choose.

Many of our books come from one of our favorite publishers: Barefoot Books, a company started by two mothers that had a passion for children’s learning, imagination, and creative exploration. The company has grown over the years, and we are pleased that their books have found their way onto our bookshelves. Books like The Gigantic Turnip, The Parrot Tico Tango, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Animal Boogie, Off We Go to Mexico, and the whole “Bear” series (Bear On A Bike, Bear at Home, Bear About Town, Bear Under the Sun, etc.), are just a few of the books we personally use and love.

We specifically love Barefoot Books because of the hard work and attention to detail that goes into every book we have laid our eyes on.

All books have gorgeous illustrations that grab a student’s attention, the language used is simple enough to understand, the text is easy to read, and their books fit into the groups of type of predictable stories, which we know make up some of the best books for speech therapy. Additionally, Barefoot Books puts priority on making their books teach a sort of a lesson, including expanding cultural knowledge, learning about the environment and healthy living, and learning about family changes, to name a few. An extra bonus—- many of their books are also available in Spanish as well as other languages!

Some Beautiful Book Examples from Barefoot Books

Our hope is that you find Barefoot Books as entertaining and useful as we have, whether you are reading the books for speech therapy, at home with your children, or to a class full of students. And maybe this will encourage you to think about giving books as holiday gifts this year to broaden your own children’s horizons and language and literacy skills!