A parody of Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride attraction
When asking for candy is an appropriate behavior
And fun and colorful doors decorate the halls
When you get a pumpkin sticker
Because your speech therapist said you did well
That is the time when kids are learning
Practicing their speech sounds in “ghoul”, “witch”, and “fright”.
Welcome, SmallTalk families, to our Halloween celebration. I am your speech therapist. Well,
your child’s speech therapist. Kindly reschedule any missed appointments, and call ahead for
planned absences. Please switch to a virtual session if you’re sick.
Our lesson begins here on this blogpost, where you see lists of words for some of our
frequently-targeted speech goals.
Your puzzled facial expression betrays your sense of skepticism, almost as though you think
this might be a waste of your time. Is practicing just five target words daily actually useful? Or is
it just more busywork? And consider this interesting observation: your child is motivated to say
these ghostly words this time of year…which offers you this additional challenge: to think of
more spine-chilling Halloween words! Of course, there’s always Halloween word lists published
online.
Did you know that when practicing speech sounds, repeating target words is often more
effective than practicing a long list of new words? Here are lists of some of our commonly-
targeted speech sounds to incorporate into your regular speech practice routine at home. If you
don’t see a list appropriate to your child’s speech sound goals, try making your own!
Final /l/
candle
chill
ghoul
howl
caramel apple
Initial /k/
costume
cauldron
candy corn
coffin
cobweb
Medial K
Pumpkin
decay
licorice
Chocolate
rock candy
Final K
Shriek
Spook
Panic
Cloak
Magic
SK blends
skeleton
skull
scarecrow
scream
Skittles
SP blends
spooky
spider
spell
spirit
Spice Drops
SN blends
snack
Snickers
snake
Sneak
sneer
SM blends
smash
Smarties
smoke
smelly
smile
SW blends
swarm
swoop
swamp
Swedish Fish
SweeTARTS
SL blends
slime
slug
slash
slay
slab
ST blends
street
glowstick
sticky
stem
Starburst
Medial ST blends
Costume
Frankenstein
Gravestone
Haystack
monster
Initial R
rat
raven
robe
robot
Reece’s
R Blends
Creepy
Broom
Frankenstein
Dracula
Graveyard
“AR”
dark
carve
larva
Mars bar
hard candy
“ER”
October thirty-first
spider
wizard
Butterfinger
Hershey
“AIR”
werewolf
fairy
eclair
gummy bears
Ghirardelli
“IRE”
vampire
dire
conspire
bonfire
entire
“EAR”
fear
appear
hero
3 Musketeers
Zero
“OR”
trick-or-treat
decorate
candy corn
Lindor
Oreo
Happy Halloween from all of your friends at SmallTalk!
By Kathleen Winger, M.S., CCC-SLP