books on speech making

16 public speaking books you need to read

• James Haynes
• August 12, 2022

Table of Contents

Introduction.

Starting a speaking business is exhilarating and rewarding… and very stressful. Being a public speaker isn’t easy, and if you’re like most people you’ve probably looked for public speaking tips to help you become a better speaker.

These 16 public speaking books — now updated in 2024 with four new resources! — listed below can help you learn how to become a public speaker, how to improve your public speaking skills, and how to develop a talk for an audience. Books on public speaking are plentiful, but these ones have stood out, some over decades, as great guides and resources for your public speaking career.

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Want to learn how to become a better public speaker? Read on for 16 public speaking books that you need to read. (Book descriptions from Amazon)

1. The Successful Speaker by Grant Baldwin (2020)

We’d be remiss not to mention this one! Do you have a message you want to get out into the world? Have you ever dreamed of speaking for a living? Is there something you have to say, but you just aren’t sure what to do next? The Successful Speaker is a proven, easy-to-follow guide to helping you do just that.

Whether you want to speak at your next board meeting or community gathering, start making some extra money on the side, or become a full-time professional speaker, Grant Baldwin knows how to get you from here to there. Why? Because he’s done it himself and has coached over 2,000 speakers.

In The Successful Speaker, you will learn the five-step road map to start and scale a speaking business from the ground up, including

– how to hone your message and know exactly who it’s for – the preparation process to help your next speech move an audience to action – what it takes to establish yourself as an in-demand expert – practical steps to finding and booking paid speaking gigs – how to know when it’s time to grow your impact and income

In each chapter, you will get specific action steps and case studies from professional speakers to put you on the fast track to booking gigs, getting paid, and building your speaking platform.

2. How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie (1976)

Drawing on Dale Carnegie’s years of experience as a business trainer, this book will show you how to overcome the natural fear of public speaking , to become a successful speaker, and even learn to enjoy it.

His invaluable advice includes ways to:

-Develop poise -Gain self-confidence -Improve your memory -Make your meaning clear -Begin and end a presentation effectively

Interested in going deeper in the mechanics of how to give a talk? Here are 25 tips to help you become a better speaker.

3. Ted Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking by Chris Anderson (2017)

Since taking over leadership of TED in 2001, Chris Anderson has worked with all the TED speakers who have inspired us the most. In this book, he shares insights from such favorites as Sir Ken Robinson, Salman Khan, Monica Lewinsky, and more— everything from how to craft your talk’s content to how you can be most effective on stage.

Want to learn more about TED Talks? Check out our blog post on how to get and give a TED Talk here!

4. How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling (2022)

Over the past twenty-five years, the directors of The Moth have worked with people from all walks of life—including astronauts, hairdressers, rock stars, a retired pickpocket, high school students, and Nobel Prize winners—to develop true personal stories that have moved and delighted live audiences and listeners of The Moth’s Peabody Award–winning radio hour and podcast. A leader in the modern storytelling movement, The Moth inspires thousands of people around the globe to share their stories each year.

Now, with  How to Tell a Story , The Moth will help you learn how to uncover and craft your own unique stories, like Moth storytellers Mike Birbiglia, Rosanne Cash, Hasan Minhaj, Betty Reid Soskin, John Turturro, and more.

Whether your goal is to make it to the Moth stage, deliver the perfect wedding toast, wow clients at a business dinner, give a moving eulogy , ace a job interview, be a hit at parties, change the world, or simply connect more deeply to those around you, stories are essential.

Wondering how do you tell stories that stick long after you’ve finished speaking? Have a listen to our podcast on how to tell stories that stick with Kindra Hall.

5. How to Win an Argument: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Persuasion by James May (2016)

6. speak with no fear by mike acker (2019).

It can easily seem like everyone is a gifted speaker when you watch TED talks or compare yourself to skilled co-workers giving presentations. But you don’t have to get caught up in the costly comparison trap. Instead, you can take action to improve your ability and to overcome your fear.

Through this book  you will learn 7 strategies  you can begin today. These strategies will give you a new perspective, they will prepare you, and they will give you actions to practice. As you implement these strategies, your fear will begin to fade.

THE SEVEN STRATEGIES 1. Uncover & Clean the Wound 2. Imagine the Worst 3. You Be You 4. Speak to One 5. It’s Not About You 6. Channel The Power 7. Be in the Moment

Are you struggling to develop a stage presence? Check out this article on how to overcome fear of public speaking.

7. Win Every Argument: The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking by Mehdi Hasan (2023)

Win Every Argument shows how anyone can communicate with confidence, rise above the tit for tats on social media, and triumph in a successful and productive debate in the real world.

Arguments are everywhere―and especially given the fierce debates we’re all embroiled in today, everyone wants to win. In this riveting guide to the art of argument and rhetoric, Hasan shows you how. As a journalist, anchor, and interviewer who has clashed with politicians, generals, spy chiefs, and celebrities from across the world, Hasan reveals his tricks of the trade for the first time.

Whether you are making a presentation at work or debating current political issues with a friend, Mehdi Hasan will teach you how to sharpen your speaking skills to make the winning case.

8. How Your Story Sets You Free by Heather Box and Julian Mocine-McQueen (2019)

Everyone has a story to tell. Sharing that story can change you, your community, or even the world. But how do you start?

Discover the tools to unlock your truth and share it with the world: Storytelling coaches Heather Box and Julian Mocine-McQueen reveal how to embrace the power of personal storytelling in a series of easy steps. You’ll learn how to share your experiences and invaluable knowledge with the people who need it most, whether it be in a blog post, a motivational speech, or just a conversation with a loved one. How Your Story Sets You Free is the path to finding the spark that ignites the fire and reminds you just how much your story matters.

Personal storytelling is insanely powerful when done well. For more tips here, check out this new podcast episode with Ravi Rajani on how to create and share powerful stories!

9. How to Speak, How to Listen by Mortimer J. Adler (1983)

With over half a million copies in print of his classic How to Read a Book  in print, intellectual, philosopher, and academic Mortimer J. Adler set out to write an accompanying volume on speaking and listening, offering the impressive depth of knowledge and accessible panache that distinguished his first book.

In  How to Speak, How to Listen , Adler explains the fundamental principles of communicating through speech, with sections on such specialized presentations as the sales talk, the lecture, and question-and-answer sessions and advice on effective listening and learning by discussion.

10. Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences by Nancy Duarte (2010)

Presentations are meant to inform, inspire, and persuade audiences. So why then do so many audiences leave feeling like they’ve wasted their time? All too often, presentations don’t resonate with the audience and move them to transformative action.

Nancy Duarte created the slides in Al Gore’s Oscar winning  An Inconvenient Truth. In this book, she unpacks how to apply visual media to your talk. Her book Resonate helps you make a strong connection with your audience and lead them to purposeful action. The author’s approach is simple: building a presentation today is a bit like writing a documentary. Using this approach, you’ll convey your content with passion, persuasion, and impact.

11. The Public Speaking Bible: A Survival Guide for Standing on Stage by Marcus Alexander (2020)

The Public Speaking Bible; a Survival Guide for Standing on Stage is a depository of essential speaker’s knowledge designed to further your career whether you aim to be a full time speaker, undertake management roles or simply wish to improve your voice and stage presence. All the tips within come via the author and guest performers, adding up to a combined three hundred years of essential speakers’ know-how.

Within this bible:

Technical advice: how to effortlessly project your voice, audience manipulation, crowd control, body language, hand gestures and more.

Additionally: a frank approach for overcoming stage fright, a foolproof recipe for memorising a speech, how to overcome a sore throat and using the physics of sound to your advantage.

Business advice: how to price your speech, approaching agencies, talking overseas, understanding unique selling points, the most complete list of global public speakers’ agencies and more.

12. How To Talk To Anybody :14 Speaking Techniques To Instantly Connect With Anyone by Ryan Harrison (2022)

How many opportunities, relationships, and experiences have you missed out on because you didn’t know how to talk to people with confidence and skill?

Well, from now on, you will know exactly what to say and how to say it in a way that makes people open their eyes with surprise and delight as you talk. You’ll capture the attention of everyone you engage with. Your words will have impact and influence, and your opinion will make a difference.

The author – Ryan Harrison – has spent 30 years studying linguistics and communication and has distilled his knowledge into these 3 books.

13. Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun (2009)

In this hilarious and highly practical book, author and professional speaker Scott Berkun reveals the techniques behind what great communicators do, and shows how anyone can learn to use them well. For managers and teachers — and anyone else who talks and expects someone to listen —  Confessions of a Public Speaker  provides an insider’s perspective on how to effectively present ideas to anyone. It’s a unique, entertaining, and instructional romp through the embarrassments and triumphs Scott has experienced over 15 years of speaking to crowds of all sizes.

With lively lessons and surprising confessions, you’ll get new insights into the art of persuasion — as well as teaching, learning, and performance — directly from a master of the trade.

Highlights include:

• Berkun’s hard-won and simple philosophy , culled from years of lectures, teaching courses, and hours of appearances on NPR, MSNBC, and CNBC
• Practical advice , including how to work a tough room, the science of not boring people, how to survive the attack of the butterflies, and what to do when things go wrong
• The inside scoop  on who earns $30,000 for a one-hour lecture and why
• The worst — and funniest — disaster stories  you’ve ever heard (plus countermoves you can use)

Filled with humorous and illuminating stories of thrilling performances and real-life disasters,  Confessions of a Public Speaker is inspirational, devastatingly honest, and a blast to read.

14. Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds by Carmine Gallo (2015)

Public speaking coach and bestselling author Carmine Gallo has broken down hundreds of TED talks and interviewed the most popular TED presenters to reveal the nine secrets of all successful TED presentations. Gallo’s step-by-step method makes it possible for anyone to deliver a presentation that is engaging, persuasive, and memorable.

Many people have a fear of public speaking or are insecure about their ability to give a TED-worthy presentation. Carmine Gallo’s top 10  Wall Street Journal  Bestseller  Talk Like TED will give them the tools to communicate the ideas that matter most to them, the skill to win over hearts and minds, and the confidence to deliver the talk of their lives.

15. Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln by James Hume (2002)

Ever wish you could captivate your boardroom with the opening line of your presentation, like Winston Churchill in his most memorable speeches? Or want to command attention by looming larger than life before your audience, much like Abraham Lincoln when, standing erect and wearing a top hat, he towered over seven feet? Now, you can master presentation skills, wow your audience, and shoot up the corporate ladder by unlocking the secrets of history’s greatest speakers.

Author, historian, and world-renowned speaker James C. Humes—who wrote speeches for five American presidents—shows you how great leaders through the ages used simple yet incredibly effective tricks to speak, persuade, and win throngs of fans and followers. Inside, you’ll discover how Napoleon Bonaparte mastered the use of the pregnant pause to grab attention, how Lady Margaret Thatcher punctuated her most serious speeches with the use of subtle props, how Ronald Reagan could win even the most hostile crowd with carefully timed wit, and much, much more.

16. Unleash the Power of Storytelling: Win Hearts, Change Minds, Get Results by Rob Biesenbach (2018)

Unleash the Power of Storytelling offers a practical roadmap to crafting and delivering more powerful, persuasive stories that you can use to get more of what you want out of your career and your life.

Taking a fun, no-nonsense approach, Unleash the Power of Storytelling will teach you:

•The hard science behind why stories work •A simple three-part structure for telling any story •The role of emotion in fueling great stories •How to cut the clutter and focus your story on the essentials •How and where to find great stories •Tips for delivering your stories in the most effective way possible

Want to learn how to create your own underdog Rocky story? Have a listen to our podcast with Clint Pulver, who used his story to build powerful relationships with speakers he admires and respects, and how he created his own board of directors as a result.

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Download our 18-page guide and start booking more paid speaking gigs today!

Are 16 books not enough for you? Check out our podcast archive for more tips and lessons on public speaking. Still want more? Satiate your desire to learn more about public speaking by checking out The Speaker Lab blog here.  Happy reading!

• Last Updated: March 6, 2024

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7 Must-Read Books To Improve Speech Writing And Public Speaking

Writing a speech is hard for most people. Speeches don’t tend to sound the way we talk. They use esoteric language, stylistic devices that only work in the context of a speech, and other quirks that you normally wouldn’t think to include.

Not all speeches call for you to go on a word blitzkrieg. You just need to understand the context of 

• who will hear it
• why you are making it
• and how to approach each scenario

This is the backbone of any good speech.

This article delves into some of the best books on speechwriting that, over time, can help augment the skills you may already have or take you from a speechwriting newbie to a guru.

Knowing how to write a speech is important because you may need this knowledge before giving a presentation in class, before some event, or before defending your dissertations. And if the best Ph.D. dissertation help service is able to help you with your dissertation writing, only you can write a speech in which your presence will be felt.

Now, let’s dive into the list!

• “Resonate” by Nancy Duarte

Duarte’s Resonate is a must-read if you want to deliver powerful presentations. In it, Duarte delves into the art of storytelling and the importance of understanding your audience and crafting a message that resonates with them.

Duarte says, “Your audience doesn’t want to hear from you, they want to hear from themselves.” To truly connect with your audience, you must tailor your message to their needs, desires, and experiences.

As she notes, regarding her concept of the ‘sparkline,’ a visual representation of your presentation’s structure, “Good design amplifies your message and helps it resonate with your audience.”

Overall, Duarte’s Resonate resonates. 

• “Talk Like TED” by Carmine Gallo

In Talk Like TED, Carmine Gallo dives into what you need to know to make a memorable and captivating presentation, based on the best TED talks we’ve ever watched. The book is the culmination of an analysis of the tips learned from great speakers like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, as well as a detailed breakdown of what made the best speeches the best.

With these lessons and time, you, too, can learn to confidently and knowledgeably deliver speeches on various occasions, whether while presenting your dissertation or during some celebration. Gallo writes, “Public speaking is a skill that can be learned, but it takes time, practice, and a willingness to take risks,” and we couldn’t agree more.

• “The Art of Public Speaking” by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein

For more than a century, Carnegie and Esenwein’s classic has been the go-to for many students of the art of public speaking. That’s right, a century! Why? Because of the third, perfect speech. What’s that, you ask?

Carnegie famously said, “There are always three speeches for everyone you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.” The book covers everything from speech preparation and delivery techniques to audience analysis and persuasive speech writing to help you deliver the perfect third speech. 

• “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

If you want to sharpen your writing skills to create more impactful speeches, look no further than The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. This timeless classic is a must-read for anyone who wants to write clear, concise, and effective prose.

The book’s emphasis on simplicity, clarity, and brevity is especially valuable for public speakers who want to communicate their ideas with precision and impact. As E.B. White puts it, “Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.”

The book elaborates; we promise.

• “The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller” by John Truby

Public speaking and speechwriting rely on understanding the central tenets of storytelling. In “The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller,” Truby breaks down what makes a great story, including theme, plot, and character, with practical exercises to allow you to take the lessons taught and apply them to your writing and presentations.

You’ll learn the importance of creating a well-rounded and compelling protagonist that the audience can connect emotionally. Truby also emphasizes the importance of conflict in driving the plot forward and keeping the audience engaged.

• “Presentation Zen” by Garr Reynolds

Do you remember the last time you were sitting in a presentation that felt like it would never end? The presenter seemed to be reading word-for-word from a bland slide deck, and your mind drifted to your to-do list.

Don’t let that happen to you! Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen will show you how to transform your presentations from snooze-fests to unforgettable experiences. Using simple yet powerful design principles, Reynolds teaches you how to craft compelling visual stories to engage your audience and leave a lasting impression.

With Presentation Zen as your guide, you can confidently step onto the stage and deliver presentations that will captivate your audience and make you unforgettable.

• “Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion” by Jay Heinrichs

Combining modern persuasion techniques with classical rhetoric, Jay Heinrichs takes the reader through the art of persuasion, exploring the techniques used by some of history’s most persuasive speakers, from Aristotle to Abraham Lincoln to Homer Simpson.

With humor and wit, Heinrichs breaks down the elements of persuasion into easy-to-understand concepts and provides practical tips for using them in your speeches. Whether you’re a seasoned public speaker or just starting, this book will give you the tools to craft compelling arguments, win debates, and persuade others to your point of view. Also, this book is a good source for writing dissertations for Speech Communication.

As Heinrichs says, “Arguing, when it’s done right, can be a beautiful thing.” This book will show you how to do it right.

A Boost To Help You Read These Books

Imagine this: You’re standing on a stage, a spotlight shining down on you, with a captivated audience hanging on your every word. You’ve just finished delivering a powerful, persuasive speech that has left them inspired and eager to take action. How did you get here? By reading the books we’ve discussed here.

From learning how to craft a compelling story to speaking with clarity and impact to connecting meaningfully with your audience, these books offer a wealth of knowledge and practical advice to help you become a masterful communicator.

But, let’s face it, reading a book can be challenging. That’s why you should embrace all the tools at your disposal – from books to improve study skills , audiobooks for a hands-free experience, and concise summaries that give you an overview of the book’s key insights.

So pick up a copy of one of these books and start your journey to becoming a truly impactful speaker today. The stage is waiting for you.

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6 Must-Read Books on Public Speaking That Will Perfect Your Pitch

Make your pitches, presentations, and speeches more effective with these must-reads.

Think of the best presentation or speech you'd ever seen. Whether it a famous TEDTalk , a conference keynote by a professional speaker , or a colleague's all-star client presentation, it likely stuck with you because the presenter delivered their message with the confidence and authority that can only come with careful practice.

No matter what industry you work in, or what role you play at your company, speaking and presenting is undoubtedly part of the job. Even if you don't routinely have to pitch clients, woo potential investors, or present reports to your entire department, honing your public speaking skills can have a powerful impact on the more subtle interactions you face every day.

These top-notch books on public speaking and persuasion will help you take center stage, whether you're trying to have a tough conversation with your boss, ace an important client meeting, work the room at a party, or make a good impression on a date.

1.  Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills That Win Business

by Peter Coughter

The author of this narrative book has worked with some of the best advertising agencies in the world, so he knows the elements of a good pitch. Through relatable stories of real experiences, he walks you through the elements of an effective pitch, from how to practice so that you know the material (versus the presentation), how to support your fellow presenters, and how to be as authentic as possible.

2.  Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised

by Robert B. Cialdini, PH.D

This book isn't intended as a speaker's playbook, but understanding how persuasion works is a must for every effective presenter. In this book, Cialdini draws on his impressive background studying influence and persuasion to present six truths you can draw on to improve your own persuasiveness and quickly detect when someone is trying to shift your beliefs.

3.  TED Talks: The Official TED Guide To Public Speaking

by Chris Anderson

TEDTalks are notoriously clear, concise and powerful, and the head of TED shares his tips for taking your own presentations to the next level in this insights-packed book. He not only addresses the way you should carry yourself as you deliver your message, but also offers advice for honing the actual content of your presentation to maximize your message's impact.

4.  To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

by Daniel H. Pink

So many of our normal interactions are essentially acts of sales; We're convincing, persuading, and converting others to support our vision, opinion or plan. In this book, Daniel Pink unpacks the factors that impact the way we interact with one another and offers tactical and actionable advice--based on a wealth of scientific studies--on how to be more persuasive, relatable, and clear when sharing your message.

5.  Steal the Show: From Speeches to Job Interviews to Deal-Closing Pitches, How to Guarantee a Standing Ovation for All the Performances in Your Life

by Michael Port

In "Steal The Show," Michael Port--also the author of the bestselling " Book Yourself Solid "--applies lessons from acting and theater to the world of sales, speaking, and presenting. He offers tips on properly integrating humor into your speaking, how to modulate your voice and tone, and more to help you make all your "everyday performances" more compelling.

6.   The Quick and Easy Way To Effective Speaking

by Dale Carnegie

This classic book, revised and updated, echoes the style of Carnegie's most famous book, " How To Win Friends And Influence People ." Carnegie gives insights into the ways that your behavior impacts the way others perceive you and interact with you, and offers tips for shifting your actions to make it more likely that you'll get the response you want, whether you're on stage, in a boardroom or just having a heart-to-heart. 

A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta

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11 of the Best Public Speaking Books

February 19, 2024 - Sophie Thompson

These 11 public speaking books discuss a number of methods and techniques to help you improve your public speaking skills. The books are a mix of both in-depth speaking strategy and storytelling through the difficult journey of learning to speak in public.

There are many articles on public speaking you can find online, however to really learn and understand how to improve, more detailed research needs to be conducted. That’s why these books are great, the authors have put in hundreds of hours of research so you don’t have to.

These books teach you how to speak at conferences and TED events, present at meetings, interact at networking events and much more.

Here’s our compiled list of the best public speaking books (so you don’t have to trawl through a hundred pages of reviews for the best ones!).

Public speaking books

The Art of Public Speaking

Stephen lucas.

This book focuses on the practical skills of public speaking and the contemporary theories of rhetoric. All major aspects of speech preparation and presentation are covered – students learn to internalise the principles of public speaking, build confidence through speech practice, and prepare for success in the classroom and beyond.

Rating: 4.4/5

Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds

Carmine gallo.

TED brings together the world’s leading thinkers and speakers who inspire people and give them the confidence to overcome their fear of public speaking. This public speaking book reveals the nine secrets of successful TED presentations by going through hundreds of TED talks and interviewing top presenters and researchers.

Rating: 4.6/5

Confessions of a Public Speaker

Scott berkun.

This book provides an insider’s perspective on how to effectively present ideas to anyone. It’s a unique and entertaining story through the embarrassments and triumphs Scott has experienced over 15 years of speaking to crowds of all sizes. You’ll get new insights into the art of persuasion, teaching, learning, and performance.

Do You Talk Funny?: 7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better Public Speaker

David nihill.

The author overcomes his speaking fears by pretending to be an accomplished comedian for a year, while learning from other stand-up comedians about how to speak in public. This public speaking book will teach you how to craft a story your audience will laugh at and want to listen to, as well as helping you master the timing and delivery of your performance.

Out With It: How Stuttering Helped Me Find My Voice

Katherine preston.

After battling with her stutter for 17 years, Katherine travels around America meeting hundreds of stutterers, including celebrities, psychologists, writers, speech therapists and researchers. Her journey helps debunk the misconceptions shrouding the condition that affects 60 million people worldwide, while learning to embrace the voice within.

Rating: 4.7/5

TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking

Chris anderson.

This book explains how the miracle of powerful public speaking is achieved, and equips you to give it your best shot. There is no set formula; no two talks should be the same. The goal is for you to give the talk that only you can give. But don’t be intimidated. You may find it more natural than you think.

Rating: 4.1/5

The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking

Dale carnegie.

The book consists of many technique of Effective Public Speaking. The author has transformed public speaking into a life-skill which anyone can develop. The book consists of basic principles of effective speaking, technique of effective speaking, and the 3-aspects of every speech and effective methods of delivering a talk.

Speak With No Fear

Throughout this book you will learn 7 strategies for coping with public speaking anxiety. These strategies will give you a new perspective, prepare you, and give you actions to practice. As you implement these strategies, your fear will begin to fade. The 7 strategies include ‘Imagine the Worst’, ‘It’s Not About You’ and ‘Be in the Moment’.

Rating: 4.5/5

Speak like Churchill, Stand like Lincoln

James c. humes.

Ever wish you could captivate your boardroom with the opening line of your presentation, like Winston Churchill in his most memorable speeches? Or want to command attention much like Abraham Lincoln? Now, you can master presentation skills, wow your audience, and shoot up the corporate ladder by unlocking the secrets of history’s greatest speakers.

Think Faster, Talk Smarter

Matt abrahams.

Matt Abrahams, Stanford lecturer, podcast host, and communication expert, offers practical and actionable techniques to empower even the most nervous speakers to excel in spontaneous speaking situations. Abrahams offers evidence-based tactics for handling anxiety, adapting to the atmosphere of the room, and ensuring that content is succinct, pertinent, engaging, and memorable.

Charismatic Public Speaking: Passion, Power, Proximity, and Positivity: A History of Charisma with a Practical Application to Leadership

Javier bernad.

Charisma defies precise definition, yet it’s sought after by many. Javier Bernad focuses on refining charisma in public speaking, emphasizing rhetoric’s dual aspects: content and delivery. Exploring the concept’s historical evolution, his book offers practical guidance to embody charisma by mastering Power, Passion, Proximity, and Positivity in communication

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Children’s Books for Speech Therapy: The Ultimate List

If you are a speech-language pathologist searching for the best children’s books for speech therapy, check out this blog post! Using books during speech therapy sessions provide a fun way to target articulation and language goals. This article explains why SLPs might use children’s books in speech therapy. Additionally, it provides suggestions for how to use books in speech therapy, as well as suggestions for actual books that target a variety of speech and language skills. There are books listed by target speech sound. Additionally, there are book suggestions for vocabulary development, story retell, sequencing, spatial concepts, wordless picture books, imitating actions, gestures, and sounds, and books that promote diversity and inclusion. Finally, this blog post provides links to 5 websites that SLPs or other educators might use to access free digital libraries. 

This post contains affiliate links, which means we could receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something that we have recommended.

Why Speech Pathologists Use Children’s Books in Speech Therapy

Books are such a wonderful tool to use with children who have language delays. In fact, shared book reading has been found to have a  positive impact on receptive and expressive language skills . 

When we read books aloud to children, we are exposing them to a ton of new vocabulary that they wouldn’t typically hear in conversation! The more exposure and direct instruction children have to new vocabulary words ( especially  tier II vocabulary words), the better! Think about it: how often would your students hear the word ‘huddle’ in their day to day? But exposure to new vocabulary will also help increase literacy skills!  SLPs also know how important vocabulary instruction is, and that it needs to be interactive and fun. Students have to be able to do more than spit out definitions. They need to actually make connections between words and their meanings .

In addition to encouraging vocabulary development, books also provide a wonderful way to increase narrative skills. Skills like retelling stories, summarizing, and sequencing can be directly taught through appropriate children’s books.

Books can also be a fantastic tool for targeting comprehension goals. 

Speech sound targets can be addressed using books as well during speech therapy sessions.

Finally, books provide a fun way to keep kids engaged during speech therapy sessions. 

How To Use Books in a Speech Therapy Session

It’s easy to incorporate books in a speech therapy session! Engaging stories encourage language learning. Children’s books are a wonderful way to target a variety of speech and language objectives.  

Here are some ideas that school SLPs could try during therapy sessions in academic settings or outpatient speech therapy:

• Identify tier II vocabulary in the book. Discuss the definitions of unknown vocabulary terms both before, and during, a story read-aloud. Have the students write target vocabulary words on index cards, and draw pictures or write sentences to pair with that definition.
• Incorporate the strategy of dialogic reading into your story read-aloud. 
• Find any target word that pairs with a specific speech sound. Write those words on a dry-erase board while reading, then review them after the story read aloud.
• Discuss any figurative language while reading a story aloud.
• Sort pictures related to the book into different categories. For example, if reading The Little Blue Truck, one might sort farm animal pictures and vehicle pictures into separate piles.
• Answer comprehension questions about the story.
• Review the story grammar elements using a graphic organizer (plot, setting, point of view, characters, and conflict). 
• Have students retell the story using their own words. Provide a list of transition words to help them out. 
• Describe story characters or objects using a multisensory tool, such as the Expanding Expression Toolkit. 

The Best Children’s Books for Speech Sounds and Articulation Therapy

Did you know that children with  speech sound disorders sometimes struggle with storytelling? That can be an issue because storytelling and reading success go hand in hand ! 

SLPs can incorporate literacy into speech therapy sessions while targeting articulation. There are too many book options to list! 

The best part is that, typically, you can use (almost) any book of your choice to target any speech sound. If the text doesn’t directly state words with the target sound, then we describe what we see in the picture using our target sound. 

Still, it can be super nice to have a set of books that target specific speech sounds in your therapy room. Check out the following books for articulation therapy:

P Sound-Loaded Books

“Peek a Who” by Nina Laden

“The Pout-Pout Fish” by Deborah Diesen

“Pig the Pug” by Aaron Blabey 

B Sound-Loaded Books

“Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle

“Bear Snores On” by Karma Wilson

T Sound-Loaded Books

“The Tiptoeing Tiger” by Philippa Leathers

“Ten Apples Up on Top!” by Dr. Seuss

D Sound-Loaded Books

“Five Little Ducks” by Raffi

“Dinosaur Dig” by Penny Dale

K Sound-Loaded Books

“Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type” by Doreen Cronin

“Whose Chick Are You?” by Nancy Tafuri 

G Sound-Loaded Books

“Giggle, Giggle, Quack” by Doreen Cronin

“Gooey Gummy Geese” by Angela Holzer

F Sound-Loaded Books

“The Foot Book” by Dr. Seuss

“Hooray for Fish” by Lucy Cousins

TH Sound-Loaded Books

“The Tooth Book” by Dr. Seuss

“The Mighty Thor” by Billy Wrecks

S Sound-Loaded Books

“The Seals on the Bus” by Lenny Hort

“Silly Sally” by Audrey Wood

S-Blend Sound-Loaded Books

“Sneezy the Snowman” by Maureen Wright

“There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Spoon” by Lucille Colandro

“The Snail and the Whale” by Julia Donaldson

SH Sound-Loaded Books

“Sheep in a Jeep” by Nancy Shaw

“Sheep Blast Off!” by Nancy Shaw

“Sheep in a Shop” by Nancy Shaw

CH Sound-Loaded Books

“Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

J (DJ) Sound-Loaded Books

“Giraffes Can’t Dance” by Giles Andreae

“Jump” by Scott M. Fisher

R and R Blend Sound-Loaded Books

“Raccoon on His Own” by Jim Arnosky

“Room on the Broom” by Julia Donaldson

L and L Blend Sound-Loaded Books

“Llama Llama Red Pajama” by Anna Dewdney

“There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” by Lucille Colandro  

Top Childrens Books for Vocabulary Development

Books can provide engaging ways to target vocabulary knowledge and depth.

Have you checked out the ‘Bear’ series by Karma Wilson? If you haven’t, you absolutely need to!

Karma Wilson is one of my favorite children’s book authors. These are the best books for working on vocabulary development! This is because tier II vocabulary words are included in these engaging books for younger students! Tier II vocabulary words are high-frequency words that are important to target during your speech therapy session. Tier II vocabulary words are not super common in everyday conversations, but are not as specific as content-area vocabulary.

One of the best books in the ‘Bear’ series is  Bear Feels Scared , but check out any that you see!  Some tier II vocabulary words in “Bear Feels Scared” include “scared”, “huddle”, “tremble”, “quake”, “shiver” and “worry”.  Check out this blog post to learn how to target learning new vocabulary in speech therapy . 

Another great Karma Wilson book is “ Bear Wants More “. Some tier II vocabulary words that a speech therapist could target during a speech and language session might include “ravenous”, “wriggle”, “gobble”, “drowsy”, “gorge”, and “sniff”. 

Best Story Retell Children’s Books

Little Blue Truck  is a classic book featuring a friendly blue truck and different animals that share in his adventure. In this story, Little Blue takes the time to be a friend to many farm animals and help others out (including a grumpy dump truck). Little kids find the illustrations and rhyming lines enchanting! Repetitive books are fun, as your students can help repeat lines as the story goes on. This book is a fun way to work on narrative sequence and animal sounds! 

Tomie DePaola is another children’s author to check out. My favorite is  The Knight and The Dragon . This book is really fun for obtaining language samples because although there are words, there are many pages that are illustrations-only and encourage children to talk about the story! The best part about this story is the unlikely best friends that pair up in the end! 

P.S. Want to learn how to best  assess preschool narrative skills ? Some research indicates that interactive conversations with your younger students are the preferred way to do this! 

My Favorite Children’s Books for Spatial Concepts 

A speech language pathologist will want to try reading  “Where’s Spot?”  by Eric Hill when targeting spatial concepts. This book is engaging for younger learners working on early language development. The book contains a lift-the-flap component to keep kids interested! 

Rosie’s Walk  by Pat Hutchins is a great book for teaching prepositions to younger children. In this story, a hen goes for a walk while being trailed by a sneaky fox! There are tons of opportunities for discussing spatial vocabulary during a speech therapy session while looking at the pictures in this book! 

An additional children’s book that targets spatial concepts (prepositions) using colorful dogs is the classic book  Go, Dog. Go!  by P.D. Eastman . And since children of all ages love animals, a good dog book is always a win in speech therapy! 

Wordless Picture Books for Speech Therapy

Want to try using some wordless picture books? These provide a perfect way to target all sorts of objectives in articulation and language therapy! 

One of my favorite wordless picture books is  Chalk by Bill Thompson . Students can help tell the story while looking at the different pictures. Your students can practice using target words in a variety of sentence structures. Try writing a target word, like a conjunction, on a sticky note. Stick it onto a page and see if your student can come up with a sentence to describe the picture using that target word. 

The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney is another fantastic option. It includes beautifully-drawn illustrations. This story tells the tale of a lion who spares a mouse. The mouse then goes on to help free the lion later in the story. 

Another wordless picture book series is the Wimmelbooks. There are no words, but each page has a TON of exciting action and characters. Younger students could simply label action words. Older students can follow characters from page to page and tell a story. Check out  My Big Wimmelbook: Dinosaurs  or  My Big Wimmelbook- Cars and Things That Go . 

Books for Imitating Actions, Gestures, Sounds, and Exclamations

SLPs know how  gesture development is an important precursor to language development ! That’s why it’s important to incorporate imitating gestures into your therapy session. 

I love the simple illustrations in the Leslie Patricelli board books that are just so engaging for my younger students! These are wonderful, quick books for working on expressive language or a speech disorder. Though advertised as toddler books, my younger preschoolers still loved them! These were wonderful books for my preschool students with special needs. I paired them with gestures and exclamations. Check out the silly book  Yummy, Yucky  to get started. Your students can imitate a thumbs up, or thumbs down gesture, and practice exclamations like “ewww!” 

Hoping to try books written by SLP authors? One great pick is  The Big Book of Exclamations , written by Teri Kaminski Peterson and Chris McAllister. Bonus- they’ve also written a part two ( Talk with Me! The Big Book of Exclamations 2 ). Young children will be engaged by this interactive book, and it’s easy to modify language modeling based on a child’s ability. 

Dear Zoo   is such a great book and another classic! It is sturdy and contains interactive, “lift the flap” features. Work on labeling animals, animal sounds, and other language or imitation skills. This board book will be a favorite for young children.

Top Children’s Speech Therapy Books for Sequencing

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  This is a classic book by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle that a speech therapist might try out in therapy! The unique illustrations and engaging rhythm are very appealing to young children.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar  by Eric Carle is a wonderful way to discuss the life cycles of butterflies! The beautiful transformation from caterpillar to butterfly is very enchanting for children to see, and the illustrations are a hit. If you happen to own a felt board,   check out these Very Hungry Caterpillar felt board pieces  that can be paired with the story. This book provides a great way to work on vocabulary, sequencing, and more! 

Another personal favorite is  If You Give a Mouse a Cookie  by Laura Numeroff . In fact, my SLP coworkers and I even dressed up as characters from the Laura Numeroff book series one year at Halloween! This is a classic story that is fun and engaging and can easily be used to address sequencing skills. 

The Mitten by Jan Brett is another great children’s book that can be used to target sequence of events! Nicki loses his mitten in the snow, but many grateful animals soon snuggle inside to stay warm.

The Best Interactive Books for Speech Therapy

Are you wanting to use interactive books in speech therapy? My favorite books, both written by Bill Cotter, include  Don’t Push the Button!  and  Don’t Push the Button: A Halloween Treat!   These fun books will have your students shaking the book, pushing buttons, and shouting when instructed- and of course, they’ll be giggling the entire time! 

Another fun interactive book option that speech language pathologists could recommend that parents try at bedtime is  Touch the Brightest Star  by Christie Matheson . 

Best Children’s Books for Speech Therapy that Promote Diversity and Inclusion

Check out   Max and the Tag-Along Moon  by Floyd Cooper ! This is a comforting story about a little boy and his grandpa. The swervy-curvy car ride home and the beautiful text and illustrations will make this story a favorite in your speech therapy room! 

The children’s book  Last Stop on Market Street  by Matt de la Peña is absolutely worth checking out! In this story, a boy and his grandmother take a bus ride after church through a busy city. Along the way, he meets many diverse people. At his final stop, his grandmother encourages him to see the beauty in his surroundings. 

All Are Welcome  by Alexandra Penfold is a wonderful book where children from all backgrounds go to a school that promotes love and inclusion. It promotes being kind to all, despite our differences. 

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales has the most beautiful illustrations! This is the inspiring true story of the author who immigrated to the United States with her son. They had to be resilent and faced times of confusion and lonliness in a new country. They discovered the public library and an enthusiastic love for books and reading, which allowed them to have hope and finally feel at home.

Best Books for Upper Elementary

In case you missed it, I reviewed my f avorite books for upper elementary students in a previous post . In that post, I provided suggestions for how to use books in speech therapy with older students. I also provided a list of my absolute favorite books to use with 4th and 5th graders. Make sure to check it out! 

5 Websites with Free Digital Libraries for SLPs and Educators

Although I always prefer a hard copy of a book if possible, it doesn’t hurt to know how to access a digital copy! This is especially important for a busy speech pathologist who travels between buildings.

Here are a list of websites or apps that school SLPs and educators might wish to check out for free digital copies of books:

• Open Library is one possible option for SLPs or other educators ( https://openlibrary.org/ )
• Project Gutenberg has a library of over 70,000 free e-books! ( https://www.gutenberg.org/ )
• Check out Storyline Online, which features videos with well-known actors reading stories aloud ( https://www.storylineonline.net/ )
• Epic! is a must-check out digital library site that is free for educators! ( https://www.getepic.com/ )
• Check out Bookshare, a federally-funded library of ebooks that is FREE for educators! ( https://www.bookshare.org/ )

Incorporating Yoga and Children’s Books into Speech Therapy Sessions

Speech pathologists can pair this yoga mat book companion with any book. It’s the perfect way to target story retell and story elements!

First, your student will listen to the story. Then, he will identify the characters, setting, and problem. He will additionally describe events in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Finally, your student will explain the solution to the problem and identify any lessons learned from the story.

After each part of the story retell task, your student will complete a yoga pose!

In summary, Speech-Language Pathologists often use children’s books in speech therapy. Books can provide an engaging way to promote language skills, speech sound skills, and literacy. SLPs might wish to target a variety of speech and language objectives using a book during a speech therapy session.

Scroll up to read a list of suggested books sorted by target goal area for speech therapy. Finally, SLPs might wish to access free digital libraries in addition to reading paper copies of the best children’s books. 

Speech therapists may also wish to read about  the best books for 4th and 5th graders .

Related SLP Articles:

BEST Books for Speech Therapy: 4th and 5th Grade

• 30 Vocabulary Goals for Speech Therapy (Based on Research)
• 15 Best Speech Therapy Board Games for Younger Students   

Related SLP Resource:

• Yoga Mat Book Companion (for ANY book)

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Stella Díaz Has Something to Say

Angela Dominguez | 4.08

Speech to Print Workbook

Language Exercises for Teachers

Louisa Cook Moats Ed.D. and Dr. Bruce Rosow Ed.D. | 4.07

My Name is Rachel Corrie

Rachel Corrie, Alan Rickman, Katharine Viner | 4.07

Play It As It Lays

Joan Didion, David Thomson | 4.07

David Maraniss The book has a bleak aspect to it, in terms of marital relations. (Source)

Game Change

Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime

John Heilemann, Mark Halperin | 4.07

An Advanced Review of Speech-Language Pathology

Preparation for the Praxis SLP and Comprehensive Examination

Celeste Roseberry-McKibbin • M. N. Hegde • Glen M. Tellis | 4.07

On Our Way Home from the Revolution

Reflections on Ukraine

Sonya Bilocerkowycz | 4.07

Six Memos for the Next Millenium

Italo Calvino | 4.07

The Wisdom of the Native Americans

Including The Soul of an Indian and Other Writings of Ohiyesa and the Great Speeches of Red Jacket, Chief Joseph, and Chief Seattle

Kent Nerburn | 4.06

The Nobel Lecture In Literature, 1993

Toni Morrison | 4.06

The Complete Book of Speech Communication

A Workbook of Ideas and Activities for Students of Speech and Theatre

Carol Marrs and Lafe Locke | 4.05

Anatomy of the Voice

Theodore Dimon Jr | 4.04

Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric

Ward Farnsworth | 4.04

Great Speeches by Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass | 4.04

The King's Speech

How One Man Saved the British Monarchy

Mark Logue, Peter Conradi | 4.03

Barry Lyga | 4.03

Thank You for Arguing

What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion

Jay Heinrichs | 4.03

Angela Pham The attendees in the altMBA program actually influenced me the most in my book purchases: Robin Flaherty persuaded me to buy Thank You For Arguing. (Source)

Self-Reliance and Other Essays

Ralph Waldo Emerson | 4.03

A Sky Without Eagles

Jack Donovan | 4.03

Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better

Pema Chödrön | 4.03

Lend Me Your Ears

Great Speeches in History

William Safire | 4.03

Speech to Print

Language Essentials for Teachers

Louisa Cook Moats Ed.D. | 4.03

The Secret Speech

Tom Rob Smith | 4.02

Long Story Short

The Only Storytelling Guide You'll Ever Need

Margot Leitman | 4.02

The View from the Cheap Seats

Selected Nonfiction

Neil Gaiman | 4.02

Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat

The Great Speeches

Winston Churchill and David Cannadine | 4.02

The American Patriot's Handbook

The Writings, History, and Spirit of a Free Nation

George Grant | 4.02

Speeches and Writings 1859–1865

Abraham Lincoln | 4.01

The English Grammar Workbook for Adults

A Self-Study Guide to Improve Functional Writing

Michael DiGiacomo | 4.01

Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro | 4.01

Assume the Worst

The Graduation Speech You'll Never Hear

Carl Hiaasen, Roz Chast | 4.01

Brad Feld I started with a short book by Carl Hiaasen. I’m a fan of his fiction, so this caught my eye in Explore Booksellers (the local Aspen bookstore where we always load up whenever we come here.) It was cynically wonderful, and great advice. (Source)

The World's Great Speeches

Lewis Copeland, Lawrence W. Lamm, et al. | 4.01

American Speeches

Political Oratory from the Revolution to the Civil War

Ted Widmer | 4.01

The Speech Teacher's Handbook

A Parent's Guide to Speech & Language

Molly Dresner | 4.01

Let's Get Talking

A Speech-Language Therapy Companion for a Child's First Functional Words

Mehreen Kakwan | 4.01

Lust For Life

Sylvester McNutt iii | 4.01

To Repair the World

Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation

Paul Farmer | 4.01

Talking with Your Toddler

75 Fun Activities and Interactive Games that Teach Your Child to Talk

Teresa Laikko and Laura Laikko | 4.00

Can You Drink a Dinosaur?

A Yes/No Book for Young Talkers

Cara Tambellini Danielson and Mary Tambellini | 4.00

American Political Speeches

Terry Golway, Richard Beeman | 4.00

Jeffrey D Sachs This is my favourite speech from President Kennedy so I think it is always worth reading! But it is a very, very important speech in our history because of its demonstration of statecraft in the finest and most important way. The speech was given in the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The world was perilously close to nuclear war and we needed an active approach to break through. So President... (Source)

Figures Of Speech Used In the Bible Explained and Illustrated

E. W. Bullinger | 4.00

A selection of some of the best children’s books for encouraging speech and language development in young children. Use the filter function to search for specific speech and language goals within these books.

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• Baby & Toddler
• Household Items
• Occupations
• Descriptive Sequence
• Action Sequence
• Reaction Sequence
• Abbreviated Episode
• Complete Episode
• Complex Episode
• Interactive Episode
• True Narrative
• Character Flaw
• Conquering the Monster
• Finding Tale
• Journey Tale
• Losing Tale
• Meeting Tale
• Rags to Riches
• Repetitive Tale
• Tale of Fear
• Warning Tale
• Wishing Tale
• Traditional Opening
• Character Description
• Initiating Event
• Direct Character Speech
• Repetition for Emphasis
• Descriptive
• Functions of Items
• Parts of Object
• Differences
• Similarities
• Explain Means to a Goal
• Identify Obstacles to a Goal
• Definitions
• Adjectives (Describing Words)
• Comparatives
• Conjunctions (Joining Words)
• Copulas (Is/Are/Was/Were)
• Plurals - regular
• Plurals - irregular
• Possessive Nouns
• Prepositions
• Pronouns - objective
• Pronouns - possessive
• Pronouns - reflexive
• Pronouns - subjective
• Superlatives
• Tense - present progressive
• Tense - third person singular
• Tense - past
• Tense - future
• Verbs - irregular (past tense)
• Verbs - action
• Verbs - mental
• Copying Sounds
• Conflict Resolution
• Dobbing/Tattling
• Family Dynamics
• Following Rules
• Good Behaviour
• Greeting/Farewell
• Negotiating
• Problem Solving
• Taking Turns
• Voice Volume

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Monthly Plans

Books for Speech Therapy

Find the best picture books for speech therapy in our book search! Here, you’ll find books to help you teach important speech and language skills.

Use the filters below to search books for speech therapy by language concept, speech sounds, themes, & ages.

Filter Books

Age recommendation, speech sounds, seasonal themes, other themes, figurative language, narrative structure, teaching concepts, additional filters.

The Cow Loves Cookies

With an original twist on the ordinary barnyard picture book, this read-aloud from bestselling author Karma Wilson is a clever exploration of a curious incident

The Grouchy Ladybug

As children follow the Grouchy Ladybug on her journey, they will learn the important concepts of time, size, and shape, as well as the benefits

Bugs Bugs Bugs!

“Budding entomologists will fly to this book like bees to honey,” said School Library Journal, and it’s true! Pretty ladybugs, fluttering butterflies, creepy daddy longlegs, and

Paletero Man

What’s the best way to cool off on a hot summer day? Run quick and find Paletero José! Follow along with our narrator as he

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

Sylvester can’t believe his luck when he finds a magic pebble that can make wishes come true. But when a lion jumps out at him

My Lucky Day

When a delicious-looking piglet knocks on Mr. Fox’s door “accidentally,” the fox can hardly believe his good luck. It’s not every day that dinner just

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13+ Best Children’s Books for Speech Therapy

Today I am beyond excited to share my latest blog post outlining a few of my favorite children’s books for speech therapy. 

Plus learn a fun way a Speech-Language Pathologist could use one of these great books in their next speech therapy sessions to target specific goals. 

In addition, I’ve included digital versions of the following books. **Please be sure to preview the digital versions of the books prior to reading or watching with your child or student. I have previewed all the videos myself, but you know your child or student best and your/their comfort levels with different words or detailed illustrations.**

Children’s Books for Speech Therapy

Here is a list of over 13 of the best children’s books for speech therapy that are perfect for a Speech Language Pathologist or parent looking for a fun and engaged way of working on different speech sounds and language goals.

Be sure to check out the additional growing list of great activities at the bottom of this page and add some of these children’s books for speech therapy to your school supplies list this year.

1. Bear Snores On

Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman is one of those favorite books of young readers that is all about a bear who sleeps through the long winter while his friends join him inside his cave inorder to find safety during a winter storm. 

BONUS: If you like these types of books then it would be worth it to check out the new books in this bear series. There are a lot of books perfect for adding to your book collection. Such as the following books: Bear’s New Friend, Bear Can’t Sleep, Bear Stays Up for Christmas, Bear Feels Scared, Bear Feels Sick, Bear’s Loose Tooth.

Articulation: 

• S- Blends- snores, sleeps, stays

Language Skills

• Sequencing – Read this book and have your stores retell the order of animals that come into the bear’s den while he is asleep to practice sequencing and order.
• Vocabulary – This book has some great elementary vocabulary. Have students describe the words heap, slurp, scuttles, tunnel up, flutter, mutter, twitter, clutter, den, lair, cave, woods, winter, and bear.
• What does bear feel like in the winter?
• What do you think bear is thinking when he wakes up? 
• What do you think bear feels when he wakes up? How do you know?
• How do the other animals feel when bear sneezes and why?
• What do you think will happen when mouse starts the fire?
• What do you think the hare will do?
• What do you think badger will do with mouse and hare?
• Do you think the animals will wake bear up?
• Who do you think will wake bear up?
• How do you think the animals will make bear feel better?
• What animal was sleeping?
• What season was it in the story?
• Why was bear sleeping?
• What are the three different animals that go into bears cave?
• What food did the animals eat?

Language Expansion

• Making Requests – A great activity to practice language expansion is to make hot cocoa or chocolate milk with your child or student. Practice correct conversational skills, following directions or have them describe how the drink tastes.

Social Skills

• During this story, bear wakes up and sees that his friends are having fun without him. He feels upset, and then his friends find a way to include him. This is a great situation to discuss with students to increase social skills.

Digital Version:

2. The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a beautiful story about a caterpillar who eats a variety of different foods before emerging as a butterfly. This book is perfect for students with a language disorder and working on new words, such as hatches, searches, days of the week, names of fruit, and more.

Articulation:

This is a great book to go on a sound hunt using all the pictures in the book! Have your students look and listen for worlds that have a specific sound. Use some of the ideas below to get started!

• /K/ sound – Caterpillar, came, cone, cake, cocoon
• /S/ Blends – started, still, strawberries, slice, stomachache, small, stayed
• /L/ Sound (initial, medial & final)  – light, little, lay, leaf, look, lollipop, caterpillar, watermelon, small, hole, apple

Language Skills:

• Basic Concepts – This book is a great tool to go over basic concepts with your student. Go over descriptive concepts by recounting topics in the book such as big vs little, and all the colors. You could also cover quantity concepts by ordering the days one through five. This book also covers temporal concepts such as days of the week, morning, day and night. 
• Vocabulary – The Hungry Caterpillar is a book filled with some great vocabulary practice words. Here are some ideas: Chrysalis, butterfly, nibbled, cocoon, metamorphosis, larva, pupa, hatch, emergy, wiggle, slice, hungry and the days of the week. 
• Grammar – Practice grammar with this story as well! Target the present and past tense verbs as you read. Also practice marking the plural nouns that are read. Have your students practice the verb actions they see in the pictures. 
• Sequencing – This is a great story to practice sequencing with. Have students retell the story while focusing on sequencing concepts such as first, then, next, when, after, last. You can also have your students sequence the order of foods the caterpillar ate. (EXAMPLE: First he ate an apple. Second he ate two pears etc). Another idea is to sequence the days of the week. (EXAMPLE: Mon – 1 apple, Tuesday – 2 pears, Wed – 3 plums etc)
• Describing – This book has some amazing illustrations that are great for providing description practice. Have your students describe a caterpillar vs a butterfly. You could also prompt your students to describe the different food in this story. Turn it into a taste testing activity and describe different fruits as juicy, sour, sweet, crunchy, the color, size and shape, or the category of food. 
• Past Tense Verbs – This story uses many irregular past tense verbs such as lay, came, ate, was, felt, built and some irregular past tense verbs such as stayed, called and started.
• Show me the butterfly and tell me your favorite color on it.
• Count the number of holes on the leaf and then turn the page.
• Point to a red piece of fruit, and then touch the orange.
• Put your finger onto the caterpillar and then slide your finger toward the sun.
• Put a finger onto the egg and tap your thumb on the moon.
• Who is this book about?
• Where is the egg on this page?
• What happened to the caterpillar when he ate all the food and then the green leaf?
• What is a caterpillar’s small home called?
• What did the caterpillar in the story turn into? 
• 2 Syllable – morning, tiny, cocoon, apple, hungry
• 3 Syllable – lollipop, butterfly, chocolate, strawberry
• 4 Syllable – Caterpillar, watermelon, stomachache
• Opposites – There are lots of opposites in this story! Look for these as you read – moon/sun, caterpillar/butterfly, junk food/healthy food, skinny/plump, small/big, and hungry/full.
• Category Ideas – Practice language expansion skills by practicing categories with your students. After reading the book, practice sorting fruits, vegetables and junk food. You could look at what the caterpillar eats and sort food vs insects. This is a great bridge into a quick discussion on if the food eaten was healthy food or junk food. 
• Comparing and Contrasting – As you read through this story, compare and contrast the food. Discuss with your students how two foods are the same and different (EXAMPLE: Both the strawberry and apple are red, but a strawberry is soft and an apple is crunchy.)

3. Happy to Be Me

Happy to Be Me by Emma Dodd is a great way to work on identifying different body parts which are functional words that might be some of your students’ first words. The story goes through each body part and thanks each of them for the amazing things that they help us do. Plus the best part is the book teaches our students to celebrate what makes them, them!

Practice TH Articulation with the “Thank You” repetition in this story.

Language Skills: 

• Body Part Vocabulary – Use this story to go over the following body parts: mouth, toes, thumbs and fingers, hands, ears, eyes, head, nose, tongue, legs, lips, teeth
• Rhyming – Practice rhyming with your student and highlight the multiple rhymes in the story as well: wiggle/giggle, to/you, hold/told, smell/well, lap/nap, chew/you, above/love.

4. Press Here

Press Here by Herve Tullet is one of those favorite interactive books that many Speech Pathologists love to use when working in the schools and is a huge hit with younger children. This is a silly book filled with verbs allowing your child to work on their language development by following directions of the action given, such as press here and then making more dots appear on the next page. 

• Colors – This book is great for your young children who need a little extra help working on identifying colors. Simply give them a simple direction, such as “Touch the red dot.”
• Following Directions – Read the story and have your student follow the 1-step directions. For example, “blow on the page” or “tap the circle.” Some of the directions do get a little more complex, such as “tap only the yellow circles” or “tilt the book to the left”.
• Basic Concepts – Descriptive Concepts (small, medium, large, colors, gently, hard), Quantity Concepts (counting, all, just, only, more, once, twice), Location Concepts (left, right, middle).
• Vocabulary Action Verbs – shake, tap, blow, rub, turn, tilt, or clap.
• Past Tense Verbs – Have the student retell you what action they or their classmate just took. For example, Sam could say, “Jason just tapped the red dot.”
• Answering WH-Questions – Ask your student’s simple questions about what they or their classmate just did. For example, “What color of dot did you just tap?” 
• Predicting – Have the child or student try to predict what will happen before you turn the page. “What do you think will happen next?” My students always loved the fun element of surprise when reading this story.
• Expressive Language – Expressive language is an important skill to work on your student’s communication skills. Start by having your student explain what happened on each page. For example, if you have them tap the red circle 5 times and the next page shows 5 red circles in a line your student could explain that when they tapped the red circle 5 times it made 5 individual circles appear on the following page. 

5. Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown is perfect for all of those language therapy goals on your caseload. The repetitive text helps children with speech disorders to anticipate what might come next in the story. 

Articulation

• B Sound – bear, bowl, balloon
• G Sound & G-Blends – goodnight, great, green
• L Sound – little, light, lady, old, telephone, balloon, bowl, full
• M Sound – mitten, mouse, mush, moon, jumping, comb, room
• Vocabulary – As you go through the story, have your child or student label the different household items, toys, animals, and clothing. (moon, light, clock, sock, star, bear, chair, red balloon, cow, telephone, mittens, toy house, comb, house, and brush).
• Prepositions – There is a mouse hidden in every picture which is great for working on prepositional phrases.
• Colors – This book is great for your young children working on identifying colors. Simply have them sort the different vocabulary words by color.
• Categorization – As you read the story, have your student category sort the different vocabulary words into one of the following categories, such as toys, clothing, animal, or furniture.

Here are a few additional ideas to expand on the book activity.

• Categorization – Give your child or student a room within their school or their house and have them say night night while naming 3-5 objects within each room. For example, if you give them the kitchen they could say, “night night refrigerator”, “night night oven”, “night night toaster”, etc. 
• Following Directions – If you have a play house or toy animals you could give the student a 1-step or 2-step direction to follow using the toy objects. For example, “put the bear on the chair.” 

6. A Bad Case of Stripes

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon is one of the best books for student’s with a communication disorder working on different perspectives and making inferences. You could have your older students work on interpreting facial expressions and talk about how other people might feel in a given situation. 

• Why do you think Camilla got stripes?
• What do you think will happen when she goes to school?
• What could cure Camilla?
• Why did the old lady give Camilla lima beans?
• Vocabulary – There are some great vocabulary words to target while reading this story! Look for lima beans, examine, normal, experts, therapist, afraid, specialists, multi-colored.
• Sequencing – To practice sequencing, have students sequence the events in order of first, next, then, and last. 

Social Skills:

• Identify Facial Expressions – A good reason to work on facial expressions is that it helps your students interpret how others feel. 

7. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen is perfect if you’re looking for one of those repetitive books that you can use in therapy over and over again. This book follows a family getting out into nature and exploring the world before coming back home.

• B Sound – bed, beautiful, bear, big, back, bedroom, and stumble.
• S-Blends – snowstorm, stairs, splosh, splash, swishy-swashy, stumble, squelch, squelch, and scared. 
• K Sound – cave, covers, catch, can’t, back, dark, and thick.
• W Sound – wavy, wet, we’re, what, whirling, and we.
• Story Retell/Sequencing – Due to the repetitive nature of the book along with a clear sequence of events makes this story a great one for story retelling/sequencing.
• Spatial Concepts – Have the student practice putting the bear, “over”, “under”, “through”, “up”, “down”. You can grab a bear cutout here .
• Descriptive Words/Opposites – As you come across the different descriptive words throughout the text have your students identify the opposites for example, long/short, cold/hot, deep/shallow, wavy/straight, thick/thin, big/little, dark/bright, wet/dry, narrow/wide.
• Answering WH-Questions – Ask your students wh-questions. For example, “who is going on a bear hunt?”, “what animal are they hunting?”, “where are they now?”
• Vocabulary – As you go through the story, have your child or student label the different nature nouns (snowstorm, bear, mud, cave, grass, river, forest, and trees. You can grab some of these vocabulary words from this Boardmaker Board simply sign in to download your copy here .

This book is filled with different sound effects so here are a few additional ideas to expand on the book activity.

• Sound Effects – Have your child or student act out the different sound effects, such as “splashy river” or “howling snowstorm”.
• Prepositions – Have your child act out the different prepositions (over, under, and through) with hand gestures or have your child on a bear hunt by printing out some bear pictures or grab a couple of stuffed animal bears and hide them around the house. Then have your child tell you where they found the bears. For example, “the bear was under the chair”.

SEE ALSO: 430+ Free Multisyllabic Words List Activity Bundle

8. good dog, carl.

Good Dog, Carl by Alexander Day is perfect if you’re looking for wordless books. Using wordless picture books can be a great first step when introducing using books in therapy. The author has many more favorite wordless picture books. This story follows a dog named Carl who has to babysit while his Mom is away and even though the baby and Carl make a mess Carl is a good dog and makes sure to clear up before his mom comes home. 

(This digital version is 9 min and has a 4-5 min blurb before about how this is a book with very few words, but we can use the pictures to predict, make inferences etc).

• Sequencing – After reading the story, have students practice sequencing by ordering the events from first, next, then and last to show the understand the order of events.
• Describing – Practice describing by prompting your students to retell what is happening in the story.
• Predicting – Throughout the story, there are multiple chances to practice predicting by asking the question, “What might happen next?” 

9. The Little Old Lady That Wasn’t Afraid of Anything

The Little Old Lady That Wasn’t Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams and Megan Lloyd is one of the best children’s books out there. This story follows a little old lady who goes on a walk through the forest looking for herbs, nuts, and seeds and on her way home meets various clothing items that try to scare her, but she keeps telling them that she is not afraid of anything! This book is great for your older children who wouldn’t be afraid of scary clothing items following a lady home. 

BONUS: If you like this story then it would be worth it to check out the different old lady series of books to add to your list of great speech therapy books. Covering the following favorite topics: There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Clover, There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Bell, There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Rose, There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Chick, There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Turkey, etc.

• L Sound – lady, little, left, long, look, locked, old, walk, suddenly, stumbled, whistled, bravely, silly, middle, wiggle, still
• L-Blends – clomp, gloves, sliver, black, clap, closed
• S Sound – seeds, suddenly, so, safe, sat, saw, said, seemed, forest, whispered, whistled, inside, once, nuts, pants, pace, us
• S-Blends – spices, started, stopped, stop, sliver, stumbled, scary, scare
• Z Sound – closed, was, herbs, spices, seeds, shoes, gloves
• R Sound – ran, rocked, afraid, afternoon, forest, orange, early, farther, through, shirt, scary, started, sliver, herbs, dark, whispered, garden, her, far, were, hear, faster, near, door, chair, fire, answer, ear
• T Sound – time, two, talk, tall, afternoon, cottage, started, faster, nuts, pants, startled, brighten, whistled, left, not, went, forest, collect, night, shirt, white, hat, out, quite, fast, sat, quiet, next
• Clothing Vocabulary – As you go through the story, have your child or student label the different clothing items (gloves, hat, shoes, pants, shirt).
• Verbs – Have the student retell you what action each clothing item took. For example, “The pants wiggled.” To take it one step further you could have the child act out the action verb.
• Answering WH-Questions – Ask your students wh-questions. For example, “Which item goes clap, clap?”, “Why was the old lady in the forest?”, “Where was the old lady headed to after it got dark?”, or “What action does the hat do?”
• Sound Effects – Have your child or student act out the different sound effects, such as “pants wiggling” or “gloves clapping”. (Shoes – stomp your feet, Pants – wiggle your body, Shirt – shake your arms, Hat – nod your head, Gloves – clap your hands).
• Categorization – If you have some play clothes or pictures of clothing items you could have the child practice separating out the clothes into different categories. For example, you could have your child or student identify clothing that fall into summer clothes versus winter clothes. 

SEE ALSO: 21 Best Reinforcement Games for Speech Therapy

10. polar bear, polar bear, what do you hear.

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear by Bill Martin Jr. & Eric Carle is a fun and adaptive book that you can use to work on animal vocabulary, animal sounds, sequencing, and answering wh-questions. This story is similar to Brown Bear, Brown Bear in that each animal introduces the next animal and the sound it makes.

• Vocalic R – roaring, leopard, ear, snorting, snarling, hear, polar bear, boa constrictor, zookeeper
• Initial H – hear, hippopotamus, hissing
• L Sound – lion, leopard, flamingo, elephant, snarling, yelping, walrus, bellowing, whistling, children, growling, polar bear, fluting, 
• Vocabulary Animal Names – As you go through the story, have your child or student label the different animals (lion, polar bears, hippo, zebra, snake “boa constrictor”, elephant, peacock, leopard, walrus, and flamingo).
• Symbolic Noises – Have your child identify the different animal sounds as you come across each animal in the story. 
• Answering WH-Questions – Answering the question, “[animal name] what do you hear?”

Here is an additional idea to expand on the book activity.

• Categorization – If you have some play animals you could have the child practice separating out the play animals into the different categories. For example, you could have your child or student identify animals that fall in all three animal categories of pets, farm animals, and zoo animals. 

Digital Version: Ends at 3:45

11. Dear Zoo

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell is one of those highly engaging flap books about a young boy who writes to the zoo asking them to send him a pet. The illustrations along with the lifting of the flaps helps to encourage joint attention in a fun and interactive way.

• B Initial – This book is perfect for working on the b sound, because on every page you send the animal ‘back’ and each animal comes in a ‘box’.
• Basic Concepts – You can have the child or student work on the concepts ‘ open ’ and ‘ close ’ as they use the flaps. In addition, each animal is given a description, such as “the elephant is too big ” or “the giraffe is too tall ” allowing the student to work on even more concepts.
• Answering WH-Questions – This book is perfect for wh-questions. For example, after reading the story together you could ask, “Why couldn’t the boy keep the giraffe for a pet?” The child could then answer, “Because the giraffe is too tall and it couldn’t fit through the front door of my house.”
• Answering Yes/No Questions – As you go through the story you could point to an animal and then ask a yes or no question about that specific animal. For example, you could point to the elephant and ask is an elephant purple?
• Vocabulary – You can have your child or student practice filling in the blanks at the end of the repetitive sentences by naming the animal under the flaps.
• Multisyllabic Words – Another fun activity you could try would be to count or clap out the number of syllables in naming each animal. For example, el-e-phant has 3 syllables.
• Categorization – Categorization is a great vocabulary activity. Have your child or student identify animals that fall in all three animal categories of pets, farm animals, and zoo animals. If you have some play animals you could have the child practice separating out the play animals into the different categories.
• Reasoning Skills – You could also work on reasoning skills by asking your student what their favorite animal is and have them explain why it is their favorite animal.
• Nursery Rhymes – You could even throw in a nursery rhyme, such as Hey, Diddle, Diddle and categorize the animals or make their symbolic noises as well for some extra fun!

12. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst is all about a boy named Alexander who ends up having one thing after another go wrong. However, it might make these very bad days easier when you know it happens to other people as well.

• Why did the author write a story about a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day?
• Is there a lesson we can learn from the story?
• Did Alexander behave appropriately?
• Is there any time in the story when he could have behaved differently? Would this have helped make the day better?
• Did he make good choices?
• What did Alexander’s mother say to help him solve his problem?
• Could she have said something that would have helped him solve his problem?
• Sequencing – After reading the story, have students practice sequencing by ordering the events first, next, then, to last.
• What happened to Alexander’s sweater?
• What did Alexander find in his cereal box?
• What number did Alexander skip when counting at school?
• What did Alexander draw in his invisible picture?
• Vocabulary – This story is filled with some great vocabulary practice words such as cereal, sailboat, skateboard, shoestore, downstairs, carsick, crybaby, railroad, undercover, cupcakes

Language Expansion:

For language expansion, carry on from your prediction lesson and predict that Alexander wakes up the next morning to the start of a great day! Have your students write a story about his day. You could also prompt your students to write a story about a terrible, no good, very bad day in their own life. How would their day go badly from waking up to going to bed to fall asleep? Have them title their own story similarly. 

13. Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a fun and exciting book all about a boy named Max who dresses up in a wolf outfit and pretends to set sail to an island inhabited by Wild Things who end up naming Max king. 

• R Articulation: rolled, roared, room, forest, terrible, around, mother, year, far, supper
• R Blends Articulation: grew, private, through, trick, frightened
• When did Max sail off?
• Who called Max a wild thing first?
• Who did Max threaten to eat?
• Where did Max go in his boat?
• Why did Max’s mother send him to bed?
• What did the wild things do when they saw Max?
• Vocabulary – Practice the following vocabulary words with your students: mischief, private, wild, terrible, claws, frightened, cried, supper, lonely
• Story Retell – After reading the story, have your students retell it in a few sentences to practice retelling.
• Compare and Contrast – Have your students compare and contrast Max to the Wild Things.

SEE ALSO: 179+ Free Speech Therapy Wh Questions Printable

14. The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein follows the main characters a boy and a tree about the gift of giving and the acceptance of another’s ability to love in return. This book is a great read with a great message all about love and acceptance.

• Vocabulary – Review these vocabulary words with your students as you read through this story: love, swing, eat, hide, sleep, play, carry, shake, cut, sail, sit, rest, build, speak
• What do you think Shel Silverstein wanted us to learn from reading this story?
• How did the boy treat the tree throughout the story?
• Why do you think the tree is so giving to the boy?
• What problems were solved for the boy by the tree?
• What could the tree have done differently?
• Did the tree have to give all of herself away?
• Story retell – After reading the story, have your students retell it in a few sentences to practice retelling.
• Compare and Contrast – Compare and contrast the boy vs the tree.

Great Resource List

If you want additional effective tools or resources that go along with these great stories to work on your student’s specific targets then be sure to check out the following freebies.

If you need other children’s speech therapy book lists then you will want to check out my complete list of 15+ interactive books for speech therapy .

Little Kids

Here are a few different ways to work on your child’s ability to retell past events using these fun visuals. 

• Sequencing and Retelling Short Stories FREEBIE by Speech Language Lady is a great short story for story to read and then practice retelling in sequential order. Cut and glue the story back into order to practice retelling with your young students.
• The Mitten – Retell a Story by Building a Foundation is a whole retell activity to set that accompanies a short story. Print in color or black and white!
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears Retelling Pictures and Story Cards by Courtney N is a clear, ready to go activity to help teach retelling. This includes free story cards and a pocket chart station to be used with a big group when reading the story.
• Retell Story Hands by Blue SKies with Jennifer White is an activity that uses hands to identify the setting, plot and characters to help students gather details to retell the story.

In Conclusion: Children’s Books for Speech Therapy

We hope you have found this article helpful for finding some awesome children’s books for speech therapy and the best way to use each book within your next therapy session. 

Want Even More Lesson Plans for Speech Therapy?

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• 31 Best Wordless Videos to Teach Problem Solving
• 133+ Categories List for Speech Therapy

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30 Picture Books for Early Intervention Speech Therapy

11/20/2023 by Jenna Leave a Comment

In early intervention speech therapy, picture books serve as invaluable resources to support language development and enhance communication skills in young children. Incorporating picture books for early intervention speech therapy can enhance language development, improve communication skills and create an engaging learning experience. Each book on the list below has been carefully selected to target specific speech and language goals, making them valuable resources for speech therapists working with early intervention children.

Why Use Books in Speech Therapy?

As stated above, books are powerful tools in speech and language therapy, offering numerous benefits for children undergoing intervention. Incorporating picture books into therapy sessions can enhance language development, improve communication skills and create an engaging learning experience. In addition, incorporating books when targeting speech and language skills helps with the following things:

Promoting Language and Vocabulary Development:

Books expose children to a rich variety of words, expanding their vocabulary and language comprehension. By reading aloud and discussing the story, SLPs can introduce new words, reinforce concepts and encourage expressive language skills.

Enhancing Storytelling and Narrative Skills:

Engaging with books nurtures storytelling abilities and narrative skills in children. As they follow the plot and characters, they learn about story structure, sequencing and cause-and-effect relationships. These things are essential for effective communication.

Stimulating Imagination and Creativity:

Books transport children to imaginative worlds, fostering creativity and critical thinking. They encourage children to visualize and describe scenes, characters and events, promoting expressive language and descriptive skills.

What is Early Intervention in Speech Therapy?

Early intervention in speech therapy refers to the proactive approach of addressing speech and language difficulties in young children as soon as they are identified. Early intervention aims to support and enhance a child’s communication skills during those critical early developmental stages of their life.

Early intervention speech therapy typically targets children from birth to around three years of age. During this critical developmental period, speech therapists work with infants and toddlers who may be exhibiting speech and language delays or disorders. Early intervention aims to address these challenges as early as possible to support the child’s communication skills and maximize their developmental potential. By recognizing these challenges at a young age, speech therapists can implement targeted strategies to address them promptly, leading to improved speech and language outcomes.

At this age, families are active participants in the therapeutic process. Speech therapists collaborate with parents and caregivers to create individualized treatment plans that can be integrated into daily routines, maximizing the child’s progress.

30 Picture Books for Early Intervention Speech Therapy:

{This post contains affiliate links. It does not mean that you pay any more for the item, it simply means that I receive a small commission if you purchase from the link for researching it for you. Thanks so much for supporting my blog!}

Interactive Books:

Books that encourage touch and interaction provide valuable opportunities to increase attention, promote vocabulary development and engage the senses. These interactive books are ideal for early intervention speech therapy sessions:

• All Better – This interactive book features reusable bandages and stickers, allowing children to engage in pretend play while learning about body parts and emotions.
• Hats Off – With colorful hats that children can remove and place back on the characters, this book supports vocabulary development, turn-taking and fine motor skills.
• Poke-a-Dot Books – These books incorporate satisfying tactile experiences, such as popping bubbles or pushing buttons, to engage children and reinforce counting, colors and animal names.
• Flap Books like “Where’s Spot” – Lift-the-flap books like this one encourage anticipation, fine motor skills and vocabulary expansion as children search for the hidden character.
• Where Is Baby’s Belly Button? – This interactive book prompts children to find body parts and supports early language skills, body awareness and vocabulary development.
• Little Bear Needs Glasses” – With movable glasses that children can place on the character, this book introduces the concept of vision correction and promotes discussion around emotions and empathy.
• Happy Birthday Touch and Feel – This book incorporates textures and sensory elements to celebrate birthdays, encouraging descriptive language, vocabulary and tactile exploration.
• That’s Not My Puppy – With touch-and-feel elements on every page, this book stimulates sensory exploration, descriptive language and texture recognition.
• Baby Faces, Peekaboo (with mirror) – This book features mirrors and engaging illustrations of baby faces, promoting social interaction, facial expression recognition, and early communication ski

Durable Books:

Durable books are perfect for early intervention speech therapy. They provide sturdy pages that can withstand the handling from this age group. Here are some durable book recommendations:

• Indestructibles: Hello, Farm – Made of a durable material, this book introduces farm animals and supports vocabulary development, animal sounds, and visual engagement.
• Indestructibles: Things that Go! – This durable book features various modes of transportation, fostering language skills, sound imitation, and visual tracking.
• Bath Books: Eric Carle – Waterproof bath books by Eric Carle combine the joy of reading with water play, promoting language development, vocabulary, and water-related concepts.
• Barnyard Bath – This bath book introduces farm animals and their sounds, making bath time an opportunity for learning and language stimulation.

Board Books:

Board books are popular choices in early intervention speech therapy due to their sturdy construction, repetitive text, engaging pictures and potential for incorporating songs. Here are some recommended board books:

• First 100 Words – This board book presents a variety of everyday objects, supporting vocabulary expansion, word-picture association, and early categorization skills.
• My Truck is Stuck – With rhythmic text and vibrant illustrations, this book introduces transportation vocabulary, action words, and engages children in interactive storytelling.
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear – This classic book features repetitive text and vibrant illustrations, aiding in color recognition, animal names, and developing early sentence structures.
• Moo, Baa, La La -Through rhythmic text and animal sounds, this book promotes sound imitation, expressive language skills, and engages children in interactive participation
• Barnyard Dance – With lively illustrations and catchy rhymes, this book encourages movement, imitation, and vocabulary related to farm animals and actions.
• From Head to Toe – This interactive book invites children to mimic various animal movements, promoting body awareness, motor skills, and expressive language.
• Giraffes Can’t Dance – This heartwarming story celebrates individuality, rhythm, and self-expression, fostering social-emotional skills, vocabulary, and storytelling.
• Goodnight, Construction Site – This book features construction vehicles winding down for the night, introducing vocabulary related to construction, bedtime routines, and sequencing.

• Going on a Bear Hunt – With repetitive text and engaging illustrations, this book encourages participation, sound imitation, and storytelling while going on an exciting adventure.
• Goodnight Gorilla – This wordless book invites children to create their own narratives, promote observational skills, inferencing, and engage in expressive language.
• Are You My Mother? – This classic tale follows a baby bird’s search for its mother, supporting vocabulary, descriptive language, and storytelling skills.
• Dear Zoo – Through lift-the-flap elements, this book introduces various animals and their characteristics, fostering vocabulary, animal names, and descriptive language.
• Snuggle Puppy – With its playful rhymes and endearing illustrations, this book encourages engagement, emotional expression, and bonding experiences.
• Little Blue Truck – This book emphasizes kindness, friendship, and vehicle vocabulary, promoting social skills, sound imitation, and interactive storytelling. Check out 7 speech skills to target with this Little Blue Truck sensory bin.
• Yes, Yes, No, No – This board book explores opposites, gestures, and emotions, supporting expressive language, concept development, and early communication skills.
• I Went Walking – Through repetitive text and vibrant illustrations, this book introduces animals, colors, and action words, fostering vocabulary expansion and sequencing skills.
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a beloved board book that follows the journey of a caterpillar as it eats its way through various foods. This classic book promotes vocabulary development, counting, food-related concepts, and sequencing skills.

Want More Picture Book Ideas for Speech Therapy?

Incorporating picture books into early intervention speech therapy sessions provides numerous benefits for children with communication difficulties. By incorporating these picture books into early intervention speech therapy, therapists can foster language growth, stimulate imagination and create a foundation for lifelong learning.

Check Out These Other Picture Book Ideas To Use in Speech Therapy Sessions:

• 5 Wordless Picture Books for SLPs to Use in Speech Evaluations
• The ULTIMATE List of Wordless Picture Books for Speech Therapy
• Picture Books that Feature AAC Users
• 8 Books that Target “WH Questions” for Preschoolers
• 10 Repetitive Picture Books to Use in Speech Therapy
• 10 Favorite Farm Picture Books
• 15 Children’s Books that Feature a Single-Parent Household
• Big List of Picture Books for Older Students
• 15 Best Picture Books for Winter Themed Speech Therapy
• The Best Christmas Books for Speech Therapy
• Top 17 Thanksgiving Books for Speech Therapy You Need to Know
• Fall Picture Books about Leaves
• Children’s Books for St. Patrick’s Day

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13 Best Books For Speech Therapy And Development

By: Author Liz Talton

Posted on Published: July 1, 2022  - Last updated: January 20, 2023

Categories Parenting

The concern many parents have about their children is the progress of their speech development.

Speech development begins once a baby begins making babbling sounds.

Those babbling sounds are actually a form of communication!

Babbling will naturally progress into word formations.

But what can you do to help progress speech development in your baby or toddler?

Pick up one of these 15 best books for speech therapy and development!

Disclosure: Bear in mind that some of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you click on them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Best Books For Speech Therapy And Speech Development

Hop On Pop is a classic Dr. Seuss book that keeps small children entertained and engaged through colorful illustrations and repetitive word rhyming.

This book is perfect for younger children to teach three letter words that rhym together.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

This children’s classic combines asking questions that build upon one another. 

Questions, animal identification, and rhyming all help children with repetition makes it one of the best books for speech development.

Little Blue Truck

After the popular release of Little Blue Truck, Alice Schertle has created multiple Little Blue Truck books. 

Each are equally fun and helpful for speech development.  

These books teach children new sound words like “Beep”, “Oink”, “Cluck”, and more to explore the environment around the farm.

Other books in the Little Blue Truck series include:

• Good Night, Little Blue Truck
• Little Blue Truck’s Springtime
• Time For School, Little Blue Truck
• What Do You Say, Little Blue Truck? (sound book)
• Little Blue Truck’s Valentine
• Little Blue Truck’s Christmas
• Little Blue Truck Leads The Way

Where The Wild Things Are

By far one of the most famous children’s books, Where The Wild Things Are has now been adapted into a movie and an opera.  And for good reason!

Where The Wild Things Are not only takes your child on an adventure through an island of magical creatures and uses new descriptive words throughout the story to introduce and broaden speech development.

Related Articles: 60 Kid Friendly Halloween Movies To Watch

4 ways to foster your adopted kid’s connection with their birth culture, potty-training signs of readiness, five little monkeys.

You guessed it… Five Little Monkeys are based on the children’s nursery rhyme. 

This book is perfect for younger children to learn early number recognition, sequence counting, rhyming and repetition to reinforce language.

Bears On Chairs

Bears On Chairs takes the similar concepts presented in Five Little Monkeys. 

Bears On Chairs is a rhyming book that teaches children how to count and problem solve with small numbers.

This classic Dr. Suess story teaches children simple words to recognize and say different vehicles like bicycles, skiis, roller skates, and more all while learning variations of dogs (big, small, white, black, etc).

Goodnight, Gorilla

Goodnight, Gorilla uses easy to follow repetition to say good night to each animal at the zoo. 

Your child will learn to recognize common animal names along with what they look like.

Is Your Mama A Llama?

This book with lovely illustrations uses rhyming and riddles to create an animal guessing game to help Lloyd a baby llama discover who everyone’s mama is.

Pete The Cat: I Love My White Shoes

While Pete The Cat books are fairly new to children’s bookshelves they are rapidly gaining popularity because they are some of the best books for speech development.  

Pete The Cat doesn’t let adversity stand in his way.  He continues to walk through piles of messes with white socks still singing. 

While he does this your child will learn about colors and how color combine to make new colors.

Related Articles: 5 Ways To Cut Living Expenses Painlessly

How to save money on groceries, the reasons i continue skin-to-skin with my toddler, clap your hands.

Clap Your Hands is a fun interactive book that introduces new words related to sound and movement. 

Children can learn words like “stomp”, “wiggle”, and “roar” as they learn to imitate the sounds and movements as well.

Did You Take The B From My _ook?

This children’s book is a little more advance and is suitable for children ages 4 thru 8. 

While most children will be speaking by this age range, if your child is struggling with recognizing words or a language delay this is the perfect book!

Did You Take The B From My ook? explores different words and sound effects with the letter B, plus introduces a child to a guessing game with words to improve comprehension.

Blue Hat, Green Hat

Sandra Boynton books remains some of my children’s favorite books. 

Blue Hat, Green Hat introduces simple and easy to understand phrases for younger children while teaching them to identify clothing items and colors associated with them.

Final Thoughts About Best Books For Speech Therapy

Books are an exceptional tool for teaching children new words, rhyming, phrases, and new concepts. 

When looking for one of the best books for speech development look for books that include repetition. 

Repetition is the use of repeat words and phrases to help your child remember new language words and speech sounds. 

This will help your child remember new words and expand their speech development. 

To increase speech and language, try one of the best books for speech therapy and speech development that made this list!

Works Cited

100+ Children’s books for speech language development (kidmunicate.com)

What Makes Great Books for Speech Therapy? – Bilinguistics

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20+ Fun and Engaging Interactive Books For Speech Therapy

As speech-language pathologists and educators, we are always looking for the best way to help our students. One of my favorite ways is to use interactive books for speech therapy. So, if you Are you on the lookout for the perfect book to boost language skills in young children, look no further! I’ve gathered a ton of interactive books that will not only engage your students but also provide valuable practice opportunities. With some timeless classics, modern marvels, and even interactive books that cover specific skills, these books are a must-have for any speech therapist’s toolkit.

Dive into the World of Interactive Books of Speech Therapy

These Interactive books for speech therapy are a great way to make language concepts come alive. They encourage active participation and provide consistent visuals, making them a go-to resource for speech therapy sessions. 

Rhyming Dust Bunnies  

By jan thomas.

This is perfect for students who may need help with rhyming or questions and answers. The book allows students to think, process, and answer the question before moving on to the next page. All of this makes it a great addition to any classroom, especially the speech classroom. She has many other great books as well.

Tap the Magic Tree

By christie matheson.

This fun interactive component invites children to tap, rub, and shake the book to make things happen. It’s a fantastic choice for targeting language concepts and prediction skills. She has many other books that are great for speech sessions as well!

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

By claudia rueda.

A classic book that has been around for many years, it is always a hit with younger learners. So, if you are a speech therapist with toddlers or young learners, this may be the perfect choice! It’s an excellent tool for working on wh-questions and spatial concepts.

Don’t Push the Button!

By bill cotter.

This delightful book encourages active participation, as readers are urged not to press a mysterious button. It’s a fantastic way to practice different actions and language concepts.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

By michael rosen and helen oxenbury.

 This classic book takes readers on an adventure filled with repetitive text and multisyllabic words. Read along with a family who is going on a bear hunt, and the pictures, words, and more make it a great choice for the speech classroom.

Good Night, Gorilla

By peggy rathmann.

Wordless books are a fantastic tool for encouraging creativity and language development. This wordless book follows a mischievous gorilla as he lets different animals out of their cages. It’s a great way to practice past tense verbs and auditory bombardment.

Bringing Books to Life in the Digital World: Online Interactive Books For Speech Therapy

In an era of distance learning, Chromebooks, iPads, and more interactive books in digital format are a game-changer.

Boom Cards for Language Development

This digital product offers various interactive books covering different categories, from animal vocabulary to body parts. They’re a versatile resource for speech therapists. Boom Cards are a great way to get students engaged if they seem a little off or just not wanting to do anything (which totally happens). 

Printable Interactive Books For Speech Therapy

These interactive books for speech therapy are more than just pages to flip through – they’re a way to engage, in hands-on language development. Packed with colorful visuals, moveable pieces, and clever activities, these books are the perfect companions for speech therapists and educators seeking to make language learning an interactive, memorable experience.

Associations Interactive Book

This interactive book for speech therapy and matching picture card activity will help your students improve word association skills. It contains real-life pictures that will help build receptive and expressive language skills in speech therapy or special education. It’s great for independent work in self-contained, autism, general education classrooms, or small group speech therapy sessions. Students can complete each page independently or with assistance.

Can You Name The Pets? Interactive Book

Looking for a labeling activity for pets? This is a cute interactive book that introduces different types of pets. Some examples of pets include dog, cat, fish, snake, etc. Students can match the pictured items when they are named. Instructions for book assembly are included. Visual cues and dots are included for pacing when reading a response.

Can You Name The Emotions? Interactive Book

 Interactive books for speech therapy is a perfect tool for students who need to work on receptive and expressive language skills. The book includes 8 pages with text and pictures, a corresponding question for each page, and picture choices to match.

Fall Vocabulary Interactive Book

This adaptive book and picture mat activity will help your students improve their vocabulary skills for the fall season . It contains real-life pictures to help build receptive and expressive language skills in speech therapy or special education. Use the picture mat to work on additional skills, such as identifying, wh questions, riddles, etc.

Hygiene Interactive Book

How to Wash Your Hands is an interactive book that briefly explains germs and outlines the steps of washing your hands. It includes 14 pages. The pictures are colorful and bright. Students can match the pictures after each step. Instructions for book assembly are included. This book is a great addition to lesson plans related to hygiene as well.

Community Helpers Interactive Book

Do you have students on your caseload who struggle with answering hypothetical or problem-solving questions ? This adaptive book focuses on community helpers. It gives scenarios to problems in regard to who one should see for a specific problem in a community.

Social Skills Interactive Book

Kindness should be encouraged at an early age. It is also an important trait to have in the classroom. This interactive book for speech therapy is a great way to help understand what this trait means. It contains a variety of examples of acts of kindness. It is great for independent work in self-contained, autism, general education classrooms, or small group speech therapy sessions.

Action Verbs Interactive Book #1

I Can Name Actions is a perfect way to learn actions using an interactive book. Students can match the pictured items when they are named. The following 12 actions introduced are the following: singing, digging, running, dancing, writing, drinking, eating, painting, reading, speaking, waving & building . Instructions for book assembly are included.

Action Verbs Interactive Book #2

I Can Name Actions Book Two is a perfect way to learn actions using an interactive book. Students can match the pictured items when they are named. In Book Two the following 12 new actions are introduced: coughing, calling, coloring, laughing, paying, cooking, studying, swinging, skipping, listening, swimming & sneezing. Instructions for book assembly are included.

Halloween Interactive Book

This interactive book is a perfect tool for students to practice answering various who, what, where, and where questions . The book includes 8 pages with text and pictures, a corresponding question for each page, and picture choices for answering each question.

Find other Halloween activities here .

Object Function Interactive Book #1

This is the first interactive, adaptive book series for Object Function for Speech Therapy. Improve vocabulary and comprehension by having students choose the function of the object from the picture choices provided.

Object Function Interactive Book #2  

This is the second interactive, adaptive book series for Object Function for Speech Therapy. Improve vocabulary and comprehension by having students choose the function of the object from the picture choices provided.

Object Function Interactive Book #3

This is the 3rd interactive, adaptive book series for Object Function for Speech Therapy. Improve vocabulary and comprehension by having students choose the function of the object from the picture choices provided.

If you’re looking to get a bunch of interactive books for speech therapy these object-function interactive books are perfect. Plus you can grab the bundle here .

WH Questions Interactive Book Bundle

This interactive books for speech therapy  BUNDLE i ncludes a total of 5 WH-Questions interactive books with who, what, where, when, and why questions. These interactive books target vocabulary, sentence expansion, and matching skills.

Farm Themed Interactive Book

This interactive book is a great addition to any farm animal theme. It focuses on items you find on a farm, such as hay, cow, farmer, horse, etc. The students will match pictures as they label each item. Visual cues and dots are included for pacing when reading a response.

Halloween Spatial Concepts Interactive Book

This positional word interactive book allows students to match pictures to each page of the book using Velcro. It includes the following positions: behind, in, on, under, between, next to, above, and in front of, with a Halloween theme.

Hypothetical Questions  Interactive Book

These interactive problem solving scenarios for speech therapy will help students use critical thinking skills to problem solve hypothetical situations. Real pictures are used as answer choices on each page to make it more realistic for students.

Teach preschool or little learners? These i nteractive books for speech therapy are a great addition to center time, small group, or speech therapy sessions. Grab a bundle of helpful interactive books HERE . 

Elevate Your Speech Therapy Sessions with Interactive Books

Interactive books offer a fun and effective way to target a wide range of language concepts and skills. Whether in print or digital format, they provide endless opportunities for active participation and engagement. So, dive into the world of interactive books and watch your students’ language skills blossom!

Happy reading and happy speech therapy!

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Wendy's Winter Walk

P, b, m, w s ounds, phonological and articulation children 's book #1.

Wendy's Winter Walk takes children on a blustery walk through her neighborhood while providing chances to practice speech sounds for P, B, M, and W. This book also promotes early reading (phonological awareness) skills. Perfect for reading with children ages 12 months through 5 years.

What great discoveries will Wendy and her m om make as they walk, bundled up warm in their winter wear?

Created by Cass Kim, an author with a decade of experience as a Speech-Language Pathologist, this book includes a helpful tips page in the back for parents that want to get the most out of reading time with their children. Also ideal for classroom reading and speech therapy, this book offers over 200 opportunities to show and practice the targeted sounds.

Ted and Tina Adopt a Kitten

T, d, n sounds, phonological and articulation children's book # 2.

Ted and Tina's dad says that they can finally get a pet. Follow along as they decide what kind, and go to the shelter to get their first family pet!

Packed with over 200 chances to hear and say "T", "D", and "N" in all word positions, this book is perfect for stimulating those early developing sounds in speech. Created by Cass Kim, a Speech-Language Pathologist, this book also promotes other fundamental language skills  - perfect for ages 12 months to 5 years.

Like all of the books in the Phonological and Articulation Children's Books line, "Ted and Tina Adopt a Kitten: T, D, N Sounds" includes Helpful Tips for Parents pages in the back.

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Greg and His Gecko Go Kayaking

K and g sounds, phonological and articulation children's book # 3.

Greg's Gecko, Kai, has never been to the ocean even though they live in Hawaii! Determined to take his beloved pet on an ocean adventure, Greg comes up with a creative way to show the undersea world to Kai in the newest release from Phonological and Articulation Children's Books.

Created by a Speech-Language Pathologist, this book is filled with over 140 opportunities to hear or practice K and G sounds. It includes a "Helpful Tips for Parents" page with easy to use speech and literacy tricks for developing minds!

Stephanie's Spectacular Aquarium Vist

Phonological and Articulation Children's Book #4

Join Stephanie and her Aunt Stacy as they explore their local Aquarium. Learn fun facts about the animals that live there, and look for Stephanie's favorite ocean creatures as you explore with her. 

This book is packed with over 150 S-Blends in the beautifully illustrated story. Made for children ages 2-6, this book is slightly longer than the earlier PACB Speech books. It includes true facts about each animal shown and sneaks the S-Blends naturally into the story without making you feel like you're reading a tongue twister. 

With its bright colors and sweet and educational storyline, it is the perfect picture book for summer!

Theo Chooses to Help: Th and Ch Sounds

Phonological and Articulation Children's Book # 5

Theo and his father are off for an adventurous Saturday. Join them as Theo sees ways that small choices can make big differences. Sweet, wholesome, and filled with real-life examples, this book will be an instant favorite.

In keeping with the PACBSpeech method of phonics and speech sound learning, this book contains over 200 chances to practice Th and Ch sounds hidden in the story.

Lily, Lana, and the Exploricorn: L and R Sounds

Lily and her golden retriever Lana are spending the afternoon playing outdoors while Lily's grandmother paints. Their quiet picnic soon turns into a grand adventure when they get an unexpected visitor!

Follow along with Lily and Lana as the Exploricorn takes them to three very different climates in America. See how many new plants and animals you can spot in the illustrations.  As expected, the 6th PACBSpeech book contains R and L specific Helpful Tips for Parents pages.

In keeping with the PACBSpeech method of phonics and speech sound learning, this book contains over 2 00 chances (each!) to practice L and R sounds hidden in the story. Lily wears bilateral hearing aids, making this a great story for kiddos with adaptive devices.

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Vivien and Jeff's Very Favorite Fall Carnival: F and V Sounds

Phonological and Articulation Children's Book # 7

Join Vivien, her cousin Jeff, and their Grandpa Frank as they explore the excitement of the carnival! Bundle up and soak in the joy and wonder of an afternoon at the fair filled with bright lights, food, and fun.

Featuring over 300 opportunities to hear and practice F and V in different positions of words, this book is not just fun, but perfect for at-home speech therapy practice. Continuing the tradition of the Phonological and Articulation Children’s Books Speech Sound Series, this book contains helpful tips for parents at the back to make the most out of your reading routine.

This book is a great gift for classrooms, libraries, and any child between the ages of 3 and 7 years old.  

If you are an Independently owned bookstore and are interested in carrying our books, we are happy to order them at a significant wholesale discount and have them shipped directly to your store. Please email [email protected] for more information.

Speech Making, First Edition ( 56 results)

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Behind the Dream : The Making of the Speech That Transformed a Nation

Connelly, Stuart, Jones, Clarence B.

Published by St. Martin's Press, 2011

ISBN 10: 0230103685 ISBN 13: 9780230103689

Seller: Better World Books , Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.

Seller Rating:

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Book First Edition

Used - Hardcover Condition: Very Good

Within U.S.A.

Quantity: 1

Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects.

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Used offers from US$ 7.35

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The Art of Speeches and Presentations : The Secrets of Making People Remember What You Say

Collins, Philip

Published by Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, John, 2012

ISBN 10: 0470711841 ISBN 13: 9780470711842

Used - Softcover Condition: Good

Condition: Good. 1st Edition. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.

New offers from US$ 40.61

Used offers from US$ 8.87

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My Friends: Twenty-eight History Making Speeches

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano; Kavinoky, Edward H.; Park Julian

Published by Foster & Stewart Publishing Corp., Buffalo NY, 1945

Seller: Top Notch Books , Tolar, TX, U.S.A.

First Edition

Soft Cover. Condition: Good. Second Printing. Wraps are rubbed and scuffed. A few red marks in early part of text. Size: 8vo - over 7�" - 9�" tall.

Making a Living, Making a Life: Essays and Speeches

Daniel Rose

Published by Half Moon Press, 2014

ISBN 10: 0692279725 ISBN 13: 9780692279724

Seller: Katsumi-san Co. , Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.

Book First Edition Signed

Used - Softcover Condition: Very Good

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Inscribed on the half-title page by the author ("Dan Rose"). i, [1], 366 p. Published at $19.95 [b 141]. Signed by Author(s).

Winging It : A Guide to Making Speeches Fly Without Notes

Spicer, Keith

Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1982

ISBN 10: 0385157649 ISBN 13: 9780385157643

Used - Hardcover Condition: Good

Condition: Good. 1st. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.

Used offers from US$ 13.43

Speech and Language Therapy : Decision Making Process When Working with Children

Wright, Jannet, Kersner, Myra

Published by Routledge, 2001

ISBN 10: 1853466689 ISBN 13: 9781853466687

Seller: Better World Books Ltd , Dunfermline, United Kingdom

From United Kingdom to U.S.A.

Condition: Good. 1st Edition. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.

A Businessman's Guide to Writing Reports and Making Speeches

Higham, Martin

Published by Thorsons, Northamptonshire, 1979

ISBN 10: 0722504136 ISBN 13: 9780722504130

Seller: Victoria Bookshop , BERE ALSTON, DEVON, United Kingdom

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1ST. 12mo. Light bump to spine . Dw has slight wear to edges. Book.

Used offers from US$ 3.85

Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know about Making Speeches and Presentations

Atkinson, Max

Published by Oxford University Press, 2005

ISBN 10: 0195300750 ISBN 13: 9780195300758

Seller: Ashworth Books , Sidney, NY, U.S.A.

Used - Softcover Condition: Near Fine

Soft cover. Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. Unmarked. Unread.

Used offers from US$ 14.00

Behind the Dream : The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation.

Jones, Clarence B. and Stuart Connelly

Published by Palgrave/Macmillan, 2011

Seller: THE HERMITAGE BOOKSHOP , Denver, CO, U.S.A.

Association Member: IOBA RMABA

First edition, first printing. Light pressing to spine tips, near fine in near fine dust jacket, in mylar cover.

Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years. Volume Two: Making Free Speech, 1902-1909.

Goldman, Emma.

Published by University of California Press, Berkeley, 2005

ISBN 10: 0520225694 ISBN 13: 9780520225695

Seller: Henry Hollander, Bookseller , Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.

Quantity: 8

Hardbound. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Royal octavo in dust jacket, xxii, 639 pp., b/w photos, chronology, directories, selected bibliography, Emma's list, index Foreword by Leon Litwack. Candace Falk, editor.

Used offers from US$ 16.50

Speech Making.

Griffiths, F. J.

Published by London: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1935., 1935

Seller: Pride and Prejudice-Books , Ballston Lake, NY, U.S.A.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. First edition. Blue cloth. Oxford Univ. Pr. compliments slip tipped in, previous author's name, else VG in VG price-clipped DJ.

President Wilson's Great Speeches and other History Making Documents.

Wilson, Woodrow.

Published by Chicago:University of Chicago Press. 1917. Hardcover., 1917

Seller: Frederick Bayoff Literary Books , Adrian, MI, U.S.A.

1st. ed. v.g. d.j. Please email for info concerning any book or dust jacket. If d.j. does not appear in description, it means there is no dust jacket. Photos on request. Some books may have remainder marks. Heavy and/or oversized books require additional postage.

Making the Best Man's Speech

BOWDEN, John:

Published by Oxford Essentials, 2000

ISBN 10: 185703659X ISBN 13: 9781857036596

Seller: Tom Coleman , Dingwall, ROSS, United Kingdom

Used - Softcover

FIRST EDITION. Softcover. 8vo. 9 x 6 inches. Laminated covers. 64 pages. Fine "Know what to say and when to say it. Add wit, sparkle and humour. Deliver the perfect speech.".

Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Volume Two: Making Speech Free, 1902-1909

Emma Goldman

Published by University of California Press, 2004

Seller: Powell's Bookstores Chicago, ABAA , Chicago, IL, U.S.A.

Association Member: ABAA ILAB

Used - Hardcover Condition: Used - Like New

Quantity: 7

Condition: Used - Like New. 1st Edition. 2004. Hardcover. Fine. Dust Jacket is Fine.

Hints on Speech-Making : Graduates From American Colleges, will be called upon, at some time or other during their lives, to make a speech. An uncommon original article from the Harper's Monthly Magazine, 1886.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson

Published by Harper's Monthly Magazine, London, 1886

Seller: Cosmo Books , Shropshire., United Kingdom

Magazine / Periodical First Edition

Quantity: 2

Disbound. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. 5 pages. Note; this is an original article separated from the volume, not a reprint or copy. Size: 18 x 25 cms. Multiple copies available this title. Quantity Available: 2. Category: Harper's Monthly Magazine; Inventory No: 505299. Cosmo Books : 27 years selling on ABE; 27 years of taking care of customers on ABE; A seller you can rely on.

The Making of a Speech : Sir Charles Dilke ; Lord Peel ; Earl Spencer ; the Lord Bishop of Ripon & others. An uncommon original article from The Strand Magazine, 1901.

Frederick Dolman

Published by Strand Magazine, Newnes, London, 1901

Disbound. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. 7 pages, with portraits. Note; this is an original article separated from the volume, not a reprint or copy. Size: 14 x 22 cms. Quantity Available: 1. Category: Strand Magazine Articles; Inventory No: 511137. Cosmo Books : 27 years selling on ABE; 27 years of taking care of customers on ABE; A seller you can rely on.

Emma Goldman: a documentary history of the American years. Volume 2: Making speech free, 1902-1909

Goldman, Emma; Candace Falk, editor; foreword by Leon Litwack

Published by University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003

Seller: Bolerium Books Inc. , San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

Used - Hardcover

Hardcover. xxi, 639p., first edition, very good condition in like dust jacket.

President Wilson's Great Speeches and Other History Making Documents

WILSON, Woodrow

Published by Stanton & Van Vilet, 1918

Seller: My Book Heaven , Alameda, CA, U.S.A.

First edition. Very Good book in a Fair dustjacket. With clippings regarding Wilson.

The Bank's Bond-Man Answered. Speech of Mr. Duncan, On the bill making appropriations for harbors, and in reply to Mr. Bond, of Ohio. House of Representatives, July 7, 1838

Duncan, Alexander

Published by Albany Argus, believed Publisher, Albany

Seller: Mare Booksellers ABAA, IOBA , Dover, NH, U.S.A.

Association Member: ABAA ILAB IOBA

Used Condition: Good

Pamphlet. Condition: Good. First Edition. No date but believed circa 1838. Disbound pamphlet. 18 pages. Double columned text. A lengthy speech alleging many misappropriation or over-expenditures of government funds, from unused canals in Washington, D.C., unused turnpike roads (along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal), overspending on various diplomatic posts, overspending and perhaps collusion with various government printers, misappropriation of funds regarding the office of Indian Affairs, etc. Regarding the Indian affairs, this speech remarks upon specific tribes and treaties, as well as their removal from various lands and the reimbursement the tribes were to receive. This includes several accounts of the Choctaw tribe's treaties and removals. In GOOD condition. Several ink spots/stains to the first page. Minor foxing to the outer pages, general browning and minor creasing to the pamphlet. Faint dampstain to the lower corner. Sabin 21249.

SPEECH OF MR. M'KEON, OF NEW YORK, ON THE BILL MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE ARMY.

John McKeon

Published by Washington DC, 1836

Seller: Steve Finer - Rare Books , Greenfield, MA, U.S.A.

Association Member: SNEAB

Soft cover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 1st Edition. 8vo, 15, i pp. Disbound. AMERICAN IMPRINTS 38761.

The Businessman's Guide to Speech-making and to the Laws and Conduct of Meetings

Ewan Mitchell

Published by Business Books Ltd, London, 1968

Seller: Washburn Books , Pateley Bridge, United Kingdom

Cloth Covered Boards. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Good. 1st Edition. Guide to speech making and business procedure. 223pp with index, illustrated with line drawings. Gilt lettering to spine. Slight bumping to base of spine and lower corners, otherwise very good copy with no inscriptions. Unclipped DJ faded to spine, with minor edge and surface wear, otherwise good. Size: 8vo - over 7� - 9�" tall. Book.

Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation

Jones Clarence B.

Published by Palgrave 2011, 2011

Seller: Peter J. Hadley Bookseller ABA ILAB , Ludlow, United Kingdom

Association Member: ABA ILAB

Fine in publishers cloth in like dustjacket.1st edition. ISBN 9780230103689.

Pole Raising and Speech Making, Modalities of Swedish American Summer Celebration

Attebery, Jennifer Eastman

Published by Utah State University, 2015

Seller: Young & Sons Enterprises , Apache, OK, U.S.A.

New - Hardcover Condition: New

Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition. This is a new, unread copy. In stock.

Decision Making in Speech-Language Pathology

Yoder, David E.; Kent, Raymond D

Published by Decker Publishing, Hamilton, ON, Canada, 1988

ISBN 10: 0941158918 ISBN 13: 9780941158916

Seller: Simply Read Books , Boat Of Garten, United Kingdom

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. 1988 Decker Publishing first edition first printing hardback; Very Good, clean, ex university library copy, plate removed from fep, usual stamps; blue boards with white titling have light spine end wear, no dj; UK dealer, immediate dispatch.

Speech of Mr. Aaron Ward, of New York, on the Bill Making Appropriation for the Support of the Army and Military Academy. Delivered in the House of Representatives May 31, 1842

Ward, Aaron

Published by Printed at the Globe Office, Munich, 1842

Seller: Kaaterskill Books, ABAA/ILAB , East Jewett, NY, U.S.A.

Removed. First edition. 11 pp. 8vo. Cave Johnson had added an amendment to this bill which might well have reduced the army, but James Roosevelt added a substitute amendment which would have left the army at its then current size. Ward, a Jacksonian, approved this position. "Instead of building up systems of defence with prudent and economical foresight, we see efforts made to break down the defences and to deprived the government of the very means of maintaining its own existence, and of providing for the welfare, the defence, and the liberties of this great nation." He ends with Washington's admonition, "in peace, prepare for war." OCLC and RLIN show only five copies. A very good copy with scattered foxing.

Say It With Words, the Principles of Effective Speech-Making

Israel M Flapan

Published by Sovereign House, 1938

Seller: PJK Books and Such , Murrells Inlet, SC, U.S.A.

Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. First Edition. Sovereign House,1938. First Edition, Stated. Hard Cover. No dust jacket. Cover has mild shelfwear with slightly sunned spine edge, mild soiling, lightly rubbed cornerts/spine edges. Pages are clean and unmarked. Binding is tight. Hinges are perfect. Not ex-library. Not remainder. Very nice copy.

Speech of the Honorable Artemas Ward Delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States on the Fifth Day of March, 1814 on a Bill Making Appropriations for the Support of the Military Establishment of the United States for the Year [1814]

Ward, Artemas [Jr.]

Published by Rapine and Elliot, Washington, 1814

Seller: Clayton Fine Books , Shepherdstown, WV, U.S.A.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Very good in contemporary plain boards that have been secured by plastic tape at two points along the spine.

Say It With Words, The Principles of Effective Speech-making

I.M. Flapan, LL. B.

Published by Sovereign House, New York, 1938

Seller: Rose's Books IOBA , Harwich Port, MA, U.S.A.

Association Member: IOBA

Cloth. Condition: Good. No Jacket. First Edition. First edition, stated. 1938. Sovereign House. Rare public speaking guide. Green cloth hardcover. Soiled boards. Black lettering. Corners bumped. Inscription inside and former owner's stamp inside cover and on another page. Spine tight, text clean except for former owner's stamp. Extremely hard to find and in good condition!.

Masonic Speech Making

Hobbs, W. Bro. J. Walter

Published by Masonic Record Limited, London, 1928

Seller: John R. Sanderson, Bookseller , Stockbridge, MA, U.S.A.

Original Cloth. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. First Edition. Crisp, fresh copy.

SPEECH OF MR. SMITH, OF CONN., ON THE BILL "TO ADMIT CALIFORNIA INTO THE UNION - TO ESTABLISH TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENTS FOR UTAH AND NEW MEXICO, MAKING PROPOSALS TO TEXAS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WESTERN AND NORTHERN BOUNDARIES."

Truman Smith.

Published by [Washington DC]: Gideon & Co., Printers, 1850

Soft cover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. 1st Edition. 8vo, 32pp. Disbound. Two leaves shaved a bit closely at fore-edge margins, resulting in minimal character losses. HSP/LCP CATALOGUE #9552. SABIN 84458.

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The Art of Oratory: Effective guide to Communication and Speech Making Paperback – July 22, 2016

• Print length 270 pages
• Language English
• Publication date July 22, 2016
• Dimensions 5.51 x 0.57 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 1535272112
• ISBN-13 978-1535272117
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 22, 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 270 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1535272112
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1535272117
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 0.57 x 8.5 inches
• #994 in Public Speaking Reference
• #2,802 in Communication Reference (Books)
• #8,205 in Communication & Media Studies

About the author

Justin chukwunonso nzekwe.

Justin Chukwunonso Nzekwe is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Orlu, Nigeria. He is both a Fiction and Non-fiction writer. Among his publications are:

1. The Art of Oratory.

2. Broken Portrait.

3. Discovering Your Masterplan.

He is a motivational writer as well as a speaker/preacher.

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Speech on Books for Students and Children

Speech on books.

Hello and a warm welcome to all my teachers and dear friends present in the Auditorium. I am here to deliver a speech on books. I would like to start my speech with a famous phrase of Ernest Hemingway which says, ” There is no friend as loyal as a book”. Books are like our fellow friend with no demands and complaints. They improve our knowledge, wisdom, and information, thus helping us in taking the right decisions in life.

Source: pixabay.com

Books are the best option for self-learners to avail of information on all issues and topics. Great Authors, writers, and poets put all their emotions, thoughts and experience to make books important and beneficial for us. The treasure of books is inexhaustible, as they continuously extract the gold of art, literature, science, and philosophy for us. Books pass the knowledge from generation to generation which ultimately helps in the advancement of civilizations.

Types of Books

There are mainly two types of books, one is fictional while other is non-fictional. Fictional books are completely based on the author’s imagination, on the other hand, non-fictional are about a particular person, story, News or information. The different age group of people prefers different types of books like religious, comical, fantasy and educational.

The corporate world generally prefers business magazines and journals. Books under subcategory educational and guides, horoscope and scientific, articles and essays and many more. Generally, popularity in books depends on the age group and the mindset of people. Students prefer educational and professional books, kids mostly prefer stories and fantasy books, while the mature ones prefer the literature and novelistic books.

Get the Huge list of 100+ Speech Topics here

Advantages of Reading Books

The habit of reading good books enables us to become well educated and informed. Books also help to change our physical and mental fitness in addition to building our lifestyle. Reading a book gives us kind of pleasure, energy, and confidence which we cannot find around any other place.

We feel fresh, happy and knowledgeable after reading a good book. When we feel down and negativity starts affecting us, books prove to be our best guide, inspiration and moral supporter. In the long run, we are not alone in the company of a good book.

The kingdom of books is vast providing pleasant pastime for many of us. Books spread our positive views and also popularize the fruits of our research and knowledge. Books are our permanent friends as they help enrich our thoughts. They inspire us to fight the odds and do great things in life.

In the current scenario of the advancement of science and technology, the utility of books is getting down. People are depending much on the Internet and social media platforms to gain knowledge. We must understand that Google gives us knowledge but books us wisdom.

We should never stop reading, while reading we always get something new that is valuable and informative in our future. Books take us to a journey with the author which widens our outlook. Books our minds with noble thoughts and awaken our soul.

Although books are very useful we must be very cautious while choosing one. Some books can mislead and spoil our life. A person reading a good book with a positive mindset is ultimately an asset to society and the country as well.

Our country is a land of great personalities whose biographies are available to us through books. We must step out and read them for the advancement of the country and its civilization. I will conclude my speech with a famous phrase of Fran Lebowitz which says “Think before you speak. Read before you think”

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Jonathan Groff Finally Won His First Tony Award, And His Seriously Emotional Speech Will Probably Make You Cry

“Even if they didn't always understand me, my family knew the lifesaving power of fanning the flame of a young person's passions without judgment.”

BuzzFeed Staff

On Sunday, esteemed musical theater star Jonathan Groff finally won his first Tony Award, and people everywhere were left feeling seriously emotional about it.

For context, Jonathan first found Broadway success all the way back in 2006, when he originated the role of Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening , for which he earned his first Tony nomination.

He then found TV and movie success, with a recurring role in the Fox series Glee , and as the voice of both Kristoff and Sven in Disney’s Frozen franchise.

In 2015, Jonathan returned to Broadway to play King George III in the original production of Hamilton . He was critically acclaimed for his performance at the time, and would regularly earn standing ovations during the show. 

He was nominated for his second Tony Award the following year, but lost out to his Hamilton costar Daveed Diggs .

In 2022, Jonathan starred alongside Daniel Radcliffe in an off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along , which moved to the Hudson Theatre on Broadway in September.

This marked the first time the show had been on Broadway since its 1981 original production, and it was a huge success as it broke the house record for sold-out audiences, and grossed more than $1.3 million. 

And it appears that the Tony Awards Management Committee agrees with the hype, with Merrily We Roll Along dominating this year’s ceremony with seven nominations and an impressive four wins.

The show won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and Best Orchestrations, with Daniel Radcliffe winning the Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical award, and Jonathan taking home the Tony for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.

And after previously admitting that he couldn’t stop crying when he first found out that he was nominated, Jonathan seemed totally overwhelmed as he took to the stage to deliver his emotional winner’s speech, which has won high praise online.

The star started by thanking his parents, saying to them: “Thank you for letting me dress up as Mary Poppins when I was 3, thank you for letting me act out scenes from I Love Lucy on my 10th birthday, thank you for always allowing my freak flag to fly without ever making me feel weird about it.”

“Even if they didn't always understand me, my family knew the lifesaving power of fanning the flame of a young person's passions without judgment,” Jonathan went on. “I walk through life with an open heart because you let me know that I could; thank you, I love you.”

After thanking his teachers in his home state of Pennsylvania, Jonathan added: “I moved to New York exactly 20 years ago this year, and I got a job waiting tables and became a volunteer for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS , and all I wanted was to be a part of this community.”

“Thank you to everyone involved in Spring Awakening , who not only made that dream come true, but also inspired me to come out of the closet when I was 23,” Jonathan shared. “I'm now 39, and musical theater is still saving my soul.”

The star then audibly fought back tears as he name-checked the people he has worked alongside for Merrily , saying: “Maria Friedman, thank you for letting me be your Franklin Shepard in this production of Merrily and allowing me the chance to accept, respect, and express both the lightest and darkest parts of myself.”

“Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, you are more than old friends; you are soulmates, and I'm looking forward to watching each other change for the rest of our lives,” Jonathan said. “Thank you to every member of the extraordinary cast for lifting this Merrily into the spiritual stratosphere. Thank you to everyone working inside the Hudson Theatre.”

“And finally, I just want to say, when I was a kid in Pennsylvania, I used to record the Tony Awards on a VHS tape and watch the performances over and over again,” Jonathan recalled. “And to actually be able to be a part of making theater in this city, and just this much to be able to watch the work of this incredible, incredible community has been the greatest gift and pleasure of my life, and I thank you. And thank you so much for this honor.”

And Jonathan’s moving words struck a chord with people at home, with one viral tweet reading: “I’m gonna need every future award winner to take notes from Jonathan Groff’s Tonys speech, because damnnnnnn.”

I’m gonna need every future award winner to take notes from Jonathan Groff’s Tonys speech, because damnnnnnn #TonyAwards pic.twitter.com/7ZtOgfL5iq — Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) June 17, 2024

The tweet, from BuzzFeed’s Spencer Althouse, has racked up tens of thousands of likes and retweets, with one of the quote tweets reading : “this is so pure. and so earnest. and the way he thanks everyone - not just by saying 'thank you' - but actually thanks them for something specific they’ve given to him. THAT’S a speech.”

“Give him another award for this speech!!!” another user joked . One more added : “no because why did i start sobbing even more every time his voice broke like i genuinely can’t watch this without crying i love seeing good people getting celebrated and recognised.”

“i love this man so much and i'm giving his family a standing ovation for how they nurtured his wonderful and kind creative spirit,” somebody else tweeted .

While another person concluded : “i just woke up and now I'm crying oh he deserves this so much it's been 17 years since that first nomination and i couldn't be happier for him.”

And one more summarized : “for those who don’t watch musical theatre jonathan groff winning the tony is like dicaprio winning the oscar.”

Looking for more LGBTQ+ or Pride content? Then check out all of BuzzFeed's posts celebrating Pride 2024 .

Topics in this article

• Jonathan Groff
• Daniel Radcliffe

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It’s unlikely that AI will ever reach truly human levels of autonomy and decision-making.

In an essay titled ‘ Why AI Will Save The World , ' a16z General Partner Marc Andreessen argues that the contemporary panic over artificial intelligence’s harmful potential is overblown.

Fundamentally, Andreessen argues, AI is a glorified toaster; it’s made up of inputs, processes, and outputs. In other words, it has no potential—and will not develop any desire—to take over the world on its own terms.

Fundamentally, I agree with the premise. I think it’s unlikely that AI will ever reach truly human levels of autonomy and decision-making. Is this an optimistic or pessimistic outlet? It often depends on where you work. The debate over AI focuses on different issues depending on the industry.

In my industry, stock trading and market making, the outlook is generally a mixture of excitement and apprehension. High-frequency traders are excited about the prospect of applying even more sophisticated algorithms to crack the market. Others—and I would include myself in this category—are worried that AI will make the negative externalities of algorithmic trading even worse.

For example, as I’ve previously argued in the Wall Street Journal, programmatic trading magnifies black swan disturbances . This is because volatility is one of the most important inputs in the preset algorithms used to make computerized trades. When true volatility hits the market, the computers exacerbate problems.

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But another issue should be a cause for obvious concern, pointing to a nuance that Andreessen’s argument misses. Robots don’t need to be human-like, autonomous, conscious, or evil to be inscrutable. In other words, there is a middle ground between a toaster and ‘killer software and robots that will spring to life and decide to murder the human race or otherwise ruin everything’ to use Andreessen’s phrasing.

For stock trading purposes, this middle ground lies squarely in the realm of decision-making. There is no question that AI will reach a point of sophistication or inscrutability by which humans cannot explain how or why a decision was made.

Many people in Silicon Valley are already saying they can’t explain why large language models (LLMs) do or say much of what they do. Even if the decision – the output – consisted only of inputs and processes. At this point, the crucial question arises – who do you blame for a bad decision?

This is fundamentally new territory for our two existing categories of decision-making, namely decisions made by humans and by computers whose parameters were clearly set—or errors obviously triggered—by humans.

Select Vantage Inc (SVI), the proprietary trading firm I run, sits in the first category. Ascertaining accountability is never an issue because a human makes every trading decision. We employ over 2,500 traders in over 50 countries across the world. On any given day, we can trade over USD 4 billion a day on global stock markets. But if a trader makes a bad decision, they get less capital to trade with, and their losses are capped. It’s easy to identify who made the trade, analyze their reasoning to understand where they went wrong and learn from past mistakes.

The second category consists of human error applied to computers. A case in point is that of Knight Capital, a market-making firm that in 2012 suffered a loss of $440 million in less than an hour due to a glitch in its trading software.

Knight was the largest trader in U.S. equities, with a market share of around 17.3% on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and 16.9% on NASDAQ. Knight’s Electronic Trading Group (ETG) managed an average daily trading volume of over 3.3 billion trades, trading over $21 billion daily.

It took 17 years of hard work to build Knight Capital Group into one of the leading trading houses on Wall Street. And it almost went up in smoke in less than 60 minutes.

What happened to Knight on that day is every trading firm’s worst nightmare. On August 1, 2012, some new trading software contained a flaw that became apparent only after the software was activated when the NYSE opened that day. The errant software sent Knight on a buying spree, snapping up 150 different stocks at a total cost of around $7 billion, all in the first hour of trading.

Though it was difficult to predict in advance, with the benefit of hindsight, it was clear that a simple human error was at fault.

Other episodes have been less clear-cut, however. Two years earlier, during the “Flash Crash” of May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced an unprecedented and rapid decline, losing over 1,000 points (about 9% of its value) in just a few minutes before partially recovering. This incident was one of the first major crises that brought the potential risks of algorithmic trading to the forefront of public and regulatory attention.

While the initial investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) pointed to a complex interplay of high-frequency trading algorithms as a significant factor, pinpointing specific fault lines proved difficult.

The algorithms involved acted according to their programming, responding to market conditions in ways their designers had not fully anticipated when combined at scale. To this day, the regulators don’t really know exactly what happened.

So what happens when we apply artificial intelligence to trading decisions, and trades go wrong, but we have no idea how they made their decisions? Financial markets cannot function without accountability, but who—or what—is ultimately accountable under these circumstances?

The complexity of attributing blame for financial losses caused by AI extends into legal and ethical dimensions. Legally, the current frameworks primarily hold the deploying institution accountable because it is responsible for the actions of the tools and technologies it employs.

However, as AI systems become more autonomous, distinguishing between the software acting within its programmed parameters and genuinely unforeseeable consequences becomes difficult, to say the least.

The challenge is not just theoretical; it has practical implications for regulating and operating financial markets. For instance, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) includes provisions for the right to explanation, where individuals can ask for the rationale behind automated decisions that affect them.

While this represents a step towards addressing AI's black-box nature, translating such principles to the high-stakes arena of financial trading involves complex considerations of privacy, intellectual property, and the technical feasibility of providing understandable explanations for AI decisions.

The problem is becoming increasingly urgent because algorithmic trading is on the rise. For example, algorithmic trading in the U.S. stock market constitutes approximately 60-75% of total trading volume, according to Quantified Strategies. With such a substantial portion of trading activity driven by algorithms, the potential for systemic risks arising from opaque AI decision-making processes cannot be understated.

This point was made in a report by The Bank of England last December. Of AI-induced trading, the Bank’s Governor Andrew Bailey stated, “All of us who have used it have had the experience of a sort of hallucination, and it sort of comes up with something that you think: ‘How on Earth did that come out?’

If you’re going to use it for the real world and financial services, you can’t have that sort of thing happening. You have to have controls and an understanding of how this works.”

Financial regulators are grappling with these issues, ensuring that markets remain fair and transparent. For instance, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been exploring ways to regulate AI and algorithmic trading to protect investors and maintain market integrity. This includes potential regulations around algorithmic trading practices and disclosures to ensure that investors are aware of the role of AI in their investments.

Realistically however, what is more likely: that humans will learn to discern the black box just in time, before it’s too late? Or that, as usual, we will promise to learn from our mistakes long after the train has bolted from the station?

In my view, the future of trading lies in a balanced approach that leverages the best of technology while preserving and enhancing the role of human insight and accountability. Real trading will always be the preserve of good traders.

The computers might be here for the ride, but we’re in it for the long haul. We forget that at our peril.

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• June 18, 2024

THE INDISPENSABLE RIGHT: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, by Jonathan Turley

Conservative voices are being silenced. We know this because conservative voices are telling us so, insistently, on social media and cable news programs , in speeches by Supreme Court justices and on the grounds of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse . Casual observation might suggest otherwise — as does the data — but it has become an article of faith on the right that conservative viewpoints are being systematically suppressed, even criminalized.

It is true that many college campuses are inhospitable, at best, to speakers — including students — who challenge progressive beliefs. The conservative indictment, however, is more sweeping than that. In “The Indispensable Right,” the law professor and Fox News commentator Jonathan Turley lays out the charges unsparingly, accusing “the political left” of amassing “academic, corporate and government forces” in a campaign to cripple the First Amendment. The censors have the upper hand, he argues: Rioters are tarred as insurrectionists, unorthodox opinions are expunged from social media, medical experts are pilloried for questioning Covid protocols. “This,” he intones, “is the moment we have long feared would come.”

The end of days, by Turley’s accounting, was foretold at the start. The framers established the freedom of speech “in absolute terms” and then — the “original sin” — corrupted it by equating dissent with incitement in the Sedition Act of 1798, passed by Federalists in Congress and signed by John Adams.

Turley is hardly alone in depicting the act as a vindictive, partisan instrument or Thomas Jefferson as an inconstant champion of the free press. (“A few prosecutions of the most eminent offenders would have a wholesome effect,” he mused to an ally in 1803.) Neither is Turley the first to deplore the crackdowns on “disloyal” speech during times of national crisis , real or imagined.

Where he diverges from the consensus, and sharply, is in his portrayal of more than two centuries of free speech doctrine as a virtually unbroken betrayal of first principles. “Free speech demands bright lines,” Turley proclaims. In their place we have “trade-offs and concessions.”

The tests and distinctions of First Amendment law — the heightened protection of political speech relative to “low-value” forms of expression like obscenity; the balancing of free speech with other interests like privacy or public safety — are anathema to Turley. He views these as a cynical game, rationales for repression. The First Amendment, he says, is “objective” in its meaning and defines speech as he does: as an instrument of self-actualization. “Free speech is not about perfecting democracy,” he writes, “it is about perfecting ourselves.”

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‘Suffs’ creator Shaina Taub cites Jewish text in Tony Awards acceptance speech

To celebrate her second Tony of the night on Sunday, “Suffs” creator Shaina Taub turned to Jewish tradition.

Taub won awards for best book of a musical and best original score written for theater for the Broadway show about the women who fought to be able to vote in the United States. In her acceptance speech for the second award, she thanked her mentors and gave a shoutout to “all the theater kids out there.”

Then she quoted a Jewish text that she said had a prominent place in her show’s literature.

“The epigraph on my script is a quote from the Talmud: You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it,” said Taub, who also plays suffragist Alice Paul in the show. She added, “This is a hard year in our country, and I just hope that we can remember that when we organize and we come together we are capable of making real change and progress for this country for equality and justice. And so I hope we can all do that together.”

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The famous quotation, from Rabbi Tarfon , is found in the canonical text of Jewish ethics, Pirkei Avot. It is part of the Mishna, the code of oral law that is at the core of the Talmud. The saying has animated legions of Jewish activists, from acolytes of the late liberal Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the acting attorney general at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency , who have sought to battle against steep odds to make change.

Taub, who was raised in a Jewish family in Vermont where she said she had little access to Jewish community, first shared the text on Instagram on Oct. 27, 2018, after a white supremacist murdered 11 Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. There, she posted a meme that shows several lines from Jewish texts, including an exhortation to “do justly” that appears in the Bible .

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Shaina Taub (@shainataub)

“The only thing bigger than my rage toward these white supremacist cowards is my love for the Jewish community and all its allies,” she wrote at the time. “These words from the Talmud ground me in these times, so I offer them to you.”

Taub elaborated on her connection to the quotation in an interview with Hey Alma in 2021 , at a time when the public launch of “Suffs” was on hold because of the pandemic.

“It’s part of the thesis of the show,” she said at the time. “So much of the language of activism is about this finality of finishing a struggle — never again, enough is enough, if not now, then when. But the fights and the struggles for equality and justice are never finished, and no generation really completes that work. It doesn’t mean you don’t still have to work and fight and organize as if you could finish it. It’s holding that contradiction in your head as an activist, and as any person working towards a better future.”

“Cabaret” and “Prayer for the French Republic,” two shows that include Jewish characters and stories, were shut out after being nominated for multiple awards .

Alex Edelman, the Jewish comedian, won a Special Tony in recognition of his one-man show about antisemitism and identity, “Just For Us,” that completed a Broadway run last year and is now streaming on HBO . When Edelman’s award was announced in May, Jason Laks, interim president of The Broadway League, said his show — about Edelman’s encounter with a group of white supremacists — was “as moving as it was hilarious and spoke to the power of communication, identity and empathy at a time when it is needed more than ever.”

In a video released on Sunday , Edelman related the themes of the show to the conflict in “Israel and Palestine.”

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“Beyond being about neo-Nazis and antisemitism and Christmas,” he said, the show “grapples with a question, which is like, ‘what is our place in the world?’ And it feels like when I go see shows they’re all asking that question. … The idea of ‘Just For Us’ at its core it is about empathy. It’s about people sitting in a room, who disagree with each other in ways that are fundamental and profound, and trying to understand something about ourselves and those others.”

“Given what’s happening in the world right now, particularly in Israel and Palestine,” Edelman continued, and given that “every day, it feels like the differences between us and those that we disagree with are more and more fundamental, it is all the more necessary to find ways to do that.”

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