FUNCTIONAL Decoration for Your Therapy Room

I like to decorate. I realize it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s perfectly fine. But for me, it’s a creative outlet. A few years ago, my husband and I completely renovated our century home, down to the studs-yikes! Yep, this girl was without a kitchen for 7 months. Talk about a lot of crockpot dinners and take-out food!

Since then, I like taking old, mundane spaces and refreshing them. And let’s face it, our therapy rooms are our “homes away from home.” We eat, breathe, work and maybe even sleep there if it’s the beginning of the school year and you can’t seem to leave at a remotely decent time.

But…for our therapy rooms, I also prefer functional decoration. That is, decoration that has a purpose. In all honestly, there are very rare decorations in my therapy room that do not also serve a learning purpose. This way, I know my students (and I) can benefit AND  it spruces up my therapy room.

That’s why I’ve created a new custom category in my TPT store titled “Functional Decoration.” You’ll find it on the left with my other custom categories.

Some of the items you’ll find there include:

• Superhero Common Core Posters for Speech and Language

I love the bright colors these add to my room but I also can’t get enough when my little sweethearts come to speech, pull off their goal and set it in front of them. It puts responsibility for their goals back on the students and creates a focused session, which then creates a happy SLP!

• Articulation Fry Word Wall {Pink, Blue, Gold Edition}

An entire wall made out of Fry’s Sight Words (those are the most frequently occurring words in our English Language) organized by sound in plain sight of my students? There have been numerous times I’ve said “Look at the wall” when I’m asked to spell a word. Again, it puts the responsibility back on the student and I love that.

I also have this wall in a Primary Colors version as well.

• Visual Goal Bulletin Board
  • This Student Goal Bulletin board is great to remind students of their goals and take ownership of them.  During therapy, they can go up and grab their goal out the adhesive pockets.
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• Speech and Language Common Core Cans
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One of my most-used products-to-date, my students know exactly which can to grab their question out of to receive a sticker at the end of speech. I love the way my little cans look on my shelf, and I love know my students are working on CCSS skills at their level. It’s a win-win.

• Speaking and Writing Prompts for the CCSS

These prompts are kept on my whiteboard within easy reach. The chevron library pockets that they’re designed to fit in brightens up the space and I have tons of prompts in the areas of persuasive, explanatory, narrative and research at my fingertips to get my kids talking!

A few other ways to brighten up your room are by using the Math Vocabulary Posters (free)-woot!

and this SPEECH Sign using Dictionary Pages.

I hope you find these functional decorations for your therapy room helpful! I would love to see how you brighten up your room with learning materials!