“E, I, E, I, O.” Yes, yes! I am sure most of us sang this many times as a child. There is a big BUT! Teaching speech therapy using farm animals is now so much more than “E, I, E, I, O.” Farm animals are familiar and engaging, making it easier to capture their attention. These books often include repetitive sounds and simple language, which are great for practicing speech sounds, vocabulary, and language concepts like naming, actions, and descriptions. Plus, the variety of animals and sounds in these stories helps with articulation, sound recognition, and even early literacy skills., particularly phonological awareness skills.
Animal books tap into pre-reading skills via phonological awareness. Animal sounds is not a level of phonological awareness per se, but it can encompass some of the best pre-phonological awareness lessons prior to word awareness, syllable awareness, and speech sound awareness.
- Count the animal sounds
- First, second, third animal sound (terminology)
- Differences – What sound of three sound is different
- Difference between what you see and what you hear. You see a cow, but you hear moo. You see the letter “b” but you hear the sound /b/.
Two excellent and humorous books are suggested for teaching these early sound skills.


Udder Chaos: Amusing Adventures with Farm Animals
by Elizabeth Nielsen
Udder Chaos: Amusing Adventures with Farm Animals Udder Chaos provides a variety of animal and environmental sounds that encourages young reader’s early speech sounds. There are parts of the book where a word is repeated 3 times. Children learn to say new words when they are heard multiple times. You can even add a movement with the repeated words! For example, one part of the story says, “Dig Dig Dig.” You can pretend that you are digging in the dirt and encourage your child to do the same! Rhyming is included throughout the book which helps with early literacy and phonological awareness skills. All of these skills and more are incorporated into Udder Chaos all while laughing along the way!
Be sure to purchase your signed copy of Udder Chaos at https:www.tinyvoicetherapy.com/product-page/udderchaosbook
Corky the Quirky Cow and the Cuckoo Concert
By Lavelle Carlson
Brief synopsis: Corky the Quirky Cow (animal speech therapist) has the ability to mimic all the other animal sounds. Furthermore, she is able to teach the other animals how to mimic other animal sounds. This book has a humorous theme and is written in a way that all the early pre-reading and phonological goals can be extracted from the material. For specific speech and pre-reading activities using Corky the Quirky Cow, download the free workbook at https://www.slpstorytellers.com/register-2/.
Corky the Quirky Cow and the Cuckoo Concert can be purchased at Amazon. It is also available as a coloring book that can be purchased on Amazon OR you can download it as part of your subscription.