Boom! Uh-oh! Whee! Yay! Moo! Beep! Shhh!! Mmmm Mmmm!

Exclamatory words or exclamations are great words to target for young children learning to talk. Children often imitate these types of words and silly sounds before real words (e.g. “moo” versus “cow” or “choo-choo” before “train”).

Laura Mize with Teach Me to Talk has some great examples of exclamatory words on this post on her site and is a wonderful resource for parents and speech therapists to help children with communication delays.

I’m sharing a few books that feature exclamatory words that I’ve come across while reading with my own kids. Some of these books came my way through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. With your library card, you can sign up your child to receive a free book from birth to five years of age. Many thanks to Dolly Parton. I heart you.

I will mention that many children with communication delays may not be ready to sit and attend to the length of a book or any part of the book for that matter. And that is perfectly ok. If the child isn’t able to attend to a book, you may have to meet them where they are. Depending on the child, I would likely suggest starting with some cause-and-effect toys. I have some suggested cause-and-effect toys in this post.

But if your child is interested in books, these might be ones to give a try to get them to imitate silly sounds and exclamatory words. Don’t forget to really jazz it up on your end. Use big facial expressions, and exaggerate your voice! Have fun with it. The more excited you are, the more excited your child will likely be, and hopefully, he/she will imitate some words for you.

This point contains affiliate links which means I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you if you make a purchase.

Talk with Me! The Big Book of Exclamations

The first book I wanted to share is Talk with Me! The Big Book of Exclamations 2. Written by a speech-language pathologist, this book gives serves as a guide for therapists and parents as to how to incorporate exclamatory words into play and daily routines.

From here I’ll list children’s storybooks I’ve come across that just so happen to feature exclamatory words. I’m listing these books here in order of page length, keeping in mind that a shorter book might be more suitable for children who have difficulty attending to a longer story.

Peek-a-Who?

  • Book- Peek a Who?
  • Author- Nina Laden
  • Type- board book
  • Print Length- 10 pages
  • Examples of exclamatory words- who, boo, choo-choo
  • Something I really like this book is that it sets the parent/caregiver up to try to elicit spontaneous speech (rather than the child imitating words). For example, “peek-a”…(pause), hopefully the child says “moo!”

Moo, Baa, La La La

  • Book- Moo, Baa, La La La!
  • Author- Sandra Boynton
  • Type- board book
  • Print Length- 14 pages
  • Examples of exclamatory words – animal noises snort, snuff, ruff ruff ruff

Itsy Bitsy Spider

  • Book- Itsy Bitsy Spider
  • Author- Keith Chapman
  • Type- Paperback
  • Print Length- 24 pages
  • Examples of exclamatory words- general noises (boinnggg) and animal noises

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?

  • Book- Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can you?
  • Author- Dr. Seuss
  • Type- Paperback (also available in board book)
  • Print Length- 24 pages
  • Examples of exclamatory words- cock a doodle doo, tick tock, knock knock, sizzle sizzle, blurp blurp

Little Blue Truck

Farmyard Beat

  • Book- Farmyard Beat
  • Author- Lindsey Craig and Marc Brown
  • Type- board book
  • Print Length- 32 pages
  • Examples of exclamatory words – expanded farm animal noises tat tat, tatty-tat-tat, purr meow, swish clank, peep peep

Read To Tiger

  • Book- Read to Tiger
  • Author- S.J. Fore
  • Type- paperback
  • Print Length- 30 pages
  • Examples of exclamatory words- hi-ya! choo-choo, toot-toot, grrr

Squeak!

  • Book- Squeak!
  • Author- Laura McGee Kvasnosky and Kate Harvey McGee
  • Type- paperback
  • Print Length- 32 pages
  • Examples of exlcamatory words- forest animal and nature sounds arrrgrummphh (bison) wah-whooooosh (eagle), ka-bonk (elk)

Little Excavator

  • Book- Little Excavator
  • Author- Anna Dewdney
  • Print Length- 40 pages
  • Examples of exclamatory words- machineary noises – thumpa-thumpa, grrrrraaarrrm, smash smash smash

I hope you found this list helpful. Do you know of other children’s books that feature exclamatory words? You can help me grow this list for others by leaving a comment. Have fun getting silly with it while reading books with exclamatory words.