If you’re a speech pathologist or a parent of a child who has speech problems, finding the right games to use in your therapy can be tricky. You need games that are fun and engaging for the child, but that also help address your goals.
Totally standard board games like Monopoly and Life can be used to encourage kids to practice their language skills. If you have a child who is working on articulation, you can have them talk through the game (describing what they’re doing, what they hope to achieve, etc.) while they play. Even just adding some description to the game (e.g., “I am going to buy a yellow house”) can help strengthen speech skills.
Even when kids are playing games that are not as communication-focused as these, it’s important to try and get them talking about what’s happening in the game—whether that’s describing how they’re feeling or what’s happening or what actions are taking place—in order for them to get the most benefit out of their play time.
Speech therapy can be a lot of fun, but it doesn’t have to be all work and no play. That’s why we have compiled a list of some of our favorite games to use with clients, whether you’re an SLP or a parent looking for some activities for your child to try at home.
The Good Games For Speech Therapy is a fun, unique game that helps children become more comfortable sharing their own stories with family and friends. It’s not about getting the best score possible—it’s about having fun, getting creative, and learning new skills.
The games are divided into two categories: Tell-A-Story and Tell-A-Friend. In Tell-A-Story, you come up with an interesting story, record it on your phone, then share it with family and friends. In Tell-A-Friend, you simply tell your friends a story by recording it on your phone—no writing required! You can also use the app to record a message to play at someone’s favorite time of day. You can send the messages as texts or emails or in the Good Games For Speech Therapy app itself.
The Good Games For Speech Therapy provides children with tools they need to communicate better with their family and friends. The apps are designed to help them practice using both their words and their imaginations while being entertained.
Good Games is a powerful, fun, and interactive app that helps speech-language pathologists develop literacy skills and language content areas in young children with developmental disabilities. The app provides comprehensive scaffolding to help children acquire new words and begin to speak.
The application includes interactive books, games, and vocal sounds that help to teach children the names of animals and people, numbers, letters and shapes. With the app’s voice recognition feature, children are prompted to repeat each word that they hear and can play games based on the game’s theme.
The app also includes three levels of difficulty: Easy (for children with mild learning disabilities), Moderate (for children with moderate learning disabilities), or Advanced (for children with severe learning disabilities).
Each book in the Good Games series is unique in design to reinforce concepts related to the topic. For example, each book in the Good Games for Numbers series is designed like a puzzle that merges letters together to form numbers. By using specific vocal sounds at specific times within each book, children can train their voices for increased fluency and pronunciation as they read each word aloud.