Lesson Plans for Speech Therapy (+ a FREE Template)

Between prepping for and providing therapy sessions, completing evaluations, documenting, completing IEPs, and whatever else, many speech-language pathologists barely have time to eat lunch—let alone create detailed speech therapy lesson plans. It’s no surprise that planning often gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list.

But a little planning can go a long way. Whether you’re a “sticky note with scribbles” kind of SLP or someone who thrives with color-coded digital planners, having a session plan—however simple—can save time, reduce stress, and help you better support your students’ goals.

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of lesson planning, different planning styles, and tools you can use to make the process work to actually make your SLP life easier.

Why Lesson Planning Is Worth It

Many SLPs might admit that sometimes the best sessions are the ones we didn’t plan in advance. As experienced speech therapists, we've learned the skill of pivoting and responding in the moment.

But having a loose plan (or even a detailed one) can make a big difference, especially when:

• You’re juggling mixed groups comprised of students with different goal areas.

• You’re working toward specific IEP goals and want to track student progress.

• You’re trying to maximize the limited therapy minutes that you have your speech therapy students.

• You just want to feel a little more organized in your day and not have to think of activities on the fly.

Personally, I find that even a rough outline helps me focus on what matters most: the student’s goals. It also helps me include plenty of skill areas in each session, which is especially helpful when I’m managing groups with different goals, ages, needs, and attention spans.

With a plan in place, I find sessions run smoother, transitions are quicker, and I’m able to get more meaningful practice and trials in.

How to Document and Organize Your Speech Therapy Plans

There’s no one-size-fits-all way to record and organize your SLP lesson plans—just do what’s easiest for you to stick with. Here are a few quick ways to create simple or detailed plans:

Paper-Based Planning

Write out the activities for each session. Whether you simply jot down a list of ideas on a sticky note or in a notebook or planner, you're setting yourself up for success! Handwritten plans are a great option if you don't have access to a device or Wi-Fi during your speech therapy sessions.

Digital Planning

If you're a teletherapist like me—or you just want to go paperless—digital planning can be a game-changer. It's an easy way to reuse and tweak weekly or monthly plans. And like most digital things, you've got options:

Spreadsheets

Calling all Google Sheets and Excel fans! These presentation programs allow you to organize planned activities (and your entire caseload, if you want to) into rows and columns. 

Slides Presentations

You can also create a Google Slide (or PowerPoint) presentation with a slide for each day or week. The slides may contain text or images to represent each activity. Like other digital planning, you can include clickable links that take you right to teach activity, saving those precious therapy minutes. 

Level up your slides even more by turning them into a virtual speech therapy room. You can still have clickable links to teach activity, and this option is especially fun if your students will see your plans (in the case of teletherapy or using a smartboard during in-person therapy).

Word Processing Documents

Of course, you can always type your plans in a word processing program like Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or Pages. Like the other digital planning methods, you can quickly add, edit, or hyperlink the text for quick access.

Free Lesson Planning Template

Whether you go the printed or digital route, this free editable lesson plan template may work for you! Just download the PDF and use it to map out your therapy sessions by typing information (such as session theme, materials, target vocabulary words) directly into the text boxes and printing or saving. Of course, you can also print and write on them too.

⬇️ Get this FREE editable lesson planning template for speech therapy! ⬇️

Editable Lesson Plan Template.pdf

Download PDF • 7.17MB

If you're creating a separate lesson plan for each student or group, you may want to keep your weekly plans in a student-specific file or folder. This could be a paper inside of a physical folder or binder. It could also be typed plans in some sort of cloud-based file (like Google Drive) or a file on your computer storage.

Different Approaches to Lesson Planning

The actual content of your plan depends on your caseload, setting, and personal preference. Here are a few common types to consider:

Thematic Lesson Plans

If you've been around this blog long, you know that I'm a proponent of centering your therapy around an overall theme. I find that using multiple activities for a single topic helps students build upon their knowledge and creates a natural and relevant context. And as a bonus for me, it decreases planning time.

Themed therapy sessions for younger students may include crafts, toys, sensory bins, and pretend play.  A themed book (and maybe even a book companion) is always a great addition to themed therapy plans.

When using themes with older students, you can find photographs, articles, videos, games, personality quizzes, and conversation prompts for the topic. Themed lesson plans may also include digital resources, like websites or Boom Card decks.

If you want to create a themed therapy lesson plan, try these free Google spreadsheets for curating each weekly or monthly theme. As mentioned above, spreadsheets are completely editable so you can keep track of links to all of your favorite websites and therapy ideas. Just edit them as you discover new resources.

Goal-Based Planning

For some (or all) of your caseload, you prefer to leave the themes out of your lesson plans, and that's perfectly ok too! You may want to use teaching lessons and practice activities to hone in on very specific skills and goals in speech and language therapy.

You can also plan a game or other reinforcement activity to weave into drill practice. You may plan one lengthier, hands-on activity (such as a scavenger hunt) which you use to target vocabulary, social skills, and expressive or receptive language. In these sorts of activities, even articulation students can even work on their sounds in a more conversational context.

Time-Saving Tips for Speech Therapy Lesson Planning

Lesson planning doesn’t have to take forever—small systems and smart strategies can help you get more done in less time. Try these quick time-saving tips:

Plan in batches.

While planning a week or month at a time may require more work upfront, you'll be freeing up some time later on. Plus, planning for multiple sessions at the same times gives you a zoomed out perspective of where you want to go over the course of a month, quarter, semester, or school year.

Use editable lesson plan templates.

If you use one of the digital methods mentioned above, making changes (additions, deletions, edits) to previous plans and resaving will cut out a lot of steps of lesson planning.

Reuse successful activities.

Don't be afraid to reuse activities across groups, grade levels, and sessions (even when the goals are completely different). As an SLP, you know how to adapt therapy activities for various ages and ability levels. You can provide extra support with visuals, and many students benefit from doing the same or similar activities a second or third time.

Make notes.

Along that line, during sessions, make note of anything that might be helpful in future sessions. Your future self will thank you for the in-the-moment ideas that will help you when planning subsequent therapy activities.

Adapt as you go.

Remember that lesson plans are just that... plans—not laws. If you're in a session and finding that your plan is not working for any reason, you have the clinical knowledge to make adjustments or completely scrap the plan altogether. 

Speech therapy lesson planning doesn’t have to be fancy or time-consuming. A little bit of intention goes a long way in helping you feel more organized, more confident, and more effective in your sessions.

Whether you love thematic units, digital slides, or handwritten sticky notes, the best plan is the one that helps you show up prepared—without adding more stress to your day.

Remember: your students don’t need Pinterest-perfect plans—they just need you and your clinical skills. So find a lesson planning system that works for you, no matter how simple or complex it is.

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