Mixed groups in speech therapy is what every SLP despises, tries to avoid, and for one reason or another, ends up having at least a couple of. Balancing articulation and language goals is a true work of art, so one can never have too many mixed group activities to choose from.
SLPs can use a generic game and have each student in a mixed group complete a task specific to their goal on each turn. But that becomes boring pretty quickly, making it difficult to hold students' attention while others take their turn. And maybe it's just me, but I feel like those sessions are so disjointed... and kinda awkward.
Activities that naturally weave both speech and language goals together into one activity are therapy gold. Activities that cohesively incorporate multiple goal areas and don't require printing or prepping are an even rarer precious metal.
Whether you're providing teletherapy or using a computer, iPad, or smartboard in speech therapy, tune in for some ideas that'll make mixed groups easy to plan for and execute! As a bonus, many of the activities can be printed for therapy or homework.
Mixed Group Activities for Speech Therapy with YOUNGER Students
Your preschool and early elementary school speech therapy students will love these digital activities that give you options for seamlessly targeting both articulation and language at the same time.
One Page Picture Scenes
Colorful picture scenes can be displayed to the whole group while you prompt whatever goals you need to. Students can talk or ask about the picture to practice articulation targets or language structures, because both are right there on the same page.
Menus
Your younger students will love to pretend they're ordering from sound-loaded restaurant menus. While articulation students work on their sound at the word, phrase, sentence, or conversation level, language students can work on goals such as asking and answering questions, describing, comparing and contrasting, and more.
Create-A-Scene Boom Cards
Students can apply a bit of creativity as they make their own picture scenes in these Boom Card decks (get them here on Boom). From building a snowman to arranging dinosaurs, students reveal their target words when they move each piece. You can also address language goals such as verbs, pronouns, and following directions when building each scene.
Articulation Flashlight Search Boom Cards
No matter what you're targeting in a speech therapy session, all students in a group will love using a digital flashlight. While searching the darkened, sound-loaded picture scenes (get them here on Boom), they can practice the listed target words or various language structures (such as plural nouns, verb tenses, or answering wh- questions).
Click It Game Boom Cards
Each deck in this Boom Card bundle focuses on a specific articulation target (get them here on Boom), but you can also elicit tons of language with this game. This fast-paced activity moves right along as students race to find and call out the duplicated image before the other students in the group.
Themed Digital PDF
Speech therapy themes definitely lend themselves to mixed groups, too! Resources (such as this restaurant-themed digital PDF) contain activities for multiple language goals, plus a component to practice themed vocabulary containing specific articulation sounds.
Mixed Group Activities for Speech Therapy with OLDER Students
Working with older students (in upper elementary school, middle school, or high school) is a unique challenge, so let these digital speech therapy activities inspire your next mixed group session.
One Page Picture Scenes
Just like the version for younger students above, these colorful picture scenes are so handy to display and use for just about any goal. The detailed and high-interest images give your older students plenty to notice and talk about. Incorporating articulation and language together has never been so easy, especially since plenty of prompts are already right on the page.
Highlight Sounds While Reading
When reading online articles or websites, did you know you can use the browser's 'Find' tool to highlight any letter (or group of letters) or word. This works great when working on comprehension with language students and articulation in reading.
For example, you can search for all "sh" letter groupings on a page. Of course there are words that may still contain the /sh/ phoneme but aren't spelled with "sh" (such as "issue", but it's an easy way to draw students' attention to a target sound on any web page text.
Articulation Word Puzzles
These brain teasers are a great way to incorporate logic and motivate older students. The word plexers are are sorted by articulation target (get them here on Boom), but you also have the flexibility to target higher level language skills such as idioms and multiple meanings.
Wheel of Names
Use this free website to set up a spinner with words for a particular articulation sound– the more functional and relevant the words, the better! Students spin the wheel (one or multiple times) and create a sentence using the word(s) landed on.
Have students incorporate grammatical structures (such as conjunctions) into their sentences to hone in on specific goals and skills.
Sound-Loaded Language Activities
This Google Slides speech therapy activity includes a variety of language prompts that incorporate a specific sound or blend on each slide. The fillable text boxes are ready to go, and the included printable version means you can also send the worksheets for homework.
Speech Libs
Fill-in-the-blank stories are such a blast for older students, including mixed groups. Students can choose words with their target sound (use these word lists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) while language students can work on parts of speech, description, and more within a seasonal theme.
Speech-Agories
This category game gives students a fun way to think about words that begin with their articulation sound. Not only that, but the game is also a great opportunity to work on vocabulary and word-finding.
Create-A-Map Boom Cards
In this Boom Card activity, students create city maps (get it here on Boom) that are loaded with buildings and objects containing a particular speech sound. In addition to the articulation practice, students can work on language-based life skills such as map concepts, following directions, and community vocabulary.
Poll Questions
These high-interest topic poll questions are a great way to work on articulation, language, and even social language simultaneously. An index helps you quickly locate questions that contain a specific phoneme, and from there you can use the polls to work on asking and answering questions, disagreeing, perspective-taking, and more.
Working with mixed groups in speech therapy is, unfortunately, a common pain point for many SLPs. Rather than throwing together a scattered activity, keep some of these ideas handy. You'll be able to target language and articulation within one cohesive activity that keeps students engaged from start to finish!
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