Digital Games to Target Language in Speech Therapy

Games. Students love 'em. Speech-language pathologists tolerate 'em. 😂

If I'm being honest, games aren't among my favorite speech therapy activities. But I'll admit that they can be pretty useful as a quick way to break up drill work in therapy sessions.

When working on specific speech sounds, it's easy to turn almost any simple game into a therapy activity. Have a student practice a few target words, take a turn, and repeat.

But using games in language therapy is trickier. It feels clunky (and not meaningful) to ask a student to formulate a sentence or answer a question between turns of a game. But games that actually create real opportunities to target language skills within the game itself? Those are gold. 

And that's why finding speech therapy language games can be a little more challenging. Plenty of games are fun for kids, but practical games that support communication skills are another story.

So, while I'm still not going to say games are my favorite thing to include in my speech therapy lesson plans, I am a fan of games that make language practice easier and more natural. So check out these game ideas to consider adding to your therapy toolbox.

WHY USE GAMES IN SPEECH THERAPY?

Interactive games are one of a speech therapist's best bets for increasing student engagement. Games encourage repetition and practice, especially when you want to facilitate carryover or skills beyond more structured practice.

Many games also create natural opportunities for communication. They are powerful tools that can help SLPs make what's challenging for students feel like less work. 

Games can also be easily adapted for different ages and ability levels. It's easier to plan and prepare for the day when you can use the same game across multiple sessions and add or create visuals or other supports to individualize the activity.

DIGITAL SPEECH THERAPY GAMES

Digital versions of games eliminate one of my biggest complaints about traditional games: all the stuff! No cards to organize, pieces to lose, boxes to repair, or game boards to store. They're always ready to go when you need a quick activity.

Digital games can also make it easier to keep a variety of activities at your fingertips without taking up any physical space. Plus, they're especially handy for teletherapy, when you can't exactly reach into a game closet for a missing die.

SPEECH THERAPY LANGUAGE GAMES

These speech therapy games do more than entertain students. They give them meaningful opportunities to practice one or more of the language skills they're working on

Guessing Games

Guess Who? is a great fit for language therapy because students have to use language to figure something out. SLPs can target asking and answering questions, describing, vocabulary, attributes, comparing and contrasting, making inferences, and more. Guessing games work well for small groups because two or more students can play against each other.

These themed guessing games use a familiar format (get the set here on Boom), so students can learn the game easily. Printable and digital options allow you to incorporate the theme and language goals into any speech therapy setting. 

Secret Square is basically my favorite therapy game of ALL time (sadly, it doesn't seem to be made anymore 😭). But this digital Secret Square-style game is a great substitute. It lets students use movable tiles in Google Slides to describe, sort, categorize, and compare/contrast objects. The game can also target questions, inferences, and formulating stories with appropriate sentence structure. 

Memory

Memory is another classic game that can be surprisingly useful in speech therapy. Instead of simply flipping cards to find matches, students can name, describe, categorize, formulate sentences, or answer questions about the pictures they uncover. These digital memory games (get them here on Boom) use seasonal vocabulary and automatically shuffle the cards, so you get a new game each time

and don't have to set up all the cards! 

Spot It!

Many students love the competitiveness of Spot It! These fast-paced vocabulary games (get them here on Boom) are an easy way to bring that same concept into language therapy. Players race to find the picture that appears twice, but you can slow it down a bit to target language goals along the way. Use the pictures to work on seasonal vocabulary, categories, description, plurals, and more. 

Bingo

It might seem like a simple game of luck, but Bingo is a surprisingly easy language-rich activity for speech therapy... especially groups! Use bingo games (digitally or printed) to target seasonal vocabulary, describing, sentence formulation, WH-questions, and more.

Barrier Games

Barriers are a fun challenge for students as they have to listen carefully to a partner's directions to complete their own picture. When students switch roles and are the ones giving the directions, you're able to target expressive language goals, including sentence formulation, describing, concepts, sequencing, and more. 

In this barrier game, students create (digitally or by drawing) a grid and compare their work at the end. Another great group activity, this game helps students listen to directions of varying complexity and understand concepts of size, shape, location, etc.

Conversation Games

Conversation may not seem like something you can easily target with a game, but these activities make the conversation itself part of the gameplay. Students take turns asking and answering questions as they create a route across the gameboard and work on skills like initiating and maintaining conversations, making relevant comments, asking follow-up questions, providing details, and telling narratives.

The games, which can be printed or used digitally, are especially useful for older elementary, middle school, and high school students who need practice with back-and-forth conversation but aren't exactly excited about playing a traditional children's game.

I may not be a game superfan, but I have to admit that the right ones can make language practice a whole lot easier. The key is finding games that give students a reason to communicate while still allowing you to target the skills you're working on. Whether you reach for one of the digital games mentioned above or its traditional version, I hope you found a few new ideas to add to your language therapy sessions!

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