For many SLPs, making the switch to a teletherapy setting often means saying 'goodbye' to your worksheets and investing in (or creating) a collection of digital activities and resources. I not so fondly remember that as an overwhelming, time-consuming, and expensive process.
My teletherapy caseload over the years can be summarized as... a little bit of everything? When it comes to ages, grades, and goal areas, I’ve pretty always much always had it all... simultaneously 🤪 No SLP has the time to search for (or the money to spend on) resources for each age range and each goal. Teletherapy SLPs need digital resources that they can get a lot of mileage out of.
In order to drastically reduce planning time, make mixed groups actually productive, and not break the bank, I’ve filled my teletherapy toolbox with activities that I can use again and again– not just activities that target one goal and fill one session for one age group. Know what I mean?
Features of Versatile Teletherapy Activities
Consider these general guidelines (and loads of examples) when shopping for or creating your own teletherapy activities.
Options for Multiple Goals
Look for resources that can help you target more than one goal or goal area, because, well, mixed groups. But also because you can keep that resource open on your computer and use it with student after student or group after group.
These picture scenes for speech therapy were born out of such necessity. They target multiple articulation and language goals (for older students) on every single one of the 20 pages. Find teletherapy-friendly multipurpose picture scenes for younger students, too!
Something as simple as high-interest poll questions can also target a variety of goals simultaneously. Use the word lists to find questions that contain the target sound(s), while also addressing perspective-taking, asking follow-up questions, maintaining a topic, and so much more.
Remember to think outside the box when looking at or creating teletherapy activities. Just because a resource wasn't designed to target a certain goal, doesn't mean it won't be effective in doing so! So don't shy away from adapting resources to fit your students' needs.
Open-Ended Activities
Some of the most versatile teletherapy activities don’t have any goals or targets built in to them at all! SLPs are pretty magical. We can find ways to incorporate speech therapy goals into nearly any interactive digital game or activity.
Building Activities
"Make-a-Games" on ABCYa are perfect for elementary students. For articulation, we can practice words with the child's target sound. For social language we practice turn-taking, making polite requests, or working as a team. For language, there's prepositions, description, asking and answering questions, and so much more.
Games
It's no surprise that teletherapy students love to play games, but games can also be therapeutic and versatile activities. Games can be used to target all of your students' goals, from social skills (like turn-taking and being a good sport) to language skills (like formulating questions and identifying vocabulary) to using articulation sounds in sentences and structured conversation.
Digital games (like this spring Boom Card deck) even include the option to click right over to an activity that uses the same vocabulary to practice words that include any articulation target.
Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunts are every bit as fun as in teletherapy as they are in in-person therapy! Not only does the activity get some of my most reluctant students talking, but it also facilitates a ton of language structures, concepts, and vocabulary. Using regular, everyday objects (or pictures or videos of objects), you can target nearly everything.
Visuals that Give Flexibility
Using visuals in speech therapy is just as important in a virtual setting. Combining a goal-specific visual with open-ended games and activities is a simple way to make nearly any activity work for a goal.
For example, students can practice fluency or intelligibility strategies while playing an online card game such as the 'Four Colors' game on ToyTheater (using a split screen with the visual on one half of the screen, activity or game on the other).
Customizable for Unique Needs
Resources that you can edit are so incredibly versatile because you can make them to be just about anything you need them to be! For example, I love to use a Google Slides template to help older students make their own articulation "cards". Not only is it fun for them to find their own pictures, but it's also functional and easy to use as homework practice.
This Google Slides guessing game template lets SLPs add any pictures they want to tailor the game to their students' goals and/or interests. In this example, Google Images have been used to create a came for a student who loves baking and is working on their /k/ sound (in words such as "cupcake", "bake", "pink", etc.).
Differentiated for Multiple Levels
Another feature to consider when looking for teletherapy activities is how well the activity suits a range of skill levels. Obviously, resources with leveled practice (such as this subordinating conjunctions Boom Card deck) provide material for students of different abilities. Plus, the ability to progress through the levels makes the resource more usable with the same student across multiple sessions.
Other ways teletherapy resources may be differentiated is to have optional visuals that you can use or hide for each student, as in this chocolate-themed activity for older students.
Can be Used Across Multiple Sessions
Resources that can be used week after week are therapy GOLD. This National Parks resource includes passages about 7 parks (plus questions for vocabulary, making inferences, and comprehension for each one), so we can do a park or two each session for a month or more.
Other activities can be used over and over again in teletherapy even though you’re using the same exact page or slide. Many students benefit from the repetition, plus the activity is never the same since the game plays out differently each time! This Articulation Line of Four Game is one example of an activity that can be used countless times.
Incorporate a Useful Theme
I use themes in speech therapy for many reasons. Themed therapy is a way to save time and create versatility in my sessions. Themes not only provides a schema for functional and relative learning, but also a set of concepts and vocabulary that I can adapt to nearly any speech therapy goal.
For SLPs with diverse caseloads, themed resources that give options for addressing goals for a bulk of the caseload are invaluable. That's true even for seasonal or holiday resources, like this pumpkin themed PDF that includes activities for several different goals. It can be used session after session in the fall, so it's earned its spot in the teletherapy activity toolbox.
Building a digital toolbox for teletherapy does take time and likely some money. But I hope the above tips help avoid that “one and done” problem we’ve all had— Impulse buy it 5 minutes before a session, use it once, forget about its existence, and never use it again.
Instead, you'll create a collection of versatile, go-to resources for telepractice that will actually help you be more efficient with less. Not every resource will hit every mark above. But if you start looking at activities through the lens of these considerations– and selecting resource that fulfill multiple of them– you will find you need less, buy less, and use more of what you have.
Learn about the features of teletherapy and digital activities and resources.
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