Great speech therapy games are popular with Speech-Language Pathologists and students.  Open up a cabinet or closet in a speech therapy room and you are likely to find a collection of games.  Games are popular with speech-language pathologists because they naturally allow for speech and language opportunities, encourage teamwork and turn-taking and help with motivation and establishing rapport.  Some games provide direct opportunities for targeting specific vocabulary and language goals, while others serve more as motivational tools when attempting to get multiple trials in targeting specific speech and language skills.  Here are some games that I like, and how I use them.

Jenga is one of those kinds of games that is more about motivation than targeting language or speech skills on its own.  Jenga is popular with kids of all ages and naturally provides turn-taking opportunities.  This game can be used to target any speech or language skill.  Before taking a turn to remove a block, students are required to say a sentence containing their speech sound, or provide two meanings for a multiple-meaning word, or give a definition for a grade-level vocabulary word – any goal can be targeted with this open-ended game.

Hedbanz is a great speech therapy game that targets vocabulary, describing skills, answering yes/no questions, inferencing skills, listening comprehension, and memory skills.  In addition to all of those skills, kids really like this game!

Pass the pigs is a quick-moving, silly game that keeps kids motivated and having fun.  Similar to Jenga, this game is fast-moving and really serves as a motivational tool for getting multiple trials while having fun.  Players roll the pigs to score points depending on how the cute little pigs land.  Lots of fun.

Guess Who is a classic find in a speech therapy room. This game targets many language skills including asking questions, looking at attributes of characters, negation, answering questions, turn-taking, and more.

Pickles to Penguins is a fun, fast-moving game that targets naming vocabulary, determining and describing similarities between items, categorical relationships, and explaining functions of items.

Pop Up Pirate is a fun open-ended exciting game that you can use to target any speech or language skill.  Have kids say words containing their target sounds, answer comprehension questions, whatever you choose, prior to placing a sword in the barrel.  Tension-building games similar to this include Yeti in my Spaghetti, Don’t Wake Granny, and Crocodile Dentist.

Scattergories is a classic game that is great for vocabulary, naming items in a given category, thinking about spelling, and more.

Somehow my students never seem to get tired of these cards.  We use the cards to play “Go Fish” and “Memory” on a regular basis thanks to the fact that each card deck contains two of each card.  You can use any picture cards that you have.  Here are some printable picture cards that kids can make themselves, along with ideas on how to use them in a variety of game activities (along with parent tips).

Apples to Apples Junior is a popular game with my students in grades 3-6.  This game is great for working on vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms, and silliness.  To extend the language building, I sometimes require students to use words that they select in sentences.

This fun downloadable game is great for targeting any speech and language skills.  Use it to maintain focus, motivation, and attention while practicing speech and language skills.  This scarecrow game can be purchased on its own or as part of a larger bundle.  Try a free version of one of these Building Games here:  Free Build a Robot Game

There are really so many options.  The key is to find something that is motivating to your students and provides lots of opportunities for language and speech practice.  What are some of your favorites?

Looking for something else fun?  Check out this Get Up and Move Following Directions Free Activity.