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The Speech Umbrella
The Speech Umbrella
Nine Fun and Effective Games for Articulation Therapy
Having a stash of fun and effective games for therapy you can turn to at a moment’s notice is standard practice for pediatric SLPs.
But sometimes we end up buying a game that’s not so great—it’s not fun, takes too long to set up, doesn’t have enough practice opportunities, is finicky to play . . . the list goes on. Those games get shoved to the back of the closet quickly.
To save you time and money investing in not-so-great games, I’ve rounded up nine of my favorite games. In this episode I describe these games plus how to incorporate target words in a way that promotes carryover from day one.
Tumbling Tower , Jenga , Kerplunk , Connect 4 , Suspend , Dominoes , Pick up Sticks , Spot It , R Memory Cards , Impossible R Made Possible
Welcome to the Speech Umbrella, the show that explores simple but powerful therapy techniques for optimal outcomes. I'm Denise Stratton, a pediatric speech language pathologist of 30-plus years. I'm closer to the end of my career than the beginning and along the way I've worked long and hard to become a better therapist. Join me as we explore the many topics that fall under our umbrellas as SLPs. I want to make your journey smoother. I found the best therapy comes from employing simple techniques with a generous helping of mindfulness. Hello and welcome. This is The Speech Umbrella Podcast number 87.
Denise Stratton:Here in Utah, we are in the first glorious days of summer and I couldn't be happier. I'm kind of an obsessive gardener and the last thing I want to be doing in the summer is spend more time planning therapy than I need to. I want to be outside smelling my roses. Who doesn't want a daily dose of fun? And that's what today's podcast is all about: the fun games that we can play in articulation therapy. The title of today's episode is 9 Fun and Effective Games for Articulation Therapy. I recently started working with an 8 year old and while she was compliant, she wasn't really interested in what we were doing and she even looked a little bit weepy, that is until I brought out a game. Then she was all sunshine and smiles and she exclaimed now I want to come back. What fires together, wires together. Fun games fire the neurons and they make up a regular part of my therapy routine. But it needs to be said, you can't just pull a game out of the closet, play it and expect clients to progress. You need two things to succeed: a system, particularly one that will teach them to self monitor, and a game that is quick to set up and play, with lots of opportunities for practice. Now I have many podcasting videos on self monitoring, which I'll link in the show notes. The focus of today's episode is on games that meet the three criteria of fun, quick and with lots of practice opportunities. I thought it'd be helpful to describe my favorite games for therapy, plus describe how I use target words. For the podcast I'm demonstrating two of the most common errors we see are in the M-s-z sounds, but of course it works for any sound. All of these games are under $20 and with a few of them to rotate, your clients will experience lots of variety and they won't get bored.
Denise Stratton:Here's what we're covering today. We're going to take a quick review of the three stages of motor learning, how I target automaticity ASAP in therapy. Say that five times fast. I'm going to review nine games with the pros and cons, how I use target words and some side benefits. So let's dive in and talk about the three stages of motor learning.
Denise Stratton:In my last podcast, 86, I did talk about the three stages of motor learning and how they relate to AAC users. But these stages of motor learning apply to anyone who was learning a motor skill, and articulation is a motor skill. When I developed my Impossible R Made Possible technique, which has three foundational pieces, I didn't realize I was developing them along the same lines as the three stages of motor learning. Now I know why Impossible R work so well. Seriously, if you struggle with R, especially those clients who seem impossible to help check out my Impossible R Made Possible program at the speech umbrella. com. Okay, enough of my self promotion.
Denise Stratton:The three stages of motor learning are cognitive. That's where the learner understands what to do and I equate this with building the capability to produce the sound. The next stage is associative and that's learning how to perform the skill. I equate this with learning how to be accurate in more contexts, more frequently. And then we have the autonomous stage where learners can attend to and process other information. Our goal in articulation therapy is to move clients to automaticity, but that is easier said than done. I find a lot of clients get stuck in the associative stage and that's why I begin to work on the automatic part ASAP. You can begin this even if they have just one word, if you will focus on how they say the word. Here's how I do it with games And, by the way, I call the automatic stage of motor learning Relaxed Production, and that's how I'm going to refer to it, because when a client can say something without having to think about how to say it, without having to overemphasize how they say the sound or use extra tension, they're saying it in a relaxed way And it's very efficient.
Denise Stratton:So I'm just used to calling it Relaxed Production. If I have to say automaticity one more time, i'm going to sprain my tongue too. Say, a client is working on R and they have one word they can say reliably and that word is red. Now, they may not be 100%, but they can be 100% with some cueing. They are beyond that real hit and miss stage and they can say it in a relaxed manner even if you need to cue them to be relaxed.
Denise Stratton:Now let me demonstrate what I mean by this Relaxed Production. This is a relaxed production red. What if they go RRRR, red. That's not relaxed. So you want to get them and teach them and coach them to say it in a relaxed way, and they also may just be able to start combining it with one other word and stay relaxed. So, for example, you could say one red, my red, a red, red piece. You get the drift. You take the word red and you combine it with another word. All of a sudden you've got a phrase. How many games can you play with just the word red? Six on my list, for sure, and all nine if you can morph red into ready. So are you ready to dive into the games? I am. The nine games are Tumbling Tower, also known as Don't Let the Bugs Fall, Jenga, Suspend, Pickup Sticks, Kerplunk, Connect4, Spot It, Dominoes and Memory.
Denise Stratton:Now here are some words I can use that work for all games. Under R, you've got turn here there. Start, you're careful, really ready. Under S, you could have start, see this, and many plurals. I'm sure there's many more than I suggested, but you get the drift. There are some words that are so general you can just work them into almost any game.
Denise Stratton:Post-it notes are my go-to here. Get out the game. I grab a post-it note. I say what words could we use with this game that have R and M? or what words could we use with this game that have S and Z? and we write the target words down on the post-it note and then we start playing and if we think of some more as we're playing the game, we add them to the post-it note. These words are the ones they can say reliably and therefore I refer to them as the words they are responsible for. Sometimes they might come up with a word that, oh, that has R in it and it's something they really can't say yet like maybe they can't say turn yet and I say, oh, that's fantastic, i'm so glad you noticed that's got an R in it. We haven't really worked on that sound yet. You're not responsible for it, but I'm so glad you noticed it. And that's how I handle that when they want to throw all our words in.
Denise Stratton:Now I'm going to get into describing the games. I'm going to start with Tumbling Tower, also called Don't Let the Bugs Fall. It's a little bit like a younger version of Jenga and what you have are three colors of plastic bugs that you stack, just like you stack Jenga, and you pull them out and lay them on top. It's just a little bit different from Jenga. There aren't as many, they're easier to pull out and you roll a dice to see what color bug you pull out. So the pros for this is a fast setup. It only requires moderate, fine motor control. So better than Jenga for the younger crowd. The only downside to this is it appeals to younger crowd and teens would definitely prefer something like Jenga.
Denise Stratton:The R words that I use with this game red, green, grab, try, remove, roll. If they're ready for that, that's a hard one. Roll For the SZ stack, choose, stick, see, balance, set, dice, piece or pieces. That's some of the ways I use tumbling tower. Now Jenga I hardly need to describe Jenga Stack the wooden blocks crosswise, pull them out, put them on top and watch when the tower falls down. Some of the pros are there's really no age limit. This can go up to teens, even older teens, and it's got a really fast setup. Some of the downsides are you do need fine motor control. R words I use here row remove, grab, try, control. S words stack, choose, stick, see, balance, set, piece or pieces, blocks. And if you get the color jenga set, then you'll even have more words that you can use.
Denise Stratton:The next game is Suspend. It's new to me. It's a Christmas present. I got myself These wires that are different lengths, that have different colors on them and you stack them up and balance them, almost like you're building a crazy looking antenna. The kids love it. The reasons I like Suspend is there is a lot of variation. You're always building it a different way. You don't have to use all of the pieces if you run out of time and kids are rarely bored because of all the combinations you can have. And there is a planning element that supports executive function in this game. The downside is you do need to find motor control and that might be hard for some and there is a learning curve to this game. Some of the words I use with R are bar, red, green, tri, rickety, far careful. The S and Z words place, suspend, balance, set, choose, same, symmetrical. You get an R and an S there for the older kids. We love that because if you can place the pieces symmetrically it works out better.
Denise Stratton:And now on to Spot It. If you haven't heard of Spot It, well, let me see if I can describe it to you. There are these round cards with pictures on them, and between every two cards there is always a picture that is in common. So what you've got to do is you're trying to spot the picture that is in common, and it's really tricky. You're looking at these pictures and you think I should be able to see it. I should be able to see the picture that's in common, but sometimes you just can't. And so the kids really love it. They love it when they beat the SLP, and I love to use Spot It if someone just has the word ready or for an S, that they just have the words set, and I say, okay, it's your turn. When you say ready, set, go, we'll turn the card over and see if we can find the picture in common. So that's a great way to just use those three words ready, set, go And then when you find the picture, the person who finds the picture has to describe the picture using their target sound. So now they're thinking of words that they could use Some of the pros of this, or it's familiar to most.
Denise Stratton:A lot of people know the game Spot It, it's fast to play, there is no setup, it appeals to a white age range and there's even different sets available. So I have a Hogwarts set because I have some kids who are crazy about Hogwarts and it takes up so little room in my closet. Some of the downsides are you don't have as much control vocabulary you can use, except for at the beginning. So once they're often describing the picture on their own, they kind of have to think of that in their own head and be ready for that. So the vocabulary there is just ready, set go, and then the variations from there.
Denise Stratton:Okay, pick up sticks. I play pick up sticks at my grandma's. This is a really old game. A bunch of sticks. They have different colors on them, they work different values. There is one stick that is striped black and white and that is the one worth the most points, the most desirable stick. You hold it a few inches above the table, you let it go. They all fall on a pile and you try and remove a stick without having the others jiggle or roll, and you lose your turn if a stick moves.
Denise Stratton:The pros for this is it's a quick setup. There is a planning element to it. Kids are highly, highly motivated to get that 20 point stick and they'll just keep working for it. Also, a little bit of math involved as they add up their points at the end. The downside is it can take a long time to play. Again, there is a fine motor control issue and what I do is I turn a blind eye to tiny, tiny little stick movements because let's just be realistic here This might not work for a kid who is OCD and saw every little shimmer of the stick which I just turn a blind eye to and I was like oh great, you got it.
Denise Stratton:I do see that there are giant pickup stick games available. I might have to look into that. That would work better if you wanted someone younger to play it. Some of the words you can use for are a red green grab, remove first, try, stripe, uncover. For S&Z sticks same points, mess, slide, saw outside zebra, for that zebra stick. That's what we call it. We call it the zebra stick. Oh, that's an R2.
Denise Stratton:Okay now Kerplunk. I love Kerplunk. In fact I am on my second set of Kerplunk. So what Kerplunk is is you have a tower and it's got some holes in it. You take these colored sticks and you poke them through the holes. So they go through the tower and they're poking all sorts of directions. It's kind of like you're making a cobweb in it and you drop marbles on top of those sticks and then you remove the sticks and you try to drop the fewest marbles. So the pros are this is just so much fun. I haven't had a kid who doesn't like Kerplunk. You don't need super fine motor control, so that's great. This game is always a winner.
Denise Stratton:Some of the downsides are it does take time to set up. It's hard to push those last sticks through and across to the other side. If you have time to set up beforehand, you can save session time. You already have it set up. But if I don't have time to do that, we make it a conversational opportunity with target words and we talk about how we're getting to go across and through and all that. Another downside is some clients who are impatient may try and pull the stick out. That drops all the marbles and then your game is over, just like that. Some of the words I use for our red, green, orange marble remove, careful, grab, drop, turn, tower, kerplunk, right and wrong, as in right move, wrong move, for as you've got slide stick choose. I'm sure there's a slew more, but those are the three I could think of off the top of my head.
Denise Stratton:Now on to connect four. Connect four is a grid where you draw red or yellow like checker pieces and you just try and get four in a row diagonal up down, whichever way. Then you try and block your opponent so they don't get four in a row. Some of the pros about connect four is it's easy to prolong the game because you as the SLP can put off winning or not win at all and therefore you can make the game last longer, depending on the age and skill of the player. You can kind of work that. How you need to prolong game means more practice time. There's no fine motor component and it does prove it executive function, as you've got some planning there. A downside is it's frustrating for some clients who lack that strategy and there are fewer target words with this game. For example, for R you've got red row drop strategy, that you've got SNR together. For S you've got place piece stack. So not very many words, but it's really really great for someone who is just making that first entry into maybe using R and they've only got the word red or the word row or something like that On to dominoes Not just any dominoes, but a game called chicken foot.
Denise Stratton:After I married my husband, i found out that in order to belong to the family, i had to learn how to play chicken foot. Chicken foot would take a long time to describe all the ins and outs of chicken foot, so I'm going to link to video that describes how to play it. But the main thing is that you are drawing tiles and you're matching the spots, and if someone gets a double, it means you have a chicken foot and you've got to put three dominoes down that have that same number. You can play several rounds and you can add up points, but I never do that in therapy. We don't add up the points, we only ever have time to play a couple rounds.
Denise Stratton:Some of the pros for chicken foot are you can use a specific set of target words. You get loads of single word practice if you want. So what I do is I say whatever tile they drew, they can say that word that we're practicing however many dots that are on their tile, and you can choose just one side of the tile or you can choose both, but I mean if they got a double nine. That'd be saying it 18 times. That might be overkill. So we usually just choose one side and when they get a zero they're like, yeah, i've got a zero, i don't have to say any word at all, and they think that is great. A downside is you need a large table because it really spreads out. So just be thinking about that. You don't always get to finish the game, but you can finish a round.
Denise Stratton:Finally, memory. Everyone loves the memory game, sometimes called concentration. You have matching cards and you lay them out face down, turn the cards over, try and find the match, try and remember the cards that you have turned over so you can get the match and the way we play it. If you get a match, you get to go again. So what I really love is when a client starts getting matches and they're remembering. They get another match. They get another match. They're finishing the whole game almost by themselves and don't realize they're getting so much practice.
Denise Stratton:Some of the pros for memory are you can control the targets with whatever cards you choose. It's a really fast setup and you can go from word to sentence practice really easily, and this is how I do it. I'll tell them. If you draw two cards that don't match, you say each word three times or five times or whatever you want them to do. When you draw a match, you get to make a sentence. Here's the cool thing.
Denise Stratton:I have our memory card sets in my store. I have 10 sets, and the reason I created in that way is a client may just be able to say words that are row, for example, so I've got a whole set of just row words. Or they might be able to say just words with raw. They've just got that R plus that vowel, and so you can have a whole set with raw. Or you can mix them up because I've got 10 different contexts. A downside to memory is interest in this game might start to peter out around fifth grade, but the younger crowd love it. They love it, love it, love it and are always happy to play it. Words you can use besides the words that are on the cards are remember, recall, forgot where For, as you can have sentence or select.
Denise Stratton:Now let's talk about some of the side benefits that happen when you play these games. They start to notice other words with their target sound. As I mentioned at the beginning, they might not be able to say those words yet that they notice. But I tell them how awesome it is that they're noticing them, even when they aren't words they're responsible for. Yet I really love to use these games to move clients from single words to phrases.
Denise Stratton:I have this theory that I call the magic of three, and that is when a client can say a word in a three-word phrase and put that word in various places in the phrase, they are really really making lots of progress. So let me just demonstrate. Say, you have the word right and they could say right one. So then they put the R word first, followed by another word, or they could say the right. Now they're moving from a word before to R, the right, or then they can do the right one and it can become a longer sentence. I have the right one. So what I have noticed is that when a client can put that R word, if you're working on R in multiple places in the phrase and they don't have trouble transitioning to and from the R, then motorically they've really got it, they've really figured it out and they just need to remember how to keep that skill, that relaxed production, in longer and longer sentences. So if they're still struggling with generalization and they don't have the metoric problem, then that's a real good clue to you to look at phonological awareness and self-monitoring skills.
Denise Stratton:Well, that's it for today. If you need to inject both fun and ownership into a therapy session, give these games a try. Let me know how it turns out for you And check out my R memory cards. I have 10 decks for you at my store that's at thespeechembrella. com And let me know what games you like. I'm always up for buying more games. Thank you for joining me under the Speech Umbrella today. I hope you learned something to help you in your therapy. If you did, please share this podcast with a fellow speech therapist and leave a 5-star review on Apple, itunes, spotify or wherever you get your subscriptions. While you're online, come on over to thespeechembrella. com, where you will find transcripts, links and my free resource library. I also have some other valuable courses and therapy aids in my store. That's all at thespeechembrella. com. Let's connect on social media. I'm D Stratton SLP on Instagram and The Speech Umbrella on Facebook and YouTube. You can also find me on TPT. I hope to talk to you soon. Bye.
Dan Stratton:Thanks for listening to The Speech Umbrella. We invite you to sign up for the free resource library at thespeechembrellacom. You'll get access to some of Denise's best tracking tools, mindfulness activities and other great resources to take your therapy to the next level. All this is for free at thespeechembrella. com. If you've enjoyed this podcast, subscribe and please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and other podcast directories.