Using Games in Speech-Language Intervention People outside our profession often think we “play games” for a living, especially those of us who work with school-age children. In a sense I suppose they’re correct, but that’s because learning occurs most easily when the system is alert but not over stimulated. Finding that balance for each child can be difficult, especially when we see kids in groups of varying sizes. Recently some newly minted colleagues were discussing games to use in elementary school speech therapy on-line. In an effort to help them, I put together a sort of “care package” list of games I’ve had good luck with. All these games are “kid-tested, SLP-approved.”

(1) Down the Drain (the object is to build

a pipe pathway to get out of the tub while the other players block your way with fish and rubber duckies)

(2) Duck Duck Bruce (basically a card version of Duck Duck Goose)

(3) Gobblet on the Go (basically a 3-D version of Tic Tac Toe)

(4) Go Nuts! (you gather nuts and avoid cars, just like squirrels)

(5) Hats Off (I play it like Go Fish for descriptive language)

(6) Hisss (you build multi-color snakes) (7) LCR (aka Left Center Right) (8) Pass the Trash (an “updated” version

of Old Maid) (9) Scoop ‘em Up (you build huge ice

cream cones) (10) Story Cubes (these are just

excellent…I’m certain an SLP must have had a hand in creating them)

(11) Tastes Like Chicken (you build crazy, mixed-up animals)

(12) Wig Out! (another variation on Go Fish)

So here’s what you really need to know. I never play a game by the instructions it comes with. I always adapt it to meet the goals I am working toward. I usually read the instructions, but modify, sometimes pretty substantially, to make the game less the focus and the speech-language work more the focus. The game is just a mechanism to keep the kids interested. When I’m look for new games (you can only play “Break the Ice” before you lose your mind), I tend to gravitate toward games for six-year-olds. Games at this level are usually easy enough for first and second graders, and don’t add extra difficulty for old children

with more significant, longer-term disorders. The game is supposed to be a help, not a hindrance. Preschool through kinder I tend to use activities requiring movement rather than games (e.g., scavenger hunt) or “get your hands dirty” sorts of activities (e.g., making play dough). Certainly these activities will work with older children, too, but if you have a large caseload and not much down time to set up and/or clean up, a boxed game can be a real lifesaver. I spent three years in the same school district a few years back and used the same assortment of games all three years (many of those are listed above). They were in a big box. The first student to get to the room (without running) got to pick the game for that day’s group. (If a child ran, he/she was disqualified…and you can easily tell that a sweaty, out-of-breath child ran to get to speech). This strategy motivated them to get there in a timely manner, and tattling on each other helped to keep them honest. Sometimes we’d play the same game over and over. Some groups never played the same game two times in a row. It was also a great way to work on negotiation as a social-pragmatic skill. Basically, I couldn’t have cared less which game we played because any one of them was adaptable to any number of goals. Some of these games may be hard to find, so I suggest looking on eBay and at garage sales. You can find all kinds of wonderful materials there!