Games for Speech Therapy You Can Make!

Games are a terrific help when working with children on speech therapy.  I like to make my own games for teaching speech therapy at home.   It is easy and affordable to use materials you already have around the house, even materials that are on their way to the trash can!  While there are many fine companies out there offering a huge selection of speech therapy games, in this trying economy it can be a blessing to create your games on your own.   I have made several games over the years for teaching speech therapy at home, and you can easily do the same.  Here are some of my favorites:
1.  “Climb the Ladder” --using a good-sized sheet of poster board or paper (or the inside of a cereal box), draw a simple ladder.  This is, essentially, a series of boxes stacked one on top of the other.  Then, encourage your child to “climb the ladder” by correctly pronouncing one word or phrase for each rung with a simple reward when he/she reaches the top.  I like to use the same ladder over and over again because I am lazy, so I like to write the words or phrases on post-its so that I can change them as needed.  Simply use a small action figure, a small plastic animal, or an army man to climb the ladder.  This has been our most successful game for speech therapy over the years.
2.  “Word Flower”  --my boy resisted this game, so we created “Word Solar System” along the same plans.  This game for speech therapy at home is really simple to create.  Again, using some paper or pasteboard you already have at home, cut a circle for the middle of the flower (or the sun) and make elongated circles for the petals of the flowers.  Once the game board is complete, you simple put the “starting sound” that needs attention on the circle for the middle of the flower and then write the remainder of the word on the petals.  As your child pronounces them correctly, they build the flower.  For example, you might have the letter “R” on your middle circle, and then the petals might say “ap”, “ip”, “at”, “am”, “an” and so on.
3.  “Checker Stack” .  My wonderfully creative son came up with this one.  Simply pull your checkers out of your checkers box.  As you work through the list of words you are working on in your speech therapy at home, your child adds one more checker for each correctly pronounced word.  Another way we use this game is that we each make a stack by taking turns coming up with another word using the problem sound.  If you can’t come up with another word, or you are like me and can’t stack more than ten checkers without them collapsing, you are the loser.  I can use the word “loser” because it is ALWAYS me.  My son could stack checkers to the moon…and also has creative ideas about words that may or may not be real words!  I don’t correct them, this is speech time not vocabulary time, and I want him to have fun.
4.  “Mother May I” --play the regular game, but only allow the step if the problem word or phrase is pronounced correctly.  This is an awesome way to include other siblings and take your game for speech therapy at home outside!  Simply have the other children complete another task to take their step.  For example, a younger child might have to count to ten for each step.
5.  “Rhyme Time”  Pull out your marbles, sit on opposite ends of the table, and roll the marble back and forth each time he/she can rhyme your speech word or phrase.  This, to an adult, doesn’t sound like much, but kids love it.  I use it for all kinds of quizzing and memorizing exercises.
As you can see by my very simple examples of what we do, creating games for speech therapy at home is easy, quick and cheap.  I would really encourage you to try these solutions before you spend hundreds of dollars on a catalog program only to be told by your child “this is too baby for me”, or “gee mom, I lost all the pieces”.  You can always find another cereal box!