Speech Therapy Games For Children

Speech Therapy Games for Children

Speech therapy is used to address speech problems such as articulation, which involves the production of sounds within words. Children may require speech therapy for articulation errors as a result of weak oral muscles, birth defects, hearing impairment or developmental delays. The earlier speech therapy begins, the better the outcome of the therapy.

Board Game

Children love to play board games. One fun form of speech therapy involves creating a board game to practice one or more target sounds. Create the game using markers and a file folder. Draw a game path on the folder, and include words that contain sounds that need to be practiced in spaces along the path. Including a fun theme, like favorite foods or movie characters can make the game more fun. To play the game, use standard dice and a game piece. Have players take turns rolling the dice and pronouncing the words their game piece lands on.

Fishing Game

Another fun game for children involves fishing for words. For this game, you will need a stick such as a wooden dowel, a string and a magnet. Attach the string to the stick and attach a magnet to the end of the string. Then, create flash cards with words that include the target sound(s) and attach a magnet to each card. Have each child try to catch a fish with his fishing pole and pronounce the word on the card.

Memory Game

Playing a memory game can give children a chance to practice pronouncing target sounds. Find pictures of objects whose names contain the target sound(s), and glue them to index cards. You will need two pictures of each object. Shuffle the cards and place them upside down on a table. Have the child turn over two cards at a time until he can find matches for all of the cards. As the child turns over each card, he should say the name of the object on the card.