June 14, 2023 • 20 mins
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
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Denise Stratton (00:06):
Welcome to the Speech Umbrella, the show that
explores simple but powerfultherapy techniques for optimal
outcomes.
I'm Denise Stratton, apediatric speech language
pathologist of 30-plus years.
I'm closer to the end of mycareer than the beginning and
along the way I've worked longand hard to become a better
therapist.
Join me as we explore the manytopics that fall under our
umbrellas as SLPs.
(00:27):
I want to make your journeysmoother.
I found the best therapy comesfrom employing simple techniques
with a generous helping ofmindfulness.
Hello and welcome.
This is The Speech UmbrellaPodcast number 87.
Here in Utah, we are in thefirst glorious days of summer
and I couldn't be happier.
I'm kind of an obsessivegardener and the last thing I
(00:50):
want to be doing in the summeris spend more time planning
therapy than I need to.
I want to be outside smellingmy roses.
Who doesn't want a daily doseof fun?
And that's what today's podcastis all about: the fun games
that we can play in articulationtherapy.
The title of today's episode is9 Fun and Effective Games for
Articulation Therapy.
(01:11):
I recently started working withan 8 year old and while she was
compliant, she wasn't reallyinterested in what we were doing
and she even looked a littlebit weepy, that is until I
brought out a game.
Then she was all sunshine andsmiles and she exclaimed now I
want to come back.
What fires together, wirestogether.
Fun games fire the neurons andthey make up a regular part of
(01:32):
my therapy routine.
But it needs to be said, youcan't just pull a game out of
the closet, play it and expectclients to progress.
You need two things to succeed: a system, particularly one that (01:40):
undefined
will teach them to self monitor, and a game that is quick to
set up and play, with lots ofopportunities for practice.
Now I have many podcastingvideos on self monitoring, which
I'll link in the show notes.
The focus of today's episode ison games that meet the three
criteria of fun, quick and withlots of practice opportunities.
(02:04):
I thought it'd be helpful todescribe my favorite games for
therapy, plus describe how I usetarget words.
For the podcast I'mdemonstrating two of the most
common errors we see are in theM-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 willexperience lots of variety and
they won't get bored.
(02:26):
Here's what we're covering today.
We're going to take a quickreview of the three stages of
motor learning, how I targetautomaticity ASAP in therapy.
Say that five times fast.
I'm going to review nine gameswith the pros and cons, how I
use target words and some sidebenefits.
So let's dive in and talk aboutthe three stages of motor
(02:46):
learning.
In my last podcast, 86, I didtalk about the three stages of
motor learning and how theyrelate to AAC users.
But these stages of motorlearning apply to anyone who was
learning a motor skill, andarticulation is a motor skill.
When I developed my ImpossibleR Made Possible technique, which
has three foundational pieces,I didn't realize I was
(03:08):
developing them along the samelines as the three stages of
motor learning.
Now I know why Impossible Rwork so well.
Seriously, if you struggle withR, especially those clients who
seem impossible to help checkout my Impossible R Made
Possible program at the speechumbrella.
com.
Okay, enough of my selfpromotion.
The three stages of motorlearning are cognitive.
(03:29):
That's where the learnerunderstands what to do and I
equate this with building thecapability to produce the sound.
The next stage is associativeand that's learning how to
perform the skill.
I equate this with learning howto be accurate in more contexts
, more frequently.
And then we have the autonomousstage where learners can attend
to and process otherinformation.
(03:49):
Our goal in articulationtherapy is to move clients to
automaticity, but that is easiersaid than done.
I find a lot of clients getstuck in the associative stage
and that's why I begin to workon the automatic part ASAP.
You can begin this even if theyhave just one word, if you will
focus on how they say the word.
(04:10):
Here's how I do it with gamesAnd, by the way, I call the
automatic stage of motorlearning Relaxed Production, and
that's how I'm going to referto it, because when a client can
say something without having tothink about how to say it,
without having to overemphasizehow they say the sound or use
extra tension, they're saying itin a relaxed way And it's very
efficient.
(04:30):
So I'm just used to calling itRelaxed Production.
If I have to say automaticityone more time, i'm going to
sprain my tongue too.
Say, a client is working on Rand they have one word they can
say reliably and that word isred.
Now, they may not be 100%, butthey can be 100% with some
cueing.
They are beyond that real hitand miss stage and they can say
(04:50):
it in a relaxed manner even ifyou need to cue them to be
relaxed.
Now let me demonstrate what Imean by this Relaxed Production.
This is a relaxed productionred.
What if they go RRRR, red.
That's not relaxed.
So you want to get them andteach them and coach them to say
it in a relaxed way, and theyalso may just be able to start
(05:10):
combining it with one other wordand stay relaxed.
So, for example, you could sayone red, my red, a red, red
piece.
You get the drift.
You take the word red and youcombine it with another word.
All of a sudden you've got aphrase.
How many games can you playwith just the word red?
Six on my list, for sure, andall nine if you can morph red
(05:33):
into ready.
So are you ready to dive intothe games?
I am.
The nine games are TumblingTower, also known as Don't Let
the Bugs Fall, Jenga, Suspend,Pickup Sticks, Kerplunk,
Connect4, Spot It, Dominoes andMemory.
Now here are some words I canuse that work for all games.
Under R, you've got turn herethere.
(05:55):
Start, you're careful, reallyready.
Under S, you could have start,see this, and many plurals.
I'm sure there's many more thanI suggested, but you get the
drift.
There are some words that areso general you can just work
them into almost any game.
Post-it notes are my go-to here.
Get out the game.
I grab a post-it note.
I say what words could we usewith this game that have R and M
(06:17):
?
or what words could we use withthis game that have S and Z?
and we write the target wordsdown on the post-it note and
then we start playing and if wethink of some more as we're
playing the game, we add them tothe post-it note.
These words are the ones theycan say reliably and therefore I
refer to them as the words theyare responsible for.
Sometimes they might come upwith a word that, oh, that has R
(06:38):
in it and it's something theyreally can't say yet like maybe
they can't say turn yet and Isay, oh, that's fantastic, i'm
so glad you noticed that's gotan R in it.
We haven't really worked onthat sound yet.
You're not responsible for it,but I'm so glad you noticed it.
And that's how I handle thatwhen they want to throw all our
words in.
Now I'm going to get intodescribing the games.
I'm going to start withTumbling Tower, also called
(06:59):
Don't Let the Bugs Fall.
It's a little bit like ayounger version of Jenga and
what you have are three colorsof plastic bugs that you stack,
just like you stack Jenga, andyou pull them out and lay them
on top.
It's just a little bitdifferent from Jenga.
There aren't as many, they'reeasier to pull out and you roll
a dice to see what color bug youpull out.
So the pros for this is a fastsetup.
(07:19):
It only requires moderate, finemotor control.
So better than Jenga for theyounger crowd.
The only downside to this is itappeals to younger crowd and
teens would definitely prefersomething like Jenga.
The R words that I use with thisgame 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,
(07:43):
piece or pieces.
That's some of the ways I usetumbling tower.
Now Jenga I hardly need todescribe 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'sreally no age limit.
This can go up to teens, evenolder teens, and it's got a
really fast setup.
(08:03):
Some of the downsides are youdo 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 jengaset, then you'll even have more
words that you can use.
The next game is Suspend.
(08:24):
It's new to me.
It's a Christmas present.
I got myself These wires thatare different lengths, that have
different colors on them andyou stack them up and balance
them, almost like you'rebuilding a crazy looking antenna
.
The kids love it.
The reasons I like Suspend isthere is a lot of variation.
You're always building it adifferent way.
You don't have to use all ofthe pieces if you run out of
(08:44):
time and kids are rarely boredbecause of all the combinations
you can have.
And there is a planning elementthat supports executive
function in this game.
The downside is you do need tofind motor control and that
might be hard for some and thereis a learning curve to this
game.
Some of the words I use with Rare bar, red, green, tri,
rickety, far careful.
(09:05):
The S and Z words place,suspend, balance, set, choose,
same, symmetrical.
You get an R and an S there forthe older kids.
We love that because if you canplace the pieces symmetrically
it works out better.
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 cardswith pictures on them, and
(09:26):
between every two cards there isalways a picture that is in
common.
So what you've got to do isyou're trying to spot the
picture that is in common, andit's really tricky.
You're looking at thesepictures and you think I should
be able to see it.
I should be able to see thepicture that's in common, but
sometimes you just can't.
And so the kids really love it.
They love it when they beat theSLP, and I love to use Spot It
(09:47):
if someone just has the wordready or for an S, that they
just have the words set, and Isay, 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 incommon.
So that's a great way to justuse those three words ready, set
, go And then when you find thepicture, the person who finds
the picture has to describe thepicture using their target sound
(10:08):
.
So now they're thinking ofwords that they could use Some
of the pros of this, or it'sfamiliar to most.
A lot of people know the gameSpot It, it's fast to play,
there is no setup, it appeals toa white age range and there's
even different sets available.
So I have a Hogwarts setbecause I have some kids who are
crazy about Hogwarts and ittakes up so little room in my
(10:28):
closet.
Some of the downsides are youdon't have as much control
vocabulary you can use, exceptfor at the beginning.
So once they're oftendescribing the picture on their
own, they kind of have to thinkof that in their own head and be
ready for that.
So the vocabulary there is justready, set go, and then the
variations from there.
Okay, pick up sticks.
I play pick up sticks at mygrandma's.
(10:49):
This is a really old game.
A bunch of sticks.
They have different colors onthem, they work different values
.
There is one stick that isstriped black and white and that
is the one worth the mostpoints, the most desirable stick
.
You hold it a few inches abovethe table, you let it go.
They all fall on a pile and youtry and remove a stick without
having the others jiggle or roll, and you lose your turn if a
(11:11):
stick moves.
The pros for this is it's aquick setup.
There is a planning element toit.
Kids are highly, highlymotivated to get that 20 point
stick and they'll just keepworking for it.
Also, a little bit of mathinvolved as they add up their
points at the end.
The downside is it can take along time to play.
Again, there is a fine motorcontrol issue and what I do is I
(11:32):
turn a blind eye to tiny, tinylittle stick movements because
let's just be realistic hereThis might not work for a kid
who is OCD and saw every littleshimmer of the stick which I
just turn a blind eye to and Iwas like oh great, you got it.
I do see that there are giantpickup stick games available.
I might have to look into that.
That would work better if youwanted someone younger to play
(11:52):
it.
Some of the words you can usefor 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.
Okay now Kerplunk.
(12:13):
I love Kerplunk.
In fact I am on my second setof Kerplunk.
So what Kerplunk is is you havea tower and it's got some holes
in it.
You take these colored sticksand you poke them through the
holes.
So they go through the towerand they're poking all sorts of
directions.
It's kind of like you're makinga cobweb in it and you drop
marbles on top of those sticksand then you remove the sticks
(12:34):
and you try to drop the fewestmarbles.
So the pros are this is just somuch fun.
I haven't had a kid who doesn'tlike Kerplunk.
You don't need super fine motorcontrol, so that's great.
This game is always a winner.
Some of the downsides are itdoes take time to set up.
It's hard to push those laststicks through and across to the
other side.
If you have time to set upbeforehand, you can save session
(12:56):
time.
You already have it set up.
But if I don't have time to dothat, we make it a
conversational opportunity withtarget words and we talk about
how we're getting to go acrossand through and all that.
Another downside is someclients who are impatient may
try and pull the stick out.
That drops all the marbles andthen your game is over, just
like that.
Some of the words I use for ourred, green, orange marble
(13:21):
remove, careful, grab, drop,turn, tower, kerplunk, right and
wrong, as in right move, wrongmove, 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.
Now on to connect four.
Connect four is a grid whereyou draw red or yellow like
(13:42):
checker pieces and you just tryand get four in a row diagonal
up down, whichever way.
Then you try and block youropponent so they don't get four
in a row.
Some of the pros about connectfour is it's easy to prolong the
game because you as the SLP canput off winning or not win at
all and therefore you can makethe game last longer, depending
on the age and skill of theplayer.
(14:02):
You can kind of work that.
How you need to prolong gamemeans more practice time.
There's no fine motor componentand it does prove it executive
function, as you've got someplanning there.
A downside is it's frustratingfor some clients who lack that
strategy and there are fewertarget words with this game.
For example, for R you've gotred row drop strategy, that
(14:23):
you've got SNR together.
For S you've got place piecestack.
So not very many words, butit's really really great for
someone who is just making thatfirst entry into maybe using R
and they've only got the wordred or the word row or something
like that On to dominoes Notjust any dominoes, but a game
called chicken foot.
After I married my husband, ifound out that in order to
(14:45):
belong to the family, i had tolearn how to play chicken foot.
Chicken foot would take a longtime to describe all the ins and
outs of chicken foot, so I'mgoing to link to video that
describes how to play it.
But the main thing is that youare drawing tiles and you're
matching the spots, and ifsomeone gets a double, it means
you have a chicken foot andyou've got to put three dominoes
(15:07):
down that have that same number.
You can play several rounds andyou can add up points, but I
never do that in therapy.
We don't add up the points, weonly ever have time to play a
couple rounds.
Some of the pros for chickenfoot are you can use a specific
set of target words.
You get loads of single wordpractice if you want.
So what I do is I say whatevertile they drew, they can say
that word that we're practicinghowever many dots that are on
(15:30):
their tile, and you can choosejust one side of the tile or you
can choose both, but I mean ifthey got a double nine.
That'd be saying it 18 times.
That might be overkill.
So we usually just choose oneside and when they get a zero
they're like, yeah, i've got azero, i don't have to say any
word at all, and they think thatis great.
A downside is you need a largetable because it really spreads
(15:51):
out.
So just be thinking about that.
You don't always get to finishthe game, but you can finish a
round.
Finally, memory.
Everyone loves the memory game,sometimes called concentration.
You have matching cards and youlay them out face down, turn
the cards over, try and find thematch, try and remember the
cards that you have turned overso you can get the match and the
(16:12):
way we play it.
If you get a match, you get togo again.
So what I really love is when aclient starts getting matches
and they're remembering.
They get another match.
They get another match.
They're finishing the wholegame almost by themselves and
don't realize they're getting somuch practice.
Some of the pros for memory areyou can control the targets with
whatever cards you choose.
It's a really fast setup andyou can go from word to sentence
(16:33):
practice really easily, andthis is how I do it.
I'll tell them.
If you draw two cards thatdon't match, you say each word
three times or five times orwhatever you want them to do.
When you draw a match, you getto make a sentence.
Here's the cool thing.
I have our memory card sets inmy store.
I have 10 sets, and the reasonI created in that way is a
client may just be able to saywords that are row, for example,
(16:56):
so I've got a whole set of justrow words.
Or they might be able to sayjust words with raw.
They've just got that R plusthat vowel, and so you can have
a whole set with raw.
Or you can mix them up becauseI've got 10 different contexts.
A downside to memory isinterest in this game might
start to peter out around fifthgrade, but the younger crowd
love it.
They love it, love it, love itand are always happy to play it.
(17:17):
Words you can use besides thewords that are on the cards are
remember, recall, forgot whereFor, as you can have sentence or
select.
Now let's talk about some of theside benefits that happen when
you play these games.
They start to notice otherwords with their target sound.
As I mentioned at the beginning, they might not be able to say
(17:37):
those words yet that they notice.
But I tell them how awesome itis that they're noticing them,
even when they aren't wordsthey're responsible for.
Yet I really love to use thesegames to move clients from
single words to phrases.
I have this theory that I callthe magic of three, and that is
when a client can say a word ina three-word phrase and put that
(17:59):
word in various places in thephrase, they are really really
making lots of progress.
So let me just demonstrate.
Say, you have the word rightand they could say right one.
So then they put the R wordfirst, followed by another word,
or they could say the right.
Now they're moving from a wordbefore to R, the right, or then
(18:20):
they can do the right one and itcan become a longer sentence.
I have the right one.
So what I have noticed is thatwhen a client can put that R
word, if you're working on R inmultiple places in the phrase
and they don't have troubletransitioning to and from the R,
then motorically they've reallygot it, they've really figured
(18:41):
it out and they just need toremember how to keep that skill,
that relaxed production, inlonger and longer sentences.
So if they're still strugglingwith generalization and they
don't have the metoric problem,then that's a real good clue to
you to look at phonologicalawareness and self-monitoring
skills.
Well, that's it for today.
If you need to inject both funand ownership into a therapy
(19:04):
session, give these games a try.
Let me know how it turns outfor you And check out my R
memory cards.
I have 10 decks for you at mystore that's at
thespeechembrella.
com And let me know what gamesyou like.
I'm always up for buying moregames.
Thank you for joining me underthe Speech Umbrella today.
I hope you learned something tohelp you in your therapy.
If you did, please share thispodcast with a fellow speech
(19:26):
therapist and leave a 5-starreview on Apple, itunes, spotify
or wherever you get yoursubscriptions.
While you're online, come onover to thespeechembrella.
com, where you will findtranscripts, links and my free
resource library.
I also have some other valuablecourses and therapy aids in my
store.
That's all at thespeechembrella.
com.
Let's connect on social media.
(19:46):
I'm D Stratton SLP on Instagramand The Speech Umbrella on
Facebook and YouTube.
You can also find me on TPT.
I hope to talk to you soon.
Bye.
Dan Stratton (19:57):
Thanks for listening to The Speech Umbrella
.
We invite you to sign up forthe free resource library at
thespeechembrellacom.
You'll get access to some ofDenise's best tracking tools,
mindfulness activities and othergreat resources to take your
therapy to the next level.
All this is for free atthespeechembrella.
com.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,subscribe and please leave us a
(20:20):
review on Apple Podcasts andother podcast directories.
Welcome to the Speech Umbrella, the show that
explores simple but powerfultherapy techniques for optimal
outcomes.
I'm Denise Stratton, apediatric speech language
pathologist of 30-plus years.
I'm closer to the end of mycareer than the beginning and
along the way I've worked longand hard to become a better
therapist.
Join me as we explore the manytopics that fall under our
umbrellas as SLPs.
(00:27):
I want to make your journeysmoother.
I found the best therapy comesfrom employing simple techniques
with a generous helping ofmindfulness.
Hello and welcome.
This is The Speech UmbrellaPodcast number 87.
Here in Utah, we are in thefirst glorious days of summer
and I couldn't be happier.
I'm kind of an obsessivegardener and the last thing I
(00:50):
want to be doing in the summeris spend more time planning
therapy than I need to.
I want to be outside smellingmy roses.
Who doesn't want a daily doseof fun?
And that's what today's podcastis all about: the fun games
that we can play in articulationtherapy.
The title of today's episode is9 Fun and Effective Games for
Articulation Therapy.
(01:11):
I recently started working withan 8 year old and while she was
compliant, she wasn't reallyinterested in what we were doing
and she even looked a littlebit weepy, that is until I
brought out a game.
Then she was all sunshine andsmiles and she exclaimed now I
want to come back.
What fires together, wirestogether.
Fun games fire the neurons andthey make up a regular part of
(01:32):
my therapy routine.
But it needs to be said, youcan't just pull a game out of
the closet, play it and expectclients to progress.
You need two things to succeed: a system, particularly one that (01:40):
undefined
will teach them to self monitor, and a game that is quick to
set up and play, with lots ofopportunities for practice.
Now I have many podcastingvideos on self monitoring, which
I'll link in the show notes.
The focus of today's episode ison games that meet the three
criteria of fun, quick and withlots of practice opportunities.
(02:04):
I thought it'd be helpful todescribe my favorite games for
therapy, plus describe how I usetarget words.
For the podcast I'mdemonstrating two of the most
common errors we see are in theM-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 willexperience lots of variety and
they won't get bored.
(02:26):
Here's what we're covering today.
We're going to take a quickreview of the three stages of
motor learning, how I targetautomaticity ASAP in therapy.
Say that five times fast.
I'm going to review nine gameswith the pros and cons, how I
use target words and some sidebenefits.
So let's dive in and talk aboutthe three stages of motor
(02:46):
learning.
In my last podcast, 86, I didtalk about the three stages of
motor learning and how theyrelate to AAC users.
But these stages of motorlearning apply to anyone who was
learning a motor skill, andarticulation is a motor skill.
When I developed my ImpossibleR Made Possible technique, which
has three foundational pieces,I didn't realize I was
(03:08):
developing them along the samelines as the three stages of
motor learning.
Now I know why Impossible Rwork so well.
Seriously, if you struggle withR, especially those clients who
seem impossible to help checkout my Impossible R Made
Possible program at the speechumbrella.
com.
Okay, enough of my selfpromotion.
The three stages of motorlearning are cognitive.
(03:29):
That's where the learnerunderstands what to do and I
equate this with building thecapability to produce the sound.
The next stage is associativeand that's learning how to
perform the skill.
I equate this with learning howto be accurate in more contexts
, more frequently.
And then we have the autonomousstage where learners can attend
to and process otherinformation.
(03:49):
Our goal in articulationtherapy is to move clients to
automaticity, but that is easiersaid than done.
I find a lot of clients getstuck in the associative stage
and that's why I begin to workon the automatic part ASAP.
You can begin this even if theyhave just one word, if you will
focus on how they say the word.
(04:10):
Here's how I do it with gamesAnd, by the way, I call the
automatic stage of motorlearning Relaxed Production, and
that's how I'm going to referto it, because when a client can
say something without having tothink about how to say it,
without having to overemphasizehow they say the sound or use
extra tension, they're saying itin a relaxed way And it's very
efficient.
(04:30):
So I'm just used to calling itRelaxed Production.
If I have to say automaticityone more time, i'm going to
sprain my tongue too.
Say, a client is working on Rand they have one word they can
say reliably and that word isred.
Now, they may not be 100%, butthey can be 100% with some
cueing.
They are beyond that real hitand miss stage and they can say
(04:50):
it in a relaxed manner even ifyou need to cue them to be
relaxed.
Now let me demonstrate what Imean by this Relaxed Production.
This is a relaxed productionred.
What if they go RRRR, red.
That's not relaxed.
So you want to get them andteach them and coach them to say
it in a relaxed way, and theyalso may just be able to start
(05:10):
combining it with one other wordand stay relaxed.
So, for example, you could sayone red, my red, a red, red
piece.
You get the drift.
You take the word red and youcombine it with another word.
All of a sudden you've got aphrase.
How many games can you playwith just the word red?
Six on my list, for sure, andall nine if you can morph red
(05:33):
into ready.
So are you ready to dive intothe games?
I am.
The nine games are TumblingTower, also known as Don't Let
the Bugs Fall, Jenga, Suspend,Pickup Sticks, Kerplunk,
Connect4, Spot It, Dominoes andMemory.
Now here are some words I canuse that work for all games.
Under R, you've got turn herethere.
(05:55):
Start, you're careful, reallyready.
Under S, you could have start,see this, and many plurals.
I'm sure there's many more thanI suggested, but you get the
drift.
There are some words that areso general you can just work
them into almost any game.
Post-it notes are my go-to here.
Get out the game.
I grab a post-it note.
I say what words could we usewith this game that have R and M
(06:17):
?
or what words could we use withthis game that have S and Z?
and we write the target wordsdown on the post-it note and
then we start playing and if wethink of some more as we're
playing the game, we add them tothe post-it note.
These words are the ones theycan say reliably and therefore I
refer to them as the words theyare responsible for.
Sometimes they might come upwith a word that, oh, that has R
(06:38):
in it and it's something theyreally can't say yet like maybe
they can't say turn yet and Isay, oh, that's fantastic, i'm
so glad you noticed that's gotan R in it.
We haven't really worked onthat sound yet.
You're not responsible for it,but I'm so glad you noticed it.
And that's how I handle thatwhen they want to throw all our
words in.
Now I'm going to get intodescribing the games.
I'm going to start withTumbling Tower, also called
(06:59):
Don't Let the Bugs Fall.
It's a little bit like ayounger version of Jenga and
what you have are three colorsof plastic bugs that you stack,
just like you stack Jenga, andyou pull them out and lay them
on top.
It's just a little bitdifferent from Jenga.
There aren't as many, they'reeasier to pull out and you roll
a dice to see what color bug youpull out.
So the pros for this is a fastsetup.
(07:19):
It only requires moderate, finemotor control.
So better than Jenga for theyounger crowd.
The only downside to this is itappeals to younger crowd and
teens would definitely prefersomething like Jenga.
The R words that I use with thisgame 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,
(07:43):
piece or pieces.
That's some of the ways I usetumbling tower.
Now Jenga I hardly need todescribe 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'sreally no age limit.
This can go up to teens, evenolder teens, and it's got a
really fast setup.
(08:03):
Some of the downsides are youdo 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 jengaset, then you'll even have more
words that you can use.
The next game is Suspend.
(08:24):
It's new to me.
It's a Christmas present.
I got myself These wires thatare different lengths, that have
different colors on them andyou stack them up and balance
them, almost like you'rebuilding a crazy looking antenna
.
The kids love it.
The reasons I like Suspend isthere is a lot of variation.
You're always building it adifferent way.
You don't have to use all ofthe pieces if you run out of
(08:44):
time and kids are rarely boredbecause of all the combinations
you can have.
And there is a planning elementthat supports executive
function in this game.
The downside is you do need tofind motor control and that
might be hard for some and thereis a learning curve to this
game.
Some of the words I use with Rare bar, red, green, tri,
rickety, far careful.
(09:05):
The S and Z words place,suspend, balance, set, choose,
same, symmetrical.
You get an R and an S there forthe older kids.
We love that because if you canplace the pieces symmetrically
it works out better.
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 cardswith pictures on them, and
(09:26):
between every two cards there isalways a picture that is in
common.
So what you've got to do isyou're trying to spot the
picture that is in common, andit's really tricky.
You're looking at thesepictures and you think I should
be able to see it.
I should be able to see thepicture that's in common, but
sometimes you just can't.
And so the kids really love it.
They love it when they beat theSLP, and I love to use Spot It
(09:47):
if someone just has the wordready or for an S, that they
just have the words set, and Isay, 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 incommon.
So that's a great way to justuse those three words ready, set
, go And then when you find thepicture, the person who finds
the picture has to describe thepicture using their target sound
(10:08):
.
So now they're thinking ofwords that they could use Some
of the pros of this, or it'sfamiliar to most.
A lot of people know the gameSpot It, it's fast to play,
there is no setup, it appeals toa white age range and there's
even different sets available.
So I have a Hogwarts setbecause I have some kids who are
crazy about Hogwarts and ittakes up so little room in my
(10:28):
closet.
Some of the downsides are youdon't have as much control
vocabulary you can use, exceptfor at the beginning.
So once they're oftendescribing the picture on their
own, they kind of have to thinkof that in their own head and be
ready for that.
So the vocabulary there is justready, set go, and then the
variations from there.
Okay, pick up sticks.
I play pick up sticks at mygrandma's.
(10:49):
This is a really old game.
A bunch of sticks.
They have different colors onthem, they work different values
.
There is one stick that isstriped black and white and that
is the one worth the mostpoints, the most desirable stick
.
You hold it a few inches abovethe table, you let it go.
They all fall on a pile and youtry and remove a stick without
having the others jiggle or roll, and you lose your turn if a
(11:11):
stick moves.
The pros for this is it's aquick setup.
There is a planning element toit.
Kids are highly, highlymotivated to get that 20 point
stick and they'll just keepworking for it.
Also, a little bit of mathinvolved as they add up their
points at the end.
The downside is it can take along time to play.
Again, there is a fine motorcontrol issue and what I do is I
(11:32):
turn a blind eye to tiny, tinylittle stick movements because
let's just be realistic hereThis might not work for a kid
who is OCD and saw every littleshimmer of the stick which I
just turn a blind eye to and Iwas like oh great, you got it.
I do see that there are giantpickup stick games available.
I might have to look into that.
That would work better if youwanted someone younger to play
(11:52):
it.
Some of the words you can usefor 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.
Okay now Kerplunk.
(12:13):
I love Kerplunk.
In fact I am on my second setof Kerplunk.
So what Kerplunk is is you havea tower and it's got some holes
in it.
You take these colored sticksand you poke them through the
holes.
So they go through the towerand they're poking all sorts of
directions.
It's kind of like you're makinga cobweb in it and you drop
marbles on top of those sticksand then you remove the sticks
(12:34):
and you try to drop the fewestmarbles.
So the pros are this is just somuch fun.
I haven't had a kid who doesn'tlike Kerplunk.
You don't need super fine motorcontrol, so that's great.
This game is always a winner.
Some of the downsides are itdoes take time to set up.
It's hard to push those laststicks through and across to the
other side.
If you have time to set upbeforehand, you can save session
(12:56):
time.
You already have it set up.
But if I don't have time to dothat, we make it a
conversational opportunity withtarget words and we talk about
how we're getting to go acrossand through and all that.
Another downside is someclients who are impatient may
try and pull the stick out.
That drops all the marbles andthen your game is over, just
like that.
Some of the words I use for ourred, green, orange marble
(13:21):
remove, careful, grab, drop,turn, tower, kerplunk, right and
wrong, as in right move, wrongmove, 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.
Now on to connect four.
Connect four is a grid whereyou draw red or yellow like
(13:42):
checker pieces and you just tryand get four in a row diagonal
up down, whichever way.
Then you try and block youropponent so they don't get four
in a row.
Some of the pros about connectfour is it's easy to prolong the
game because you as the SLP canput off winning or not win at
all and therefore you can makethe game last longer, depending
on the age and skill of theplayer.
(14:02):
You can kind of work that.
How you need to prolong gamemeans more practice time.
There's no fine motor componentand it does prove it executive
function, as you've got someplanning there.
A downside is it's frustratingfor some clients who lack that
strategy and there are fewertarget words with this game.
For example, for R you've gotred row drop strategy, that
(14:23):
you've got SNR together.
For S you've got place piecestack.
So not very many words, butit's really really great for
someone who is just making thatfirst entry into maybe using R
and they've only got the wordred or the word row or something
like that On to dominoes Notjust any dominoes, but a game
called chicken foot.
After I married my husband, ifound out that in order to
(14:45):
belong to the family, i had tolearn how to play chicken foot.
Chicken foot would take a longtime to describe all the ins and
outs of chicken foot, so I'mgoing to link to video that
describes how to play it.
But the main thing is that youare drawing tiles and you're
matching the spots, and ifsomeone gets a double, it means
you have a chicken foot andyou've got to put three dominoes
(15:07):
down that have that same number.
You can play several rounds andyou can add up points, but I
never do that in therapy.
We don't add up the points, weonly ever have time to play a
couple rounds.
Some of the pros for chickenfoot are you can use a specific
set of target words.
You get loads of single wordpractice if you want.
So what I do is I say whatevertile they drew, they can say
that word that we're practicinghowever many dots that are on
(15:30):
their tile, and you can choosejust one side of the tile or you
can choose both, but I mean ifthey got a double nine.
That'd be saying it 18 times.
That might be overkill.
So we usually just choose oneside and when they get a zero
they're like, yeah, i've got azero, i don't have to say any
word at all, and they think thatis great.
A downside is you need a largetable because it really spreads
(15:51):
out.
So just be thinking about that.
You don't always get to finishthe game, but you can finish a
round.
Finally, memory.
Everyone loves the memory game,sometimes called concentration.
You have matching cards and youlay them out face down, turn
the cards over, try and find thematch, try and remember the
cards that you have turned overso you can get the match and the
(16:12):
way we play it.
If you get a match, you get togo again.
So what I really love is when aclient starts getting matches
and they're remembering.
They get another match.
They get another match.
They're finishing the wholegame almost by themselves and
don't realize they're getting somuch practice.
Some of the pros for memory areyou can control the targets with
whatever cards you choose.
It's a really fast setup andyou can go from word to sentence
(16:33):
practice really easily, andthis is how I do it.
I'll tell them.
If you draw two cards thatdon't match, you say each word
three times or five times orwhatever you want them to do.
When you draw a match, you getto make a sentence.
Here's the cool thing.
I have our memory card sets inmy store.
I have 10 sets, and the reasonI created in that way is a
client may just be able to saywords that are row, for example,
(16:56):
so I've got a whole set of justrow words.
Or they might be able to sayjust words with raw.
They've just got that R plusthat vowel, and so you can have
a whole set with raw.
Or you can mix them up becauseI've got 10 different contexts.
A downside to memory isinterest in this game might
start to peter out around fifthgrade, but the younger crowd
love it.
They love it, love it, love itand are always happy to play it.
(17:17):
Words you can use besides thewords that are on the cards are
remember, recall, forgot whereFor, as you can have sentence or
select.
Now let's talk about some of theside benefits that happen when
you play these games.
They start to notice otherwords with their target sound.
As I mentioned at the beginning, they might not be able to say
(17:37):
those words yet that they notice.
But I tell them how awesome itis that they're noticing them,
even when they aren't wordsthey're responsible for.
Yet I really love to use thesegames to move clients from
single words to phrases.
I have this theory that I callthe magic of three, and that is
when a client can say a word ina three-word phrase and put that
(17:59):
word in various places in thephrase, they are really really
making lots of progress.
So let me just demonstrate.
Say, you have the word rightand they could say right one.
So then they put the R wordfirst, followed by another word,
or they could say the right.
Now they're moving from a wordbefore to R, the right, or then
(18:20):
they can do the right one and itcan become a longer sentence.
I have the right one.
So what I have noticed is thatwhen a client can put that R
word, if you're working on R inmultiple places in the phrase
and they don't have troubletransitioning to and from the R,
then motorically they've reallygot it, they've really figured
(18:41):
it out and they just need toremember how to keep that skill,
that relaxed production, inlonger and longer sentences.
So if they're still strugglingwith generalization and they
don't have the metoric problem,then that's a real good clue to
you to look at phonologicalawareness and self-monitoring
skills.
Well, that's it for today.
If you need to inject both funand ownership into a therapy
(19:04):
session, give these games a try.
Let me know how it turns outfor you And check out my R
memory cards.
I have 10 decks for you at mystore that's at
thespeechembrella.
com And let me know what gamesyou like.
I'm always up for buying moregames.
Thank you for joining me underthe Speech Umbrella today.
I hope you learned something tohelp you in your therapy.
If you did, please share thispodcast with a fellow speech
(19:26):
therapist and leave a 5-starreview on Apple, itunes, spotify
or wherever you get yoursubscriptions.
While you're online, come onover to thespeechembrella.
com, where you will findtranscripts, links and my free
resource library.
I also have some other valuablecourses and therapy aids in my
store.
That's all at thespeechembrella.
com.
Let's connect on social media.
(19:46):
I'm D Stratton SLP on Instagramand The Speech Umbrella on
Facebook and YouTube.
You can also find me on TPT.
I hope to talk to you soon.
Bye.
Dan Stratton (19:57):
Thanks for listening to The Speech Umbrella
.
We invite you to sign up forthe free resource library at
thespeechembrellacom.
You'll get access to some ofDenise's best tracking tools,
mindfulness activities and othergreat resources to take your
therapy to the next level.
All this is for free atthespeechembrella.
com.
If you've enjoyed this podcast,subscribe and please leave us a
(20:20):
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