Love it & List it Linky: Favorite therapy games

Posted by Emily Richardson in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

 

 

 

Jenna over at SpeechRoomNews has a fun linky to share some favorite therapy games.  I’ve got to admit, this is kind of a daunting task to choose just a handful of favorite therapy games!  I love seeing ideas of different games as well as a few common favorites!  I’m still in relaxed summer mode (yes, my alarm clock is still unplugged), however my mind is already racing as I prepare myself for the school year.  I’m getting ready to read through all the linky posts, which I’m sure means I’ll be heading over to Amazon tonight 🙂

So here are a few fan favorites in my therapy room:

1.  ZINGO!

I love this game!  I play it at home with my kids (ages 2, 5, 8) and it’s always requested by my students.  One aspect that I love is how adaptable it is across ages.  We own the original, numbers, and sight words.  I have been recommending the sight word version to parents in our RTI meetings and they have raved about how much their kids love playing it (without realizing they’re practicing!).  There are so many ways to incorporate articulation, communication, language, fluency, and literacy goals.  We also use the sight words version to work with sentence structure (kids create a sentence with each word or pairs on each turn).

brown bear zingo

I have been glued to pinterest this summer and came across a post by FumblingThruAutism about how she has expanded Zingo.  I’m looking forward to utilizing these templates to customize Zingo even more!

 

2.  Qwirkle

 This is another game that’s easy to adapt to suit any goal.  If a student is working on carryover of various sounds I will assign each sound to a color or shape.  Or I can use only one sound (/k/ for example) and have a list of words that goes with each shape and/or color.  Students can then practice the word list or creating a sentence with words from the corresponding list.  Language goals are incorporated the same way (each shape represents a category to list three items, etc).  It is very adaptable and I can target totally different goals between students in one group.

3.  Headbanz

I love this game for basic sentence creation, guessing by descriptive clues, labeling, questioning, and peer interaction.  I also use artic cards when I want to make sure I have a certain sound to target.  A huge fan favorite!

 

4.  Anything that hops

I have frogs and bunnies that I have picked up from party supply stores and Target (dollar section and seasonal area).  I have centered entire therapy sessions around this game as well as using it for rewards or incremental reinforcements.  Best dollar I ever spent!  I am the current champ of hopping frogs in my room 🙂

I hope this list has helped to inspire you for the upcoming school year!

 

4 Responses to Love it & List it Linky: Favorite therapy games

  1. Speech2u says:

    Great list-I haven’t seen Qwirkle before-it looks fun.

    Kelly
    Speech2u

    • Emily Richardson says:

      Thanks Kelly! It’s really fun and completely adaptable to any level or goal! It’s also great for those kiddos still trying to master colors and shapes.

  2. Jenna says:

    I need those Zingo inserts! Thanks for linking up!

    Jenna
    Speech Room News

    • Emily Richardson says:

      It made my day to see the expandable zingo! It’s such a fun way to customize a game to literacy/language units! Emily

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