Speech therapy can be hard work for kids – there’s no doubt about it!  For kids with motor speech difficulties, it’s especially true.  One of the key ingredients of motor speech therapy is repetition: each therapy session needs to pack in as many practice opportunities as possible.  Practice and repetition can help speech tasks go from hard and effortful to easy and automatic.  But kids are kids, so repetitive practice also has to be fun to keep them motivated.

So how do you create therapy activities that combine the ingredients kids need (practice, and lots of it!) with the ingredients kids love (having fun!)?   At The Speech and Stuttering Institute, our therapists are passionate about meeting this challenge for every child at every session.

We use child-friendly books, crafts, and games as tools that turn the hard work of therapy into enjoyable opportunities for speech practice.  For example, a child learning to control her jaw movements during speech may read a book about a frog who will repeatedly “hop” (a target word that uses a controlled open jaw position).  A child learning to control his lip movements during speech may play a game using the word “go” (with the target sound “o” providing practice for lip rounding).  The key is to address each child’s speech goals by choosing activities with lots of practice on relevant target words/phrases.

Folder Games are one of our favourite therapy tools for customizing speech practice while also promoting repetition in a fun way.  Folder games are activities contained within a single file folder.  With attractive artwork and motivating tasks, folder games offer highly focused speech practice opportunities, like pairing the word “eat” with the activity of giving the pictured animals their favourite foods to eat in this folder game.

This folder game is just one example of the dozens of folder games developed by SSI Speech-Language Pathologist Deb Goshulak (M.H.Sc., Reg. CASLPO) to support practice on a variety of motor speech goals.  There are 8 animals and 8 foods for them to “eat”, yet a surprisingly high number of practice opportunities are possible.  Practicing words with the vowel sound “ee,” as in the word “eat,” is one way to help children develop control of speech movements requiring lip retraction (i.e. labial-facial movement).  Here’s an example of how a speech therapist could give a young child 20 opportunities to produce the target word “eat” in just a few minutes of therapy time.

Example of a folder game routine for the target word “eat”

Opportunity Therapist says: Child says:
Introducing the activity Look.  All of these animals are so hungry.  They want to  eat.  They want to…. 1.      “eat”
Yummy! They each have a snack to: 2.      “eat”
Point to each animal. The cow is hungry. She wants to: 3.      “eat”
The elephant is hungry. He wants to: 4.      “eat”
The bunny is hungry. She wants to: 5.      “eat”
The horse is hungry. He wants to: 6.      “eat”
The monkey is hungry. She wants to: 7.      “eat”
The ladybug is hungry. He wants to: 8.      “eat”
The mouse is hungry. She wants to: 9.      “eat”
The dog is hungry.  He wants to: 10.    “eat”
Child gets to give each animal its food. Here’s your grass, cow…time to: 11.    “eat”
Here’s your peanut, elephant…time to: 12.    “eat”
Here’s your carrot, bunny…time to: 13.    “eat”
Here’s your apple, horse…time to: 14.    “eat”
Here’s your banana, monkey…time to: 15.    “eat”
Here’s your leaf, ladybug…time to: 16.    “eat”
Here’s your cheese, mouse…time to: 17.    “eat”
Here’s your bone, dog…time to: 18.    “eat”
Completing the activity All done…all the animals all got to: 19.    “eat”
Let’s put the foods back now so next time somebody else can help the animals: 20.    “eat”

 

With each turn, the therapist can provide modelling for imitation, supportive cueing, feedback on accuracy, praise, or correction as needed to help the child produce the target word accurately.

Folder games like this one are incredibly flexible for speech practice.  The same game could also be used to target the words “feed,” “food” or “mine” using a slightly different routine; likewise, phrases like “eat food,” “more food,” or “my food” can be built up after practice with single word targets has become successful.

In fact, folder games are so flexible that they can be used for many different therapy goals. For this game, vocabulary targets (animal names, food names) and expressive language targets (combining words into phrases, such as “eat banana” or “Monkey eats the banana”) come to mind.  Folder games can also help to establish therapy routines (turn taking, imitation, completing activities) and can bridge the gap between the therapy room and home practice when giving parents homework activities!

Will kids get tired of using the same folder game multiple times?  The answer is no!  If you prepare the game for multiple uses by laminating the folder and the pieces, and use a little bit of velcro on the moveable pieces to make them stay in place, a simple folder game can turn the hard work of speech therapy into a fun and interactive learning opportunity many times over.  Laminating makes each folder game durable for multiple uses over many years, and we all know how much kids love ripping and sticking velcro!  Parents who wish to use folder games for home practice can work with their SLP for guidance on routines that will support their child’s specific speech and/or language goals.

To download your FREE copy of the template for this folder game, please visit our Teachers Pay Teachers store.  There, you will find our other folder game templates for sale, along with assembly instructions and specific suggestions for motor speech goals/targets (words and phrases).  Funds raised by the sale of The Speech & Stuttering Institute’s Folder Games will support our clinical therapy programs, including subsidies for families who cannot afford treatment.

We would love to hear back from both speech therapists and families about all of the other creative uses of our folder games that you come up with, so be sure to leave a comment once you have tried each one!