25+ Best Speech Therapy Games {Online & Board Games}

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If you’re looking for the best speech therapy games then you’re in the right place. This blog post has over 25 of my favorite simple games to play in the speech room!

As a Speech-Language Pathologist, these are my favorite games to use during a speech therapy session.

Using games in therapy can be a great way to work on everything from your child’s speech to speech sounds, to social skills.

Language Development

1. Apples to Apples Jr.

Apples to Apples is a classic game for working on vocabulary skills. One student is the judge and picks a green card from the pile. The green cards are adjectives, such as “chewy”, “chilly”, or “round”.

For example, if a student who is the judge picks the green adjective card “chilly” and then the other students hand over their perfect red noun vocabulary cards the judge then picks their favorite red card.

The next player and other students then pick a red noun vocabulary word from their pile of red cards.

The judge will then rotate giving each student a chance to be the judge. The winner of each round gets to keep their green card and whoever has the most green cards at the end wins!

If you have any articulation students on your caseload, then you might want to check out my Apples to Apples Articulation Game Bundle from my TPT store.

2. Go for the Dough

Do your students love pizza? Enjoy this little game Go for the Dough of delivering pizzas while increasing your student’s needs with vocabulary skills.

Children drive their cars around the game board while delivering pizzas. As they go around the board they choose a Super Dough Dollar. Each Super Dough Dollar has a skill to practice on it.

You can choose one category/skill to work on or you can mix and match different categories to work on. For example, there are synonyms, rhyming words, opposites, categories, multiple meaning, and definitions.

3. Granny’s Candies

Granny’s Candies is a perfect game for working on vocabulary! This game comes with 672 word meaning cards to work on multiple semantic goals.

Picture Cards

4. Memory

Memory, also known as a matching game, is a perfect game to target skills, such as articulation and vocabulary.

This game is also easy to create your own version of and simply print two sets of the words you want your student to work on.

I also, like sending this game home to practice with family members as it is easy to set up and is a quick game to play. Plus there is no game piece that needs to be sent home.

Classic Game

5. Candyland

Candyland is personally one of my favorite games to use as a speech language pathologist. It is also a very popular game with my school-age children and students.

Not only is it a classic board game (don’t worry I have new games listed below as well), but you can target so many different skills all in one game.

The possibilities are simply endless making it one of the best board games to play.

Also, when you use it as a form of reinforcement it allows each student to work on their own targets while all playing one game.

Plus did I mention it’s just a fun game in general to play?

In need of a game companion for Candyland? Be sure to check out this free CandyLand Game Companion: “Wh” Questions from Rachel’s Resources.

Young Children – Early Intervention

The best way to get your younger children or elementary students engaged in therapy is to use fun and quick reinforcement games.

These games are also perfect for working on turn-taking skills and fine motor skills.

6. Pop the Pig

Pop the pig is another one of those perfect language games that most speech therapists should have on hand that can be used for so many different goals.

The kiddos roll the dice, feed the pig a hamburger in his mouth, and then pump his head. When you pump his head his belly starts to grow until it eventually pops (side note, this is also a great activity for students who are working on their fine motor skills).

The kids love the suspense of when will the pig…pop!

7. Pop the Pirate

Need a game for your younger children?

Pop the Pirate is similar to the game Pop the Pig. Simply have your students take turns putting their colorful swords into the barrel. Then if the pirate pops you’re out.

Kids love the suspense of waiting for the pirate to come flying out of the barrel!

This game is also perfect for a student working on /r/ and /r-blends/ to work on articulation words while they play, possible target words are “sword”, “barrel”, “treasure”, “red” “pirate”, “arrrgh”, “green”, “my turn”, “your turn”.

8. Shark Bite

Shark Bite is a super fun game for little ones!

Have them grab their fishing rod in order to pull out the sea creatures one at a time, but beware if you grab the wrong one the shark will bite!

9. Don’t Wake Daddy

Don’t Wake Daddy is another fun suspense filled game that is perfect for younger kids and is a great game for reinforcement.

The object of the game is to creep along the board game to the fridge for a midnight snack without waking daddy.

If you land on a space that doesn’t match the pictures and numbers on your card then you have to press the alarm clock and daddy will either sleep through his alarm or suddenly pop up in bed.

10. Jumping Jack

Jumping Jack is similar to the game Pop the Pig.

Simply have your students take turns pulling the carrots out of the garden. Then if the rabbit jumps out, you’re out.

Kids love the suspense of waiting for the rabbit to come flying out of the garden!

11. Crocodile Dentist

Crocodile Dentist is a super easy game to step up and is a great game that can be used as a reinforcement game.

Simply open the crocodile’s mouth and take turns being a dentist and pushing down on the crocodile’s teeth.

Just make sure you don’t push down on his sore tooth because he will chomp down on your dentist’s hand and you’ll be out!

Card Games

12. Go Fish

Go Fish was a staple in my therapy room. It’s one of those therapy sessions that is quick and easy to set up and most kids already know how to play this standalone game.

If you have students working on their articulation skills then be sure to check out my Go Fish Articulation bundle from my TPT Store.

Articulation Games

13. Articulation Therapy Activities

Here is a list of my top 11 articulation therapy games.

Online Resources

14. Online Games

I’ve gone ahead and compiled a complete list of 41+ online speech therapy games. The list includes educational games, such as from the great website PBS kids.

Best Board Games

15. Favorite Board Games

Check out my complete list of 29+ popular board games along with different therapy ideas!

Language Therapy

16. Guess Who?

Guess Who is a great game when it comes to language therapy. Not only is it great for working on expressive language skills but it’s also perfect for working on receptive language skills.

This was one of my most requested board games from the older children on my caseload. They seemed to love the mystery-solving piece of the game. I mean what kid doesn’t want to be a detective when they grow up?

Have your students practice formulating questions, answering yes or no questions, using deductive reasoning and critical thinking to help solve the mystery.

Fun fact – There is also a Disney version of Guess Who along with a Guess Where board game version. However, the Guess Where game seems impossible to find… so I’m not sure about that one, but it does sound perfect for our students answering where questions if you’re able to find one.

Older Students

17. Rory’s Story Cubes

If you have students working on story retell or sequencing Rory’s Story Cubes just might be a perfect game for you.

It’s as simple as rolling the cubes and then creating a story based on the images you are given on your cubes.

There are multiple ways to play you can have the first player roll the cubes and create a story all by themselves using all 9 cubes or have students take turns each using some of the cubes.

Either way, you will have a silly story I’m sure!

Wh Questions

18. Pickles to Penguins

Pickles to Penguins is one of my favorite card games for speech therapy when working on language goals.

Each player is dealt a set of double-sided vocabulary cards. Then two cards from the draw pile are turned over and the object of the game is to make a connection between two of the cards.

The actual game is done as a race with everyone going at once, but I typically do it with one student at a time and give each student the processing time that they need.

Describing or Answering Wh- Questions – They could also describe the picture card that they are using to make a match. For example, answering “What is it made of?”, What size is it?” “Where might you find this object?”, “Who might use this object?”, “What is the object used for?”, etc.

Real Pictures

19. Blurt

Blurt is another game that is perfect for working on vocabulary skills.

One player reads the definition or “clue” and then the other students race to blurt out the correct word.

For example, the “clue” might be “What word means a partially dried grape?” Then the first student to blurt out “raisin” wins.

Interactive Games

20. Digital Materials

Be sure to check out my complete list of 279+ free digital therapy materials to make your lessons more digitally interactive.

Motivating Game

21. Boom Cards

Boom cards can be very motivating for students who need to work on their therapy skills or get bored or distracted easily.

You can check out my list of a lot of games 917+ free boom cards here.

Most Popular Game

22. Caribou

Caribou is a fan favorite!

Sadly, this board game is no longer being made and sold, however, it can be frequently found at Goodwill.

The game is played by finding all the hidden balls. To find the balls the student gets to use the key to open the doors. Keep all the balls on the right-hand side of the game and once you collect all the balls the treasure box opens.

What’s great about this game is that you can even create your own cards making the game target exactly what your students are working on.

Body Parts

23. Mr. Potato Head

Mr. Potato Head – Grab your favorite Mr. Potato Head and practice using your requesting body parts. Possible r words (ear, arm, red, green, “I need the _____ for Mr. Potato Head.”).

Mr. Potato Head Interactive – There is also an online version where you can have your student request and make Mr. Potato head on the computer!

Articulation Blocks

24. Jenga

I frequently used Jenga for my middle school and high school students, especially for a fun way to practice articulation.

Jenga is also just one of those open-ended games that can be used for many skills.

Articulation

For every turn have your student practice their target word 1-3x.
If you’re feeling extra motivated you could put tape onto the Jenga pieces and write their target words on the pieces of tape creating articulation blocks.
Do you have the colored Jenga set? You could assign each color a different sound and then when they pull out each color they could practice that assigned word for that specific color.

Answering Questions

25. Hedbanz

I would consider Hedbanz to be similar to the game Guess Who, however, there are more questions you can ask and more options for the correct answer making it more fun for older children.

Formulating Questions – This game is perfect for students who are working on expressively formulating wh-questions. For example, “Am I a type of fruit?”
Answering Yes Or No Questions – In addition to formatting great questions to solve the mystery you also have to answer yes or no questions about other people’s cards on their heads. For example, “No, you are not a person”.

Fun facts – There are also different versions of this one including a Disney theme one and a blast-off version where you have to guess what you are before your card flies off your head!

Fun Therapy Ideas

26. Ned’s Head

During my first year as an SLP in the elementary setting, I inherited some games that had been left in my speech room from the previous SLP and Ned’s Head just happened to be one of those games.

I remember the first time I looked through it to see how I could use it in therapy and thinking, “This game is gross!”, but I quickly came to love it for all of the language targets you could incorporate into it.

It’s one of those super simple games, but a highly engaging game due to the silliness of the game itself.

In Conclusion: Best Speech Therapy Games

I hope you’ve enjoyed this list of different games to work on communication skills and that it brings you and your students a lot of fun this school year from working on vocabulary words to articulation skills to social communication skills.

Cheers to bringing you more fun this year.

P.S. What’s your favorite speech therapy game and how do you use it to work on specific skills in your private practice or in your speech therapy practice? I’d love to add your idea to the list above.

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