29+ Best Speech Therapy Board Games

Welcome! Today’s blog post is going to be a fun one! I will be sharing my favorite speech therapy board games for working on our student’s language skills, social skills, and of course articulation skills.

I remember during my grad school days I got to observe a speech therapist in the elementary setting. She had two older students who were in the 5th grade who loved to play Guess Who. After watching their 30 minutes session I was amazed at how many language goals the therapist was able to work on in just one session and that it was done in such a fun way!

That got me hooked on the idea that therapy can be fun. It doesn’t have to be a boring drill after drill kind of thing. Don’t get me wrong I know some people think all speech-language pathologists in the school setting do is play games, but trust me there is SO much learning in play.

So let’s keep playing! 

Here is a list of speech therapy board games along with some therapy resources to help get you started.

1. Candyland – A Perfect Classic Game

Candyland is personally one of my favorite games to use during speech therapy. It is also a very popular game with my 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?

Articulation – Speech Sounds

• For every turn have your student practice their target word 1-3x.
• Have your students spin and then have them practice for each space they get to move ahead.
• If you’re feeling extra motivated you could put tape onto the draw cards and write their target words on the pieces of tape.
• Do you have students working on multiple different sounds? You could assign each color a different articulation sound they are working on for more fun and variety.
• You could also have a color chart and select one word per color and then each time your student gets a red card they could say their pre-selected word in red. 

Language Development

• Following Directions & Describing – For your younger students, they could work on following simple multi-step directions and or describing. For example, I’ve done it where I set up barriers between the students and have them spin for each other’s turn. The student who spun then describes to the other student where to go on the game board while the other student follows the directions from that student. 
• Colors – There is plenty of practice to identify colors. Plus you could do an extension activity and have the students name something that is the same color that they drew. For example, if they picked red they might say “a fire hydrant”, or if they picked yellow they might say “the sun”.
• Categories + Colors – Have your student identify the color they picked and then provide them with a category (animals, fruit, or things that move, etc.) and have them identify something in that category that is that color. For example, if your student gets the color green and is given the animal category maybe they would say “a lizard”.
• Describing – Prior to starting the game pick a student who has played the game before to describe the rules of the game to the group. You could also stop students along the way asking them to describe where on the game board they are at. 
• WH-Questions – As you play you can ask your student’s such questions as, “who is winning now?”, “Where did you move to?” “What color did you draw?”, “When is it your turn?”, “How many spaces did you move?”, “Why are you moving there?”, etc.
• Reasoning – A fun adaptation to the game is to let your student choose two cards instead of just one and let them choose which card they want and then have them explain their reasoning. For example, “I chose the double blue card because it will get me farther along the board than the one yellow card.” 
• Possessive Pronouns – Playing board games are a great way to work on the following possessive pronouns “mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, and theirs.” For example, you could ask, “Who’s turn is it?”

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as Candyland are a great way to teach my turn and your turn.
• Winning & Losing – You can also work on social and emotional regulation around winning and losing and the importance of good sportsmanship. 
• Conversational Skills – Prior to each student’s turn you could have them start a conversation based on a picture from the board game. Can you keep the conversation going for 2-3 exchanges? 

2. 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?

Language Skills

• Formulating Questions – This game is perfect for students who are working on expressively formulating wh-questions. For example, “Is your person wearing glasses?”
• 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 your own person. For example, “Does your person have a hat on?” The student responds with, “Yes!”.
• Deductive Reasoning / Critical Thinking – Guess Who is perfect for guessing a conclusion or creating a guess based on reasoning and evidence provided by others.

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.

3. What’s in Ned’s Head? – Speech Therapy Board Games

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.

Articulation 

• For another fun adaptation, you could grab your own items that all include your student’s articulation sound and include them in Ned’s head so each time they pick an item they would be working on their articulation sound as well.
• If you don’t have objects for your student’s articulation sound you could also use flashcards and simply use Ned’s head to have students grab their next articulation word.

Language Skills

• Describing – Reach through Ned’s nose or his ears and feel with your hands what you are touching. Describe what you feel.
• Deductive Reasoning – As you describe what you are grabbing can you use deductive reasoning to guess what it is? Is it a brain, a rat, or a tongue?
• Categories – You could have the student identify what category the item they pulled out belongs to. For a fun adaptation you could grab items from 1-3 categories you have from your speech room and put those in Ned’s head instead and then have your students practice categorizing the items as they come out. For example, you could put a plastic elephant, zebra, and lion inside that all go in the animal category along with a plastic apple, pear, and strawberry that all go in the fruit category, etc.
• Vocabulary – You could work on the vocabulary of the objects that come with Ned’s head or find your own vocabulary objects that you want your students to work on and put those objects inside of Ned’s head.

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Ned’s Head is also a great way to teach turn-taking skills. One student has to wait while the other student takes their turn.
• Joint Attention – You could work on joint attention by having one student put their hand inside Ned’s Head and then describe what they feel to the other student while the other student tries to guess what the student is touching.

4. Memory

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

Articulation 

• Do you have a favorite set of articulation cards? Simply make a copy or print a second set and play a round of memory!

Language Skills

• Vocabulary – Play a round of memory while your student works on their vocabulary skills. When your student makes a match have them define the word, use the word in a sentence, or identify a synonym or antonym of that vocabulary word.

5. Headbanz – Speech Therapy Board Games

I would consider Headbanz 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 kids. 

Language Skills

• 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”.
• Deductive Reasoning – After asking multiple questions and getting yes or no answers you can use deductive reasoning to guess what card is on your head.
• Categories – This game is also great for categories because you can use categories to help narrow down what card is on your head. For example, “Am I a piece of furniture?”, “Am I alive?”, “Am I an animal?” “Do I have 4 legs?”, etc.

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

6. Jenga

I frequently used Jenga for my high school students, especially for a fun articulation game. 

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.
• Do you have the colored Jenga set? You could assign each color a different articulation word and then when they pull out each color they could practice that assigned word for that specific color.

Language Skills

Another fun idea is to use the blocks as a barrier game by putting a file folder between two students.

• Following Directions / Describing – Using the barrier game idea above I have one student use the blocks to create something while they give directions to the other student who has to practice following the directions. 
• Compare & Contrast – Once the students are done with their barrier game I remove the barrier and have the students compare and contrast the similarities and differences between their two creations.
• Asking and Answering Questions – Lastly using that same barrier game if there are any differences between the two creations the students could ask and answer questions about what went wrong and why their two creations don’t look the exact same. 

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as Jenga are a great way to teach my turn and your turn.
• Winning & Losing – You can also work on social and emotional regulation around winning and losing and the importance of good sportsmanship. For example, not knocking down the whole tower, just because you think you are about to lose.
• Conversational Skills – Have a Jenga set you are okay with writing on? Write topics that your students could create a question about and ask a fellow student. For example, “favorite movie”, “If you could do anything…” Then can they keep the conversation going for 2-3 exchanges? 

7. Rory’s Story Cubes – Speech Therapy Board Games

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!

Language Skills

• Story Telling & Story Retell/Sequencing – Typically I’ll have one student roll the cubes and then create a story based on their cubes. I’ll then have the other student or students listen and then I pick one student to do the story retelling and sequencing.

8. Don’t Break the Ice or Don’t Drop Chase

I know this one can be a little loud but my students loved it. This is also a very versatile game in that you can use it as a reinforcement for most speech skills. 

Plus there are more than just the traditional Don’t Break the Ice game there are different themes like Don’t Drop Chase a Paw Patrol version.

Can’t handle this board game year-round? Tell your students this game is only during the holiday season or winter season to help save your sanity!

Articulation

• You can write with dry erase markers on the ice blocks so in the past I’ve done it where I write a number on the block and when they knock a block down they tell me the number and that is how many times they practice their word.

Language Skills

• Reinforcement for any Language Skills – For example, I’ve played Don’t Break the Ice where the students work on their language skills and with each practice or set of practice they “earn” a block and once they’ve earned all the blocks we take a quick break and play a round of Don’t Break the Ice.

9. Pop the Pig – Speech Therapy Board Games

Pop the Pig is another one of those perfect language games 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!

Articulation

• Have your students earn their game piece or “hamburgers” in this case to feed the pig by saying their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.

Language Skills

• Basic Concepts – open/close, big/little, in/out, hard/soft, empty/full, more/less
• Colors – Name all the different colors on the burgers.
• Body Parts – Have your student name all the body parts (head, arms, mouth, tongue, ears, feet, and eyes).
• Functional Phrases – “I want…”, “Can I have…”, “Give me…”, “Feed the pig…,”
• Verbs – pop, feed, eat, flip, push, roll
• Nouns – chef, spatula, apron, burger, hat, bow, oven mitts, shoes, pants
• Following Simple Directions – “put in”, “give me”, “pop”, “open”, “push”
• Requests – “more”, “open”, “close”, “pop”
• Sequencing – What happens first? What do you do next?

10. 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.

Language Skills

• Vocabulary – There are tons of vocabulary words with this game. Each card is double sided meaning there are over 1,000 different vocabulary words in this game alone.
• Categories – Have your students identify the category of the two words and then add more words to that same category. For example, if they have the words beach ball and tire and say, “they are similar because they are both in the shape of a circle” they could then identify other objects that would fit into the circle category like a “doughnut, baseball, or a button.”
• Comparisons – This game is perfect for comparisons because that’s exactly what the game is! Take a card from your set of 5 and try to create word relationships with a picture from the two cards in the center. Be sure to explain how your card compares and connects to the other card. For example, if the card in the center was a beach ball and they had a surfboard in their set of 5 cards they might say, “A beach ball and a surfboard can both be found at the beach.”
• 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.

11. Spot It – Speech Therapy Board Games

Spot It was definitely one of my students’ favorites and I’m not going to lie it was one of mine too. 

The object of the game is simple, simply flip over two cards that both contain multiple object pictures then try to spot the two identical objects from each card. When you flip over any two cards there will always be only two images that match. The first to spot it wins that card. 

This game is great if you need something fast pace or to get multiple practice opportunities in one session. 

Articulation

• Have your student say the word that they match or put that word in a sentence. Fingers crossed it has their articulation word in it! If not you could have a set of flashcards that they use after each time they match a set of pictures. 
• Use a premade deck of Spot It cards with your student’s articulation sound already included.

Language Skills

• Categories – Have your student identify which category the matched word goes in. For example, if the matched word is an elephant they could say, “zoo animal”. For an added challenge you could then have them name 3 more items that would fall into that same category. So sticking with the zoo animal category they might say, “penguin, giraffe, and lion.”
• Compare & Contrast – After the student matched the words you could have them compare & contrast the two cards. 
• Colors & Size – Could identify the colors and size of the matched item.

12. 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.

Language Skills

• Vocabulary – Have your student identify the correct vocabulary word given a definition or clue to the word.
• Making Inferences – Using the clues and information given the students make inferences about the correct vocabulary word. 
• Listening Comprehension – Students must listen carefully to understand the clue they are given.
• Word Retrieval – Also great for working on word retrieval.

13. Go Fish – Speech Therapy Board Games

Go Fish was a staple in my therapy room. It’s quick and easy to set up and most kids already know how to play.

Articulation

• For every turn have your student practice their target word 1-3x.
• Use a premade deck of Go Fish Cards with your student’s articulation sound already included.

Language Skills

• Requesting – This card game is perfect for practicing requesting from others. For example, “Connor do you have a duck?”
• Describing – A fun adaptation I’ve done is instead of naming the picture you could have your students make requests by describing the object that they are requesting. For example, if they are requesting a duck they could say, “Connor do you have a bird that is yellow, says quack, waddles, and loves water?”.

14. Apples to Apples Junior

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

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 most favorite red card. 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!

Articulation

• I love using this game for articulation carryover for students who are working at the sentence level or conversation level. We simply play the game and then work on their sound naturally as it comes up in the game in conversation. Or grab a premade apples-to-apples articulation set here.

Language Skills

• Vocabulary – Have your students pick out the best vocabulary card from their hand to match up with the descriptive green card. After the judge picks the winner you could have each student explain why they chose the card that they did.
• Comparing & Contrasting – Once the judge has made their decision I’ve also played where I have my students compare and contrast the different red noun cards that were played. How are they all similar and how are they different?
• Describing – A fun adaptation is to reverse the game. Instead of playing a green adjective down and then having students pick the best nouns, I give my students all green adjective cards and then place a red noun down. For example, if I laid down the red noun “soup” then students pick the best adjective cards to describe soup. They might put down words, such as “creamy”, “hot”, or “tasty”. I then have students explain why they chose the card that they did.
• Categories – Another fun adaptation I’ve done is to give each student their own green card and then pick 2 correct nouns and 1 incorrect noun for that green adjective (I typically give my students more red cards for this adapted version to work better). The other students in the group then try to guess the 2 correct nouns and the 1 incorrect noun for that green card category.  For example, if the green card is “gooey” they might put down “candy”, “slime”, and “rock”. The other students would then categorize the two gooey items could be candy and slime while the rock doesn’t fit that category. For another extension activity, you could have each student then add an additional item to that category “gooey”. One might say “play-doh”, and another might say “cookie batter”.

SEE ALSO: Reinforcement Games for Speech Therapy/Teletherapy

15. Pop up Pirate – Speech Therapy Board Games

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

Articulation

• Have your students earn their swords by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• This game is also perfect for a student working on /r/ and /r-blends/ to work on articulation words while they play, such as “sword”, “barrel”, “treasure”, “red” “pirate”, “arrrgh”, “green”, “my turn”, “your turn”.

Language Skills

• Colors & Requesting – Have your students request the color of the sword they wish to have. 
• Prepositions – Hide the swords around the room. Then tell the student where to find a sword. For example, “look under your chair”, “look in that pen holder”, “look behind that door”, etc.

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.
• Winning & Losing – You can also work on winning and losing and the importance of good sportsmanship.

Fun fact – There is also a Pop Up T-Rex version that is super fun! You simply have your students stick dinosaur bones into the high-voltage dinosaur barrel and then when you least expect it pop goes the baby T-Rex.

16. Crocodile Dentist

The Crocodile Dentist game is super easy to step up and 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!

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to be a dentist by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.

Language Skills

• Naming Colors – Want to make a fun modification to your crocodile game? Try coloring each of the teeth with permanent markers and then have your students name the color they want to push down. Or simply tell them which color to push down to add in the skill of following directions.
• Requesting – A fun adaptation is to gather some small objects from around your office and have your students feed the crocodile prior to pushing down on a tooth. For example, your student could make the following request, “Can I have the apple?”
• Following Directions – Another fun adaptation would be to tell your student what to do. For example, you could say, “Feed the crocodile the banana and then the apple.”
• Describing – If you have mini objects to feed the crocodile you could have your students describe the object prior to feeding it to the crocodile. For example, if you have a mini plastic banana the student could first describe it by saying, “it’s yellow, you can peel it, you can eat it, and you can smoosh it.”

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.
• Winning & Losing – You can also work on winning and losing and the importance of good sportsmanship.

17. Yeti in My Spaghetti – Speech Therapy Board Games

Are you looking for a game with a simple setup? Yeti in My Spaghetti is the game for you! Simply place the noodles over the bowl and then place the yeti on top. Students play by pulling a noodle out one at a time without letting the yeti fall in their spaghetti!

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to pull a piece of spaghetti by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• If you have a student working on s-blends you could focus on using the word spaghetti as you play. For example, “Don’t let the yeti fall in your spaghetti”, “Oh no, the yeti fell in my spaghetti”, “Can I put the noodles on the spaghetti bowl?”, or “It’s my turn to not let the yeti fall in my spaghetti.”

Language Skills

• Spatial Concepts – Perfect for working on the spatial concepts of “on” and “off”. For example, using the phrases “Put the yeti on top of the spaghetti.”, “Pull the spaghetti off.”, “Put the spaghetti on the bowl.”, or “The yeti fell off the spaghetti.”

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.

18. Jeepers Peepers

The Jeepers Peepers game is similar to Headbanz in that each student is given glasses with a picture attached. The students then take turns asking questions to find out what they might be.

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to ask a question by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• Pick out words that have your student’s articulation sound in them and then when they guess what they are they can then practice that word 5-10x.

Language Skills

• Asking & Answer Yes or No Questions – Have students ask yes or no questions about their own cards and then practice answering yes or no questions about other students’ cards.
• Categorizing – Once the student guesses their card have them decide which category their card goes in. You could even extend this a little bit farther and have your students name additional things in that category. For example, if they were a train. They would say that goes in the “transportation” category and then they could name 3 other types of transportation, such as “car”, “bus”, and “plane”.
• Describing – A fun adaption is to play in reverse and instead of having each student ask yes or no questions about their own card when it is their turn they can give one description clue to each student.

19. Sneaky Squirrel – Speech Therapy Board Games

The Sneaky Squirrel is played by spinning the spinner and use your Squirrel Squeezer to grab the matching acorn, then place it in your log. The first player to collect 5 acorns wins!

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to spin by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• Also, this game would be perfect for a student working on the /k/ sound. They could say things like, “my acorn is red”, “I’m missing the yellow and blue colored acorns”, “it’s my turn to spin for an acorn”, etc.

Language Skills

• Naming Colors – Have students name the color that they spin. Then place that color onto their corresponding color on their log. 
• Strategic Thinking – If they land on “steal an acorn” can they be strategic and know which color they need based on what’s missing from their log?

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.
• Winning & Losing – You can also work on winning and losing and the importance of good sportsmanship, because sometimes the sneaky squirrel robes you of your acorns or the wind blows them all off the tree and then you just might lose.

20. Caribou

This game 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.

Articulation

• Pick out words or create cards with your student’s sounds included to use while playing the game.
• Or have your students earn their turn by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.

Language Skills

• Vocabulary – Have students name the vocabulary word they want to open. 
• Wh-Questions – Practice wh-questions by asking a question to lead your student to a card. For example, you could have occupations and ask who takes care of people’s teeth. The student could then look for a picture of a dentist. 
• Categorization – Have your students identify which category the word goes in. For example, if they wanted to open the picture of a school bus they could put it in the transportation category. 
• Spatial Concepts – Give your students spatial directions such as next to, under, beside, above, etc.
• Expanding Utterances – Have your students practice expanding utterances using a carrier phrase, such as “I opened the …” or “I found…”
• Similarities / Differences – Have your student pick two pictures to open and explain how the two pictures are either similar or different.

SEE ALSO: 917+ Free Boom Cards for Speech Therapy

21. Zingo – Speech Therapy Board Games

Zingo is a fun and fast pace game. The dealer operates the Zingo by sliding it forward and then back to reveal two tile cards. Each student has a Zingo board (just like a bingo card). If you have one of the tiles on your Zingo board you simply call out your tile. You then get to place the tile onto your Zingo board. The first player to cover all 9 of their spaces shouts, “ZINGO” and they win.

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to slide the Zingo by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• If you have a student working on S-blends you could have them say, “slide” each time they slide the Zingo.
• If you have a student working on CH you could have them say if they have a “match” or “no match”.

Language Skills

• Vocabulary – Have students name/label the vocabulary word they just won. 
• Wh-Questions – Based on the card they drew you could ask them a wh-question. For example, if they won the word foot you could ask a question like, “What do people wear on their feet?”
• Categorization – Have your students identify which category the word goes in. For example, if they got the picture of a shoe they could put it in the clothing category. You could even have them go another step further and have them name 3 other items in that category. For example, with the clothing category, they could add pants, shirts, and sweaters.

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.
• Winning & Losing – You can also work on winning and losing and the importance of good sportsmanship.

22. Cat Crimes

Cat Crimes is played by selecting a challenge card and then placing the corresponding crime token on the game board. Then have your students follow the directions on the challenge card to help solve the mystery. This game is perfect for problem-solving and following directions.

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to help solve the crime by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• If you have a student working on the initial K sound you could have them say, “cat” each time they place a cat on the board game.

Language Skills

• Following Directions – Have your students take turns following the directions on the challenge card in order to help solve the crime.

Social Skills

• Problem Solving – Use the clues on the challenge card in order to help solve the different cat crimes.

23. Hiss! – Speech Therapy Board Games

The Hiss game is perfect for younger kids and is a great game for reinforcement. The object of the game is to collect the most cards by building snakes of all sizes.

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to get another card by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• If you have a student working on the S sound you could have them say, “hiss” each time they place a card onto a snake.

Language Skills

• Use as a Reinforcement – Have your students work on whatever skill they are working on and use the snake cards as a form of reinforcement for each set that they practice their language skills.
• Color Identification – Have your student name the color of the card that they are matching with another card already on the table.

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.

24. Bubble Talk – Speech Therapy Board Games

The Bubble Talk game is played similarly to Apples to Apples, but instead of all words, you start with the judge flipping over a photo of a person or an animal. Then everyone else selects a “caption” for the photo from their set of cards face down. The judge then selects the best “caption” and the winner gets to keep their caption card. The person with the most caption cards at the end of the game wins.

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to get another card by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• If you have any students working on articulation in conversation this is a great game for conversation.

Language Skills

• Describing – Have your students working on describing describe the attributes in the photo.
• Inference / Predictions – Many of the photos are great for making inferences or predictions about what might happen next. You can ask the students, “After looking at the photo what do you think might happen next?”
• Context Clues – In order to make guesses or predictions about the photos it requires students to look at the context clues first in order to make their predictions. They could make their predictions and then have them explain what context clues made them make that guess.
• Answering Wh-Questions – You could ask your students questions about the photo. For example, if the photo was of a dog with a cat in his mouth you might ask, “Who is in the dog’s mouth?” or “Why is the cat not scared?”

Social Skills

• Conversational Skills – This game is perfect for having a conversation about the pictures. One student could initiate a conversation about the photo and then other students could practice asking follow-up questions.
• Emotions – Identify the emotions of the person or the animals and have your students explain why they think they might be feeling that way.
• Identify What’s Odd or Silly – Identify what’s odd or silly in the photo. For example, the photo of the cat laying in the dog’s mouth is silly because it looks like the dog is going to eat the cat, but the cat looks comfy like they are friends.

25. Shark Bite – Speech Therapy Board Games

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!

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to go fishing by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• If you have any students working on the SH sound this is a great game for having your students say a sentence such as, “I hope the shark doesn’t bite”.

Language Skills

• Use as a Reinforcement – Have your students work on whatever skill they are working on and use the fishing rod as a form of reinforcement for each set where they practice their language skills.
• Color Identification – Have your students name the color of the sea creature that they catch.

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.
• Winning & Losing – You can also work on winning and losing and the importance of good sportsmanship because sometimes the shark might bite and then you just might lose.

26. Granny’s Candies – Speech Therapy Board Games

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.

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.

Language Skills

• Category – Have your students name the category of the words given.
• What belongs? / What doesn’t belong? – Have your students identify what goes together and what doesn’t.
• How are they different? / How are they the same? – Have your students describe how two things are different or the same.
• Action Word / Adjective Word – Have your students finish/complete the sentence using an action word or adjective word.

Fun Fact – There are also two additional add-on sets you can grab!

• Set 2 Includes: Synonyms, Opposites, Homonyms, Homophones, Heteronyms, Idioms, Similes, and Metaphors
• Set 3 Includes: Regular Past Tense, Irregular Past Tense, Is-Are, Was-Were, Has-Have, Do-Does, Verb + ing, Main Verbs and Helping Verbs, Subject-Verb Agreement, Active-Passive Voice, Past, Present, and Future Tense, Contractions

SEE ALSO: Free Articulation Games for Speech Therapy

27. Connect Four – Speech Therapy Board Games

Connect Four is a classic game that is great for using as a form of reinforcement for any skill your student is working on. This game is also simple to learn and quick to set up.

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn to place a piece on the connect four board by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.

Language Skills

• Use as a Reinforcement – Have your students work on whatever skill they are working on and use their turn as a form of reinforcement for each set that they practice their language skills.

28. Go for the Dough – Speech Therapy Board Games

Do your students love pizza? Enjoy this fun game Go for the Dough of delivering pizzas while increasing 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.

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.

Language Skills

• Synonyms – Have your student identify another word that means the same thing as the word on the card.
• Rhyming Words – Read the word on the card and then have your student identify a rhyming word.
• Opposites – Identify the opposite of the word given on the card. For example, if the card says hot the opposite would be cold. 
• Categories – The card names a category and then have your student identify different words within that category.
• Multiple Meaning Words – Have your student identify the two different meanings of the word listed on the card.
• Definitions – Have your student provide a definition of the word listed on the card.

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.

29. Don’t Wake Daddy – Speech Therapy Board Games

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.

Articulation

• Have your students earn their turn by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.

Language Skills

• Use as a Reinforcement – Have your students work on whatever skill they are working on and use their turn as a form of reinforcement for each set that they practice their language skills.
• Color Identification – Have your student’s name the color of their card.

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.
• Winning & Losing – You can also work on winning and losing and the importance of good sportsmanship because sometimes daddy might wake and then you just might lose.

30. Jumping Jack – Speech Therapy Board Games

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!

Articulation

• Have your students earn their carrots by practicing their articulation words 1-3x from a list or from a flash card set.
• This game is also perfect for a student working on /r/ and /r-blends/ to work on articulation words while they play, such as “carrot”, “green”, “orange”, “rabbit”, “my turn”, and “your turn”.

Language Skills

• Prepositions – Hide the carrots around the room. Then tell the student where to find a carrot. For example, “look under your chair”, “look in that pen holder”, “look behind that door”, etc.

Social Skills

• Turn Taking – Structured games such as this are a great way to teach turn-taking skills.
• Winning & Losing – You can also work on winning and losing and the importance of good sportsmanship.

BONUS – Digital Games

Although traditional board games are fun there are times when you might be looking for online games as well. 

If this is you I’ve got you covered! 

Here are my other online board games lists with a lot of games to choose from that might be worth checking out:

• Boom Cards – Here is a list of over 917 Boom Cards divided up into the different speech therapy skills that they are working on.
• Reinforcement Games – If you wish you had a list of games of all types that could be for reinforcement be sure to check out this list of 21 websites ranging from PBS Kids, toy theater, name game (also known as the wheel of names), pink cat games from pink cat studio, and Disney now games (previously called Disney LOL). This list is perfect for younger children.
• Educational Games – Are you simply looking for digital communication skills materials for your students that cover a variety of speech goals? Be sure to check out my list of over 279 free resources from teachers pay teachers. Did I mention the whole list is free?!
• Children of All Ages – Here is a list of over 41 free online speech therapy activities to add some fun activities to your speech therapy sessions this school year. This list includes everything from national geographics kids to highlights kids. 
• Mouse Control – If you’re thinking all of these digital resources sound amazing and are wondering how to give your students mouse control check out my favorite and one of the best ways to do just that!

In Conclusion: Speech Therapy Board Games

I hope you’ve enjoyed this list of board games and that it brings you and your students a lot of fun this school year and in the many years to follow. 

Life is allowed to be dare I say fun! 

Cheers to bringing you more fun this year.

P.S. What’s your favorite board game and how do you use it with your speech therapy students? I’d love to add your idea to the list above.

Want Even More Games for Speech Therapy?

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