My Most Useful Therapy Materials - for Children and Adults

I’m currently in my clinical fellowship for speech-language pathology at two elementary schools, but have had pediatric experience in a hospital, preschool, early intervention, and private practice. I’ve also had adult experience with aphasia, fluency and gender spectrum voice therapy. Here are the materials I’ve found most useful and have taken with me from setting to setting!

Children

1. Sentence strips: These can be purchased pre-made or even handwritten on paper or a white board! Just a visual of the text and/or with photos have been helpful. I always have visuals of “I want ___” and “I see ___” on hand to support my early language clients! Sentence strips for questions or expected turns in games are helpful too (e.g., “Do you have ____?” for Go Fish). 

2. Speech sound cue cards: Any visuals of mouth/lip placement or Bjorem speech cue cards are always good on hand to provide that visual cue for clients. 

3. Connect 4: virtually or in real life! Great to facilitate turn taking, elicit multiple trials for any goal, or use as a reinforcer. 

4. Wordless Picture books and Videos: My favorite is Simon’s Cat videos. Great to practice story retell, sequencing, and to get a language sample! Tip: screenshot stills of the video and have clients reorder the pictures to practice sequencing. 

5. Simon Says: Such a hit to practice following directions and you can even find Simon Says songs on YouTube. 

6. Wind up toys: A rewarding task to elicit language - action words, turn taking, requesting, labeling, and more 

7. Build a Scene: this can be virtual (on Boom Cards) or in-person with stickers or paper and glue. I’ve used this to target plenty of goals- requesting, prepositions, taking turns, and following directions to name a few. It can also be used as a reinforcer for any other goal. 

Adults

1. Likert scales: I develop Likert scales with my adult clients so they can gauge how their progress (e.g. rate of speech, desired voice, fluency, etc.). They define what their goal is (e.g. a 4 on a scale from 0-7 for rate of speech), and how they are progressing throughout treatment. 

2. Body scans: Create or find your own meditation and body scans for adults to listen to at the start of sessions! This helps them to focus in on their speech time, pay attention to any tension or pain, and to practice diaphragmatic breathing. 

3. Personalized functional phrases: At the start of treatment for adult clients, I like to create a list of words and phrases that they say each day. It can be anything like “What’s the weather today?” or “I’ll have a carnitas burrito.” Another example would be their coffee order! I like to use this to help with generalization or to assign practicing their targets with these phrases as homework.

I hope you found this helpful! I use these week to week with all of my clients, for a variety of goals and paired with a variety of other activities! These have really helped to keep the objective of each session clear and also keep my clients engaged.

Author: Regina del Carmen, M.S., CF-SLP