Teletherapy Speech Therapy Games and Motivators

Many of us are looking for teletherapy speech therapy resources or distance learning ideas. Here in Ohio, the school buildings are shut down for the remainder of the 2019-2020 academic year- but the learning is continuing online. Like many SLPs, I’m figuring this out as I go. I wanted to share a collection of ideas and resources for motivating students during teletherapy.

Free Online Games for Speech Therapy

Okay, technically, these games are not designed for speech therapy, but they’re working well enough as motivators during teletherapy. We are using Google Meet, and this platform limits me to simply “presenting” my screen– or physically showing a motivator. To be fair, Google Meet wasn’t designed for teletherapy purposes.

In the chaotic rush of the final day of work and the mandated school closure, I left most of my games at work- but I do have a few games at home that I’m borrowing from my son, including Pop’ Minions (Tomy®). I’ve been “taking turns” for my students and myself, and it’s working okay. So is holding up a whiteboard and drawing a tic-tac-toe board or hangman game. Simple games like “feed the monster” or “at home” scavenger hunts can still work, too, in some cases.

I wanted a few online options as well, however. I also wanted to find websites that didn’t require me to download anything to use the activity.

Here’s the list I came up with:

• Online Tic-Tac-Toe is a good option, via playtictactoe.org
• Coin Flip: My students enjoyed calling heads or tails with this random coin spinner from justflipacoin.com
• Wheel of Names– this random name picker can be used in SO many ways- it lets you type in words, add pictures, then click to spin the wheel. THANK YOU to the amazing SLP who shared this idea in a FB group, Mandy. She added vocabulary pictures from her student’s AAC device to the wheel. I was able to use this by adding vocalic /r/ words, then spinning.
• Roll an Online Die: if your kids are used to rolling dice in speech therapy, this is a great way to keep doing that virtually. You could assign a number to target word, and there you go: instant teletherapy activity, that just requires sharing your screen.
• Online whiteboard options: check out Whiteboard Fox – this is interactive, and you don’t need to download anything to use it. You can email the link to your student, and you can both draw or type on it. Plus, you can add pictures. Here’s an article with some other online whiteboard ideas.
• I haven’t tried Jumper Frog with a student yet, but I bet some of them would love to watch you try to move your frog across the street/ pond to safety.
• ABCYA has lots of games, but this simple Counting Fish game might be a motivating way to get articulation trials completed. Maybe they count the fish, then say their word that many times?
• In a recent Instagram post, The Type B SLP shared that pinkcatgames.com has TONS of free games you can play with your students.

I’d love to hear from you in comments- what are some easy online games your students are finding motivating during teletherapy?

Also, if you are in need of distance learning/ teletherapy materials, here is a link to my digital resources.