5 Speech Therapy Articulation Activities for Older Students

Speech therapy articulation activities that will engage older students can be a little more difficult to find. If you’re on the hunt for articulation activities that won’t have your older speech therapy students rolling their eyes, keep on reading!

Some Older Students Feel Like They’ve Been in Speech Therapy for… forever

When you’re working with older students on articulation in speech therapy, they sometimes feel like they’ve been in speech “forever”. I’m sharing my absolute favorite articulation activities that you can use with your older students that are fun and engaging. These articulation activities will be perfect for your upper elementary (4th and 5th grade) and middle school speech therapy students.

Try Some New Articulation Activities With Your Students in Speech Therapy Today

These speech therapy articulation activities target a variety of sounds. This includes vocalic r, s, z, th, s blends, and more.

The articulation activities cover a variety of levels. There are activities to address speech sounds in isolation, word level, sentences, and carryover.

Articulation Activities for Treating R and Lisps in Speech Therapy

For 6 years, I worked in an elementary school and worked almost exclusively with 4th and 5th grade students. It’s no surprise that a huge portion of my caseload were working on the “later” articulation woes. If you’re an SLP, you know what I’m talking about: vocalic R and lisps. When you tackle that area of articulation day in and day out, you get pretty good at it- and start to love it, too!

That’s why my first recommended articulation activity is The Vocalic R and Lisp Bundle. Many of your older students are also likely still trying to get “that dreaded r” in speech therapy- or working hard to correct a lisp. You’ll love these articulation activities because they’re motivating and effective. They incorporate the foundational skills of orofacial myology- and I find this to be that “missing piece” for many of those older articulation students who’ve been in speech for years. This is the articulation activity bundle I cannot recommend enough if you have older students with R or lisp articulation errors on your speech therapy caseload.

Articulation Activities for Engaging Older Students -with a Manicure Theme

I was walking down the hallway with one of my older speech therapy students. She was showing me her nails that she’d proudly painted over the weekend. I had some of those nail gel strips on, and she was pretty excited about them.

It kind of got me thinking- if manicures are motivating, then why not use THAT to work on articulation? That’s when I decided to create an articulation activity for my older students who LOVE painting their nails. Manicure Articulation was the result. How fun is this articulation activity, though, for real? It’s simple but engaging. You can pair dough, chips, or even dry erase markers with this manicure-themed articulation resource. It’s guaranteed to be a hit in speech therapy with your older students. Oh, and I’ve even had other SLPs tell me they used an annotation tool during teletherapy with this articulation activity.

Articulation Activities for Carryover of S Blends

Every so often, I have encountered older students who need to work on carryover of s blends. They need articulation activities that aren’t “childish”. It can be a little challenging to think of creative ways to address s-blends with older students. Enter the S-Blends Carryover Packet. There are many articulation materials that target s-blends for younger students, but there’s a good chance you’ll also run into a few older students who still need to target s-blends. You certainly don’t want to be pulling out the preschool articulation activity cards for this group! Talk about eye rolls, right?! That’s why I created this S-Blends carryover packet– in fact, it doesn’t even contain clip-art. Instead, it contains helpful lists and worksheets with motivating tasks for older students to use in their speech therapy sessions.

Articulation Carryover Activities for Older Students – Reading Passages

Articulation Carryover Activity Passages for Older Students – Henry VIII Themed

Want to nerd out with me? Just a little bit? Then check out THESE articulation activities- which, I promise, your students will NOT find nerdy. These topics are just too fun!

• Carryover Articulation Worksheets (Henry VIII themed): Confession: I’m a huge history lover! I happen to know way too much about Henry VIII and all his wives. The good news? My students LOVED reading about Henry VIII. They couldn’t believe how dramatic his life was! The articulation reading passages included in this are the perfect length. These articulation activities are just long enough for a speech therapy session. I also included comprehension questions with this articulation activity. This makes this activity perfect for your mixed group speech therapy sessions.

Articulation Carryover Passages for Older Students – Scottish History Themed

• Carryover Articulation Worksheets (Scottish History themed): I may or may not have been reading Outlander when I decided to create these articulation reading passages based on Bonnie Prince Charlie, Edinburgh Castle, haggis, Loch Ness Monster, William Wallace, and Robert the Bruce. My students especially loved learning about the Loch Ness Monster, and they all swore they would not try haggis. Never say never! This resource inspired many fun discussions, extension crafts, and internet searches as we tried to discover the truth about Nessie.

My Top 5 Favorite Articulation Activities for Older Students in Speech Therapy

I hope this blog post provided you with some fresh ideas for tackling articulation in speech therapy with your older students!

Speech therapy articulation materials for older students can be hard to find- but hopefully, these 5 resources will refresh your sessions and motivate your students! I have found them to be extremely beneficial, and I know your speech and language students will enjoy them as well.