The 12 Best Games for Speech Therapy

If you’re looking for games for speech therapy, this article contains a list of the best speech therapy games, including speech therapy games for kids, speech therapy games for adults, board games for speech therapy, and play based speech therapy activities to help clients of all ages make progress.

While the best speech-language therapy sessions embody a work hard, play hard philosophy, it’s time to ditch the notion of rote articulation drills and uninspired vocabulary practice. 

Helping clients reach their speech and language goals can—and should—be fun. 

When selecting games for speech therapy, it’s about more than what meets the eye. 

Timeless board games and familiar play-based activities can take on a whole new meaning when seen through a speech-language pathology (SLP) lens. 

What looks like a simple turn-taking game can target skills like social communication, articulation, vocabulary expansion, and language comprehension. 

Below is a list of the best speech therapy games to spark more joy (and progress) in your speech therapy practice.  

Speech therapy games for kids

Guess Who?

One of my favorite games for speech therapy is Guess Who? This is a simple game that can address so many goal areas: articulation, turn-taking, expanding utterances, and descriptive language. 

It also appeals to kids of all ages. I’ve had success incorporating Guess Who? into speech sessions with kids from age 6 to 16. The updated version of the game includes cards with people and pets for a fun twist. 

Articulation Station

The Articulation Station app for iPad and iPhone makes targeting articulation a breeze. Choose from 1,200 colorful flashcard images, a matching game, and sentence and story activities to help kids practice their sounds. 

Articulation Station is a great digital alternative to traditional articulation drills. Bring it into your regular rotation of session activities, or try it out as a reinforcer. 

Bonus: This game was developed by an SLP!

Hedbanz

Another super-versatile speech therapy game for kids, Hedbanz is perfect for targeting expressive and receptive language. It’s ideal for small groups or when working one-on-one with children on goals like answering questions, mapping semantic features, and categorizing words. Hedbanz is also one of the best speech therapy games for social communication skills, like turn-taking. 

Play-based games for speech therapy

I Spy

Searching for free, no-prep games for speech therapy? I Spy is a powerhouse tool for speech-language pathologists (SLPs). It helps clients with articulation, expressive and receptive language, and pragmatic skills. 

The only material required? A little imagination. Kids can practice looking for words with their “sound” (e.g., only words that begin with /r/) or focus on identifying items in a similar category or that share a semantic feature (for example, only things that are round). 

Pictionary

Pictionary is a classic, and for good reason. Your clients may crack up over your (or their own) silly drawings, however, in the process of playing the game, you’re tackling serious goals like vocabulary, following directions, and turn-taking. 

I have played this activity with kids using a simple whiteboard or scrap paper, but some therapists may prefer the structure of the original game from Mattel. 

Alternatively, charades—where participants act out the words rather than drawing them—can target similar goals (and induce laughter). 

Simon Says

Does this play-based activity even need an introduction? Kids have been fans of Simon Says for generations, and it belongs in every speech-language pathologist’s arsenal of games for speech therapy. 

Working on receptive language skills like following one- or multi-step directions? Toddlers, preschoolers, and young school-age children will delight in following each prompt, and they’ll get a movement break while building foundational language skills.

Speech therapy games for adults

TableTopics

It can be challenging to find speech and language activities that are engaging and geared toward an adult audience. 

While many games for speech therapy are designed for kids, TableTopics Original is meant to spark conversation among adults. It provides an ideal stimulus for those who seek out therapy for fluency, voice, or language-based skills (e.g., aphasia). 

The collection of 135 questions helps facilitate spontaneous speech so that you can practice therapy targets in a natural (and fun) context.

Scattergories

Scattergories  is one of the best speech therapy games for adults working on word retrieval and building semantic connections. 

Clients with aphasia are particularly well-suited for this game in which participants must list out as many members of a given category as possible. Topics range from dog breeds to things found in a kitchen. Scattergories is a great pick for adolescents working on expressive language goals, too. 

Apples to Apples

Making comparisons between concepts is a high-level language skill—and it also happens to be the defining feature of this game. Apples to Apples generates laughs and reinforces semantic connections. It’s one of my favorite games for speech therapy that’s adult-friendly. 

Board games for speech therapy

Really Loud Librarians

A relative newcomer to the board game scene, Really Loud Librarians is like a newfangled version of Scattergories. Players must generate words that match specific categories and letters while moving around a racetrack on the board. Give this game a try with clients as young as 8 years old or adults solidifying expressive language goals. 

Candy Land

What does Candy Land have to do with speech therapy? This beloved game makes it simple to practice articulation. 

Each time a player rolls the dice, they must produce their target sound the same number of spaces they move forward. Candyland is also one of the best speech therapy games to support skills like turn-taking and following directions. 

Scrabble

Whether your session objectives are articulation, expressive language, or social communication, you can probably find a way to link them to Scrabble. 

This is one of the games for speech therapy that is designed for older children (ages 8+) and adults, since spelling knowledge is important. Scrabble is a must for SLPs looking to complete their collection of games and activities for their clients. 

Practice management software for SLPs

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