Game Adaptations for Speech Therapy – Page 3

Booby Trap Adaption for Speech Therapy

11 Sep

September 11, 2015 Cindy 0

Many years ago when I was elementary school age, too long ago to mention, I received a game call Booby Trap as a gift. It survived my childhood and my mother handed it back to me when she cleaned out a closet. I added it to my therapy game collection and it became a good standby. The game was out of circulation for quite a few years so my students were often not familiar with it. Lately I noticed the game is back as a remake from the past and you can find some old ones on Ebay. It comes in a plastic versions and a wooden one. One of my students told me the plastic version is not as good because the pieces fly out easily. I will let you figure that part out for yourself. If you are looking for therapy games this is a good one and the wooden one has lasted my teaching career.

The game is easy to learn. Basically students remove circular pieces that are held tight by a spring bar. If the wrong piece is chosen the bar will spring forward. Players pay a penalty for setting it off by returning pieces. Players choose from 3 sizes of pieces. The larger the piece the more points a students earns.

This game is enjoyed across age levels to include high school level. It is sometimes hard to find games that are age appropriate for the older students who receive special education services. It works well for general reinforcement and for language learners with a communication board added. I use it to develop basic statements such as “I have…”, “I take/took……” “your turn” and “my turn”. It is also good for developing statements with attributes such as colors, size, and amount.

This is a copy of the board I use for my language learners.

Happy Anniversary and Secret Circle Activity

6 Jul

July 6, 2015 Cindy 0

It is a year ago that I made the switch to a self hosted web site. I do not know why I waited so long. I have enjoyed having the freedom of decorating as I wish. There was definitely a learning curve, especially when I found it was hijacked at one point. Over all It has been worth it. I decided a free download was needed to celebrate. Continue on to find it.

For some reason containers hold a certain fascination for me. It seems like I am always collecting them and thinking about how I can use them for speech therapy. While drinking my morning orange juice, I got to thinking about the cover to the juice container. It would make a good tile for a hiding game. It is at least 2 inches in diameter, can hold a reasonable size card on top, and a small object underneath. I also drink enough juice to get a number of them in a reasonable amount of time. This led me to thinking about the game of Secret Square and Cariboo. It seemed like it could be made into a game adaptation for either game. The covers just need velcro dots to fasten pictures on top.

Do you remember the old therapy game called Secret Square? It was a game that had tiles with pictures on top. A chip is placed under one of the tiles. Students find it by asking questions about the pictured items and eliminating the pictures that do not correspond to the answers. Eventually the chip is found. Cariboo is similar in that it has pictures on doors that can be chosen to find a hidden balls that is used to open a treasure box. Both games are very versatile when addressing goals for describing, questioning, and synthesis of information to get the main idea. It can also address articulation and specific speech vocabulary such as prepositions with a switch of the cards. Students love the idea of finding the secret object and it keeps them motivated. Unfortunately Secret Square and Cariboo are no longer in production. They can be hard to find and a bit pricey if bought second hand on e-bay.

juice lids

Which brings me back to my orange juice container lids. I could see potential for making a game of “Secret Circle” and possibly even a Cariboo type game with items hidden under the lids. This could include pieces of a puzzles hidden under some of the lids. All I needed to do was drink 10 containers of juice to get 10 covers and place velcro dots on top. Pictures for the tops can range from articulation cards such as found on Mommy Speech Therapy to preposition cards such as found as a free product at my TPT store. I updated and revised my Preposition Penguins especially for this post. There are a number of Cariboo cards on Teachers Pay Teachers that would also work.

Pool Noodle Fun for Speech Therapy

23 Apr

April 23, 2015 Cindy 0

It is always hard this time of the year to find activities for group therapy with my Life Skills groups. There are usually 5 students in each group and the abilities are really varied. I try to include some motor activity because this keeps their attention. Using objects for actions is more meaningful for them then paper tasks. However there are a few students who have motor difficulties which makes it difficult for them to do some tasks and work with the group.

My inspiration often comes from my closet. This is a picture of what I found. I decided to make a badminton type activity. They used the pool noodles to hit balloons through the hulu hoop and then over the jump rope stretched across two chairs. We encouraged two students to hit it back and forth to complete turn taking. I reinforced the prepositions of over, through, below, under, and above. My early language learners practiced phrases such as “Give it to me”, “Hit it”, “I want it”.

One of my students kept saying “there it is”. He was a student who we usually had trouble engaging and he blossomed with this activity. For a student with Downs he had amazing eye hand coordination. I hope he does badminton for Special Olympics.

I liked the pool noodles because they didn’t hurt if students hit each other and the balloons slowed down the process enough that all the students were able to hit them. I recommend having spare balloons. We had one student who couldn’t resist squeezing and popping them.

Whirly Therapy Fun

1 Apr

April 1, 2015 Cindy 0

I am not sure what they are called, but as a child I called it a Whirly. They were a great find this last weekend in the Easter basket toys at Walmart. It would be a good time to look for them. I was trying to find new mechanical toys for my early language learners who get engaged by anything that spins and pops. For $2 you couldn’t go too wrong. I did wonder how long it would last but it was sturdy enough to make it through a morning of therapy with the younger K through -2nd grade Life skills class. There is a precaution for aiming it at people and there is the string to watch out for.

I used it this week and it was a big hit. It was great for learning communication intents and making requests. It gave opportunities to review the concepts of around and over. If the string was pulled strong enough the spinner would stay on the ceiling a few minutes spinning over our heads. The students would give me the Whirly and make requests for fast pulls. We also practiced a few more prepositions when finding the location of that spinner after it came down. A few of my students needed a person to hold the device while they pulled the string. This encouraged joint attention to a task. I like it when a toy can offer so much opportunity for natural communication with very little effort.

Here is the communication board I used for the activity.

Adaptive Don’t Spill the Beans

5 Mar

March 5, 2015 Cindy 0

Don’t Spill the Beans is another game that I have used with my language learners. It has always been good for general reinforcement. Many of you probably have the game already.

I often became annoyed by the spilled beans. They were difficult for my students with poor fine motor concerns to pick up and took precious therapy time collecting them. I thought there had to be a better way. Then I remembered my Chipper Chat therapy materials. It is a product from Super Duper which many of you may also have. You can breathe new life into your “Don’t spill the Beans” game by switching out the beans with the magnetic chips. The students are always enthused about using the magnets and it makes it easy to pick up the spilled chips. I usually have the students pick up the chips with the magnets and place them in individual saucers to compare the amounts. You can also vary the game by having students collect specific colors that spill. The magnets have really helped with quick clean up. I added a communication board to practice sentence frames and turn taking..