Top 5 Games to Use in Group Therapy

We love using games in therapy with all ages, including group therapy sessions! 

Whether it be a physical game board, imaginative role-play or using toys kids love playing together! So why wouldn't they find it also fun and enjoyable in a group therapy session?!

Most games are created for more than two people and are easily adaptable to target a variety of skills while each child takes turns. 

Our top 5 game choices when working in group therapy include:

1. Hedbanz

• describing place a pile of cards in the middle of the table. Have each child pick a card and place it in their headband. Have each child take turns providing 3 descriptors for each object using "place", "category", "function" or "attributes". 
• speech sounds preselect cards that use the target sound for each student and place the pile of cards in front of the child. Remind the child to use his/her specific speech sound to guess what the other child is describing.

2. Lunchbox Game by Orchard Games

* Any Orchard Game or Bingo Game can also be targeted with similar goals

This game can be used with a group of 2-4 students. Each student gets his/her own lunch box. Play while targeting the various skills:

• same/different talk about if the food item is the same as a food item in his/her lunchbox
• possessive 's talk about who's turn it is, who's lunch box the object belongs to, etc.
• speech sounds  /s/ (same, see, snack, stick, yes), /ch/ (choose, check, match, lunch, munch), /l/ (lunch, lucky, look)
• expanding utterances: "I got a ____", "it's not a match"
• describing & inferencing: have the child tell you 3 things about the object they picked before the child shows it to his/her teammates

3. Monkey Blast by Goliath Games

This game along with other pop-up games is a great game to adapt within a group to target a variety of skills.

• prepositions "in/out" ... practice saying "in" each time the child places the banana in the tree while setting up the game and then practice saying "out"
• verbs "eat/ate", "want/wants/wanted", "jump/jumped", "give/gave", "steal/stole"
• speech sounds  /s-blends/ (spin, stick, steal, sneaky, taste), /t/ (take, two, put, out), /g/ (get, give, got), /l/ (lucky, look, roll, pull)
• multisyllabic words "banana", "monkey"
• plurals "banana" vs "bananas"
• following directions: "put the banana under your chair"

4. The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel

• preposition practice "in" every time you place an acorn in the log and "on"/"off" the tree
• verbs "eat/ate", "want/wants/wanted", "s", "give/gave", "need", "cook";
• speech sounds /s-blends/ (squirrel, steal, snack, sneak, spin, spinner, stump, stick, snatch, "coloured" spot); /l/ (look, like, blue, yellow, purple); /r/ (red, squirrel, acorn, green, purple, tree, branch); /ch/ (choose, check, match, branch)
• expanding utterances: "I need a blue acorn", "I got 2 acorns"
• following directions "first put the green acorn in your stump, then put a red acorn"
• plurals "acorn" vs. "acorns"

5. Topper Takes a Trip

This is a great game to pull out in a group setting! It's also an awesome addition to any season, travel, or vacation themed session! This game allows you to travel to the beach, the sledding hill, the forest, grandma's house & school. You can give a destination to each child and hide the pieces in the suitcase. The children can pick a piece out each turn and decide which trip it belongs to while working on:

• prepositions "in" the suitcase, "out" of the suitcase, "on" the suitcase, "beside" the suitcase
• opposites "open/close", "in/out", "cold/hot"
• verbs "travel", "drive", "walk", "sled", "sleep", "pack", etc.
• speech sounds customize the each suitcase to pack only items using your target speech sound
• expanding utterances "I got a flashlight", "I don't need a pillow for my trip"
• categorization each item belongs to a specific destination; categorize the items based on the location they belong to (great for associations as well)

In our Play Based Speech Therapy Course we cover a lot of different toys, games, and everyday items you can use to target a variety of goals!! Make sure you don't miss out by joining our waitlist! You'll get insider info, exclusive tips and tricks, and all the course info you'll need!