Using Play-Dough in Speech Therapy

We know SLPs have a love-hate relationship with play-dough BUT it sure is a great grab-and-go resource when you need something in a pinch! Here are 5 ways you can use play-dough in your speech sessions today!

1. Pacing Board: Push a piece of play-dough as a visual support. Use when targeting: multisyllabic words, blending and phonemic segmentation, expanding MLU, fluency, consonant deletion, and identifying syllables. 

2. Hide Animals: Hide small figurines and dig them out. This simple activity allows you to target: requesting, verbs, sentence expansion, and themed vocabulary.

3. Tell a Story: Make characters to tell a story. Target story grammar, sequencing, describing, and wh-questions while creating your characters and story elements with your students. 

4. Pretend Play: Use for any pretend play scenario! You can pair it with TPT products, laminated play-props, mini objects or actual pretend play-dough play-sets! Have a blast setting up kitchen, a bakery, restaurant, or cupcake shops while targeting following directions, sequencing, expanding utterances, speech sounds, requesting, social skills, and more!

5. Smash Mats: Use with smash mats for each production of your goal. Tips: use a blank mat and choose your own targets or choose a mat with your students targets. Both Anna and I have smash mats including in a variety of our TPT products!

If you enjoy ideas for how to use your therapy toys and materials to target a variety of speech and language goals? You're in luck! Looking for more ways to use your toys and games to target a variety of speech and language skills? You're in luck! Take our FREE online training to learn more! Watch it here.