I’m sure we all have those days… the days where we haven’t had time to plan for therapy and we have a child (or group) working on speech sounds due any minute. We start frantically searching for some worksheets or games that we can use to fill the session while we practice our sounds. Well, I’m here today to share a fun, easy and free therapy idea that you can use without any prep, and which you and your students are going to love!…. Speech Sound Scrapbooks!
They’re a really easy and engaging activity to do during speech therapy sessions, and most of us have everything we need lying around our therapy rooms, so there’s no additional cost either!
What you need:
- Catalogues/Magazines/Brochures- anything with a range of pictures in (I like using catalogues from department stores because they have so many different things in!)
- A scrapbook/blank notebook or just blank paper will do!
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Crayons (optional)
Instructions for use:
First, I show the children a store catalogue/brochure or a magazine, (I like to keep a stash of these stored in my therapy room), it might be a toy catalogue, a local department store’s catalogue or a magazine/newspaper. As a group (or a pair if I’m working 1:1) we have a think about what types of things we might find inside these catalogues that contain our speech sounds. So, for example, if we’re working on word initial /k/, we make a list of the things we might find, such as curtains, cameras, kettles, cots and cushions! We then start to look through the catalogue/magazine etc., searching for different things that have our /k/ sound in! When we find something that has our /k/ sound in (or whatever sound we’re working on!) we cut out the item and put it in a pile in the middle of the table.
After we’ve finished finding all of the items (or sometimes I set a time limit, so say, after 10 minutes of searching), we all stop and have a look at the pile of pictures we’ve found. We then practise these words, making sure we use our good speech sounds each time!
Then, we make a speech sound collage; we write the sound we’re working on in the middle of the page, and glue on all of the pictures. We then name the pictures again, and write the words down as a handy label (sometimes I help with this, depending on their literacy levels).
Afterwards, we can play games, such as ‘I Spy’ and ‘What’s Missing?’ (close your eyes, cover one of the pictures up, and guess which one is covered) to help us practise our sounds in words!
The great thing with these speech sound scrapbooks is that as you continue working on your sounds in different positions in words, or in phrases, or if you start working on new sounds, you can keep adding to your scrapbook! You can keep a record of the things you’ve worked on in your sessions, and you can keep revisiting it throughout the year to ensure that they’re practising and generalising their sounds!
I love using speech sound scrapbooks in my mixed speech sound groups too; I give each child a catalogue and we all work together to think of things with everyone’s speech sounds in, for example if Tim is working on /t/ in word final, Zoe is working on /f/ in word initial and Lucy is working on /l/ in word initial, we can all work together to think of different things we might find in the catalogues. They each then look in their own catalogues for their own sounds, but usually while they’re looking for their own items, they see something that their friend can use- suddenly we can tie in life skills and social skills! We can start a conversation (“hey Zoe I’ve seen fan you can use”), we can learn how to read page numbers (“it’s on page 387”) and we can share and help each other (“here, have this one, I’ve cut it out for you”). Perfect.
I enjoy setting this activity as easy speech therapy homework too! I set them a task of making their own speech sound collage; they have to look through another catalogue or magazine at home and come up with a list of items and make a new collage to share in our therapy session the following week!
I find that this activity is so fun and engaging; the kids I work with love doing crafts and fun activities, and I love that I don’t have to prep anything! Is this something you’d use in your therapy sessions? Drop a comment below with how you’d use these in your sessions!
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