The Best Games for Practicing Sounds

Practicing at home is a key factor which determines how quickly a child can acquire / correct a speech sound. And, even 5-10 minutes of practice a day can be effective in speeding up a child's progress.

Now the only problem is : how do you make your child practice a sound? There are many children who do not like practicing sounds with their parents, or who are not comfortable being corrected, or doing something that they aren't yet good at, over and over again.

One of the best ways to work on sounds, then, is not worksheets or flashcards : but good old-fashioned games! Here are some easy favorites-

1. Chutes and Ladders - roll the dice, say a word three times before moving the piece

2. Matching - say a word before picking each pair of cards. You can use any cards you want as long as you have a word list handy!

3. Go Fish - Say a word before asking "go fish" - or make "go fish" any other word with the target sound - like "go seahorse" or "go shark"

4. Pictionary or Charades or HedBanz- pick target words with the sound you are working on

5. Word Searches - there are many tools which allow you to make your own word searches. Just put words with the target sound (say 10) into the puzzle makers, generate a puzzle, and race to see who can find the words first

6. Tic tac toe - put a target word on each square. Say the word when marking the square with an X or with an O

7. Guess who - make sure to include a phrase with the target sound in asking. For example - if working on /r/ - does yourrr perrrrson have a moustache?

8. Any other board games or card games you like!

As long as one turn can trial one word, speech sound practice can actually be great fun, and a time to bond!

Just remember a good rule of thumb : Try only 3x for a good production, before moving on. Doing more than three rounds can be discouraging and frustrating : and we want the practice to be fun.

PS - Check of Smarter Speech's TPT store for speech sound packets on a variety of sounds. Each packet includes games and activities at each level of sound acquisition.

Happy Talking!

Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.