13+ Best Speech Games & Reinforcers

 List created by Ricki Block, MS,CCC-SLP  www.preschoolspeechie.com

Previous owner of Ariel’s Child for 22 years – a specialty toy store for school supplies, toys and materials for children with special needs

Listed below are some of my students’ favorite motivational activities. They maintain their interest and they don’t even realize they are working.  Each of these items can be used as a game to work on language skills or articulation.  Depending on the student, I may use picture cards to collect data for minimum of 10 trials and then use game as reinforcer. I  find key words or phrases to target while the child is playing. Many of these items I carried in my store for years and I still use today!  Click on the title and it will link you to Amazon.com 1.  Ned’s Head  14.33    Ned’s Head is a huge “feely box.”  It has gross objects to find in his head.  I add my own objects too.  When I pull Ned out of the box kids’ eyes open wide – it’s a wow factor. Great for working on pronouns, He has, I am, I got, this is, your turn, my turn. Play a describing game too. Kids pull out an object and give 2 or 3 clues. 2.     Melissa & Doug Preschool  Fishing   9.99 Fishing games are a classic. This happens to be magnetic which is even better. Kids can fish and then put in a “pond” (use a coffee can-wrap with blue paper – kids will love the sound of the fish dropping in to the can.) You can hide fish around the room and kids get to “find” them.  Great for working on irregular past, e.g. I caught ,I found. Work on articulation too – K (caught, green, catch, crab), SH (fish, shark, ocean)   F (fish, find, found)   3.Feed the Animals  29.95                               Nuby 3-D monster snack keeper  4.60   Another favorite . Student gets to put a banana, peanut or carrot in the animal mouths.  Reinforce “Who” questions – e.g. Who gets the banana?  The snack keeper is a fun place for kids to put a picture card or small objects to “eat.”       4.  Frog Hoppers  9.28  I have been using frog hoppers for many years as a reinforce.  It has motivated many of my kids to learnsounds- e.g. blends (frog, blue, green) , J (jump), G (I go). The frogs come in a plastic bucket- perfect for teaching location words e.g. on, off, in, out, up, next to.  5. Think Fun Zingo  17.99 Kids get a kick out of pushing out the tiles which makes a clicking sound.  They can match pictures on their card.  I scope the boards in advance to concentrate on articulation.  It is especially useful for final consonant deletion.   Nice first game for teaching verbal turn-taking words, e.g. my turn, your turn. 6. Bowling Set 12pc 2 balls 11.99 Bowling captures the attention of the active child. I like to tape pics of key pictures to the pin. Child says words on pins knocked down. This is one of numerous types of bowling sets.   7. Monkeying Around  12.27 Wonderful companion to 5 Monkeys sitting in tree….along comes Mr. crocodile you can’t catch me. Great activity for blends, e.g. tree, green, blue, SNAP, crocodile.  The kids carefully put the monkeys on the tree which is strategically attached with a magnet.  It’s works as an enticing reward. 8.      Toysmith Battat Shape Sorter House 19.45 Kids are intrigued by keys and doors, so this toy is a real hit. It includes 12 different shapes. It also includes a set of keys to release the shapes from the sorting chamber and the sorting house. You can also hide small objects or pictures behind the doors too. 9.     Sneaky Snacky Squirrel  15.79 I recently discovered this game as I observed an SLP colleague playing it with her student. I went online that night and bought it! It is sooo cute.  Spin the spinner, squeeze the matching colored acorn with your Squirrel Squeezers, and place it into your log.   It’s a great game to have in your tool box for S blends, e.g. sneaky, snacky, squirrel, spin, snatch.  10. Stacking/Nesting Cups   5.99 & Building Toys Magformers 14 pc 17.99 to build & Melissa and Doug colored blocks (11.99) You can stack & sequence size, build towers, hide different fun toys like small shapes or toys under-in the cups  and play the “where is it?”  and following directions (1+ step directions starting with simple give me,  put in the cup or put the little red cup on the big blue cup) .  Magformers have square & triangle shapes – fun way to work on SH -shape and TR-triangle sounds.                                                                                         11. Art Supplies  dot paint  6-pack 14.99, Markers, Crayons, Paper, glue, stickers, scissors –Crayola ultimate case with easel 13.71  ,  Melissa and Doug stamp sets 6.99 Art activities are often used as a process which creates an end product which the child gets to take home.  Some of my favorites with dot paint-e.g. colors, P sd-paint, follow directions.  Stamps- e.g. ST sd-stamp, art kit-e.g. K-cut (scissors), G-glue            12. Cranium Cariboo-ebay This is an oldie but goodie. It is outrageously expensive on Amazon.com ($149!!)The best place to shop for Cranium Cariboo is on ebay.  You can purchase a used game for as low as $19.99.  I bought my game on ebay and all pieces were intact.  It is one of my students’ favorite games.  It has endless possibilities and can be tied in to many goals. I have used it, e.g. categories, action words(open, shut, find ), location (in, out)  13. Bubbles Turtle bubbles 2.99   Bubble bear (one hand)6.82 Butterfly bubbles 6.99  No-pop 9.86/doz Bubbles are the signature of an SLP.  Not only is it one of the best reinforcers ....you can teach many concepts, especially labial sounds, (e.g. pop, bubble, up, more, wow, my turn, big,  blow), concepts, counting. Have fun shopping!!