The game Go Fish is a staple game for the busy speech pathologist. Kids love the game and you can adapt it to meet so many goals. Today, I want to share some new ways to play Go Fish in speech therapy.
True Confessions From This SLP
Want to know something? I can only play Go Fish so many sessions before I might go out of my mind! The kids absolutely love the game, but the redundancy of having to play it group after group after group drains my energy and enthusiasm. So, I try to play Go Fish during those busy times of the year when therapy planning time is cut in half. I also try to stagger when I play Go Fish, so that isn’t my lesson plan for an ENTIRE day.
New Ways To Play Go Fish In Speech Therapy
My first way you can spice things up with your Go Fish playing is to create “character” names for each student. For my social skills groups we just did it to get them laughing and initiating with peers during the game.
I was Taylor Swift because in a different life I was a pop princess. My kids were dying of laughter every time someone called them by their new “character” name. It increased engagement for my kiddos that don’t always want to initiate with peers. The next day, my SDC teacher told me that the kids could not stop talking about Go Fish. During our end of the year party, one of my students that needs prompts to initiate communication, came right up to me and said, “I want to play Go Fish today.” I would love to know how this twist goes in your therapy room! Tag me on Instagram @thedabblingspeechie and share your story!
Adapt the name cards to have your student’s target sound in the name!
For your articulation students, you can pick names that have their sound like Mr. Magee for /g/, Mrs. Flamingo for /l-blends/ and Mrs. Ridiculous for /r/. The crazier the better!
Work on Voice Volume & Tone of Voice
For your social skill students that need to work on using the appropriate voice volume in social situations, you can have them work on asking for cards with different voice volumes. You can also adapt this to work on changing your tone of voice to match certain emotions. I used my voice volume visuals from my Behavior Visuals For Students With Autism to help my students identify and model different voice volumes during Go Fish.
Bring in funny props for Go Fish In Speech Therapy
Who doesn’t love having goofy props around? #idontlookcrazyatall
Allow each student to wear the fun prop when it is their turn to ask a peer for a card. This is just to keep the session motivating and fun! I think this could also help some students understand their role during the game. The person wearing the big sunglasses is asking, while the other students wearing crowns are waiting their turn.
If you are looking for Go Fish games that target seasonal verbs, check out all of my seasonal grammar and vocabulary sets. These sets include verbs related to the season or holiday, so you can work on grammar while playing Go Fish.
You can also use these grammar verb cards to use for Go Fish in your therapy room. Grab any of your articulation or language decks and use them with some of the ideas listed above.
For mixed groups, have your students ask for a word and an adjective word such as, “Do you have a quick rabbit?” or “Do you have a tiny spider?”
How To Make Go Fish Visual For Students
I have a few students that really struggle with understanding the rules of how to play Go Fish. There are too many steps to keep it all straight. My students on the Autism spectrum struggle with the quick transition between turns. This is why I made an easy visual guide for Go Fish. You can click the button below and download the free visual!
How have you adapted Go Fish for your students? I would love to hear your ideas! Comment below or email me at feliceclark@thedabblingspeechie.com.
Great ideas!! Where did you get that card holder??
It was in the speech room I inherited, but I believe it was from super duper. I bet amazon would have a card holder!
Thanks for some new ideas for Go Fish. Here is an idea that I use often with this game. When my students are targeting articulation goals, we change the expression “go fish” on each turn to a phrase containing the student’s target phoneme (e.g., “Look in the lake.” or “Reach in the river.”).
I made card holders from a pool noodle. I think I got 6 out of 1 noodle. Then made s slit down the length of it. Kids thought I was sooo smart!
That’s awesome! It is on my “to do” list to make some card holders too.