CYBER SALE! ➔
Nothing makes a speech therapy session drag on more than a group of unmotivated students. It’s the worst! You feel like a professional negotiator trying to get your students to practice their speech sounds And every week that your students moan and complain is just another unproductive session, and that kills you! Let’s chat about some articulation sentence level activities that your students think are FUN. You can secretly get in those high trials during a session without your students knowing they are working hard. Best feeling ever!!
Whenever you can turn an activity into a “challenge,” you aren’t the one telling them what they have to do. You are inviting your students to partake in a contest. And, I don’t know about you, but when someone presents something as a competition, I am more fired up to try it! Here is are some articulation sentence level activities that your students will feel like is a game:
It would help if you had some sound-loaded sentences, a timer, and a clicker to track trials. These digital clickers on Amazon are the best (Amazon affiliate link included.) You can create sentences with your students before the challenge or use some already done for you, like these Articulation Sentence Challenge Sheets. They also come with half-sized homework sheets, so it’s easier for you to create a home practice program. Can you come up with similar articulation sentence level activities that have a challenge in it? Let me know in the comments your ideas.
Set the timer and have students see how many sentences they can get in a minute. Explain that you want them to go slow enough to get the correct production because going fast while saying the words with an incorrect sound isn’t the point!
After the minute is up, calculate their score. Then, try to beat it by doing another minute. You can continue doing this for up to 5 minutes. As you show your students their trial scores, you can also discuss how it doesn’t take that long to practice every day.
Another fun articulation sentence level activity is to play this free Race to 100 game. Every time a student rolls the die, that is how many sentences they have to produce with their speech sound.
Whether conducting a mixed group or a teletherapy session, you can use actual photos to work on sentences. Using pictures can be a great mixed group activity because your language students can answer wh-questions, describe by attributes or work on grammar concepts.
Have your students brainstorm words that have their sounds and then they can make a collage of real photos on a Google Slide or PowerPoint.
After creating a collage, you can create silly sentences, create a funny story or describe them by attributes at the sentence level. If you need a Google Slide template for a brainstorming activity, all the digital speech folder resources have articulation sentence level activities including the brainstorming template!
For those of you new to hearing about mini trinkets or on the fence if you should get them, let me encourage you to jump on the mini trinket train! My younger and older students like them. And, when I pull out the “I Spy” sensory bin, it can become a station activity while I work with another student in the mixed group.
Students can search for mini items that have their target sound. Then, we use those items to create structured sentences or create a story sentence by sentence. Use my free articulation sentences printable maps for practicing your students’ target sounds with carrier phrases.
What is so great about using GIFS in therapy is that you can create these in Google Slides and then re-use them repeatedly!
GIFS are more engaging than real photos because they move on the screen. So, you can use a list of your student’s target speech sounds and search for GIFS (just be careful to search for GIFS with your students because there can be inappropriate images that pop up.)
Students can answer wh-questions or create sentences with the target word. Need help with adding a GIF to a Google Slide? Check out this tutorial on my YouTube channel and watch this video at around the 8-minute mark.
It’s always nice to have articulation sentence level activities that are quick and easy to do in a session. Here are some of my top faves to help you get high articulation speech sound trials:
Play Simon’s Says but have your student have to use their list of speech words to give directions such as “Pretend to wash your hands with soap.” or “Simon’s says, skip to the door.” Or, change the name Simon to a name that has their target sound such as “Stuart, Sloane, Spencer” for s-blends.
Incorporate sound-loaded sequencing activities to make articulation practice engaging and functional! These activities help students practice their target sounds while building narrative and sequencing skills.
Examples:
If you’re looking for pre-made, sound-loaded sequencing materials, check out my Articulation Carryover Activities for Speech Therapy resource on Teachers Pay Teachers. This resource includes sequencing pictures for sounds like R, TH, S, Z, and L-blends—perfect for articulation carryover and seasonal themes!
If you need some more articulation therapy ideas that get you high trials and are kid-approved, check out these blog posts below:
Articulation Ideas That Will Get High Trials
Articulation Carryover Activities
What articulation sentence activities do your students love to use? If you have a fun game or therapy idea, share it in the comments below or tag me on social media @thedabblingspeechie
