Picture Scenes for Articulation Speech Therapy

Picture Scenes for Articulation Speech Therapy

Have you been hitting some walls with finding articulation activities for the sentence and conversation levels?

Nothing drags me down more than not having engaging activities for my articulation students. Plus, if I don’t have articulation materials that can help me collect data on productions, I start to sweat bullets as the progress reports become due.

That’s why I love finding articulation picture scenes that are loaded with sound opportunities for my students. Using picture scenes to work on articulation can help you get those high trials in a session and keep your students motivated to practice in a session.

Articulation picture scenes as a progress monitoring tool for connected speech! They can be quick to administer and give ya the data you need to share a student’s progress on goals.

For my students with 1-2 sound errors, I tend to follow a traditional articulation approach. You can check out the stages in this blog post

FREE Picture Scenes to Use for Articulation Therapy

Don’t you just want to tell everyone when you find a good, FREE activity that will cover your therapy goals for weeks? I know I sure do!On the Facebook Page, OMAZing Kids, there are LOTS of free picture scenes

You can save these as JPGs on your computer and upload them to a Google Slide. If you right click and select “change background,” you can choose the picture scene image to make the background of the Google Slide be the picture scene. 

In the notes section of the Google Slide, you can write a list of target words that can be used to describe the picture scene by sound to reference when you use it with a student.

Check out how I found picture scenes to work on articulation carryover. You can also use these articulation picture scenes to work on fluency and language goals.

Sound Loaded Articulation Picture Scenes for Carryover

Check out how I found picture scenes to work on articulation carryover. You can also use these articulation picture scenes to work on fluency and language goals.

When I have students at the sentence level that need to start moving over into more spontaneous conversation, I like to use sound loaded picture scenes to help create increased opportunities to practice the target sound.

Using sound loaded articulation scenes has been great to use with my students who are not yet reading, but need to practice their sound in multiple sentences.

All of my No Print and printable articulation flipbooks contain two picture scenes per sound.

These picture scenes have helped me with taking data on goals as well as a quick probe to see if the sounds are emerging into new positions.

Grab the Articulation Flipbooks and Get High Trials

Instead of spending hours trying to make your own picture scenes, just use these sound loaded ones that are ready to go! Imagine all the things you can do by saving time…..pedicures, leisure reading, making that afternoon workout class…it’s worth it to have these scenes. Try the L Articulation Flipbook for FREE. Tap the images below to grab the NO PRINT or printable flipbooks.

No Print Articulation Flipbooks

Printable Articulation Flipbooks

Check out how I found picture scenes to work on articulation carryover. You can also use these articulation picture scenes to work on fluency and language goals.
Check out how I found picture scenes to work on articulation carryover. You can also use these articulation picture scenes to work on fluency and language goals.

Highlights Magazine Picture Scenes to Work on Articulation Goals

Check out how I found picture scenes to work on articulation carryover. You can also use these articulation picture scenes to work on fluency and language goals.

As a kid, I LOVED the Highlights magazine. Did you know that there are hidden picture scenes and other short stories with picture scenes that you can use to work on articulation carryover?

The Highlights magazine has a variety of stories and activities that you can use to cover a lot of goals in therapy.

There is a hidden pictures game on their website and you can access a ton of their hidden pictures and picture puzzles apps for under $5 a month.

For example, this comic strip story would be perfect for students working on /sh/!

Check out how I found picture scenes to work on articulation carryover. You can also use these articulation picture scenes to work on fluency and language goals.

Where Do You Find Articulation Materials?

Do you have some articulation picture scenes you love to use for articulation carryover?

You can never have TOO many picture scenes. Let me know in the comments so of your faves! 

It’s easy to find Prek-2nd grade level picture scenes. I would love to find some more scenes that are middle school and high school level.

If you need more ideas on articulation carryover with your older students, here is a good blog post to check out.

Check out how I found picture scenes to work on articulation carryover. You can also use these articulation picture scenes to work on fluency and language goals.
Winter Articulation Activities That Will Get High Reps

Winter Articulation Activities That Will Get High Reps

Are you struggling with finding quick and engaging activities that will motivate your students to keep practicing their sound in syllables or words? Well, don’t worry, SLP. I got you! This post is all about winter articulation activities you can use to get high reps in therapy.

We all know that when working with speech sound disorders that high repetitions lead to better carryover. But, how to get that little one excited about saying that sound or list of words over and over and over again?

You can use manipulatives and reinforcer games to keep your students motivated to practice. Sometimes we have exhausted all of our therapy tools to keep therapy fresh. Today, I want to share all my winter articulation activities that will help you achieve high trials with your students.

And dare I say, you might have some FUN too? When we are engaged, our students are much more likely to be engaged.

Amazon affiliate links are included in this post for your convenience. If you purchase under my link, it costs you nothing. I get a small commission from sharing. 

Getting High Repetitions is Important

When treating speech sound disorders high repetitions are very important to make progress with articulation, phonology, and apraxia of speech. In particular, when treating apraxia, much of the research says that we need to have shortened, more frequent sessions that focus on the high intensity of repetitive practice. Check out more info on ASHA’s website HERE.

If you are needing some tips for how to structure your sessions to help get higher trials, check out this post from Adventures in Speech Pathology HERE

You may be thinking, “I know I need to get more trials, but how do I get my students motivated?” HERE is a post with easy ways you can get those 100 trials during your session that will keep your students engaged. 

Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp

Winter Articulation Activities to Get High Reps

This year, I have a student with apraxia on my caseload. I have been on the hunt for ways that are quick and easy to get those trials and help her know when the activity is complete. Check out some of the activities we have been doing with a winter theme!

Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp
Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp
 Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp

Winter Articulation Activities with Snowmen

Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp

Get High Reps Feeding a Snowman

Our snowman, Frank loves to eat snowballs. He thinks they are tasty and they keep him feeling cold! We have to feed him lots of snowballs to help him not melt.

I used my feed the snowman printable from my snowman push-in language lesson plan pack and white pom pom balls from my sensory bin! The speech sound cue cards are from Bjorem Speech Therapy. You can grab the cards HERE.

This is also a helpful YouTube video explaining more about the cards you can check out.

Winter Snowball Fight with Articulation Reps

Tell your students that they need to get ready for the ultimate snowball fight! They have to practice their sounds in order to earn a snowball. Each time they practice a sound, they put a snowball in the bucket.

Or, you can have them say their sound “5 times” before earning some snowballs. Once all the snowballs are in the bucket, they are ready to throw them. You can set a plastic container upright and allow them to throw a snowball in one at time. 

If you want to get even more articulation repetitions with this winter articulation activity, then have your student practice their sound each time they take a snowball out to throw.

The articulation stimulus word page is from my Any Craft Companion Pack. I use dot markers as a way to keep little hands engaged or you can use different colors to give visual feedback about their productions. 

For the snowballs, you can use Cotton Balls or these fun snowballs that are on Amazon.

Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp

Winter Articulation Activities with Snowballs 

Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp

Why not let your kids actually throw snowballs at kids?

Have your students earn snowballs to throw at the kids in the snowball fight. To keep the kids standing up, you can attach them to Photo holders or use binder clips.

Have your students practice their sound five times each or go through a list of words. Then, they get to collect a snowball. Once they have enough snowballs, they can try to knock down all of the kids.

You can use cotton balls of fluffy snowballs. If you need lists of words or pictures, I like using my Phonology flashcards or my Articulation Flashcards for R because I can add them to my student’s speech folder and also send home for additional practice.

For your students working on /s, z/, /sh, ch/, and / th/, I have a FREE set of flashcards HERE

Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp

Winter Articulation Activities with Pipe Cleaners

Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp

Pipe Cleaner Articulation Icicle Activity

Use pipe cleaners to create icicles and have your students’ string beads on the icicle as they practice their sounds.

I twisted the pipe cleaner on my fingers to make a swirling effect. You can either have your students practice their sound and then earn a bead to string or they can practice their sound in isolation, syllables or words while they slide the bead down the pipe cleaner. 

It’s nice to have pictures in front of the students while they practice. The pictures in the photo are from my Sentence Starters and have lots of sentence frames for different articulation sounds. Grab it HERE

For your students that can work independently, this can be a great articulation station. Want to learn more about how to use articulation centers in your sessions? Head to this blog post HERE

Need free articulation ideas that will help your students get high repetitions? Try these winter articulation activities with your students and watch how you can increase articulation trials with ease. When your students have motivating winter articulation activities, they will want to keep practicing their sounds in speech therapy. #slpeeps #speechsounddisorders #apraxia #articulation #phonologydisorder #winteractivities #speechtherapy #speechies #schoolslp #cfyslp #preschoolslp #elementaryslp

What’s Your Favorite Winter Articulation Activities?

Which winter articulation activity are you going to use with your students? I would love to know how it goes! Tag me on social media @thedabblingspeechie

Share how you are getting high repetitions in your speech sessions? How have you found success motivating your younger students? What strategies do you use with your older students? I would love to know your rock star SLP tips!

Halloween Phonology with a Witch’s Brew!

Halloween Phonology with a Witch’s Brew!

It is fun to break away from traditional therapy activities and find ways to infuse the seasonal holidays into your articulation and phonology sessions. For Halloween, you can use so many props from the Dollar Tree or Target Dollar Spot to work on phonology goals in a festive way.

Today, I am going to share a Halloween phonology therapy idea that will help you get those high trials in your sessions. You can have your students make a witch’s brew or potion while practicing their target sounds.

Materials for the Halloween Phonology Witch’s Brew

To make your own Halloween phonology witch’s brew, you need the following items:

-A witch cauldron (I got a mini cauldron at the Dollar Tree)

If you can’t find one at the Dollar Tree, they have a set on Amazon. This set has different sizes, if you want a larger cauldron. 

-Mini Trinkets (I got mine from Dinky Doodads on Etsy). If you want to see how you can use mini trinkets in your speech therapy sessions, check out this post HERE. Kids go bananas for these trinkets, so they are worth the investment for me.

-Witch fingers to stir the witch’s brew (You can grab some on Amazon).

If you need some visual sentence frames to use with this activity, I like to use my articulation sentence starters to get in good practice with the sound!

How to Use the Halloween Phonology Witch’s Brew Activity

With you cauldron and trinkets, you can have your students practice their speech sounds as they placed the trinkets in the cauldron.

Incorporate phonological awareness activities while making a witch’s brew. For example, you can place three mini trinkets out in front of the student. Then, tell the student that the have to find the items the witch wants for her potion brew by knowing which item rhymes with “hat”. 

Or, you can have items already in the cauldron. Tell your students in order for the potion to work, they have to take each item out one by one practicing the word 5 times each. The student can take each item out and practice until all the items are out of the cauldron.

This activity could easily be adapted to work on in/out, plural nouns (i.e. I need three frogs), verbs “stir”, “find”, “make”, “chant”, or simple sequencing.

Carrier Phrases to Use While Making Your Witch’s Brew

The best way to come up with themed carrier phrases is to think about the target sounds your student is working on. Then, brainstorm words that go with your theme, toy or book. This will help you generate carrier phrases that a student may use with the material. Here are some carrier phrases I came up with:

-Sprinkle in ______.

-Stir the _____ into the brew.

-The potion is ______.

-The potion needs _______.

-It’s a ______ potion.

-Boil and bake ______ in the cauldron.

-Add _____ into the brew.

-I want _____ in the cauldron.

More Halloween Speech Therapy Ideas

If you need more Halloween speech therapy ideas, this blog post has activities I used in my therapy rooms a few years ago. Another fun Halloween theme is to use monsters with your students. Here is a blog post that gives you ideas on how to incorporate monsters. I also have some monster materials that will engage your students you can read about HERE

There is also this fun Flying Broomsticks game as a open reinforcer for your mixed groups.

How Would You Use This Halloween Phonology Activity?

I would love to know how you would adapt this Halloween phonology activity for your students. Share your ideas in the comments or tag me in a photo on your IG account. 

What is the Traditional Therapy Approach?

What is the Traditional Therapy Approach?

Treating articulation disorders in the school setting is very common for the speech-language pathologist. Based on your state’s educational eligibility code, you may see students with articulation disorders on an Individual Educational Plan (IEP) or through a speech improvement Response to Intervention (RTI) site-based program. 

We know that with students with articulation disorders, the end goal is to establish the target sound and to help the student be able to correctly produce that sound in conversation with a variety of speaking partners across many different settings. 

When working in the school setting, I find that it can be difficult to move through those stages because lesson planning time is limited. Today, I want to refresh us all on the traditional articulation therapy approach to help us plan therapy more efficiently for our articulation students. 

Explanation of the Traditional Articulation Therapy Approach

The traditional articulation approach was developed by Van Riper in 1978. With this approach, the SLP works on one sound at a time and progresses to working on the sound in isolation, syllables, words, phrases, sentences, reading, and conversation. This approach uses a hierarchy approach (vertical) where the sound is worked on one position at a time.

The approach focuses on the phonetic placement of the sound in error and teaching the motor skills to correctly produce that sound. This method of intervention uses a hierarchy to help children establish the correct sound and learn the motor movements to use that sound into conversational contexts.

When to Use the Traditional Therapy Approach

This approach is most recommended for younger children who are exhibiting a few sound errors. Furthermore, children who are exhibiting sound errors that are relatively developmental in nature are good candidates for using this approach. 

Five Steps in Van Riper’s Traditional Therapy Method

Discrimination Training – Can they hear correct vs. incorrect productions of the sound?

Stimulability – Is the student able to correctly produce the sound when given prompts for the correct placement and manner for the sound production?

Sound Stabilization – The child expands the contexts in which he or she can correctly say the sound.

Generalization – when the child is able to correctly produce the sound, regardless of the environment or the person to whom he or she is speaking.

Maintenance – monitoring the child’s speech over time to ensure that he or she is continuing to correctly produce the correct sounds in all contexts of conversation.

The Hierarchy Stages of the Traditional Therapy Approach

When planning therapy, SLPs will want to work on one sound at a time. It is important that you go through all the stages in order. Typically, the stages follow working on the single sound in isolation, syllables, words (initial, final, medial), phrases, sentences, reading paragraphs, and conversation. 

Want a little cheat sheet of the stages? Click here to download a copy!

How Do I Know What Stage to Start with Using the Traditional Therapy Approach?

The best way an SLP can determine where to begin in therapy using the traditional therapy approach is to collect good baseline data. When we know what the child can do with his/her articulation sound, it is easier to plan therapy at the correct stage. Busy Bee Speech has a great baseline data resource to use at the beginning of the year or when you first get a student. 

Articulation Materials to Help Plan Therapy Using the Traditional Therapy Approach

Implementing the traditional therapy approach is a lot easier when you have activities that align. Make therapy planning more efficient by using these tools for articulation!

Isolation Articulation Activities 

Helping your students elicit the sounds in isolation can sometimes be tricky. This book, Eliciting Sounds: Techniques and Strategies for Clinicians 2nd Edition,has a lot of helpful information for how to cue and elicit sounds from your students.

Once you get the child to elicit the sound, you want them to get those high repetitions of saying the sound. My Race to 100 game is great for working at the isolation, syllable, or word level. Grab it HERE (free printable). 

Syllables Articulation Activities

Practicing the target sound in syllables is an important stage for your students. Your students can get in a lot of meaningful drill with syllables. When you allow your students to practice without a word context, they can better focus on the motor patterns for the sound productions. Use this FREE Syllable Practice Sheet with post its, speech sound cue cards, or put in a page protector and use with a dry erase marker!

Word Articulation Activities

Once your students are at stage 3 and are ready to practice more complex words, my Interactive Articulation Flipbooks are perfect for words, carrier phrases, and sentences. Check out how  you can use them in sessions HERE. For more therapy ideas to get those high trials at the word level, check out this post.

Sentence Articulation Activities

 

Sentence Articulation Challenge Sheets are great for stage 5 when your student is ready to work on their sound with two sound targets in a sentence. There is also carryover practice with homework sheets!

If you need easy-to-prep activities, then you can use my No Prep Articulation Sentence Practice sheets as homework or for quick drill. 

Paragraphs And Conversation

For your students working on reading at the paragraph level, as well as structured conversational tasks, my Articulation Carryover Sets have lots of activities that you can use. The reading passages control the phonetic environment so your students can focus on their target sound. Plus, collecting data is super easy for you! Need more ideas for generalization? Check HERE for the blog post.

What Resources Do You Use in Articulation Therapy?

 

I would love to know what you use to help your students make progress in articulation therapy. Do you have a book, a therapy material, a game, or a manipulative that really helps motivate your students to practice? Share in the comments.

 

Setting Up Articulation Speech Folders For Students

Setting Up Articulation Speech Folders For Students

Recently, I polled the SLPs that follow me on Instagram to see how many of us make individual student folders for our caseloads. It was a pretty even 50/50 split of speech pathologists that do make individual folders and those that don’t.

I personally do not make individual speech folders for each child on my caseload. I use a giant therapy binder that has tabs for each child on my caseload. If I cover two schools, then I store a therapy binder at each school. 

Setting Up Articulation Speech Folders

For each student, I store their therapy logs, a communication log, their IEP-at-a-glance, and specialized data sheets as needed. Typically, I just flip back and forth between students to keep everything documented. 

However, I always have certain students that I service in a quick artic model, or I want to have some specialized visuals organized for my artic students to use when running mixed groups. In these circumstances, I will make an articulation speech folder for the individual student or the particular sound/phonological process. Today, I am going to share how you can set up your own articulation speech folders to help you streamline your therapy planning process.

Why I Make Articulation Speech Folders

Let’s face it. We have limited time for planning therapy. And sometimes we are doing our quick artic in the hallways or targeting articulation goals with mixed groups. It is hard for me to keep visuals, homework sheets, flash cards, etc. organized for my articulation students. Having all of the tools I may need in one speech folder helps me to be prepared for therapy. Planning therapy is less stressful because I can grab the folder knowing that everything I need is ready to use.

Or, if I have 3-4 students working on a certain phonological process, I can make one folder for that process and have all the speech materials I need to remediate that process. The only other thing I may need to grab is a toy, a game, or a manipulative to use with all the tools in the speech folder. 

 

Materials to Make Articulation Speech Folders

To make your speech folder, you do need some organizational materials to make it work. I am going to show you what I do, but feel free to adapt for your caseload. Amazon affiliate links are included for your convenience.

What other office supplies have you found helpful to include in your student’s speech folders? Share in the comments!

What to Include in Your Articulation Speech Folder

When setting up your articulation speech folder, you want to have an idea of where the child is performing with learning his/her sound. If the child is at the syllable level, then you can include materials and visuals for that level, as well as add in materials for the word and phrase level.

Grab these FREE Articulation Syllable Practice Sheets in my TPT store. 

This allows you to have extra materials ready in the event that the student progresses quicker than you expected. You will be ready to adapt the therapy session easily without racking your brain on what to do next.

Here are some helpful things to include in your speech folder:

-Therapy logs (I use the logs from The Speech Bubble SLP or SLP Toolkit)

-Specialized Articulation or Phonology Data Sheets to track progress. Here is my FREE Articulation Data Sheet template. If you need more specialized sheets, you can grab them HERE

– Visual Supports to help with articulation production or to increase self-awareness. You can add speech sound cue cards from Bjorem Speech in the envelope file pouch. 

-Data graphs or self-awareness visuals can be helpful to incorporate into a session. Grab some FREE articulation carryover visuals by clicking the button below.

– Word lists or materials to use for quick drill practice, like these free flash card lists for older developing sounds or my Articulation Flipbooks. Sometimes I will print up pages from my Any Craft Companion Pack and store in the speech folder. 

Homework forms that help track if the student is practicing at home. I use these ones from Kiwi Speech (FREE printable). For your students that you are creating home programs, you can have homework sheets in this folder ahead of time, so you can easily plan and track homework assignments. This is a free homework sheet once students get to the carryover level in my STORE

These FREE Articulation Homework Word List Strips by Simply Speech can be in your students folder. You can customize the word lists based on your students performance during the session and send home.

Other Helpful Forms to Include in Your Speech Folders

If you like to have an individual folder for each student, here are some forms that will help you keep things organized for each student:

FREE SLP Attendance Form by Natalie Synders

Communication Log (FREE) in Sublime Speech’s Starter Kit to document interactions with the child’s parent or teacher

Please share any other forms, visuals, or tools you would add to your articulation speech folders in the comments! You can also tag me on instagram @thedabblingspeechie with your articulation speech folder setup.

Blog Posts To Help You Plan Articulation Therapy

As busy SLPs, it is easy to struggle with ideas on how to increase repetitions or keep your students motivated with articulation practice. Here are some blog posts with ideas to make your articulation therapy productive and fun:

Articulation Stations – Therapy Ideas to Keep Students Motivated

Articulation Stations – Therapy Ideas to Keep Students Motivated

Raise your hand if you have students working on articulation in your therapy room! I think most SLPs can agree that we have a lot of those students either in a speech improvement program or on an IEP. It can be so tricky to help our articulation students make generalization progress when they are in a mixed group. One way to tackle those mixed groups is by planning an activity around all the goals. Or, you can set up station time for students. You can give your articulation students an independent activity to complete for 10-15 minutes while you provide direct instruction to the other kids in the group. And then, the kids switch.
If you are lucky to have a pure artic/phonology group, you can plan 5-10 minute station activities that your students can rotate through during the session. One of the stations can be working directly with you! This is when you can take data, check self-awareness, and get those high productions in the session.

Handy Tools and Items for Your Articulation Stations

Ultra Fine Dry Erase Markers – These are my MOST favorite and used dry erase markers (Amazon affiliate link) for any activity that has a page protector or that is a laminated resource.  Timer – Your smartphone will do just fine, but if you want something more visual, then I recommend a Time Timer or Time Tracker (Amazon affiliate links).   Clickers – For some activity stations, having a digital clicker (Amazon affiliate link) can keep kids motivated and get the higher productions that you want! 
Foam Die – This is great for kids rolling the die (Amazon affiliate link) to see how many productions they have to produce.  Magnetic Chips and Wand – These are  great tools to help kids stay motivated to keep practicing, because they can put a chip on the picture they practiced. This lets the student know how many more are left. And, my students love picking up the chips with the magnetic wand. Mini erasers, Dinky Doodad Trinkets, dot markers, or small edibles, like Skittles, are other materials to help keep kids motivated to practice.

Teaching Behavioral Expectations and Routines

In order to be successful with stations, you have to put a heavy focus on teaching the behavioral expectations and routines. Those first couple of weeks, implementing stations will be about setting the routines. If you need more information about how to set up and teach behavioral routines, then check out this blog post HERE. That said, you may know which groups might not be ready to follow a station model due to behaviors and attention spans. 

Implementing Articulation Stations in Your Therapy Room

The key to a successful articulation station is teaching the behavioral expectations and having an engaging activity. You can have the independent stations have the activities that might not get high repetitions but engage the students in thinking. Then, when the students switch to your station, you can ramp up the drill-and-kill.

Here are some therapy ideas that will help you plan effective articulation station activities:

Pipe Cleaner Articulation Station – Grab some pipe cleaners and plastic beads to have students practice their articulation words at the word, phrase, or sentence level. If you need some premade task cards for R, grab this set in my store. I also have K, G, F, V task cards.
“I Spy” Articulation Sensory Bin – You can make an “I Spy” sensory bin that can be used for articulation (it can also be used for language). Give your students an articulation mat for their sound and have them search for mini trinkets that have their speech sound. Want these mats? They are free on this blog post. Plus, all the details for how to make this interactive sensory bin are on that post. 
Articulation Letter Dough Stamps – I found these Letter Dough Stamps (link?) at Lakeshore and had to have them. You can work on spelling while your students are practicing their articulation words with play dough or kinetic sand. Check out this blog post to read more about how to make this DIY therapy activity.

Articulation Centers That Will Increase Speech Productions

Articulation Challenge – Grab your timer, a clicker, and a word list to make this articulation station. Your student sets the timer for one minute and then uses the clicker to keep track of how many productions he/she can do in that time. Then, they can set the timer again and try to beat their score. If you have two students at the station, then one student can judge productions using the Self-Rating Scale from Speechy Musings (link?) or the rating scales from my Articulation Carryover Activities Set that you can download by clicking the pink button below. 

Need some word lists? Here is a FREE download for /s, z, sh, ch, th/. I also have /r/ flashcards, as well as phonology flashcards in my TpT store. 

Abacus Articulation Station – You can buy an Abacus (Amazon affiliate link) or make your own abacus HERE to help kids stay focused on producing their sounds. Give them a word list or picture cards and have them slide a bead across for every syllable, word, or sentence production.

 

Articulation Flashcard Books – have your students make their own flashcard books with this FREE template. Grab your artic decks, or give them index cards to draw or write their speech words. As they practice the cards, they can sort which ones they said correctly and which ones they need to practice again. This helps build self-awareness for correct versus incorrect sound productions. 

Race to 100 Station – Print up a word list or use picture words while your students play Race to 100. Whatever the die lands on, that is how many words your student has to practice. Grab this free printable and see more pics in action HERE. Mommy Speech Therapy has FREE colored picture word lists for this station. 

Articulation Flip Books – Use my articulation flip books as a station. They are designed for different levels, and students can hit a lot of productions. My students love using a dry erase marker. The flip books are predictable, so the kids stay focused and on- task. Grab these flip books HERE

Sentence Level Articulation Stations for Therapy

 Students at the sentence level can still do an articulation challenge with repetitive sentences. If you need articulation resources for the sentence level, here are some that I created:

Sentence Articulation Challenge Sheets (No Prep). Click to grab these!

No Prep Articulation Sentence Practice.  Click to grab these!

 

Use Articulation Apps as An Articulation Station

iPad Articulation Station – If you own an iPad, or if your district gives you one, then using some interactive articulation apps as a station is a great option.

Here are some that I really like:

Articulation Station or Little Stories by Little Bee Speech

Any of the Articulation Apps by Erik Raj

Articulation Scenes by Smarty Ears

What Articulation Activities Can You Turn into a Station?

 

What activities do you already have prepped that you can turn into an articulation station? I would love to know any quick artic activities you use with your students. I am always looking for ways to motivate my students to practice. Share in the comments below. 

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