Games to Encourage Speech and Language Development in Older Children (You’ll Enjoy Them, Too!)

Open up the bag of any SLP, and you’ll find a slew of resources for younger kids.  Games, activities and books that aid in speech and language development are abundant for the 0-10 age group, but the options are more limited for older kids and teenagers.  Here is a list of five games that encourage speech development and will entice any older child or teenager having language difficulties.

1.)  Hedbanz: Hedbanz is a fast-paced question game that asks the question “What Am I?”  Players are encouraged to ask “yes” or “no” questions to figure out what is pictured on the cartoon on your head.

Why it’s a great game for speech and language development:  This game encourages people to think quickly and describe a word according to its category, shape, size, function, etc.  If the game is too hard for the child you’re playing it with, use visual prompts to help get ideas flowing.

2.)  Guess Who: Guess Who is a classic game that is truly fun for all ages.  It’s a classic guessing game that forces players to ask questions and create guesses as to who their opponent’s mystery character is.

Why it’s a great game for speech and language development:  Add this one to your toolbox! It’s fabulous for modeling questions and creating curiosity.

3.)  Chattabox: Chattabox game asks player to get rid of all their cards by calling out answers to various topics.  The topic is announced and players must take turns to call examples of things that start with the letters on their cards.

Why it’s a great game for speech and language development:  Chattabox is a game that helps kids with focus, vocabulary and if you want to involve a timer, reaction time!

4.)  Rory’s Story Cubes: Rory’s Story Cubes game comes with jumbo cubes that have six images or icons on them, for a total of 54 different images that can be mixed in over 10 million ways.  To play, roll all nine cubes to generate nine random images, and then use these to create a story. Fun for one person or as a party game for more people, its improvisation at it’s best.

Why it’s a great game for speech and language development:  This is a great game that can be taken anywhere, thanks to its small size.  Rory’s Story Cubes encourage creativity and imagination, and best of all, there are no wrong answers, ever.

5.)  Spot it!: Spot it! Is a game that puts observational skills and reflexes to the test.  Each game comes with 55 circular cards, each of which feature various symbols and has exactly one symbol in common with every other card in the deck.  Find the two images that match on the cards, and move on to the next round!

Why it’s a great game for speech and language development:  With only one match on every two cards, this game requires focus, visual-perception and speech-language skills to win.