Top Ten Therapy: Board Games.

Games are a great way to spend time with friends and family. For us they are also a fun way to teach  speech, language, thinking and conversational skills. Some games we incorporate into therapy are great reinforcement to for students to work as well. Here are ten we love:

1. Hedbanz- This is amazing for problem-solving, expressive language and conversational interactions. Players have a minute to ask questions in a yes or no format (Such as,"Am I furniture?"). Kids then figure out what the object on their headband is by piecing the clues together. It comes with 74 cards, 6 headbands, and 24 chips. Who is able to guess what they are first wins the round.

2.  Pass the Pigs-This is a great game for a reinforcer or conversation and for 8-12 year olds is very entertaining. It is also portable as the game comes in a pocket travel case containing 2 pig dice, two pencils and scoring booklet. The pigs used are actually minitures with a dot over their right flanks. The way to win is to be the first to reach 100. Using the pigs like dice you throw them in hopes of scoring points. Each roll you can score 1-60 points. Depending on where they land you can score a snouter, trotter, or leaning jowler but watch out for the "oinker" or you lose all of your points and have to start again.

3. Pictionary- This a classic drawing game where players are divided in teams. One designated artist draws a card and team members take turns guessing what the artist drew. Teams compete against each other to have the most guessed words. We use this a lot with students at the conversation level for articulation. When rapidly saying their guesses it is a trick to remember their speech sounds.

4. Apples to Apples Junior- Apples to Apples is a card game that works great for vocabulary, decision making and as a reinforcer. In speech it is great when students are working on vocabulary as it has nouns which are the red cards and adjectives which are the green cards. It can only be played when you have 3 or more players. There are a few different versions and age groups but we like the junior edition as the adult version has some adjectives and nouns that are not as appropriate for kids.

5. There's a Moose in the House- This game is great for kids from 3 all the way up to teens. It is a game that is quick and easy to pick up and is great when working in between practice for articulation/fluency or at the end of a session as a reward. With continuous turns, it only takes a few minutes to play but is fun and is a great conversation piece. In this silly game the goal is to keep moose out of your house while at the same time trying to give moose to your opponents. With the use of doors and moose traps players try to keep moose out. At the end of the game the player with the fewest moose wins.

 6. Rory's Story Cubes- Play it as a game for one or more players, or as a way to generate discussion with students. Full instructions include several other ways to use the cubes to solve problems, break up writer's block, enhance your imagination and heighten your ability to find unifying themes among the diverse images.

 

7. Sandwich Stacking  Games- There are several games that you can play with this set and directions for 10 games are listed in the set. It helps kids to work on memory and matching skills and can be used for asking/answering questions. It is for ages four and older. 

 

8. What's in Cat's Hat?-Great game for prediction and inferencing in preschool and early elementary.  We play this a little differently than the instructions to get students to work on describing skills. Here is how we play - One player places an object in the Cat's Hat and then gives clues to his opponents while they ask questions. The person to guess the mystery object wins the round. The person who wins the most rounds wins the game.

9. Crocodile Dentist- Press the teeth down until the Crocodile's Jaw snaps down. Great for preschool age as a reinforcer. They love to play this. At times as well we have students feed the crocodile articulation cards.

10.  Whoonu?   We use this one with social skills groups to try to work on perspective taking…what would someone else choose?

What are your favorite board games?