After 26 years in the field, I am in a group private Speech-Language Pathology practice in Gordon on Sydney's north shore, seeing a general paediatric and adult rehab caseload.

In this era of ever expanding technology, effective language and communication skills remain all important. Providing motivation and positive reinforcement to young clients is a constant challenge. Sometimes simple games and ideas still provide the best type of language-learning environment. Here are some activities and ideas, old and new, that I find useful and fun.

2 Matching/contrasting card pairs
These can be used to play 'memory' games or to work phonological targets or language concepts and structures. There are many variations, one of which is to sort the pairs into 2 matching piles. Place the one pile face down in front of the child. Hold the other in your hand and let the child pick a card. Take turns finding (matching or contrasting) pairs. Quick to play and very popular.

3 Coco Crazy
Guess the colour of the monkey in the coconut! This indispensable game from Ravensburger is soon to be released in Australia. For younger children it can be adapted and played without the dice. 

Unfortnately Coco Crazy  appears to have been discontinued and is no longer available in Australia.

It can be ordered from Jig Saw Jungle.

    Coco Crazy

4 Goonks
Baby Goonks communicate with each other by saying g-g-g, while grown up goonks only say g-words (like good gracious, gruesome, gorgeous, giggleguts and go-go-go-go-goonks)! These great little guys are available from Ikea - difficult to stop at one once you get into Goonks!

View Caroline Bowen and myself with the Goonks

5 Spot Books by Eric Hill
Available from most book shops. Children continue to love these books about Spot the dog's adventures. My own favourites are Where's Spot? & Spot's First Walk.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/03992
1822X/o/qid=950671683/sr=2-1/102-8963101-4440002

6 A Sound Way
This excellent book by Elizabeth Love and Sue Reilly 1995, is available from Silvereye Publications, phone (02) 4987 3457. A wonderful resource to enhance phonological awareness.

7 Sparc Revised 1994
(published by LinguiSystems, available from Pro-Ed, Australia, phone (07)5596 0966) This book by Susan Thomson is  very useful for speech and language therapy. It includes pictures for vocabulary, concepts, syntax and morphology.

http://www.linquisystems.com/search.php3?WU=80a298c3b2806cld

8 Listen, Think and Remember
A book by Larry J Mattes and Patty R Schuchardt 1998 (available from Silvereye Publications,phone (02) 4987 3457) It contains excellent ideas and material for work on auditory processing skills.

9 On my way to school I saw a . . .
Dice, discs and the 'road' from home to school, with pictures representing target sounds or words can be used. First to reach school is the winner. Children love this simple game and I use it for reinforcing spontaneous production of newly learned sounds. Can be viewed and printed out (free, of course!) here under Games.
Please Note:
Please Note:
These games can only be printed out using Internet Explorer
You can download  Internet Explorer.  If you are using another browser click on  Internet Explorer  to download.
N.B. Best printed out in colour and enlarged 145% to A3, and then laminated.

10 Language in pictures
This series by Helen Rippon of Black Sheep Press comprises great works sheets for speech and language therapy. It has proved to be a terrific find.

Look for LIP 1 to10: http://www.blacksheeppress.co.uk

Black Sheep Press  

This article was written for the ACQ and is published in the October 2000 edition.

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