If you ask a group of SLPs if they send speech homework home many will say no. If you ask why they’ll often respond, my students won’t practice at home. I totally get it because most of the “home practice” is boring.
I’m guilty of sending the boring practice sheets home too! I always sent practice pages home with my students at the end of every therapy session. We would use the page in session without writing on them and then they could take the sheets home with them to repeat the activity with their parents. Did they practice at home? No they didn’t. Why? Because I always made therapy fun. I always used a game with those worksheets. The worksheet was my stimulus material and the game was how I engaged them. They didn’t want to practice at home because just doing a boring worksheet wasn’t any fun. They didn’t have me & my games at home to make it fun.
Well, that was until I learned better!
Now I know if I want my students to practice at home it needs to be fun and engaging not only for the student but for the parents too. I remember how I hated sitting down at the kitchen table every night to help my son with his homework!
It would not be feasible nor practical to send all my games home with them, but I could create better practice materials so that is just what I did. I have created Speech Homework your kids will beg to do!
I started with a childhood favorite Hidden Pictures. Then I decided to also do a Search and Find series. It didn’t take me long to realize that you could benefit from seasonal ones so I did those too!
Click on the Hidden Pictures link to see them all.
Certainly the basic paper & pencil games are a hit for the elementary and middle school kids. They will do these for homework because they are a “game.”
Of course, we can’t forget Boom Learning. It is an internet site that is chocked full of fun speech and language games that can be played at home. You can even snoop, er, look in and see if they even opened the game you assigned them!
Click here to see all my Boom Cards™ Games and Activities
There are so many ways now (since the pandemic and remote learning) that you can get kids to practice at home!
I hope this makes you want to try homework again with your students because we both know the more they practice the quicker they will meet their goals!
Want to know more about using games in your therapy? Check out this post I wrote on Using Games In Therapy The Right Way
