25 Play-Based Speech and Language Therapy Ideas to Address Standards

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We know children are playing less.

Take this study conducted by Melissa and Doug and Gallup: Researchers found that children spend an average of 18.6 hours of their free time engaged in screen-based play per week and 14.6 hours on indoor screen-free play and an average of 10.6 hours on outdoor play.

And we know it’s changing at school as well.

Take this study which collected answers from more than 2,500 kindergarten and first-grade teachers from across the country. These researchers chose to compare teachers’ answers from 1998 with teachers’ answers from 2010. (remember, 1998, was prior to the No Child Left Behind, test-emphasized transformation.)

Basically, the study found that teacher expectations for kindergartners have become measurably higher, with a heavier focus on reading and math; meanwhile, time spent on things like art and simple playtime has decreased. “We were surprised to see just how drastic the changes have been over a short period of time,” Daphna Bassok said in a statement. “We expected to see changes on some of these dimensions but not nearly so systematically and not nearly of this magnitude.”

So we know play is decreasing and a push for academics is on the rise. However, (and this is where my opinion may be different from some), I believe play is essential for learning. I also believe standards are good. They drive our goals and provide consistency across different educators. They provide a roadmap so that we have an order of what should be taught next and why.

So the question is: Can we incorporate play while still purposefully teaching the standards? It can definitely be tricky, but yes. The key word here is purposeful. Kids need be taught, and that often includes instruction on how to play. In fact, adult modeling has solid evidence for improving pretend play in children with disabilities (thanks The Informed SLP). Specifically, adults should model multiple play behaviors, use a variety of common toys, and comment on the child’s play (Barton et al., 2020).

Below are 20 easy ways to incorporate play into your sessions while also addressing the content standards (I’m using the Common Core but typically state standards have similar ones). I’ve linked to some of my favorites (affiliate links to my Amazon page) but you can easily make some of these materials or utilize pretend! I also feel like I would be doing a disservice if I didn’t mention the Guru of Dramatic Play (Whitney SLP). She is the queen when it comes to incorporating meaningful play into sessions and has an entire bundle of resources to help educators and parents do this.

• Standard: SL6 (Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly) and SL1 (Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade appropriate topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups, Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion), Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.)
  • Playing farm (practicing animal noises, articulation)
  • Puppet show (and stage) (I’ve found it helpful to have a guided script or familiar story such as The 3 Little Pigs for this) practicing complete sentences, articulation, turn-taking, intonation
  • Playing restaurant and taking orders, complete sentences, articulation, social skills
  • Weather man (have students take turns forecasting weather practicing complete sentences, articulation, intonation)
  • Coffee Shop practicing articulation (free cup stoppers in my Newsletter Library)

• Standard L 5d. (Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings).
  • Synonym Superheroes (has superpowers to change “boring words” into “super words.”
  • Charades to act out shades of meaning within words
  • Scavenger hunt to search for synonyms (or antonyms)
• Standard L 5a. Sort words into categories (e.g., colors, clothing) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent
  • Grocery Shop to sort words/objects of different categories into various shoppings bags or baskets
  • Pizza Shop (have words on pizza toppings and other students order (for example, “pizza with clothing” or “pizza with fruits” to sort)
  • Cookie Bakery Shop sort (place words on bottoms and tops of cupcakes to pair together)
• Standard L 1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
  • Scavenger hunt for various nouns, verbs, etc.
  • Sailboat with mixed up word cards on the floor (water) and the sailboat needs to pick them up in the right order to form sentences.
  • Ice Cream Sentence Parlor (free in my shop)
• Standard RF 2c. Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
  • Scavenger hunt for sounds (middle, initial, final).
  • Hopscotch-jump on the sounds
  • Popcorn Movie theatre phonics
• Standard W 3. Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure.
  • Bakery with Recipe Sequencing Cards (free in my shop)
  • Campfire with sequencing scenarios on ingredients to sort.
  • Playing doctor or vet sequencing the correct steps or following directions
• Standard RI 2. Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
  • Going Fishing (fishing for the main idea-written out on the fish- in a sea of details)
• Standard RL 1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
  • Playing “teacher” or “class” to give students a turn being the teacher and asking questions
  • Playing doctor to ask and answer questions about what is wrong with the patient
• Standard RL 9. Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.
  • Going Fishing (catch fish with word pairs on them and state similarities and differences
  • Cookie Bakery Shop place words on icing and cookies and have students pair them together, stating similarities and differences

What do you think? Have any more to add?