Using Candy Land as a Speech Therapy Tool

I love board games because they can target so many different goals.  I typically like simple board games so that the games don’t take over the goals.  Speech therapy games can be general reinforcing games or can be goal specific.  

This week I was cleaning my room and I found a few speech therapy games that I hadn’t played in a while, one being CandyLand. It was even one of the old-fashioned ones that had the cards. I pulled out the game for speech therapy and was able to play it with every group because of how versatile the game is. 

I used the game for articulation, verbs, and even for my clients with Childhood Apraxia of Speech!   I used my articulation and apraxia flashcards for targets during the game.  I will also use one of my print-and-go activities for the targets and as a takeaway.  

Here are some ideas to use CandyLand and other speech therapy games in your next speech session: 

Articulation 

  • For each spin, the individual has to practice 1-3 targets
  • For every spin, the individual has to practice the target 3-5 times
  • The number of spaces they advance = the number of times they practice their target
  • Create silly phrases with their targets.  

Language 

Social Skills 

  • Structured games, such as Candy Land are a great way to teach concepts such as turn taking, winning and losing, and more!
  • Use task cards or activities for inferencing questions for plays.  Check out some of my pragmatic activities that you can use along with this game.  

Remember you can change the rules of the game to meet the needs of your students.

I have included some activities below that can easily be incorporated for game play.  Have fun incorporating board games into your speech sessions!

Image showing CVC flashcards with child's hand
Context clues Boom Cards™ picture of woman on the beach
Apraxia Flashcards in a task cards box
Articulation Bundle