5 Movement Activities for Speech Therapy Sessions

Each speech therapy session is truly going to look different. 

A lot of times I get asked by parents if their child is eligible for speech therapy if they cannot sit still. These are the parents who describe their child as in “constant motion”, a “mover and shaker” or like they regularly have “ants in their pants”. 

Challenge accepted! This is when the beauty of play-based speech therapy comes alive! We can move-and-shake together. Our speech therapy activities can incorporate movement, which will increase engagement. 

So, today I’m giving you my top 5 speech activities for kids that need a little (or a lot!) of movement during their sessions: 

Tunnel play

This one is my go-to for toddlers because I can easily pop a collapsible tunnel out and be ready to roll.

Younger kids might enjoy a game of peek-a-boo in the tunnel or shaking the tunnel sides and requesting for “more”, “go”, or “shake” to get me to shake the tunnel. We can roll a ball back and forth through it, practicing “ready, set, go” or “ball”. We can add a chunky puzzle - throwing objects into the tunnel and exclaiming “where’d it go” and then going to find it. Once we find it, maybe we make the animal noise, label the animal, talk about “I found the ___” or talk about where it was. 

We can also easily add things that might be of interest to them - superheroes, parts to Potato Head, Peppa characters, and more. 

Grocery shopping 

If you have a toy grocery cart or a big dump truck, both work great for this. If your kid might benefit, you can put something like a small hand weight or weighted ball in the cart to make it heavier and give them more feedback. 

The nice thing about shopping is we can shop for anything.  I might put pieces of a puzzle around the room to go pick up the animals to take them to the vet, we might need to go pick up some dinosaurs for some wild reason, or go “clothes shopping" with clothes I spread around the room. Clothes shopping is even better if I’m working with an OT colleague who is working on dressing skills!

If you’re trying this at home, you can go shopping for items around your house that need to get put back into their designated spot! Ha!  

Swinging 

I don’t always have access to a swing so sometimes my body becomes the swing (and my chiropractor yells at me for it in a later adjustment! oops!). 

If I do have access to a swing, we can build routines with swings such as peek-a-boo or “ready, set, …..go!”, talk about going fast/slow, or requests like “push me”.  

Sometimes, we might even read a story on a swing, reaching around the swing as we read to find characters from the story and having them swing with us. 

If you don’t have a swing at home, try making a swing out of an old sheet! You’ll need two grown-ups for this - one to hold each side of the swing. Your child can request to swing or shake, or maybe the swing will be “open” or “closed” at the top. Sometimes characters might fall into the swing (think stuffed animals here!) and we have to tell them to “get out”!!

Gross motor songs 

There are SO many gross motor songs out there and I have a handful that I pull up regularly for my kids. My favorites are “Stand up, Sit Down” by Tumble Tots and “The Goldfish” by the Laurie Berkner Band. You can easily follow the instructions or act these out as you listen. 

I’m also a big fan of “Silly Pizza Song”  by Rachel Coleman → although it doesn’t have specific movements within the song, I find that if I plan ahead, I can have the items or pictures of the items from the song sprinkled around the room and we can go find them during the song! 

Of course, I can always throw on a song from the Trolls Soundtrack or Moana (my favorite) for a game of Freeze dance! 

Either way, music is a great way for us to talk about actions - we have to jump, stomp, clap, dance, and more! We can also talk about going fast and slow, big movements and little tiny movements, too! 

Vehicles

Vehicles can pretty quickly get out of hand in speech therapy or be something that becomes hard to contain. I combat that by building a hot wheels track, a train track, or using tape to make roads. I like to make something that has a clear beginning and end so we can go back-and-forth. If you’ve even seen one of my therapy sessions, you know I love for there to be a routine or rhythm built within an activity for young learners. 

Sometimes we build roads from the garage to the fire station! We might have obstacles along the way” that we need to tell to “move” or call for a tow truck to get out of the way. The possibilities are endless. 

Alright, well that was longer than I intended! So I’ll stop here but if you’re finding one of your clients or one of your children at home are having a tough time focusing and need a bit more movement, I hope they find some enjoyment in some of what I’ve mentioned here. As always, reach out if you want additional input or strategies to further individualize these ideas to your specific needs!