Resources for Middle- & High-School Speech Therapy

Working with adolescent students can be rewarding if you tap into their interests. For most middle- and high-school students, after years of speech-language therapy, they are bored with word finds and coloring sheets.

If you want to bring in a Thanksgiving activity that will get laughs, check out these Parts of Speech Mad Libs. This 15 page set has leveled targets to make a laugh out loud result whether your students are working on reading, language, or have complex communication needs.

Below are 10 fresh speech-language therapy ideas that will spark conversation and engagement. These are great for students who are working on expressive language, social pragmatics, or reading comprehension.

Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day is November 11, 2024 this year. Use this short week to help students understand the importance of this National holiday.

Whether they have family members in the military, or there is a military base in your region, there are ways to connect this to gratitude for those who served our country. Three quick ideas to use in middle and high school speech therapy sessions are:

Do an art project related to Veteran's Day for students with complex communication needs.

Mark a map where family members served in the military and read about each place for adolescent students who are working on reading concepts.

Write a letter of thanks (use shared writing as a group if needed) to mail to a service member in active duty.

Winter Fashion

Fashion is an area of interest for most teens and adolescents. You can let students focus on the area of fashion (shoes, hats or fingernails) for semantic classification and synonyms, or have them read pinterest captions of fashion ideas. Here are a few more quick ideas for SLPs working with adolescents:

Let students create a short vlog (video) of their favorite trends for Winter fashion.

Have students cut out pictures from a magazine to create a full style, then write up a description as an advertisement for their selections.

Encourage students to discuss and debate on their favorite brands, or debate on the pros/cons of "fast fashion" to get encourage critical thinking and expressive language.

Fortnite Updates

Videogames are a staple of adolescents, and most teens on your caseload want to talk about them if you ask. Here are some easy ways to work in Fortnite or other popular video games into your speech-language sessions with middle and high school students:

Have groups create a video game dictionary to understand (and explain) the terms to others.

Read online reviews of game updates and let students debate about whether they like the changes or not, to foster critical thinking skills.

Practice social pragmatic skills such as how to respond in a multiplayer game if someone starts bullying you online.

Election Day

While many SLPs shy away from Election Day, this can be a great opportunity for your middle- and high-school students to learn about civic responsibility and organize their own opinions.

To prevent the topic from becoming too heated, here are some ways to work Election Day into your speech-language therapy themes:

Teach students how to write about a topic and supporting their argument/ claim (an important Common Core skill). By writing their opinion, it is less direct than having a full debate.

Keep your political opinions to yourself. As a matter of professionalism, give students space to explore issues or the importance of voting, rather than focusing on specific candidates. It is best to encourage respectful conversation about elections.

For students on your caseload with complex communication needs, do a red white and blue art project and have a discussion about the importance of voting, the right to vote, or history of voting.

Winter Habitats

This topic can go in so many directions, but housing and habitats are a great theme as we move into colder weather.

Here are some quick, no prep activities for adolescent students who have speech-language goals:

Teach students about social issues such as ways to support the unhoused/ homeless in your community. Start a drive to collect hats, mittens, or socks to distribute.

Expand vocabulary by learning words associated with animals and their winter habitats, or people around the world who use different vocabulary for homes.

Compare and contrast concepts related to winter housing and shelter, or list synonyms and antonyms for a winter housing theme.

Global Holidays

There are so many harvest and Fall holidays around the world. Use these ideas to create activities for teen students that go beyond Thanksgiving.

Create a Venn diagram of similarities and differences across Fall holidays.

Encourage critical thinking by discussing why people have historically celebrated harvest festivals in the Fall. If students have multicultural backgrounds, have them bring in pictures of their family celebrations.

For students with complex communication needs, develop a menu for a holiday within a specific category for semantic pairing, such as vegetarian items, or a desserts only meal.

Time Changes

Spring forward and fall back are realities that may impact your students and their sleep schedules. Change up your therapy ideas with these quick, no prep conversation starters.

Have students read about daylight savings time and why it exists (or read aloud with comprehension questions).

Encourage critical thinking with a debate about whether daylight savings time should exist, and why it is hard to change it.

Have students write a letter as a group (shared writing) for a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, with their opinions about daylight savings time changes.

Winter Sports

November is a great time to discuss winter sports such as basketball, volleyball, or skiing. Depending on where you live, have students connect with their school and region with these simple ideas:

Read about local athletes or school teams in the news each week to keep track of their progress. Use shared reading or read aloud strategies if needed.

Check out professional sports if there is a nearby team, or follow college sports if one is nearby to connect it to student interest. Keep track of their weekly scores and highlights or have students create a news broadcast of sports updates.

For students with complex communication needs, have them match sports equipment to the right sport (categorize items) or build vocabulary related to sports.

Holiday Recipes

Recipes are a great format for struggling readers and students with multicultural backgrounds. Plus, who doesn't like to eat?

Have students share family recipes in writing so they can read them to the group. Create a collective cookbook of Fall recipe ideas.

Make one or two simple recipes for students to work on following directions. Check out https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/seasonal/fall/

Research with your students traditional holiday recipes from around the world. What are synonyms for common items? Or categorize them into groups.

Trending Music

Most teens love music and there are endless conversation topics here. From artists who are "beefing" to trending songs, let your students be the experts and teach you about what is popular. Here are more ideas:

Program AAC devices to play popular songs for students with complex communication needs.

Read online reviews of new albums and have students agree or disagree with the content. Check out https://www.billboard.com/ to get the conversation started.

Print out lyrics to songs and compare to poetry concepts, identify parts of speech, or symbols. Have kids with articulation goals? Have them change words in a song using synonyms with their target sound.

Conclusion

As SLPs face colder weather and look for age-appropriate Fall themes for older students, I hope these ideas give you a fresh perspective! Go beyond Thanksgiving with these November activities that target adolescent interests and language goals!