No Prep Speech Therapy: Using Blue Tape in Speech!

No prep speech therapy is certainly my jam. But therapy in April and May can feel redundant and... boring (*gasp* I said it!). I started a Blue Tape Challenge over on IG with Jennie Bjorem from Bjorem Speech, and it was a BLAST!

Not only did she inspire me with her ideas, but I also received SO MANY cool ideas from all of my Instagram followers! Read on for ways to use blue tape in both in-person therapy and teletherapy.

I used blue tape in ALL of my teletherapy sessions, and it gave my sessions new life! It also got us all up and moving.

Ideas for teletherapy: 

*Show up to the session with painter's tape on YOUR FACE! Act like everything is normal... can he/she describe what's going on and give you directions for removing it?

*Jennie likes to tape animals and objects to her face. Can't you just hear all the giggles?!

*Have a wall behind you? Tape up cards, animals, cars...get silly! I taped 10 plastic cars to my wall and my student "earned" each one for his target goal (we were working on /s/ blends at sentence level!).

*Tape up cards on the wall, and have the student describe which one she wants you to hit with a popper! I love poppers in therapy... and this got me up and moving!

*Tape up something fun with a LOT of tape, like a stuffed animal, a puzzle, a game, and have the student use his or her best speech to give you explicit directions on how to remove ALL the tape. Great for older students!

For one of my teletherapy sessions, I taped up this noisy puzzle and my student had to give me directions for each piece. "Take off the piece on the girl!" We targeted final /s/ (piece) and describing. It was so fun, and afterwards we got to use and listen to the puzzle, while listening to a Wheels on the Bus Youtube song. She asked for it twice after this!

Ideas for in-person therapy:

(I say for in-person, but a lot of these could be adapted for teletherapy as well!)

*Create a "road" track for your toys! In this session, we used these fun wind-up toys that I found on Amazon. She had to request each one out of the box, request help, and then we sent them whizzing down our "track!" 

*Create a track and line up your articulation cards! (or whatever goal you're targeting!). We sent our wind up toys or toy cars down the track, wherever it landed, we practiced that word/sound 5x. Easy fun with lots of movement!

*SAVE THE ANIMALS! Get your toy cars and plastic animals out, and save them from getting hurt! Use the tape as a "seatbelt" and strap each animal to the car (thanks for the idea, Jennie!). This can target SO many goals... directions, requesting, articulation... and my students LOVED it.

*A classic with a twist! Create a hopscotch board on your floor, and toss some cards in the various spots. As you play, make silly sentences with the card(s) you see in each space. Thanks to a follower for sending in this idea!

*Grab a cookie sheet and tape down some animals or bugs! Grab your spinner, and spin. How many can you get unSTUCK? This game is perfect for all those /s/ blends. Thanks to a follower for sending in this idea!

*Do you own one of these awesome floor mats? Tape some animals to the road! UH OH we have to help them get UNSTUCK! Give directions, work on /s/ blends, describing, requesting, turn taking... endless opportunities for speech goals! If you don't have one of these maps, you could even tape them to your train tracks, save the animal before our train comes!

*Create opportunities for movement! I taped 4 pieces to the wall that had numbers 1 through 4 to them. We took a turn in our game on the floor, then the student had to get up, choose one image from our sequencing card set, and decide where the picture fit in the sequence. He then went over to the wall, and taped the card under the corresponding number. SO MUCH movement and he asked for this activity the next time I saw him!

*Core vocabulary! I taped up this puzzle... check out all the language I was able to target! I even hid pictures INSIDE the doors to add more language. We got almost an entire session out of this one toy! She also helped me tape the doors back up when we were done which gave us more language opportunities. 

If you want even more, check out the hashtag #bluetapechallenge on Instagram and you'll find some other SLP posts. A lot of them are no prep speech therapy... win win!

Leave a comment with what YOU would do with blue tape in your speech room. I promise the possibilities (and laughs) are endless!