How to use spot it! in speech therapy

If you have never heard of Spot It! before, it is essentially a fast paced matching game (that you totally want to add to your speech room). The cool part about this game is that it comes with many ways to play. However, I will describe to you the most common way I use this game in therapy.

I set the pile of cards face down in front of me.  I flip over two cards at a time and have students race to find the matching picture. Once a student finds a picture that is displayed on both cards, they must call it out (i.e. “heart”) or point to the item. The student who calls out/finds the matching picture FIRST gets to keep the set of cards. (If there is a tie each student gets a card). At the end of the game, the student with the most cards wins.

Now, here are some ways I use this game to my advantage in the speech room:

1. Temporal Directions

After spotting the matching picture, I will prompt students to point to pictures in a named order. For example, “Point to the heart AFTER you point to the clown.”

2. Comparing

Once the matched picture is found, I ask students to compare the item with another item by listing similarities and differences. For example, if the matching picture was “igloo,” I would ask students to compare an “igloo” and a “house.”

3. Plurals

This game is a great way to target plural forms. Typically, I use a simple phrase/sentence structure such as “There are____” and have the students complete the sentence by listing the matched picture (i.e “There are two hearts”). You can also encourage students to talk about the singular form of nouns by making sentences about pictures that are NOT a match (i.e. “There is one tree on this card”).

4. Describing

Once a student finds the matching picture I prompt them to provide the group/category it belongs to and 3 details about it.

Another way I like to target describing is to turn the game into an “I spy” type game. Instead of two cards, I present one, and ask one student to provide the group and 3 details about an object pictured. The rest of the students in the group (or therapist) have to then guess the object they are describing.

5. Articulation

If you are targeting sounds at phrase or sentence level you can easily accompany a target phrase or sentence with this game (see picture above for examples).

Also,Speech Therapy with Courtney Gragg has great “Match it!” games on Teachers Pay Teachers that are specific to speech target sounds. My favorite is her vocalic /r/ Match it!

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I am sure there are MANY ways you can use this game in speech therapy. These are the most common ways I like to use this game. I really enjoy this game for all age groups and it comes in handy when I have mixed groups.

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This game comes in SO many fun versions too!

Spot-it! UnitedHealthcare Children’s Foundation Smile Edition

Spot it: Finding Dory

Spot It Gone Camping Card Game

Spot It! Hip

Spot It! Fire & Ice

I hope you enjoy this game as much as I do! Let me know how you use this game in the comments below 🙂