Speech therapy category activities are some of my favorite activities to do in therapy. Making a connection between related items and expressing word relationships are key skills in language development. There are endless possibilities to work on it too! These are skills I work on in the schools all the time. For more on my journey as a school SLP, click here.
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Speech Therapy Category Activities
There are so many students on my caseload working on categories in therapy and it is one of my favorite areas of language to work on. I enjoy meeting my students where they are, at their level, and giving them the opportunities to identify and express categories with as much or as little support as they need. I have outlined here some of my favorite activities and how I use them in my therapy room.
Category Activities and Why They are Important
Categories are just one piece of the bigger language processing picture. They are a stepping stone for our students to eventually be able to attach more meaning to information they receive and then successfully form and express a response.
This is the Language Processing hierarchy from simple to complex.
- Labeling
- Functions
- Associations
- Categories
- Similarities
- Differences
- Multiple Meaning Words
- Analogies
- Idioms
More Research
By age 4-5, children should be able to identify simple categories (e.g., animals, vehicles, food, drink, etc.) and be able to express what does not belong in a group when given items or pictures. (Source: ASHA). However, in the elementary setting, we see a lot of students who have not yet mastered these skills. And, when they are unable to complete these tasks, it is likely that they will have difficulty developing the higher-level skills that follow. They may even have some difficulty with the steps below this (e.g., functions or associations). That is why it is so important to assess and see where our students’ strengths and weaknesses lie as well as where their gaps in language development may be.
In order to successfully place items into categories, our students must be able to associate words by common features. This skill is critical in order to complete complex cognitive tasks. Difficulties with categorization may reveal themselves in limited vocabularies, difficulty with word retrieval, and poor memory skills. These difficulties impact our students’ overall language processing, negatively impacting their ability to organize information and develop conceptual knowledge needed for learning in the classroom.
List of Categories Speech Therapy Activities
These are some of my favorite, super simple category activities that can be used with materials you probably already have lying around your speech room.
Fun Speech Therapy Activities
1. Musical stepping stones with categories
One of my favorite, super-simple activities for busy times of year (especially when I have to combine groups or have larger groups) is a musical stepping stones game with categories.
First, I put out pictures in a large circle around the room*
I put velcro on the back of mine because I have carpet squares in my room, but you could do tape too if you have tile (to prevent slipping)
When the students arrive I have them each stand on a picture
We review the rules (e.g., no running, no skipping in line, when the music stops, you stop, etc.)
I start the music!
When the music stops, they stop on whatever picture they are on/closest to and complete their individual task (say the word with their target sound, answer a wh question about it, describe it, use it in a sentence, etc.)
*Pictures – for this target, I use any nouns and we practice naming the category and expressing it in a sentence.
2. Four corners with categories
I put a different category name in each corner (or section) of the room. Then, I call out a noun or show a picture card, and my littles walk to the corner of the appropriate category name.
3. Free Christmas category craft
For a fun and simple Christmas craft, here is “Build your own Christmas Tree!” This printable craft is available in my freebie library and includes a print-and-go option in color or black and white templates to print and cut out on cardstock/construction paper, or white paper for coloring. Both are great options for an engaging activity to incorporate lots of practice with categories. Each piece of the craft has a category prompt on it for quick and easy practice and drill. And in the end, your students get a unique, adorable craft that they can take home and share with their families.
Seasonal Describing Activities
Describing tasks are excellent ways to incorporate and work on category skills and practice working on categories as part of the bigger language processing hierarchy.
I like to use graphic organizers to work on oral and written descriptions. In my store, I have ready-to-print (or editable ready-to-use virtually) seasonal graphic organizers for Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer.
Each product includes:
•22 seasonally themed graphic organizers
•1 blank graphic organizer to use with any theme/picture
•Word bank
•Sentence starters
•Vocabulary cards in color
And all are in pdf and google slide forms!
How I use them:
I work with students to fill in descriptors (e.g., category, function, location, parts, adjectives, etc.) Then they can use the graphic organizers to orally describe the item or write a few sentences about it (depending on their age/level). The word bank and list of sentence starters can be used to assist students who may need a higher level of support.
Category Activities Speech Therapy
Looking for some new category activities for speech therapy? I have so many students working on categories and I love category activities! This product gives students the opportunity to work on receptive language by identifying categories through picture sorts and expressive language by producing a structured, patterned sentence to express the category name. Category sorting activities are a great way to quickly assess baselines or progress in receptive language.
Category Activities for Speech Therapy
This is one of my favorite activities to use when working on categories during my group sessions. This product contains almost 200 pictured items (6-10 per category) to sort into 20 categories + 4 different sentence strips to use with the pictures.
Directions for use: Print and laminate all pages. Cut out individual item pictures and category name pictures. Use the individual pictures to sort onto mats for students to identify items in categories. Then use the individual pictures and category name pictures to complete the sentence strips for students to express category names in a complete, structured sentence.
How to help students with speech and language impairments
I like to use word banks and sentence starters to assist students who may need a higher level of support. Word banks can help reduce frustrations for students who struggle with word retrieval and ease stress associated with spelling difficulties (for writing tasks). Sentence starters are a great way to support our students who have difficulty with grammar, sentence structure, or organization.
For more Speech Therapy Category Activities and Ideas:
How and Why to Teach Categories in Speech Therapy By Allison Fors
All About Categories Podcast from The Digital SLP
5 Ways to Teach Categories from Itty Bitty Speech
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I hope you found some of these ideas helpful and can use one or more in your therapy room this year. Please leave a comment or shoot me an email if you want to share some of your favorite speech therapy category activities.
