Middle School Speech Therapy Activities

What Skills to Target in Middle School Speech Therapy:

So what communication skills are needed for children in middle school?  Well, for that we go the Common Core State Standards.  These standards were set forth by the US government as a way to measure progress of American schools.  This curriculum outlines exactly what skills children should master in each grade.

There are a ton of different communication skills that are outlined in the text.  For a full account of what the curriculum includes, click the link below:

Click Here to Read the English Language Arts Standards

However, in case you don’t feel like falling asleep right now, let me share with you some of my favorite speech therapy resources for middle schoolers:

Social Skills for Middle Schoolers:

One of the things I get asked about most for this age is how to run a social skills group.  I’ve broken down exactly how to run the group as well as given you an excellent tool that will provide you with SUPERB social skills videos that you can use during your next social skills lesson.  Check it out:

How to Teach Social Skills to Middle Schoolers (Plus an AWESOME tool!)

Carrie’s Top Therapy Activities and Guides for Middle Schoolers:

Making Middle School Speech Therapy Activities Engaging

Middle schoolers are notorious for being more than a bit skeptical of our cutsie speech therapy ways.  That means, you can’t just purchase any old cartooney product from Teachers Pay Teachers and expect your middle schoolers to be excited about it.  You have to appeal to THEIR interests!

For that reason, I find YouTube to be an excellent resource to use when finding materials for this age.  You can find practical examples of what you’re teaching, plus you can find things that appeal to the students’ interests.

One of my favorite examples of such an activity includes my friend Kyle’s “Rapping Meatballs” video.  Ok, that’s not actually what it’s called but I think that sounds way cooler 😉

Kyle raps about how to make spaghetti and meatballs.  Kyle perfectly sequences out the steps to creating this favorite dish while still keeping in fun, funky, and fresh (sorry Kyle, I’m clearly not a rapper…).

Rappin’ Meatballs Sequencing Activity

1. Ask about the main idea.  What was the rapper making?
2. Have the students write down the important steps from the rap.  (They must use listening and thinking skills to determine what in the rap is an important step and what is filler.)
3. Cut the steps apart onto separate strips of paper and mix them up.  Have the students rearrange the steps into the correct order.