Five Ways to Use Google Slides in Your Speech Therapy Sessions

August has arrived, and back to school season is just around the corner! Even if you don’t work in a school, the fresh energy is palpable, and it’s the perfect time to explore new systems and strategies for the coming months. That’s why I’m so excited to share five ways to use Google Slides in your speech therapy sessions! This powerful tool can help you stay organized and be more creative, so let’s get started!

All About Me

“All About Me” presentations with Google Slides are lifesavers at the beginning of a new school year! They build rapport, help students learn each other’s names, and provide opportunities for informal language sampling. They can also be used to target executive function, personal narrative, describing, sequencing, social communication, following directions, and more.

Depending on your setting, the logistics might be tricky, but you could try using stations, borrowing extra Chromebooks, or even supporting students in collaborating to create each presentation as a group!

Build-a-Scene or Build-a-Character

With Google Slides, you can easily move images around, making it possible to build a cohesive scene from a variety of parts. You could provide a collection of related images (e.g., trees, ponds, swings, slides, etc.) and ask students to choose their favorites and build a scene. As a bonus, as you operate the slides, students will get plenty of practice with requesting, sequencing, describing, spatial concepts, and more!

You could also turn this into a “build-a-character” activity, by providing images of hair, eyes, noses, glasses, hats, etc., and inviting students to assemble some funny faces. Once the images are assembled, students could use them to work on narrative, problem-solving, social communication, describing, predicting, and more.

Daily Routine Decks

Our students and clients benefit from predictable routines and session structures (and we do too!), but it can be daunting to put them into place. Google Slides are here to help! I love to use a universal deck template that I quickly customize for each student or group and then update/reuse each day.

Usually, I include a warm-up/check-in slide, a slide about the day’s goals, a slide for the main activity, and a slide with a wrap-up/reflection prompt, but you can absolutely adjust this format to fit your setting and needs!

Digital Flip Books

For this activity, you can help students create a series of slides that they click through to tell or build a story. Each slide could represent a part of a sequence (e.g., first/next/then/last), a page of a personal narrative, or steps in a how-to, depending on the students’ goals.

Students can type or dictate content, add images, and even record audio to narrate each part (an ideal option for students working on articulation at the conversation level!). And if you have access to any physical flip books, they might be an engaging way to introduce this activity!

Drag-and-Drop Digital Sorts

Because it’s so easy to move images (and text boxes!) around on Google Slides, they lend themselves to any sorting activity you can imagine! Students could sort items by category or attribute, sort words by parts of speech, or sort articulation targets by sound position (and say them as they go).

Students could even sort statements by fact vs. opinion! And sorting is just the beginning—this activity also invites students to interact, discuss, provide feedback, and ask follow-up questions.

Bonus: Student Portfolios

It’s not too early to begin planning your year-end speech celebration! Take a few minutes to create a Google Slide for each student or client on your caseload, and as the year progresses, scan and insert examples of their work, or stories of their growth. By the time the school year wraps up, you’ll be ready with a joyful slide show full of speech therapy success!

If you try any of these ideas, please let me know! And if you’re looking for simple, effective digital materials that can be used with a variety of age groups, consider signing up for a Digital SLP membership! Click here to learn more. Have fun!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessica Cassity, M.S., CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist in Florida. She is the founder of Digital SLP, which specializes in online speech therapy materials for busy SLPs. She also blogs and hosts a podcast, both of which can be found on The Digital SLP. In her spare time she enjoys yoga, cooking, the outdoors, and spending time with her children.