Have you tried the Taboo Game for Speech Therapy?

Get expert info on using this classic party game to develop your students' vocabulary.

Number of Players: At least 4 players are shared across 2 teams, but in speech therapy, you can use this one-on-one.

Ages: 12+ For younger children use the ‘Don’t Say It’ game.

Target: Increase vocabulary skills and encourage team playing.

How the game is played: Get your team to say the Guess Word at the top of your card by giving them clues, without saying any of the banned ‘Taboo’ words.

For example, if your Guess Word is 'sundial' and you can’t say time, measure, shadow, ancient, or wall then you might say:

“In days gone by they used this to know when to do something.”

or

“They had no electricity or batteries so they needed to use rays to make it work.”

For teens with subtle language difficulties, especially in the area of word finding, this makes great brain training!

There really isn’t any need to make adaptations or modifications. You might want to play it one-on-one with your teenager rather than in a team situation to take out the competitive element, but other than that it plays right out of the box.

I sometimes go through the cards and pre-select those that I know will be within the everyday experiences of my students to make the task slightly easier but other than that, just play and have fun!

Now you know all there is to know about using the Taboo game for Speech Therapy – are you ready to play? Have fun!

(Click here to find more great speech therapy games for middle-schoolers!)