Number of Players: 1 – 4

Ages: 3+

Target: An easy motivator for any drill work. Great for repetitive articulation or grammar homework. It can be used for kids who need basic practice taking turns.

How the game is played: The basic idea of the game is to take turns in pushing down the crocodile’s teeth until suddenly SNAP! – he decides he has had enough dentistry work for one day and his jaws spring shut with the player’s fingers inside!

The snap comes out of the blue and always takes kids by surprise ensuring plenty of giggles but is gentle enough not to hurt little fingers.

Before I begin this game for the first time with students I always play a turn where my own fingers get caught. This ensures the kids know what is going to happen and don’t get a nasty surprise!

Using Crocodile Dentist for Speech Therapy

I have had a version of the crocodile dentist game in my kit since I was in Speech Therapy school. It is such a simple and versatile game that it has a multitude of uses when you work with young kids.

Crocodile Dentist Teaches Taking Turns

The most basic use of this popular game is to support children working on developing their turn-taking skills.

Young children often need an adult’s help to take turns playing a game. Furthermore, for older children with developmental delays, waiting for their turn can be a hard skill to master.

Crocodile Dentist is ideal for work on this skill because of its simplicity, minimal rules, and because each turn is short meaning impatient players won’t need to wait for long.

With those who struggle with taking turns in all aspects of life, you may choose to work one-on-one rather than in a group. 

You can add a simple script to the play to reinforce their waiting for “my turn” “your turn” or “Sandy’s turn” “Bobby’s turn”.

Articulation Drill Work Using Crocodile Dentist

The Crocodile Dentist game is another great motivator for just about any drill work that involves the repetition of a task.

The concept is simple, each time they correctly complete one of their drill items they get to take a turn with the croc. Common drills I target are:

• saying a word beginning with their target sound
• giving you a sentence with the correct verb tense or pronoun 

I've made up a set of print-and-go articulation cards covering 24 target sounds.to make therapy more like a game. Or you can simply pull the target words straight off a worksheet to keep things easy and fast.

None of us like working on repeating something that we find difficult to do. Crocodile Dentist is a fun little game that makes speech sessions much less of a chore!

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