Free Websites for Speech Teletherapy That I Will Continue to Use

Use these resources for both teletherapy & in-person speech therapy sessions!

Like most school-based SLPs, my work world was turned upside-down by the COVID-19 pandemic. I quickly had to adapt my therapy style to provide virtual support for my students. After a few weeks of researching and talking to colleagues (along with some successful and not-so successful sessions), I felt confident in my teletherapy practice by incorporating some free websites to keep my students motivated and engaged. My students and I enjoyed these websites and activities so much that I will continue to use these resources even when we are back to in-person speech therapy!

*Before using these websites, please preview the content as there may be pop-ups or ads that are not appropriate for your students.

1. Wheel of Names

Wheel of Names is a free, virtual wheel that can be completely customized! I have loved using this with students of all ages and needs. For articulation students, I entered numbers (1-6) and prompted the students to say their target word or phrase on whichever number the wheel lands on. I typically paired this resource with an virtual game. You can also directly add their target sounds/words as part of the wheel. 

For language students, I entered their target conjunctions as part of the wheel and prompted them to make novel compound/complex sentences. 

For social groups, I entered the students’ names onto the wheel. If the wheel landed on your name, you needed to make a comment or ask a question about the current group topic.

I feel like there are endless possibilities of how to use this tool with speech and language students. I’m excited to continue to use this tool once back in school! 

2. Toy Theater

Toy Theater is a free, educational website that has virtual tools and games to use with your students. Under “Teacher Tools” I most often use the dice, the stopwatch, and classroom timer as visuals for my students over teletherapy. I am constantly losing my dice in school, so it’s nice to know I can use this website as a backup. 

Under “Games,” Toy Theater has many reinforcer games such as tic-tac-toe, checkers, and mini-golf. I often use these games as a reward at the end of my teletherapy sessions. When I’m at school, sometimes my students are tired of playing the same games I have in my office. I plan to incorporate some of these virtual games into my reward toolbox.

3. Quia Web

Quia Web is an educational site where you can find and create digital quizzes and games. You can access the pre-made, shared activities for free! Just look under the “Speech Therapy” category for games or quizzes that are relevant to your students’ goals. To make your own learning activities, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial or subscribe for an annual fee. In my speech teletherapy sessions, I have used the free activities to target problem-solving, vocabulary, and idioms.

4. Virtual Field Trips

Before my teletherapy journey began, I had heard of virtual field trips but never used them in my therapy sessions. I was shocked by how engaged even my most complex communicators were during my virtual field trip sessions. It was so fun to explore the San Diego Zoo, Disney World, and the Georgia Aquarium with my students. It sparked a lot of language and conversation, which is exactly what I aim for in all my sessions! After making some quick visuals, I was able to target core words with my AAC language group, expressive language goals with my elementary students, and vocabulary goals with my middle schoolers. I hope to “revisit” these places with my students and find new virtual field trips in the coming school years.

5. Jamboard

I use whiteboards in all of my speech sessions and felt a little lost in my teletherapy sessions without them! Jamboard is an interactive whiteboard that was developed by Google. If your school or business operates with G Suite, you have free access to this digital whiteboard when you are logged into your Google Account. You can find Jamboard under the “Google Apps” drop-down menu. With Jamboard you can draw, add images, and create sticky notes onto the digital whiteboard. I loved using this with my older students by sharing the mouse control and letting them draw pictures and write notes. To work on inferences, I uploaded a picture onto Jamboard and had students look for nonverbal clues and write how the people may have been feeling or thinking. My students loved interacting with the board to share their answers. When my session is over, the Jamboard is automatically saved to my Google Account. You can also save it as a PDF and move it into a digital folder if you want to keep your work session as data for progress reports. Even though I am excited to use my traditional whiteboards again during in-person speech sessions, I will keep Jamboard up my sleeve to engage those students who love using technology.

I hope you find these free websites and apps as useful as I do! I’m also excited to add these tools to my “lesson plans” once we are back in school for in-person speech sessions. Have you used these tools in your teletherapy or in-person sessions? I’d love to hear how you used them in the comments!