Speech Therapy at Home: Tips, Games and Apps to Use Between Sessions

Yes, parents can do speech therapy practice at home, and it is what most speech-language pathologists ask for: about 10 minutes, most days. A 2018 survey of 288 speech-language pathologists by Sugden and colleagues found that 96.4% involve parents, most often through home practice, recommended about 5 times a week for 10 minutes.

The speech-language pathologist chooses the sound and teaches it; home practice repeats it, little and often, between sessions. The most useful single habit is simple: say the word clearly, let your child try, and when it comes out wrong, say it back correctly instead of asking for a repeat. This page covers a 10-minute routine, games for any sound, ideas for toddlers, tracking progress, what to know about online speech therapy and apps, and when to go back to the speech-language pathologist.

Can you do speech therapy at home instead of seeing a speech therapist?

Home speech practice is part of speech therapy, not a replacement for it. You can help a great deal, and speech-language pathologists want you to: in the survey by Sugden and colleagues (2018), 95.8% agreed or strongly agreed that family involvement is essential for intervention to be effective.

What a speech-language pathologist does that a parent cannot:

• evaluates the child and finds which sound or pattern is the problem;
• chooses the target and the order to work through it;
• teaches how to make a sound the child cannot make yet;
• changes the plan when a target is learned or is not moving.

What home practice adds is repetition. A child learns a new sound by saying it many times, and a weekly session alone gives few turns. That is why practice comes home. How much home practice speeds therapy up is less well studied: a 2016 review by Sugden, Baker, Munro and Williams of 61 intervention studies that involved parents found most gave “limited details regarding what this involved”, and called for further high-quality research.

If your child has not been evaluated yet, there is still a lot you can safely do now: talk and read together, say words clearly, and say a mixed-up word back correctly without asking for a repeat. The 2-minute picture check on the minimal pairs page is an at-home screening that helps you notice which sound pattern your child uses; it does not replace an evaluation. To find a certified speech-language pathologist in the United States, use ASHA ProFind. The difference between an articulation problem and a phonological one is explained on the phonological processes page.

How do I do speech therapy at home? A 10-minute routine

Speech practice at home works as a short daily routine: 5–10 minutes, on the words your child’s speech-language pathologist chose, from listening up to a sentence. The NHS speech and language therapy team in Norfolk and Waveney puts the dose this way: “Practise little and often, 5-10 minutes every day is better than one hour once a week” (Just One Norfolk). That matches the 5 times a week for 10 minutes in Sugden’s survey.

1. 1

   Pick this week's words

   Use the 4–6 words or the sound your child's speech-language pathologist chose this week. If your child is not in therapy yet, skip the drill and spend the time talking and reading together instead.

2. 2

   Listen first

   Say each word clearly while your child looks at the picture or the object. Let them hear it several times before you ask them to say anything.

3. 3

   Say it, then your turn

   Let your child try each word. Praise the try, and if it comes out wrong, say it back clearly instead of asking for a repeat.

4. 4

   Take one word into a sentence

   When a word comes out clearly most of the time, put it in a short phrase or sentence, such as 'my sock' or 'the sun is up'. Stop while your child still wants to play.

5. 5

   Write one line in the log

   Note the words you practiced and how many came out clearly. Bring the log to the next session so the speech-language pathologist can see the week.

Start with listening, because a child has to hear the sound before saying it. The Norfolk team advises taking turns with the words so your child can “hear good speech models”, and to “Encourage and praise your child even if they are finding the work tricky.”

Move up one level at a time. The Practice Portal of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) describes carryover “at increasingly challenging levels (e.g., syllables, words, phrases/sentences, conversational speaking)”. At home that means single words first, then short phrases, then sentences, then one word used in everyday talk. Go back a step if the sound starts to slip.

How to give feedback:

• Praise the try, not only the clear ones.
• Say it back correctly (“Yes, the sun!”) instead of “say it again”.
• Use a cue card for the sound, so a reminder is a picture rather than a correction. The speech sound cue cards from the minimal pairs page are below.
• Work on one sound or pattern at a time, the one the speech-language pathologist is working on.
• Stop while it is still fun.

Two pages show this routine for one sound: the s words for speech practice page for s and z, and the minimal pairs page for sounds a child swaps.

Speech therapy tips for kids: how to make practice feel like play

Speech practice works best for children when it happens inside play and the ordinary day, not as a drill at the table. The session is 10 minutes; the rest of the day is where a target word can come up again for free.

Fold one word into the day. Pick one practice word and use it on purpose during a routine you already have: “sock” while dressing, “soup” at lunch, “bus” on the way to school, “soap” at bath time. Each time, you say it clearly and your child has a chance to say it too.

Read, sing and rhyme. A picture book lets you repeat a target word naturally: point to the picture, name it, and pause so your child can fill it in on the next page. Songs and nursery rhymes repeat the same words every time they are sung, which is exactly the repetition practice needs. Choose a book or song with your child’s sound in it, such as a song about a bus for s at the end of a word.

Let siblings play. An older brother or sister can take a turn in the games and say the words clearly. Keep the correcting to the grown-up.

For a reluctant child:

• Make sessions shorter, even 3–5 minutes, and end before your child wants to.
• Let your child choose the game from 2 or 3.
• Practice in play, not drills: the word is said to win a turn, feed a puppet or find a hidden card.
• Never correct in front of other children or at a family meal. Keep practice private.
• Keep rewards small, such as a sticker on the log or choosing the next game.

Speech therapy games and activities for any sound

Speech therapy games work because every turn asks a child to hear or say the practice word, so the repetition happens without a drill. Any set of picture cards works with the games below, whatever the sound.

Kind of game	How it works	Examples
Listening games	You say a word; your child finds the picture	Feed the monster (a paper-bag monster only eats the word you said); point to the one I say
Saying games	Your child says the word to take a turn	Go fish; memory, naming each card turned over; hop the path, saying each card to hop to it
Moving and DIY games	The word gets said while your child moves or hunts	Hide-and-find around the room; household objects in a bag, named as they come out; a bean bag tossed onto a card

To make your own game, put the practice words on cards or use real things from the house with the sound in them. A game is any rule that makes saying the word the way to win.

Games and printable cards by sound. Each page below has its own picture cards, word lists and games, free to print:

Your child’s sound or pattern	Where the cards and games are
S and z	S and z words for speech
A lisp (s and z unclear)	What is a lisp
S and sh mixed up	S and sh minimal pairs
Th said as f, s or t	Th minimal pairs
K and g said as t and d (fronting)	Fronting minimal pairs
R and l said as w (gliding)	Gliding minimal pairs
R that sounds like w in car, bird and mother	Vocalic r
Stopping (t for s, p for f)	Stopping
Blends made shorter (top for stop)	Cluster reduction
First sounds left off	Initial consonant deletion
Last sounds left off	Final consonant deletion
Any swapped sound, in pairs	Minimal pairs

Speech therapy for toddlers at home: play-based ideas for ages 2 to 3

At 2 and 3, speech therapy at home is mostly about talk and language, not single sounds, and it happens in play. A meta-analysis by Roberts and Kaiser (2011) of children aged 18–60 months with language difficulties found that parent-implemented language interventions “have a significant, positive impact on receptive and expressive language skills”. In those programs a speech-language pathologist teaches the parent strategies, and the parent uses them in everyday play.

Four strategies to use while you play:

1. Follow your child’s lead. Play with what they choose, and talk about that.
2. Name what they look at. If they hold up a car, say “car!” or “a red car”.
3. Add one word. If your child says “ball”, say “big ball” or “throw ball”.
4. Wait for a turn. Pause, look expectant, and give your child time to say something before you fill the gap.

Songs and books help here too. Songs with actions, and books with one picture and a few words a page, give a toddler the same words over and over, with a natural pause where they can join in.

Whether a toddler who talks little is behind is a different question, about late talking and first words, with its own answer. Speech and language develop on a timetable that the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association sets out by age (ASHA), and a speech-language pathologist can tell you whether your toddler needs an evaluation.

How do I track my child’s speech progress between sessions?

Track speech practice with one line a day: the words you practiced, how many came out clearly, and where they slipped. A short log tells the speech-language pathologist what happened between sessions, which they cannot see for themselves.

What to write down:

• The words practiced, and at which level: single words, phrases, sentences or everyday talk.
• How many came out clearly on that day, as a count (“4 of 6 words”), not a score or grade.
• Where the sound slipped: fine in single words but not in sentences, or clear in practice but not in ordinary talk.
• Anything new: a word your child said clearly without being asked.

Look back once a week and take the log to the next session. Progress is usually uneven, with good days and flat ones, and slow progress is a question to ask the speech-language pathologist, not a verdict on your child or on you. The log records what you heard; it never turns into a percentage or a pass mark.

Free PDF · no sign-up

Free printable speech practice log and cue cards

A 5-minute speech practice log with a line for each day, and speech sound cue cards for the grown-up, both from the minimal pairs page. No account, no email.

1. 15-Minute Speech Practice Log (PDF)5 days · 1 pageDownload
2. 2Speech Sound Cue Cards (PDF)7 sounds · 4 pagesDownload

Online speech therapy for kids: does it work, and how do you choose?

Online speech therapy for kids is a live video session with a licensed speech-language pathologist, usually with a parent beside the child. It is also called teletherapy or telepractice.

The evidence is encouraging, though still small. A 2026 meta-analysis by Vanderauwera and colleagues found seven studies comparing online and in-person speech-language therapy for children aged 12 and under. Telepractice “demonstrated outcomes comparable or better than in-person intervention”, including for caregiver-mediated approaches, “where caregivers are trained to implement the strategies at home with their child”. The Practice Portal on telepractice from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) says telepractice “should be of equal quality to in-person services”.

How to choose an online speech therapist:

• Certified. In the United States, look for the CCC-SLP, ASHA’s Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology. ProFind lists ASHA-certified speech-language pathologists who are accepting referrals.
• Licensed where your child is. ASHA says telepractitioners “must be licensed in both the state from which they provide services and the state where the client is located at the time of service.”
• Questions for the first consultation: who the therapist will be, and whether it stays the same person; how long sessions are; how you take part during them; what practice you will be given for home; how progress is reported; the cost, and whether insurance covers it.

What you need at home:

• a quiet room with the TV and other screens off;
• a tablet or laptop with a camera, at your child’s eye level;
• headphones if the room is noisy;
• the practice cards or toys the therapist asks for, within reach.

A young child usually needs a parent sitting beside them to keep attention on the screen and handle the cards. ASHA’s portal names family care partners among the facilitators a therapist may train.

Speech therapy apps: what an app can do between sessions, and how to choose one

A speech therapy app is practice material: it gives a child more turns at a sound between sessions, and it is never speech therapy itself. It cannot evaluate a child, choose the target or teach a new sound, so it works best on the words the speech-language pathologist already chose.

What to look for in a speech-practice app:

1. It targets your child’s own sound rather than a fixed sequence for every child.
2. It moves from words to phrases to sentences, the same ladder therapy uses.
3. Your child can record themselves and hear it back, so they can compare their word with the model.
4. You can pick or type in the words your child’s speech-language pathologist sent home.
5. Speech-language pathologists built it, and the app says so on its own site.
6. No ads or links out, and a clear privacy policy.

Speech apps and reading apps do different jobs. Speech therapy apps target producing sounds; reading apps target mapping sounds to letters. A child in speech therapy may use both, and neither replaces a speech-language pathologist. The page on how to choose a reading app covers the reading side, including what to look for when a child has a speech delay.

Wonster Words is a reading and spelling app, not a speech app, and it can sit alongside speech practice. “The phonics activities were developed with an educator using the Orton-Gillingham approach, with input from speech-language pathologists.” A parent can enter their own word list, and the app builds its games from those words, so the week’s practice words can also be heard and spelled.

When home practice is not enough: signs to go back to the speech-language pathologist

Call the speech-language pathologist rather than practicing harder when practice has stopped moving, when your child is upset by it, or when something new worries you. Signs to raise before the next session:

• The same words have not improved for several weeks of regular practice.
• Your child is frustrated, avoids talking or refuses practice most days.
• The sound is clear in practice but never in ordinary talk.
• Something new appears: stuttering, a change in your child’s voice, or speech that strangers find hard to understand.

Any worry is reason enough to ask. If your child is not in therapy yet, start with the picture check on the minimal pairs page and ASHA ProFind to find a certified speech-language pathologist near you or online.

If you are wondering about autism, a speech sound difference on its own does not show it. Autism is identified from a wider set of signs, which ASHA’s Practice Portal on autism describes, and the speech delay or autism page sets out what doctors look at to tell the two apart. Mention any concerns to your pediatrician and your speech-language pathologist.