7 ways to use Zingo in therapy as MORE than just a general reinforcer

I love using games in therapy because a) they're easy, and b) they lend themselves naturally to a variety of different skills, such as following directions, turn-taking, and learning how to handle a loss.

Often times, we might be using games as just a general reinforcer while we do drill with other skills, but today I wanted to share with you how I've used the game Zingo on its own to target a variety of communication skills, without needing any additional materials! 

Social Skills/Social Phrases:
Learning social phrases ("bummer" "aw man" "cool!" "good try" etc...) and how to handle it when a game isn't going your way are more great skills to target with this, or really any turn-taking game!  

Turn-taking:
I have some little friends who have a REALLY hard time waiting their turns.  We're talking meltdown city if waiting is involved. Turn-taking in Zingo is simple, with concrete beginnings and ends of your turn, which is one of the things I L-O-V-E about using it to target waiting your turn.

Common Object Vocabulary/Functions/WH Questions:
The picture tiles depict common objects such as "car" "apple" "boat" "tree" "train" "cake" etc... You can work on labeling these pictures, describing their function (when applicable), and answering WH questions about the items ("What do you do with a car?" "Where do you see a boat?" "Who drives a train?" etc...)

Prepositions:
You slide the top (aka the "Zinger") OUT, picture tiles come OUT, and then you either put the tiles ON your board, or back IN the Zinger.  Lots of opportunities for repetition with these prepositions within the game.

Answering Yes/No:
Target yes/no by asking, "Is it a match?" or "Do you have a __?" Also a great opportunity to work on the concept of negation ... "not a match" or "I don't have a ___"

Articulation/Apraxia:
VC words: I used this with one of my little guys with Apraxia who is working on words that start with vowel sounds.  I was able to target the words "out" and "in" with tons of repetitions in a functional way, without it feeling like drill.

/SL/:  Do you have any kids working on s-blends? (#justkidding. I know you do.).  Practice the word "SLide" each time you slide the Zinger out.

"CH": I've used this game to target final "ch" with "match" and "no match."

/V/: Work on word final /v/ within the phrases/sentences "I have..." or "I don't have..."

/G/: Your kiddos can practice "go" with "It GOES on my board" or "It GOES back in."  Or, I've also simplified it to "go on" and "go back in"/"go in")

Pronouns:
My turn, your turn, I got, you got, you have (#) left, I have (#) left, He has, She has... I go, you go... plenty of ways to target pronouns in a more natural setting/manner versus, say, using a card deck of pronouns.


Zingo is one of my favorite games to use in therapy because it's so easy to target a variety of skills! 

Looking for more ways to use games to target your communication goals without just using them as a reinforcer? You'll love this post on my favorite games for final consonant deletion! 

Favorite Games for Final Consonant Deletion

As SLPs, many of us use games as general reinforcers while working on a variety of speech/language targets.  A lot of times, the games may have nothing to do with the target we're working on.  Some games & activities I've been using this school year with my phono kids, though, have turned out to have great opportunities to work on specific words pertinent to their targets AND to the game. Preschoolers learn a lot through play, so when I have the opportunity to use meaningful target words for artic rather than the drill/take a turn/drill/take a turn method, I take it! The following games/activities are my favorites to use when targeting the phonological process of Final Consonant Deletion:

1.  First up is this cookie jar game I made.  The cookie jar image comes from MyCuteGraphics, and is just pasted into a Word doc, stretched out, printed, and attached to a tissue box with a hole cut out of the middle.  The cookies are just circles cut from brown construction paper with black marker dots on them for chocolate chips.  So. Simple.  But my prek students LOVE it!

Words to target for FCD: eat, hot, out, plate, in, on, gone, time, scoop, chip, bake, take, make

2.  Honey Bee Tree game:

This one is played just like Kerplunk, but has leaves/bees/honeypot in a tree rather than just sticks and marbles. 

Words to target for FCD: in (putting leaves in, putting bees in), out (pulling leaves out, bees falling out, taking bees out), drop (dropping bees in) down (bees fell down), turn (my turn/your turn), buzz, bees, gone, come/home (one of my kiddos liked to make the bees buzz away for a second, and I would have to tell them to "come" and then she would have them fly "home" for each turn)

3.  Potato Head

This should come as no surprise, but there is an abundance of great words to target for FCD with everyone's favorite spud!

Words to target for FCD:

final t: hat, foot/feet, out, put

final n/m: in, arm

final s/z: eyes, nose, toes, purse, any other plurals

final f: off, 

final p: top, hop

final k: take

4.  Don't Break the Ice:

Words to target for FCD: turn (my turn/your turn), in (work on as you set up and put ice blocks in), gone (all the blocks have been knocked out), hit, out, knock, break, ice

Do you have any specific games you use for particular speech or language targets? I'd love to hear about them if you do!