5 Reasons to Make Speech and Language Fun for Older Students

Do your students ever look like they are going to fall asleep during your sessions? Perhaps it’s because of a lack of engagement. Have you ever seen one of your students in the hall 6th period when they were supposed to be in your session 5th period? Simple reasoning for that is they don’t want to come to speech and language because lunch is way more fun.

When we first started working with older students, we took out a game of Headbandz one day. A more veteran speech and language teacher immediately jumped in and said, “We do not play games at the high school level, that is for elementary aged students.” We did not question her and immediately put the game away.

Well now that we are more experienced in our field, we think it is time that we switch our thinking. It is not okay to play games during every session but if you are playing a game and still connecting to that student’s annual goals, the lasting effects might be worth it. Just think about it, if a student laughs and has fun with you they are 100% more likely to return the next session. The benefits are totally worth it because now you do not need to spend time calling the parents about poor attendance.

Here are some additional reasons to make speech and language more fun for older students:

1. Increased engagement: Students engaged in activities that are more fun and interactive, are more likely to stay interested in the material/information being taught. 
2. Improved retention: Students that enjoy what they are learning, are more likely to remember the information and retain it for longer periods of time.
3. Enhanced creativity: Students that engage in fun and creative activities are more likely to think outside the box and develop their problem-solving skills.
4. Reduced anxiety: Students may feel anxious or stressed about their speech and language abilities. If you incorporate fun activities, students may feel less pressure and more relaxed. It also might not feel like regular school work which immediately decreases anxiety for many students.
5. Increased motivation: Students that enjoy the learning process are more motivated to continue improving their skills.

Whenever we create new resources our priority is thinking about what motivates our own students. We include pictures that our students can make connections to. You can find these images in our Caption It! Series, Visual Breakdown, and Image Analysis. We created a card game that includes different images high school students can relate to, with the idea that they will be more engaged in the activity. We engage them in reading comprehension tasks by providing them with texts that have topics of interest to them. One of our newer resources is a text breakdown that includes a variety of topics (i.e. Discord, Tik Tok, YouTube, Basketball, Anime, etc.). Half the battle is the buy-in from the students, so we do our research and figure out what the students find interesting.

Overall, making speech and language more fun for older students can lead to increased engagement, improved retention, enhanced creativity, reduced anxiety, and increased motivation. How do you keep your older students engaged? Check out this fun game we love to play with older students in our speech and language sessions.