Episode 214: Tali Kellerstein: Using Games to Engage Students and Motivate Communication

This week, Chris interviews Tali Kellerstein, an SLP and owner of The Speech Boutique (https://thespeakboutique.com/) who recently presented at ASHA with Chris on incorporating games and communication! Tali shares about strategies she uses to incorporate games with literacy, letting the child’s targets drive what game you choose,  

Before the interview, Rachel shares about working with a client who uses AAC and how she got him motivated using games related to his specific interest, elevators. Chris shares some ideas for incorporating elevators into a home-made game and other ways we can hone in on someone’s interest in therapy.

🔑 You can incorporate games and books together in therapy - if you know what words you want to target, you can choose a book that connects to that theme and a game that will help evoke your target. Manipulate both the story and book to get the child to communicate as much as possible.

🔑 When choosing what game you want to play in therapy, choose the game that will best target the words you want to target and avoid choosing a game because it matches a particular theme, holiday, or season.

🔑 Buying books and games for therapy does not need to be cost-prohibitive.  if you find the right books and games to target particular words, you can those materials over and over again.