Summer Fun Barrier Game

I follow quite a few speech and language blogs and I love reading about activities/ideas/experiences/struggles/challenges, etc. of other SLPs!  Living in New England, you sort of take it for granted that September = Back to School.  I'm realizing that many of you actually head back to school in August.

Since many of you will be back at school during what is technically the summer, I created a summer-inspired activity!  You can use it as a barrier game (*see below if you're unfamiliar with the concept of barrier games), or as a simple following directions activity ("Put the girl with the purple swimsuit in the pool").  You could also use the pictures as a prompt for a "what I did during my summer vacation" conversation.

Graphics by Scrappin' Doodles

*Barrier Games:
 Barrier games are great for listening comprehension and expressive language.  You can play one on one with one of your students, have 2 students play, or have 2 teams of students play.  For a barrier game, you will want two copies each of the background scene and the game pieces (one for each player/team).  You may want to laminate the background scene and game pieces for durability. Cut out the game pieces.

background scene

game pieces

To play, put a barrier (open file folder, large book, etc.) between the two players/teams.  Have one player/team set up a scene using the game pieces.  Then they describe their scene to the other player/team, who tries to recreate the scene exactly.  The more specific the descriptions, the more accurate the recreation.  Once completed, you can remove the barrier and discuss what is correct or incorrect, discuss where communication breakdowns occurred, and brainstorm what the students could have done to improve the outcome.


Grab a copy of the Summer Fun Barrier Game here.  As always, if you download, please leave a comment to let me know what you think!