Speech Therapy
Valentine's Day Activity

Valentine’s day is all about friendship, love, and fun! 

To celebrate this fun holiday, I created an easy-to-use, low prep activity. You can use this activity any which way you want to; however, I will explain my favorite “game” to play with any child. It is adaptable to target any speech or language skill.

Speech Therapy Valentine's Day Activity

Speech Therapy Valentine's Day Activity: No Hands

How To Play:

  • Print and cut out the valentine card and decorations 
  • Give a blank card to each student
  • Place the decorations on the table but out of reach 
  • Each student gets a turn to choose a decoration to glue on their card; HOWEVER, no one can point to the desired pictures (hence the “no hands” name). 
  • Instead, each person has to describe which picture he/she wants using some attribute such as color, size, pattern, shape, category, or function. 

Skills To Target:

Again, you can target any skill; however, below are some of my favorites.

  • Grammar (verb tense, pronouns)
  • Use of complete sentences/complex sentences 
  • Length of utterance 
  • Vocabulary 
  • Descriptive vocabulary (size, color, shape)
  • Articulation  
  • Sorting*

* For Sorting: Organize the decorations by attribute before starting the game. This is a great idea if your students need a lot of cues or are still in the direct teaching phase of learning. Some ideas for categories are:

  • Colors
  • Location 
  • Shape

How To Cue:

Cueing during this game is the most crucial part! Use the pictures as the visual prompts.

  • If a child is having trouble describing a desired picture, use the pictures themselves as visual prompts. For example, if a student says “I want a heart,” lay out all the hearts. 
  • Then, verbally prompt for another category such as color or size. 
  • As the student adds another descriptive vocabulary word, take the pictures away until one is left. 
  • Then, the student repeats the whole phrase. For example, “I want the small, red heart.”

Easy and effective!

Following Directions: Preschool to Early Elementary

If your child or student needs to work on following directions, this is a great activity to work on just that!

Following directions requires a person to know vocabulary, have working memory skills, and adequate attention.

Below are some practice ideas for following directions while making a card. Make sure to pay attention to the type of "direction" words you are using and be aware of your child's vocabulary level as well as attention. 

Sequential: This direction is multi-step and something has to be done first, second, etc..

  • First, glue and on the heart and then the balloon.

Before/After:  This is a temporal direction. Your child has to do something before or after he/she does something else. This is TRICKY!

  • Before you glue on the candy, glue on a heart.

Spatial:  Give a direction with a spatial aspect (under, over, above)

  • Put the candy under the heart

Basic: Basic means one-step, simple directions. If your child is having trouble, start here!

  • Give me the glue
  • Glue on the kisses and hugs

Grab Your Free Materials Here

Free Valentine's Day Activity
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› › Valentine's Day


Bridget is an ASHA certified, practicing speech-language pathologist. She is passionate about providing parents with information on child speech and language development as well as provide functional, easy activities to do at home! Parents have the power to make a real difference. Follow Bridget at Facebook and Pinterest for more fun!

Author of  child language development eBook series

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