Five Ways to Use Jenga in Your Speech Therapy Sessions

Happy March! This is the third post in our series focused on making the most of common therapy tools. Today I’ll be sharing five ways to use Jenga in your speech therapy sessions.

Jenga is one of my go-to games, because it’s quick, it’s flexible, and it’s a fan favorite among my students—equally beloved by first graders and high schoolers. Best of all, while it’s great when played as it was originally intended, it can also be reimagined in a variety of ways. So let’s get started!

Target any Speech and Language Goal with Jenga

Jenga is a mixed-group magician, because it can be paired with any resource or stimulus item; e.g., flash cards, word lists, or conversation questions. After a student takes a block, they can complete a task related to their specific goals, making it simple to target different skill areas for different students. And since it’s such a simple game, the turns move quickly, which minimizes wait time between turns and allows students to get as much practice as possible.

You could also put targets on the blocks themselves; and there are several ways to do this. One option is to put tape on the blocks and write on them with dry erase or permanent markers. Another option is to create or download a Jenga label template, print and cut out the labels, and attach them to the blocks with tape or glue. This works well if you plan to use Jenga to target the same stimulus items multiple times; otherwise it might not be worth the time investment!

If you have a mixed group, color-coding can help you ensure that each student takes a block with a relevant stimulus item. Some generic block-stacking games (like this one and this one) come with multiple block colors, making this process easy! You could also use markers to color the ends of each block. Once you have blocks in different colors, you can pair specific skills with specific colors and let students know what color blocks to take.

When it comes to choosing targets to go with your Jenga blocks, the possibilities are endless! Here are some ideas to help you get started:

Articulation words
Conversation starters or get-to-know-you questions
Emotions
Fluency strategies
Idioms, metaphors, and similes
Plurals
Story grammar elements
Verbs
Wh-questions

Use Reverse Jenga in Your Speech Therapy Sessions

To keep things fresh, pair blocks with targets as outlined above, but instead of starting with a tower and having students take blocks until it falls, start by giving each student a pile of blocks, and have them add a block to the tower every turn.

Reverse Jenga is also an effective activity all on its own, no additional stimulus items needed! Students could collaborate to build the tallest tower possible, and in the process, work on social communication and negotiation skills, problem solving, predicting, cause and effect, teamwork, and more.

How to Target Language Goals with Jenga

Once your students are familiar with Jenga, they may want to begin teaching it to others! This could involve creating a video, an audio recording, a pamphlet, or a poster outlining the game’s steps and strategies. As they do this, they can work on social communication, executive function strategies, sequencing, and expository language, which researchers have found is an effective context for building (and assessing) complex language skills.

Create a Brand New Activity with Jenga

You can also use the Jenga blocks to create an entirely new activity! Students could set them up like dominoes, a unique way to practice problem solving, inferencing, cause and effect, verbs, and more. Students could also compare and contrast Jenga blocks with actual dominoes, noting the benefits and challenges of each option.

If students are ready to take Jenga deconstruction to the next level, they could use the blocks as components in a chain reaction machine, sometimes known as a Rube Goldberg machine. This could be a long-term project spanning multiple sessions, and it could address object function, verbs, describing, planning/executive function, predicting, cause and effect, problem solving, sequencing, and many additional skills! For inspiration, I highly recommend OK Go’s (incredible) video for their song “This Too Shall Pass”, and the robust student resources they’ve developed to go with it.

Jenga for Teletherapy

When I was doing teletherapy, I thought I’d have to stop using my favorite physical games in sessions, but I was wrong! I soon found that my students—even the older ones—loved “helping” me play Jenga. I would set up the tower on my side of the screen, and students took turns telling me which piece to remove. I amped up the suspense by taking out the pieces very slowly, and I included plenty of dramatic reactions when the tower fell. We all had fun, the prep was minimal, and it was a great way to target describing, turn-taking, and prepositions. You could also pair the game with additional stimulus items if your students or clients are working on other skills!

Although Jenga is a forever favorite for me, there are some caveats to keep in mind. If your students have fine motor challenges, pulling the blocks from the tower can be tricky. Also, students with sensory differences may be distressed by the noise of the falling tower. It’s absolutely possible to make adjustments so all students can enjoy the game (try covering your table with a towel!), but they may require some advanced planning.

I love writing these posts for you, and I hope you enjoy these ideas! Do you have any to add to the list? Please let me know in the comments!

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References and Resources

Conversational Versus Expository Discourse: A Study of Syntactic Development in Children, Adolescents, and Adults

Learning, Rube Goldberg Style!

Pikodo Kids Wooden Stacking Building Blocks

Oojami Wooden Tumbling Game

OK Go – This Too Shall Pass

This Too Shall Pass: Resources for Students

What is a Rube Goldberg Machine?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessica Cassity, M.S., CCC-SLP is a speech-language pathologist in Florida. She is the founder of Digital SLP, which specializes in online speech therapy materials for busy SLPs. She also blogs and hosts a podcast, both of which can be found on The Digital SLP. In her spare time she enjoys yoga, cooking, the outdoors, and spending time with her children.