Every four years there is a little event called the FIFA World Cup (Soccer/Football). It’s a minor affair that attracts (at the last Cup) around 3.2 billion television viewers and 3,170,856 game spectators inside stadiums over 64 matches.
Given that just under half the world’s population get involved (and let’s face it, it’s a whole lot of fun), I thought it was about time we put together an ideas list for getting the Socceroos into speech therapy rooms across Australia (or any National team for those of you abroad). I’m 100% confident that Australia will win this year’s World Cup (*for those of you unfamiliar with the Brazilian, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese teams: I am joking) – but even if we just happen to bumble out in the first round, there’s nothing like a bit of sport to get us all excited. What a great way to make children’s speech therapy fun through June and July 2014!
Here are some ideas for putting some Football World Cup action into speech therapy:
GOOOAAAALLL!
I’m a big fan of having kids ‘get and up and move’ at some point during therapy – so this is perfect. I’m thinking we will create a goal flat against the wall and use soft balls for shooting practise. This could be used as a fun way to work through artic or language goals.
Table Top Soccer (Football)
With a little creative constructing, this is a lot of fun and can be used to facilitate/motivate for speech or language goals.
FIND IT HERE:
Tabletop Soccer Game | Spoonful
Football World Cup printables for speech therapy
While this does cost a small sum ($3.50) it looks like a great resource to use across the month, especially those young people who are really into football. It includes colouring pages, reading comprehension, themed writing, verb activities, design-a-football/uniform (awesome!), plus loads of country and map resources.
FIND IT HERE:
World Cup Football Soccer Classroom – TeachersPayTeachers.com
Speech Sound Activities for /s/ (all things soccer/football)
As per the summary from TeachersPayTeachers:
Soccer Speech & Language Packet
“First, is a game to target articulation of /s/. Each card set has target words in the initial, medial, and final positions and a stimulus picture for each word. Each student will pick a card, correctly say the word aloud or use it in a sentence. If the student produces his/her word correctly, they may place their card in the correct goal (labeled initial, medial, and final). The student with the most cards wins”
FIND IT HERE:
Soccer Speech and Language Activities – TeachersPayTeachers.com
Electronic (reward/challenge during therapy)
As per the Google Play store, this is an android app that lets you take ‘free kicks’ and shoot goals. This could be a great challenge to integrate into therapy sessions.
FIND IT HERE:
Click here for more on the ‘hopping’ reference: Hopping mad: Socceroos bus slogan unveiled – smh.com.au
