Gamification in Speech Therapy: Engaging Students with Speech Blubs Pro

Gamification of education is the process of enhancing learning by making lessons entertaining. According to HMH, an adaptive learning company, there is abundant overlap between playing a game and learning a concept. Games require persistence (to beat a level, for example), receiving instant feedback to become successful (losing due to making errors), and elements such as rewards, goals, and narratives to produce demonstrative gains in learning. 

Speech Blubs Pro uses engaging elements like rewards and achievements to create a game-like experience and enhance learning. Some of my students who have displayed little motivation to imitate a verbal model of a word during speech sessions enjoy trying to achieve the little green bubble, meaning they produced the target word accurately on Speech Blubs Pro. I’ve gotten as many as double the amount of trials during a session using this feature! It’s the same reason many speech therapists use board games during therapy, except digitally. 

Benefits of Gamification

According to Educause, a nonprofit educational technology organization, “games can be highly motivational and engaging for students, and they have the potential to demonstrate that learning can be measured not just by grades but by competencies.” In their research, they found that applying the principles and structures of games to learning can draw students into learning in ways that most traditional forms of teaching cannot.

We also know that evidence-based practice principles suggest that games can improve social skills by employing turn-taking and perspective-taking. Furthermore, playing games helps kids learn to follow narratives, increase vocabulary, and ask and answer relevant questions. When kids lose a game, we can help them to see that losing can be a learning opportunity. Educause’s research shows that “game mechanics reinforce the fact that failure is neither a setback nor an outcome but rather an indication that more work is needed to master the skill or knowledge at hand.” 

Success Story

I have a young student who is 4 years old and just wants to play, play, and play some more during speech. It was initially a never-ending battle to get her to practice trials and participate in the necessary drill of articulation therapy, even when incorporated with her favorite toys and activities. She was not a fan of traditional kids’ board games like Zingo or Pop the Pig. Even when I initially introduced Speech Blubs Pro, she was hesitant and still opted for her favorite pretend play toys. I then suggested to Mom and Dad to have her use the Speech Blubs app to play at home to familiarize her with the digital games. The next session when I reintroduced Speech Blubs Pro, she excitedly exclaimed, “I played this at home!” She quickly became engaged with the app and its games, and we were able to get in 50 trials of /s/ blends that day. Now it’s been about 8 sessions, and she still enjoys using the app as part of our therapy sessions and has begun to show improvements with her /s/ blends. 

Hopefully, this post was enough to convince you that gamification and incorporating games into therapy is not only fun but an extremely useful tool in increasing progress and learning. Speech Blubs Pro uses gamification strategies to work with our students growing and developing brains and promotes motivation, which leads to better carryover. 

Resources:

7 Things You Should Know About Games and Learning

Gamification in Education: The Fun of Learning