Figurative Language Activities for Speech Therapy

I have quite a few kiddos in my older grades (read: 5-8) working on figurative language.  Many of these students have difficulty with understanding nonliteral language, so we spend a lot of time on this stuff.  We mostly work on curriculum based activities, using literature to address these types of goals, so I do not create materials for them very often.  But they have been asking me to “make some games for them, like the ones you make the little kids” and so I have obliged.  I have created this 32 page resource full of figurative language activities!  It addresses idioms, common proverbs, similes, and metaphors.

Every skill has a cue card that gives the definition and an example.  You can use this to introduce the figure of speech and as a visual during game play.

There are also different recording sheets that you can use to further explore your students' comprehension of each concept.  You can even use these to create a folder or composition book of all the different figurative language they are learning!
One of my favorite therapy hacks is putting these pages in dry erase pockets or page protectors instead of laminating!  You can use over and over again without having to worry about laminating.

Here are some fun, unconventional ways to play with all of the included cards:

Bowling!  Just place a card under each pin and then the students can take turns rolling.  They will practice the skill on the card the uncover…or they can choose one for each person in their group.

Poppers!  This is one of my students' FAVORITE activities!  Just put your cards in a binder clip and shoot the popper at them.  The kids will practice whichever ones they knocked over.
Pop the Pig just happens to be perfect for this resource!  And yes, the big kids like to play it too 🙂 We also like Pass the Pigs!

You can find this set of activities in my TPT store!

I hope you like them and you find them useful for your older elementary/middle school students working on figurative language goals!  I think you could even use some of these for some high school kids, depending on their cognitive level.