Play More, Prep Less
Creative ways to use Lingua Tokens in your sessions, wherever those sessions happen to be.
Lingua Tokens may share the same core practice principle as flashcards, repeated exposure to target words, but that's where the similarity ends. Lingua Tokens were designed to be flexible, durable, and yes...fun. Whether you're working in a school hallway, a therapy room, or outside on the playground (we see you, school SLPs), there's a way to make these tokens work for you.
One thing we SLPs are always chasing is more accurate productions per session, and the best way to get there isn't always through drilling; for many kids it's about finding activities so engaging that students don't notice how much they're practicing. Every idea in this post is designed with that in mind: built-in repetition, natural loops that bring students back to the same target again and again, and just enough fun to keep them coming back for more.
Here's a round-up of our favorite ways to use them, organized by vibe.
Sensory Play
Sensory activities are a natural fit for speech therapy; they support regulation, and a regulated nervous system is what actually allows kids to access learning in the first place. Give little hands something satisfying to do, and the mouth tends to follow. Lingua Tokens are waterproof and durable, which means you can take them places most therapy materials can't go.
Sand & Sensory Bins
Bury tokens in a bin of kinetic sand, rice, or dried beans and have students excavate them one by one. Every time they dig one up, they practice their target word before tossing it in the "treasure pile." The tactile input supports regulation, which means students are often calmer and more focused by the time they're a few tokens in. Great for younger students or anyone who needs movement to stay grounded.
Sticky Hands
Yes, the cheap party favor ones. Kids slap a sticky hand at the tokens and say their target for each one they collect. Surprisingly motivating and highly repeatable.
Just Add Water
Toss tokens in a water table and have kids fish them out, name them, and drop them back in. Spray them with a spray bottle (especially great when working on clusters spr-spray or skw-squirt). Water play is naturally regulating, and since Lingua Tokens don't disintegrate, you don't have to think twice about it.
Fish Them Out
Attach paper clips to the tokens and fish them out with one of those magnetic fishing poles you probably already have in your closet somewhere.
Pair Them with Play-Doh
Lingua Tokens can be used with Play-Doh. The tokens can be turned into pizza toppings or castle decorations. Something my older students love to do is use Play-Doh to make a stand for the individual tokens, and then knock them down after they've practiced their targets.
Other quick sensory hits: hiding tokens in reusable water balloons, rolling them down a wrapping paper tube, or putting them in plastic eggs to find around the room.
Games & Competition
A little friendly competition goes a long way, especially with older students who roll their eyes at traditional therapy activities.
Four-in-a-Row
Use a Connect Four-style grid and take turns placing tokens. Each player uses their own set of sound tokens so you're both practicing different targets at the same time. First to get four in a row wins. Easy to explain, fast to play, and students will ask for rematches.
Tic-Tac-Toe
Same concept, even simpler setup. Draw a grid, earn your square. Great for quick sessions or when you need something with zero prep.
Ramp Race
Prop up a simple ramp (a binder works great, or build one with magnetic tiles) and race tokens down it. Say your target word before you release. First token to the bottom wins the round.
Token Toss
Using the ramp you just built and try to launch the tokens off the ramp into a bowl, bucket, muffin tin, or even a cup. Don't have a ramp? Just have students toss tokens in from a set distance. Say the target word before each toss. A muffin tin is especially fun because you can assign different values or challenge levels to each cup.
Shuffleboard
Using a dry-erase marker, draw lines across the table (if your table is erasable) to create zones and assign something different to each one: a number of trials, a level of complexity (word, phrase, sentence, story), or a motor learning twist like changing inflection or rate. Students slide their tokens, trying to get as far as they can without sliding off the table and whatever zone it lands in determines their next production. Simple to set up, easy to adapt, and endlessly customizable.
Spin and Say
Flick a token and spin it on the table. The student says the target word as many times as the token spins...so a long spin means a lot of productions. Simple, self-timing, and students will compete to get the longest spin.
Heads or Tails
Flip a token and call it: heads (the logo/lips side) or the target word. If you have two students working on different sounds, tape two tokens together back-to-back, now each side belongs to a different student, and the flip determines whose turn it is to produce their target.
Shuffling Cups
Place one token face-down under a cup. Shuffle the cups around and have the student track where their target word landed. Start simple with two cups, then increase the number as they get better at tracking. The student identifies which cup is hiding their word, then has to say it correctly before they can lift the cup and confirm. A great attention and memory challenge layered on top of speech practice.
Air Hockey Flicking
Flick tokens back and forth across a smooth surface. Say the target word every time you flick. It sounds simple because it is, and it works. Students get extra excited when they are able to slide one past you.
Imaginative & Pretend Play
For students who light up with dramatic play, these activities turn practice into storytelling.
Puppet Feed
This one's a favorite. A puppet is hungry, and the only thing it eats is whatever your target word is. The student has to offer food to the puppet ("Do you want string?"), the puppet responds ("Yes! Feed me!"), and the token gets fed into the puppet's mouth. Switch roles so the student gets to be the puppeteer too. It sounds silly. It is silly. Students love it.
Piggy Bank / Coin Slot / Mini Trash Can
Something deeply satisfying about feeding a token into a coin slot. Have students say their target word each time they drop one in. Mini trash cans work great too, drop in the token, then let the toy trash truck come and haul them away. Add a counting or sorting element for extra engagement.
Board Game Tokens
Two ways to use these. Have students draw one from the bag before each turn in any board game, say the word, take your turn. Or, since the tokens are small enough to sit right on individual game squares, scatter them across the whole board and have students say each word as they land on or pass through that square. Works with basically any game you already have on your shelf.
Token Shop
Use tokens as currency for a pretend store. Students have to earn or spend a certain number of tokens to "buy" items, practicing their target word with each transaction. Great for building in natural back-and-forth conversation.
Take It Outside
No speech room? No problem. Lingua Tokens were built to go wherever you go, and that includes outside.
Speech Sound Treasure Hunt
Hide tokens in a sandbox and send students on a dig. No worrying about sand ruining pictures or paper getting crumpled. They find it, they say it, they keep it.
Water Table
Toss tokens in and have kids fish them out, name them, and drop them back in. The tokens hold up without a second thought, which means you can focus on the session instead of the materials.
Playground Hunt
Hide tokens around the slide, swings, or climbing structure before your session. The weight of the tokens means they actually stay where you put them. Students find one, say the word, move to the next spot. Natural repetitions built right into the environment.
Slide Drop
Have students say their target word at the top of the slide, drop the token down, then race it to the bottom to retrieve it. Roll them and try to land them in a bucket at the base. The physical loop, say it, drop it, retrieve it, repeat, embeds a surprising number of trials into something that just feels like recess.
The Bottom Line
You don't need a Pinterest-worthy setup or a cart full of supplies. Lingua Tokens are designed to flex around whatever you've already got, a sensory bin, a puppet from the dollar bin, a ramp made out of a clipboard, a cup. The activity is just the vehicle. The real magic is the repetition happening while your student is too busy having fun to notice they're working.
The real magic is the repetition happening while your student is too busy having fun to notice they're working.
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