How I Use Magnetic Letters in Speech Therapy

If you have been in any preschool or kindergarten classroom you have likely seen magnetic/foam letters or letter tiles in abundance. Since I spend most of my time pushing speech services into classrooms, I’ve been able to witness ways in which these manipulatives are being used. Making therapy curriculum meaningful while keeping a therapeutic focus is of primary importance. Students in kindergarten classrooms are learning letters, letter-sound correspondence, segmenting and blending, and sight words. I incorporated these skills with speech sound practice in developing my

Letter Tile Speech Mats.
*This product line now includes early and late articulation sounds as well as blends. See links at the end of this post.

In my experience, since many students require verbal, visual and tactile cues and prompts to aid in production of /s/ blends, I decided to start with this speech sound pattern in creating my speech sound mats. My expert young product reviewers gave these mats two thumbs up, asking if I could make more! I love that students can experience hands-on learning by selecting their letter tiles, segmenting and blending their target speech word and then showing confidence in reading sight words to extend to the phrase and sentence level. They can also use the pacing dots to touch and tap for sounds or words or even mark practice trials.

I keep all my mats in sheet protectors in a binder. For student use, I like to add cookie sheets for a designated “work area” and for attaching the magnetic letters. Here are a couple links (no affiliation) for letters if you don’t have access to those in classrooms. Just make sure you have more than one alphabet set of letters in order to have enough duplicates for group sessions.

magnetic/foam letters (I personally bought these and took out the numbers.)

letter tiles

If you could use a new activity that may connect with your students working on speech sounds, check out these products.

Letter Tile Speech Mats Early Sounds
Letter Tile Speech Mats Later Sounds
Letter Tile Speech Mats S, L, R Blends

Have you tried using magnetic letters in speech therapy?