Swiss Cheese Cards

The other day, I was in a meeting and a general education teacher shared her student's "Swiss cheese cards."

The teacher had handful of cards attached by a ring. On each card, she had written one letter. During practice, the student had to name the letter before turning to the next card. If he/she labeled it correctly, the teacher put one hole punch in that card. After practicing for several days and getting more and more correct answers, one would expect the cards to look like Swiss cheese with so many holes!

Unfortunately, in this particular meeting, she was showing us how most of the cards had very few holes, thus why the team was meeting to brainstorm some new ideas for this student.

After the meeting, I thought of all the ways I could adapt this simple activity for speech/language therapy. Here are some ideas I came up with...

• articulation (e.g., five words that all start with the /r/ sound)
• language (i.e., synonyms, antonyms, irregular plural nouns, irregular past verbs, etc.)
• fluency (e.g., describing fluency strategies or parts of the "speech machine")

I especially like the idea for articulation, because it easily allows for independent practice as well. I sometimes do this with my larger groups. For example, I may have two or three students practice independently or with a partner while I work with one student; then I rotate the students through the session so everyone gets at least a few minutes of one-on-one instruction.

Have you ever used Swiss cheese cards? In what ways would you use them? I would love to hear your ideas!