I have fond memories of searching for hidden pictures as a child. When I was very young, my grandfather gave me a subscription to Highlights magazine for my birthday. It was a wonderful gift and I looked forward to receiving my magazine each month. I always flipped to the hidden picture scene in the magazine first because it was my favorite activity. Nowadays, Highlights offers a variety of magazines and entire books full of hidden picture scenes. This blog post summarizes how I use a variety of hidden picture scenes during speech therapy sessions to target speech and language skills. You will also find some links to hidden picture books and activities in this post.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases linked in his post.
Hidden Pictures
Have you ever heard that a picture is worth a thousand words? Hidden pictures can really get kids talking! Hidden Picture Scenes can be a fantastic tool in speech therapy sessions for a variety of reasons. They can help engage children, improve their attention to detail, and make learning fun. In addition, this open-ended activity is ideal for mixed groups because it is so versatile. There are so many different speech and language skills that you can target with hidden pictures! Here are a few that come to mind:
- Vocabulary (Label each item as you find it)
- Describing Picture Scenes (Describe what is happening)
- Expanding utterances (I see…, I found…)
- Answering questions (Where, What, Who, etc)
- Prepositions (Have student explain WHERE the hidden picture is)
- Speech Carryover (articulation, intelligibility, fluency)
- Grammar
- Recognizing Absurdities (What’s Wrong?)
- Conversation Skills
- Short Term Memory
- Attention to Detail / Visual attention
Books with Hidden Pictures
When my boys were younger (about me), I tended to choose books with colorful pictures and fewer words on the page. In fact, wordless picture books were some of our favorites (learn more about Wordless Picture Books here). Without text, there is more freedom to talk about what is happening on the page. Likewise, we loved searching for hidden pictures in I Spy and Usborne books. As a speech language pathologist, I continue to use Search and Find books with my students. I have listed some example books below with Amazon affiliate links:
- I Spy Little Toys board book by Jean Marzollo
- School Puzzles (Highlights Hidden Pictures)
- Jumbo Book of Hidden Pictures (Highlights Hidden Pictures)
- Where’s Waldo? by Martin Handford
- Search and Find Busy book by SpriteGru
- Search and Find Book with Dry erase Markers by Elfew
Activity Mats
You can also find activity mats that you can hang on the wall or use with dry erase markers. These are fun to use again and again.
Here are some examples:
Games and Apps
There are several commercially available games that have pictures to search and find. Here are some examples:
- I Spy Travel Card Game (great for road trips!)
- Briarpatch I Spy Preschool Game
- Seek and Find Scavenger Hunt Card Game by SpriteGru
- Free Hidden Pictures Puzzle Town App by Highlights
Printable and Digital Activities from Pinwheel Speech
You can find a variety of Hidden Picture Scenes in the Pinwheel Speech Shop. Add a magnifying glass or googly eye pointers for added fun! I have included links to activities below:
- Hidden Picture Scene articulation Bundle
- Hidden Picture Scene Seasonal Bundle
- Seek and Find Activities
- Sound Loaded Picture Scenes
- Busy Picture Scenes (Blog Post)
Are you interested in trying some Hidden Picture scenes? Click on the image below to join the Pinwheel Speech Community and receive some FREE Hidden Picture scenes that you can use today:
