Games for Nonverbal and Nonspeaking Children
Free browser games where the child never has to say anything. The answer is a tap on a picture, no instruction has to be read, and the game's own voice can be switched off so it does not compete with a communication device.
The short answer
Nothing on this site requires a child to speak, and nothing requires a child to read. Every instruction is spoken aloud by the game and shown on screen as a picture. The child answers by tapping. There is no microphone, no repeat-after-me, no waiting for a verbal response before the game will continue, and no point at which not talking counts against them.
That is not a special mode, it is just how the games work. Which is worth saying, because "no speech required" is often implemented as a stripped-down version of the real thing, and this is the real thing.
Nonverbal, nonspeaking, minimally speaking
These get used interchangeably and they should not be.
- Nonspeaking is the term generally preferred now. It describes exactly one thing: the person does not communicate through speech.
- Nonverbal is the older term and it is misleading, because "verbal" means language rather than speech. A great many people who do not speak read, write, sign or use a communication device fluently. Calling them nonverbal describes a person with no language, which is a different and usually incorrect claim.
- Minimally speaking covers the very common middle: some words, or words that come and go depending on the day, the setting and how much is being asked.
This page uses nonspeaking in the text, and nonverbal in the title and in a few places, because that is still what most people type when they are looking for something like this. Nothing here depends on which category a child falls into.
Not speaking is not the same as not understanding
The gap between what a child can understand and what they can say is often very wide, and it runs in the direction people underestimate. A child who says nothing may follow a great deal of what is going on around them.
This matters for choosing activities, because a lot of material aimed at nonspeaking children is pitched at the level of their speech rather than the level of their thinking, and it lands as babyish. That is the same mistake as the one on age labels, arriving by a different route.
What this site does about it: the difficulty of every game is set by the task, not by any assumption about the child. The same Shadow Matching screen runs from two obviously different animals up to four that share a body shape, and Match Words to Pictures goes all the way into whole-word reading. A child who does not speak can work at the top of that range, and nothing on screen suggests otherwise.
Using these alongside AAC
Some practical notes if the child uses a communication device or a symbol book.
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| The game's voice competes with the AAC voice, or confuses the child about which device is talking. | Turn Maggie's voice off with the voice toggle. Sound effects have a separate toggle, so you can silence the speech and keep the rest, or silence everything. |
| You want the game to feed vocabulary the child already has on their device. | The word set is ordinary concrete nouns: animals, food, vehicles. Photographs on a white background, lowercase words. That lines up with most symbol sets more easily than cartoon artwork does. |
| You want to model rather than test. | Play it yourself alongside them and comment on your own choices out loud or on the device. The game never asks whose turn it is and never requires the child to act, so modelling costs nothing. |
| The child wants to comment on the picture rather than answer. | Let them. There is no timer, so a round can sit on screen for as long as the conversation lasts. |
| Two devices, one pair of hands. | The worksheets exist for exactly this. Printed on paper, the activity does not need a screen at all, and cut into cards it can sit next to the device rather than compete with it. |
Which game, and at what setting
- Shadow Matching, two choices, words hidden, voice off if the device is in use. The purest version: look, decide, tap. No language demand in either direction.
- Match Words to Pictures, words shown. For a child working on whole-word recognition. Print and speech are separate routes into a word, and a child whose speech is not available can still take the print route, which is a large part of why written words are worth showing here even when they are not being read aloud.
- Tic-Tac-Toe, two players. A game you play with someone that needs no words from either side. Turn taking, and nothing to answer.
What a game cannot tell you
A child tapping the right picture is evidence that they did something right on that screen, and nothing more. Getting one wrong could mean the word was unfamiliar. It could equally mean they were not looking, were tired, were bored, pressed the wrong one, or preferred the other picture. These games are not an assessment of comprehension and should not be read as one, in either direction.
That warning matters more for nonspeaking children than for anyone else, because when a child cannot tell you what happened, whatever the screen did tends to become the record of what happened. It should not. If you want to know what a child understands, that is a job for a speech and language therapist with proper tools, not for a matching game and a hunch.
Common questions
What games can a nonverbal child play?
Any game where the answer is given by pointing, tapping or selecting rather than by speaking, and where no instruction has to be read. Matching games are the clearest example.
Nothing on this site requires a child to speak at any point, and there is no microphone and no repeat-after-me.
Should I say nonverbal or nonspeaking?
Nonspeaking is generally preferred and it is more accurate. "Verbal" means language, not speech, and many people who do not speak read, write, sign or use a device fluently.
Can these games be used alongside AAC?
Yes, and the game's spoken voice can be turned off so it does not compete with the device. The pictures are plain photographs on white with ordinary lowercase words, which lines up with most symbol sets more easily than cartoon artwork.
Can a game tell me whether my child understands the words?
No. A correct tap shows they did something right on that screen. A wrong one could mean the word was unfamiliar, or that they were tired, not looking, or simply preferred the other picture. This is not an assessment of comprehension.
Does my child need to be able to read?
No. Every instruction is spoken and shown, and the written word under each picture can be switched off entirely.
My child cannot use a touchscreen reliably either. Is there an option?
Yes. Everything works from a keyboard with Tab and Enter, which means it works through a switch. The switch setup page covers iPad, Android, Chromebook, Windows and Mac.