Free · Practice Support

Free Aphasia Worksheets

Word-finding, naming, and sentence practice a family can do at the kitchen table with paper and a pencil — plus what separates a good practice sheet from a busy one.

Please read this first. Everything on this page is practice support, not therapy. It's for the hours between sessions — use it alongside a speech-language pathologist, never instead of one. If your person doesn't have an SLP yet, that referral is the single most useful thing to arrange, and their doctor can start it.

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What a good aphasia practice sheet looks like

Most free worksheets online were made for children, and handing a retired electrician a page of cartoon animals is an indignity he didn't earn. A practice sheet worth printing looks like this:

• One task per page. One naming exercise, one set of sentences. A crowded page spends energy on figuring out the page instead of finding the words.
• Genuinely large print. Around 18 point or more, dark ink, matte paper. Many people working on language are also working with older eyes.
• Adult content. Coffee, tools, gardens, grandchildren — the real nouns of a real life, not classroom clip art.
• Room to write. Big blanks and wide lines, because handwriting may be doing its own recovering.
• No clocks, no scores. The page should never time anyone. Practice is repetitions, not races.

Ten practice activities you can do on paper at home

You don't need special materials for any of these — paper, a dark pen, index cards, and the house you already live in. Show your SLP this list and let them tell you which ones fit the current plan and how to run them; the same activity can be tuned dozens of ways, and that tuning is their craft.

1. Name the family photos. Spread out five photocopied family photos and name who's in each, together, out loud. Photos of people they love are the most motivating naming practice there is, and there's no flashcard feeling to it.
2. Category lists. Write a category at the top of a page — fruits, tools, things in a kitchen — and list members together, spoken or written. Start with the person's own world: their trades, their hobbies, their garden.
3. Sentence completion. Write sentences that end in a blank with one natural answer: "You cut bread with a ___." "Coffee is served in a ___." Familiar, concrete, and satisfying to land.
4. First-letter word finding. Put one large letter at the top of the page and gather words that start with it. Two words is a win; six is a parade. The letter narrows the search, which is exactly the help a hunting brain wants.
5. Word-to-object matching. Write household words in large print on index cards — CUP, SPOON, KEYS — and match each card to the real thing on the table. Reading, recognizing, and touching all pull in the same direction.
6. Copy, cover, write. Write a meaningful word in large print. They copy it, you cover both, they write it again. Names of grandchildren beat random word lists every time.
7. Yes/no rounds. Ask questions with a clear yes or no: "Is it raining? Do you take sugar? Is today Sunday?" Reliable yes/no answers carry a lot of daily conversation, and practicing them is genuinely useful work.
8. Read the familiar aloud. Well-worn words come easier than new ones: a favorite psalm, the Pledge, song lyrics from their era, the family recipe. Read together in unison first, then let them carry more of it.
9. Write the grocery list. Make the week's list together — you say the item, they write it, or they say it and you both write. Real tasks with real stakes beat workbook pages for motivation.
10. Describe the object. Put one familiar object in their hands — a spoon, a hammer, a deck of cards — and talk about it together: what it is, what it does, who used one. Any word that arrives is the right word.

The habits that make practice pleasant

Sit side by side, keep sessions short, and end on a word that landed. Give answers time to arrive — count to ten in your head before helping — and when you do help, offer the first sound rather than the whole word. Celebrate approximations; "sp... spoon" is a victory, not a near miss. And keep the tone of company, not class: the same warmth you'd bring to a good conversation belongs here too. For the conversation side of aphasia — what to say and what never to say — see our companion guide, how to help someone with aphasia.

Questions families ask

Can worksheets replace speech therapy?

No. Worksheets are practice material — repetitions between sessions, done in a relaxed setting with someone who loves you. The plan, the technique, and the progress calls belong to a speech-language pathologist. Think of home practice the way you'd think of practicing scales between piano lessons.

How often should we practice at home?

Little and often tends to beat marathon sessions, and stopping before frustration beats pushing through it — but the real answer comes from your SLP, who knows what fits this person right now. Bring these activities to a session and ask which to lean on.

What if he gets frustrated?

Stop, warmly, and without ceremony — put the kettle on, change the subject, try again tomorrow. Frustration isn't a character flaw or a failure of effort; it's a signal the task needs resizing. Tell the SLP what happened; that's useful information for them.