You are sitting by an open window in a waiting room when someone says, “It’s a bit chilly in here.” Coffee spills across a counter that was cleaned a minute ago, and the person who cleaned it says, “Perfect timing.” Much of what people mean is never said outright; the situation carries it. After a brain injury or stroke, and for some neurodivergent adults, that unspoken layer is where a conversation can go wrong: a request goes unnoticed, a sarcastic remark is taken at face value, or a reply fits the words but not the moment.
This page gathers free cognitive speech therapy activities for adults. They are not therapy: they are printable cognitive-communication activities of the kind speech-language pathologists (SLPs) use in sessions and send home for practice. Download two moderate-level pages from the Social Reasoning set below, see how its 30 worksheets are graded, find a printable set for each cognitive-communication area, and read why practice pages are not an assessment.
Download the free social communication worksheets
Download the PDFWant more pages like this? Social Reasoning (30 Worksheets) $3.75 See the full set
Worksheets SRW2A and SRW2B from the Social Reasoning set, Level 2 (moderate). Page 1, Worksheet 2.1 Indirect Requests: five situations with a hinting statement, and lines for what the speaker most likely wants and one clue that helped. Page 2, Worksheet 2.2 Sarcasm Identification: five statements to circle as Literal or Not Literal, with a line for what the person really means. Item 1 on each page has a handwritten example answer. Free for personal, classroom, and session use.
- Level: moderate, Level 2 (SRW2A and SRW2B)
- Items: 5 per page, 10 in all
- Worked example: item 1 on each page
- Timing: untimed, written or spoken
- Paper: US Letter
What are cognitive speech therapy activities?
Speech therapy is often pictured as work on sounds and pronunciation. Speech-language pathologists also work on cognitive-communication: the thinking under everyday talk, such as attention, memory, reasoning, and reading social meaning. Cognitive speech therapy activities practice that thinking: listening and recalling, retelling a story, explaining a decision, finding a word, or working out what someone meant. Many are on paper, so a page used in a session can be used again at home.
The free pages are pragmatic language activities for adults, practice with the social use of language. Each item gives a short situation and something a person says. The words alone do not carry the meaning, the situation does, and the task is to close that gap and put the real message into plain words.
Inference
Working out what is meant from what is said and where it is said. Next to an open window, “It’s a bit chilly in here” is a request, not a weather report.
Reading tone and intent
Noticing when the words and the situation do not match. Coffee on a freshly cleaned counter turns “Perfect timing” into its opposite.
Perspective taking
Seeing the moment from the speaker’s side. A friend juggling a folder, a coffee, and a phone is not just describing the juggling.
Explaining reasoning
Putting the evidence into words. The Clue line on Worksheet 2.1 asks why, not just what.
Cognitive-communication areas, and a printable set for each
Social communication is one area among several. Here are the main cognitive-communication areas and the printable set that practices each one.
- Social communication and pragmatics. Hints, sarcasm, tone, body language, and what fits the setting. The Social Reasoning set (30 worksheets) is the source of the free pages above.
- Verbal reasoning and safety judgment. Talking through a realistic situation at home or in the community: what could go wrong, and what to do. The Safety Reasoning Worksheets (26) cover the kitchen, bathroom, medication, money, strangers, and getting around; a free page from the set is in the life skills worksheets article.
- Auditory working memory. Holding what was just heard and working with it. In the Auditory Working Memory Task (25 worksheets), a partner reads letter sequences aloud and the listener says back the part a rule asks for. Try the free auditory working memory worksheet first.
- Story recall and comprehension. Answering questions about a short everyday story without looking back, after reading it or hearing it read aloud. The Story Recall Worksheets (30) run from short, simple stories to dense passages; try the free story recall worksheet.
- Problem solving. Explaining what to do in an everyday situation with more than one reasonable answer. The Problem Solving Worksheets for Adults (30) move from choosing the best option to juggling several problems at once, with a facilitator answer guide. A free problem solving worksheet is on this blog too.
- Word retrieval with familiar sayings. Finishing well-known sayings, proverbs, and idioms with the last word left blank. Finish the Phrase Worksheets for Seniors has 80 prompts, a complete answer key, and a page for SLPs and OTs on using the sheets for word retrieval practice.
Is this a cognitive-communication assessment?
No. Speech-language pathologists use standardized cognitive-communication and language assessments in clinical practice. One example is the Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT), a standardized screening of cognitive-linguistic skills used by speech-language pathologists. Tools like this are given and interpreted by trained professionals and read alongside the rest of an evaluation, including how the person communicates in real conversation.
The Social Reasoning set is not modeled on any published test. Its therapist instructions suggest describing a response rather than scoring it: accuracy, cueing needed, insight, flexibility, and the quality of the explanation.
Worth knowing: the worksheets on this page are structured cognitive practice materials. They are not the CLQT or any other test, they have no norms or scores, and the handwritten examples are a guide for discussion, not a marking key. They are not an assessment, and they are not a substitute for evaluation by a qualified professional. If there are concerns about communication after a brain injury or stroke, raise them with a speech-language pathologist.
How the Social Reasoning worksheets are graded
Thirty worksheet pages, each with its own worksheet ID, in three graded sets (basic, moderate, and complex), with the complex material split into two levels. The full PDF is 38 pages, including two pages of therapist instructions. As the levels rise, less of the meaning sits on the surface.
Level 1: basic
Eleven pages, SRW1A to SRW1K: direct versus indirect meaning, what the speaker wants, emotion from context and from faces, appropriate replies, tone clues (polite, annoyed, or urgent), boundary basics at work, with friends, and in public, small talk versus task talk, and unspoken rules. Most items are choose, circle, or match.
Level 2: moderate
Seven pages, SRW2A to SRW2G: indirect requests, sarcasm, the next best step after a minor social mistake, two-person perspective, apology quality, and body language. More of the answers are written. The free PDF is the first two pages of this level.
Level 3: complex
Seven pages, SRW3A to SRW3G: ambiguous messages (what does “I’ll see.” mean after you asked a coworker to cover a shift?), conflict de-escalation, receiving feedback, oversharing, manipulative language with eight named red-flag tactics, and mixed signals where words and behavior do not match.
Level 4: social scene inference
Five pages, SRW4A to SRW4E, each built around one illustrated scene, such as someone talking loudly beside a person on a phone call, or someone left out of a small group. Four multiple-choice questions per scene ask about the situation, the visual clues, feelings, and what fits next. The divider page labels this level a second complex set.
| What you get | Free sample | Full set |
|---|---|---|
| Worksheets | 2 | 30 (38-page PDF) |
| Levels | Moderate (Level 2) | Basic, moderate, complex, and social scene inference |
| Topics | Indirect requests and sarcasm | From direct versus indirect meaning to manipulative language and mixed signals |
| Answer formats | Write what is meant; circle Literal or Not Literal | Choose, circle, match, rewrite, and explain |
| Picture-based items | None | Facial expressions, body language, and five illustrated scenes |
| Therapist instructions and follow-up questions | Not included | Yes, two pages |
| Repeat sessions without reusing a page | Two pages | Weeks of practice |
Using it in a session or at home
- Start with the worked example. Item 1 on each page is answered by hand. Talk it through first: on Worksheet 2.1 the open window is the clue, and the hint is a request to close it.
- Ask how they know. The set’s instructions suggest open follow-ups such as “How do you know?” and “What cues did you notice?” The Clue line on Worksheet 2.1 puts that question on paper.
- Watch for the literal item. On the sarcasm page, item 3 (“Thanks, I really appreciate it,” after a friend helps carry the groceries in) means exactly what it says. Circling Not Literal on every item is a pattern worth talking about, just as taking item 5 at face value is.
- Accept more than one fair reading. At a busy checkout, “I didn’t expect it to be this busy” might be small talk, a complaint, or a hint that another lane should open. Any answer the person can back with a clue is worth discussing.
- Talk it through when writing is hard. Every item works as a spoken discussion, with a partner writing key words on the line. If speaking is the harder part, short written answers are enough.
- Keep notes, then move between levels. A short note on accuracy, cueing, and how clear the explanation was says more than a number. When explanations come with little cueing, try the complex pages; if the moderate pages stall, the basic set covers related ideas, such as indirect meaning and tone, mostly in choice form.
Who uses these social communication worksheets
- Speech-language pathologists, in sessions and for home practice
- Occupational therapists and psychologists
- Adults after a brain injury or stroke, and their families
- Neurodivergent adults and the educators who work with them
- Hospital, outpatient, and community programs
All of our worksheets are designed to be adult-appropriate and visually clean, with everyday adult situations, plain type, and room to write.
The free pages above are two of the 30 worksheets in the full Social Reasoning set, which spans all four levels and includes two pages of therapist instructions. It is also part of the Reasoning Worksheets Bundle, with the Safety Reasoning and Problem Solving sets. Our guides to executive functioning worksheets for adults and memory worksheets for adults show how the reasoning, listening, and story recall sets fit together.
These materials support cognitive stimulation and structured practice. They are not medical treatment or an assessment, and no specific therapeutic outcomes are claimed.
