Based on Reddy s theory of plates with higher-order shear deformations and the Boltzmann superposition principles, thegoving equations were established for dynamic stability of viscoelastic plates with finite deformations taking account of shear ef-fects. The Galerkin method was applied to simplify the set of equations. The numerical methods in nonlinear dynamics were used tosolve the simplified system. It could be seen that there are plenty of dynamic properties for this kind of viscoelastic plates under trans-verse harmonic loads. The influences of the transverse shear deformations and material parameter on the dynamic behavior of nonlin-ear viscoelastic plates were investigated.