Monday, May 14, 2012

Great give away!

http://www.smartappsforkids.com/2012/05/apraxia-picture-sound-cards-apsc-giveaway-180-app.html

Friday, May 11, 2012

Tell a Story with Tommy: Consequences

Tell a Story with Tommy: Consequences




By Listen.Talk.Draw  $6.99

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tell-story-tommy-consequences/id519581206?mt=8




This is a cute and simple app to help teach valuable social skills relating to consequences of actions. It has seven different scenarios (playing, dinner, store trip, playing outside, see my friend, in class, and lunchroom) and in each scenario there are different "paths" to take. In each scene you can decide to take the appropriate path to a good choice and see the positive consequences (such as sharing a toy and having a good time playing) or a poor choice that leads to negative consequences (not sharing a toy and your friend won't play with you anymore). You are in control of the path you take depending on the target you are wanting to teach/reinforce. You do this by tapping a green smiley face for the good choice or a red sad face for the poor choice. This is really neat to show students how their actions could affect others. 

The app features a multiple choice quiz (in the report card section) that directly relates to the stories and scenarios in the app. For example: If I want to play outside, then I need to...   1. Share time on the swings   2. Yell at the other kids    3. Push my friend down.  I read the question and then point to each answer and ask the student to push the correct one. It keeps track of correct answers and gives you a nice piece of data at the end (it reports name, date,  and how many correct out of 14 questions).

Another cute features is the Found It section. In the scenarios there are hidden items (you can tell the students to look out for them or just see if they naturally spot them!). The app keeps track of which hidden items the student touches and you can go back and find the ones they missed.


I own all of the Tommy Sequencing apps and use them frequently with my students and clients. (Tell a Story with Tommy: Community Sequences and Tell a Story with Tommy: School Sequences). The challenge when working on social or pragmatic language skills using an app is the transfer to real life situations. After I use this app I try to talk about the student's daily interactions and see if I can get the child to relate something from the story to their own life. ("Have you ever had some one take a toy away from you? How did that make you feel? How do you feel when your friends share with you?"  ect...). I also have a good friend/not a good friend chart that we complete with picture symbols and we talk about consequences during this activity too.  I am fortunate to get to work at a center that even does social outings with students to try to create real-life teachable moments! 

This app is a good one to have in your iPad toolbox! It was made by a Speech Language Pathologist! Check out their other apps I mentioned above! http://listentalkdraw.com/


Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Speech EZ giveaway! Parent and Pro versions $300.00 app

http://www.theimum.com/2012/05/speech-ez-apraxia-picture-sound-cards-review/#comment-4461

Category Carousel Review

Category Carousel



by Pocket SLP $9.99
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/category-carousel/id516878389?mt=8

Another great resource to work on building vocabulary and language skills! This app is simple to use and the graphics are cute! There are 9 categories to work with: transportation,  animals, household, summer, clothing, winter, food, occupation, and instruments.

The Game: You select how many categories you want the child to sort through (1-9) and it will bring up a screen with the category names on top and all of the items on the bottom. The students have to drag the items up into the correct category. (Simple touch, hold, and drag). If the student puts an item in the wrong category it will pop back down for them to try again. After all of the items have been sorted you then can choose one of the categories on the top and  subcategorize! This is a really neat feature! This takes the learning experience a step further!! It is a more difficult skill to subcateorize within the categories because the items are more similar and not as contrasting(veggies/fruits/meats ect...).  This is great for when a student masters the main categories and they are ready for a challenge! 



The images are all real-life objects, which I think makes this game meaningful (the students may see an item and already have an attached meaning to it in their life!). 





This app can be used alone or as a supplement to your thematic teaching! I do a seasons/weather theme in the winter and I can use this app to sort through summer/winter items to reinforce what I am teaching them! Use any of the categories to go along with your lesson plans! I also have used this to check progress on IEP goals.  (If a child has a category objective on their IEP I will use this app to see how well they can categorize.  For example: Mandi was able to categorize 6 out 10 pictures correctly when presented with 3 contrasting categories with minimal cueing).


I highly recommend this app for the reasons above! It is affordable and well worth the money! This app was made by speech therapists and you can tell!

Read PocketSLP's Description in iTunes
Whether you are a speech language pathologist or a parent you will find the Category Carousel app a fun way to increase and enhance a child's vocabulary. The ability to categorize and subcategorize words and concepts is a skill necessary to build, store, and retrieve words leading to better comprehension and expressive language skills.

Choose a category (or multiple categories) and let children touch the pictures, hear the word, and then sort them by dragging them into various categories. Once pictures have been dragged into a category users can touch the category and watch it split into sub-categories, encouraging the child to think about words in multiple ways. Audio reinforcement and correction are included in this fun and educational app.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Swapsies Review!

Swapsies!!

by Spinlight Studios $1.99

I can't say enough about this app! This app is so cute and well
thought out, but still remains simple and easy to use!

Teach occupations with this swipe input game! Swipe the clothes on the character (you get to choose which character to dress) and make them a fireman, police man, doctor, cowboy and many more in the Mix Up section.  There are three things to match: The hat, shirt, and pants! The new update also features little games after you dress the character associated with the occupation (rounding up the cows for the rancher!).

It has a quiz me game that is great for comprehension (it has the occupation in the middle and asks "what does an astronaut fly in?" with four pictures to choose from!  I use this app in speech therapy sessions with language delayed kids to boost receptive and expressive language skills! I am also planning on making a paper dolls with the images from the app for my kids to take home! I will post printables for those after I make them!

Receptive Language Tasks: While playing his game you talk about the occupations and match their outfits. After each match you play the game to reinforce it (X-Ray the Bear as the doctor to find "boo boos,"  Stop the traffic as the police office to let the turtle cross the road ect...). Then you go to the Quiz Me section and test their understanding of the occupations! (Who puts out fires? See if the student selects the firefighter).

Expressive Language Tasks: While playing the Mix Up section and making matches, ask the student to guess the occupation before you move on to the game. When you play the reinforcer activity, have the student name the objects and actions in the game.

If you are looking for an affordable and high quality app to work on boosting language skills through fun learning.....this is the one for you! :)


Features listed in iTunes!
• 10 different occupations
• Six customizable character (three girls/three boys)
• Thousands of possible combinations
• A fun activity for each occupation
• Interactive quiz mode with bonus round questions
• Accomplishment tracking
• Intuitive navigation
• Rewards sounds to create positive enforcement and encourage exploration.
• Retina screen support for iPhone and iPod Touch
                                                                         • Large buttons for small fingers


Articulate it Review




Articulate it by Smarty Ears!

                        
$34.99
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/articulate-it!/id391296844?mt=8

This is an app that replaces the need for articulation flash card decks! It contains over 1000 picture cards with every phoneme in the English language! Each student or child has a profile that contains their date of birth, grade, and picture (or avatar). You can select all of a student's target phonemes or processes and then choose which ones to practice in each session. You can use this app with groups with tailored goals for each student. This app gives you the ability to work on phonemes/processes in words or in phrases.

When each card or target is presented it will give an audio model of the word or phrase. You also have the option of removing the audio and the text presented on the card. With each card you can record the student's response and write notes. After the child says the word you can select the green check if they got it right and the blue x if wrong. At the end of the session it tracks the percentage of accuracy for you and produces an emailable session report. The app also stores the session data so you can track progress over time.

Things I find neat about this app:
On the actual picture card presented there is a paper clipped picture of the student (or the avatar they selected for themselves) with their name! The kids really like this feature! It is great for turn taking reinforcement during group sessions.
Another great feature: When you select a child that has already used the app, you have the choice to repeat the previous items practiced. This is handy so you don't have re-select the phonemes/processes that you want to target. You can also see the list of words for each phoneme and hand pick which words you want to use.

The pictures are a mix of real life photos, smarty symbols, and digital illustrations.

I really like using this app while playing therapy games. I use an iPad stand and set up Articulate it with my group. On each turn of the game the students have to practice their phonemes/processess with the app before they get to make their move! After their production (while they are taking their turn) I can tap  correct or incorrect and make any notes right there in the app! At the end of the day I have all of my students' progress information available to my fingertips! This app really is a time saver and a motivator!!


Here is a list of features listed on their app in iTunes:
1. Over 1 thousand pictures;
2. Audio recordings for every word present on this app! You child can practice saying their sounds on their own by repeating the voice on the app;

3. Contains ALL phonemes of the English language;

4. Ability to track multiple students at the same time with separate goals;

5. Ability to group sounds by Manner of articulation or phonological processes;

6. Built in voice recording allows the children to compare their productions with the audio recording;

7. Extremely specific results screens- give you percentage based on phonemes/ position in the words/ which words were missed and more...

8. Note taking capability: allows SLPs and parents to take notes during practice.

9. Universal app! Looks great on iPhone and on iPad.

10. Amazing images.

11. Allows you to skip images you don't want to practice.

12. So many features and more. Watch our video for more information!

Smarty Ears continues to make high quality apps that really revolutionize speech therapy! Articulate it is a great looking and great performing app that my students have responded well too!



Images taken from google and smarty ears website for informative purposes only!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Fun and Functional by Smarty Ears

Fun and Functional App Review



This app is designed to improve language skills (receptive and expressive) in all age groups using real world objects (functional objects). It is very easy to use and set up. I consider this a must have for every SLP device! You can use this app with children and adults.

The app has two different tasks:

Receptive: 2-4 objects are presented (you choose how many depending on the level of your client) and described ("What do we use to brush our teeh") . The client then has to touch the item described. You can customize what happens when the wrong item is touched (keep going, remove item, or buzz). When the client touches the correct item they recieve positive reinforcement (the sound of children saying yea!). You can also customize how similar the items presented are to increase the level of difficulty. I really love the customizable features! (Sometimes the buzzing can upset a child when they answer incorrectly).

Expressive: An object is pictured and there is a prompt asking what the item is used for (What is a seat belt used for?).  The therapist can then tap one of three buttons (missed it, almost, or Got it!). This will keep track of their progress throughout the session.

Categories included: Electronics, clothing, occuaptions, kitchen, vehicle/transportation, school items, household items, outdoor, grooming, and miscellaneous. You can select the categories you want my turning each of them on or off. (Which is great if you just want to work on one category at a time!).

At the end of the session is generates a report that is emailable. The report outlines the session by showing the categories worked on, what level/activity (ex.  expressive/receptive, 4 items per screen) and the percentange of accuracy for the tasks. (ex. Receptive 50% Expressive 45%).  

This app uses Smarty Symbols created by Smary Ears. These are great symbols and they seem to translate well to the clients I have used this app with! I do prefer real object pictures but that does not stop me from using this amazing app!





App Reviews

Pocket Pairs Review

Pocket Pairs by Pocket SLP

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocket-pairs/id416573790?mt=8
This app is $23.99 (Check for Sales!)
As a traveling SLP I am always looking for apps for my iPad to minimize the amount of materials I have to lug from site to site. When I discovered Pocket SLP, I thought, what could get better!! Then they came out with the Minimal Pairs app. This app is beyond useful in my daily therapy activities. Not only is it full flashcard app to work on all of the phonological processes in minimal pairs, but you can also integrate a whole group of students with different goals (processes) at once! It has both expressive and receptive tasks (production and discrimination).  It is completely customizable to your caseload!
 A really neat feature is that before the student touches one of the cards, they get to see their name right on the card. (Mandi West, Say the Words). This is very motivating during group sessions!
After each pair  is presented you have a data collection button (one for correct production, approximation, and incorrect).  It keeps track of the percentage of accuracy for you and stores the data to show progress at a glance for each student.
It includes in-app generated reports:
You have choices between three formats: graph, report card, and spreadsheet. I really love the report card format because it outlines the session (percentage correct and actual words used) and has a section to instruct parents on how to work with them at home! What is better than tailored handouts and homework for parents!  The graph format is great for tracking progress (excellent visual representation for parents/teachers).   
You can also run a daily report for all students that will show data from every session completed that day, which is very useful when you are filling out progress notes/forms. When you are finished you can email or print results right from the app.
This app really abolishes the need for card decks or flipbooks to address phonological processes!
 I don’t know what it is about the iPad and using apps in therapy, but the students I work with really respond to the “touch” interactions better than they did before with traditional flashcard activities. For this busy traveling SLP, Minimal Pairs is a life saver!
This app is more sleek and "clean" looking without a lot of visual distractions. (Compared to some of the other apps that have a lot more background graphics). I prefer to use this one with older elementary aged kids or ones who are distracted easily.