Tense Builder Review and Giveaway!

 
Tense Builder by Mobile Education Store
$14.99 (iPad ONLY)

 View in iTunes



This is the latest app from the well known company Mobile Education Store, creator of popular apps such as Sentence Builder, Language Builder, Rainbow Sentences, Conversation Builder, Preposition Builder, and Story Builder. Click here to view the Mobile Education Store Website to learn more!

This is a first of its kind app! You won't find anything else like it in the app store to work on verb tenses!! This app is great for all school aged kids. The movies are very popular with ages k-5, I have noticed!

Tense Builder is an interactive way to learn verb tenses (present, past, and future) in a unique video format so the students get to see the verbs in action! This is a great way to give the child immediate visual feedback to attach meaning to the different verb tenses. This helps the child distinguish what is happening now, what is happening in the past, and what will happen in the future.

As a speech therapist working with language delayed students, this is an invaluable tool to target this tricky concept! This would also be great for classroom teachers to use in their lesson plans and for parents to use at home!

Features:

• 42 video animations for target verbs (with plans to expand to 58 by December 2012)

• Ability to choose which verb tense to target (or target them all)

• Ability to choose irregular or regular verbs (or target them together). 

• Ability to select specific verbs to work on.

• Two different levels of play

• Receptive and Expressive tasks during play

• Store and track multiple students

• Ability to record, save, and email responses

• Data tracking through app stats. 
• Built in Video Tutorial

Level One:  Level one is a receptive task. The student watches the short movie and then is presented with a sentence and three picture choices (depending on which verb tense you selected for the student). Then the child has to touch the picture that corresponds to that verb tense. When the child picks the incorrect picture it says "that's not quite right" and it highlights the incorrect verb tense in the sentence.  Next it shows the picture close up so the child can see why it was not the correct choice. It then asks them to select again with the three choices. When the child selects the correct picture it reinforces by saying "that's right"and explains the tense and what it means. For example: "This picture shows what the girl is doing right now, she is listening to the music.






Level Two: In this level you have to watch the video and complete a 'fill in the sentence' activity for the correct verb tense. After the video it will give the student a picture from the video and  3-7 word choices (you can set the amount of choices in the settings) and they have to drag to correct verb tense into the sentence that corresponds with the picture. If the child drags the wrong word in the sentence, it will highlight their response and show a quick video reinforcer of the verb they chose. This will show the student why their choice was incorrect. If the student choose correctly it gives them verbal praise and they you can select next sentence.

 

Options:
Audio Instructions on/off
Correct Answer Reinforcement: on/off
Record Correct Answer: on/off
Level of Play: Level 1/Level 2
Max # of Level 2 Choices (3-7)
Tense (Past/Present/Future/All)
Verbs (Regular/Irregular/All)
Select Specific Verbs
Lesson Style: Long/Short






What I like:

• This app is easy to use and quick to set up. At the top of the opening screen you will see the last student's name you worked with. You select the button next the name that says "Not You?" and then either choose another student from the list or create a new student.
• I like that you can pause the movie if you need to for teaching moments or for clarification. 
• I like how you have an option to hide button on the screen for those easily distracted students!
• The animations are very high quality and funny! (designed to maintain the student's attention). 
• I love how this app provides a video model of verbs while they are happening. This is such a hard concept to teach when you are dealing with future and past tense. So much better than the picture cards I have made and used in the past!! 
• I really like the recording feature! I have found that my clients benefit from hearing themselves say the verbs correctly in the sentence! It is a great way to encourage them and to see if they can self-correct! 
• As always I love email-able data reports from apps! See the example of their format below.

What I would like to see: The data tracking done in percentages! (For those of us who are not mathematically inclined! I still have to break out my calculator!!)

Taking the app further: As always I like to comment on how to generalize skills learned in the app to real life situations. The video animations are funny and the kids really like them, so sometimes after a video and response we will act out the video ourselves and talk about the verb tenses again. For example there is a video that shows a monkey taking a hat. I will then put something on my head and pretend it is a hat and have the student take it off. I will ask them what they are doing as they do it:"  I am taking off your hat" (present tense). After they do it I will ask them what they did; "I took off your hat (irregular past tense).  Then finally I will say "I want you to do this tomorrow, so tomorrow" ...."I will take off your hat (future tense) ect...! "

Thinking about goals??? I know when I look for apps I think about my caseload and their specific goals. This app can help target specific goals related to verb tenses (The student will identify and use correct past tense verbs (irregular and regular) with 80% accuracy and min cues), or other goals such as syntax related and oral expression!

Variations: If you are on an app budget and want to squeeze some more practice out of this app beyond its intentions you could try this:
Another way to get more practice out of this app is to have the student re-tell the movie after it is finished. Encourage them to remember funny details from the story. For example: "First the cool girl plugged in her ear phones, next she listened to music, and finally she tripped and fell down." (Throwing in some recall and narrative goals as well!).

Check out the Video Preview of this app by Mobile Education Store

Giveaway!

The creators of Tense Builder have donated one code for Panda Speech followers! Please enter with the rafflecopter below! Contest will end October 4, 2012! Stop by their facebook page and say thanks too! Mobile Education Store Facebook

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Speech with Milo Articulation Game Board!

Speech with Milo Articulation Board Game: Common Sounds Pack-Review and Giveaway!
By Doonan Speech Therapy (iPad ONLY)

$5.99 View in iTunes 

                             

A fun new way to work on articulation skills!  

I APPsolutely love it! 

This app is a first of its kind and it turns regular articulation drills into a fun and engaging board game!

Features: 

• The common sounds offered in this app are /F/, /V/, /K/, /G/, /S/, /Z/, /CH/, /SH/. Initial, medial, and final positions for each sound. (Over 500 target words!)
  

• Add, store and track up to 20 students ($.99 for each additional 3 students after 20)
  

• Run groups with up to 5 players at a time. 
  

• Each student gets to choose a unique character to play with.
  
  
  

Set Up: Add each student in "Student Set up" tab on home screen. You will add their name and select their target sounds and positions. Next you will go back to home screen and push play. The app will ask you to choose which students are playing (you can also select the therapist if you want to play along with them) and each student can pick their own character to play with. 

Game Play: The students' characters will be displayed on the game board to show whose turn it is. The student will tap the spinner in the middle of the board then they will move that number of spaces (1-6).  I really like that you have to place your finger on your character and physically drag it to each square (similar to a real board game and great for fine motor!). There is a lit up cue on the targeted space to show the students where to go. When the student lands on a space it will pop up one of their target words in a picture card. You then can request a certain number of productions to move on to the next turn (I usually do 5). There are data collection buttons right on each picture card (correct/approximations/incorrect).  On the board you will see many different fun squares and obstacles such as STOP, BONUS, GO BACK, and GO FORWARD. The students I have used this with really like these squares. The game ends when the first player makes it to the school at the end of the board. 


Data: As a speech therapist, this is the first thing I look for when buying new apps to use in therapy! As I stated above, you keep track of productions during the game on each picture card. At the end of the session you can view their data and email it. The data is also stored in the app to be viewed at anytime. I really like viewing data after several sessions to track progress! 
 
 


Options: You can customize the sounds in the app (turn on/off: dice sound, background sound, card sound, game piece sounds, and spoken word). You can also turn on/off the written word on the picture card. 

 

Click here for a demo video by Speech with Milo



What I love: I really like the board game! I have used board games for years in therapy and now I have one right on my iPad! As a traveling SLP this is gold!!!! I also love the bargain price!! $5.99 for this app seems like a steal (SLP apps are pricey!). 

What I would like to see different: I would love to see all phonemes (maybe there will be more board game apps from Speech with Milo at a later date!!!). I also would like to see the ability to add more than 20 students (most of us SLPs have huge caseloads these days!!) without having to pay an extra .99 for 3 students. 

Giveaway! 

I am giving away two copies of this amazing app! There are two ways to enter!  Contest will end October 4, 2012 at 11pm.

1.  Enter using the rafflecopter below. 

2. Enter by leaving a blog comment on this post answering the question below. This is for all of you who don't prefer rafflecopters! Entries will put into a hat and drawn at random by my son (a picture will be posted of the winning name!).  

Here is the question I want you to answer in your comment: What is the most important feature you look for in an articulation app? 

*You may enter both ways but you may only win once! If your name is chosen on both, I will re-draw in the rafflecopter. 

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click here for rafflecopter help!