School of Multi-Step Directions {app review & giveaway}

The developers over at Virtual Speech Center, Inc. have released another speech therapy app. School of Multi-Step Directions is developed for elementary and older students working on 2-4 step directions. VSC provided a copy of this app for review, but the opinions below are just mine!

In setting you can choose randomization, enable audio and adjust rewards.

It's important to note that background noise can be added in different levels here for Figure Ground practice. The background noise practice makes this app very appropriate for children with auditory processing disorders.

To start, add your students information and click on one of the classrooms.

Each classroom features different kinds of multi-step direction activities in the theme of the given classroom. Read the details from the developer below:

• English classroom: 2-step, 3-step and 4-step of unrelated directions with multiple levels of difficulty. Stimuli include: pictures, letters, and written words with color, size, and temporal concepts. For example, “Underline the red letter A and erase the blue letter C.”
• Math classroom: 2-step, 3-step and 4-step of unrelated directions with multiple levels of difficulty. Stimuli include: shapes, number, concepts, size, color, odd, even, bigger than, and smaller than. For example, “If 10 is bigger than 9, highlight 4 and underline 6, if not, cross out 2 and touch 1.”
• Chemistry Lab: 2-step, 3-step and 4-step unrelated directions with multiple levels of difficulty. Children will have fun “making experiments.” For example, “Set the temperature to cold, shake the flask, and add water to the cup.”

Choose different levels and learning objectives for each student. I especially loved the chemistry set! The tools in this set allow you to set temperature to hot or cold, mix, or shake.

When shown the game screen children will be read the direction prompt. There are 4 different tools at the bottom of the page. Use the pencil to underline, the X to cross out, the highlighter to highlight and the eraser to erase!

Many of the skills are really hard. For example a 2 step conditional directions with numbers and even/odd number says: If 10 is an even number, underline 3 and cross out 2. If not highlight 2 and erase 9. That's a lot for ME to recall!

Data collection is seen in the top corners of the page. You can also repeat the verbal prompt.

The app includes a ping pong game as part of recess.

The app's data collection is on par for data collection apps.

Check out this full video description for more details. 

The app is listed for sale in the itunes store for $18.99. But one lucky reader can have a free copy by entering in the rafflecopter giveaway listed below!

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Describe It To Me {app review}

Come on down! You're the next contestant on... Describe It To Me! 

((Are you envisioning me as Bob Barker or Drew Carey?))

Describe It To Me is the latest app developed by the app gurus over at Smarty Ears. 

This app is developed to work on receptive and expressive language skills for school age children. The app is developed by Susan Rose Simms, MA, CCC-SLP.

Start by adding your players. Avatars and pictures can be used. 

The game play page has many features. On the left spinning wheel you will notice players. Simply touch and drag the wheel to rotate between players. On the right hand side of the screen the clinician can switch between Receptive and Expressive tasks (R/E). The red buttons on the right side of the screen allow you to move to the next item. 

The top of each screen lists the type of questions to be asked. They include category, function parts, location, visuals and extra. You can see when the question is answers correctly the text turns green. The receptive language tasks in the top picture show receptive language tasks with multiple choice answers. The above picture displays the expressive task. 

From the developer: 

Designed to facilitate a deep semantic understanding, each picture stimulus has six questions designed to probe and teach a deeper level understanding of these everyday items. In addition to teaching semantic knowledge to children, Describe it To Me can be used to facilitate rebuilding semantic knowledge in adults. Perfect for all levels from beginning categorization skills to deeper level language skills. 

Print homework directly from the ipad with the included sheet. 

The report center tracks data in both the receptive and expressive tasks. 

Check out the app described in detail and shown in the video below! 

The bottom line:

Pros: The app works on a skill I target often in school based therapy.  Having homework available to print from the app is ideal. 

Cons: The app has a pretty limited function. It has only one game screen, compared to other apps SLPs may find fewer in-app options. 

Describe It To Me is found in the itunes store and is listed at $9.99 in itunes.

Articulation Games Giveaway!

Whew! That holiday weekend wore me out! Luckily my friends over at The Virtual Speech Center contacted me to see if I wanted to throw a big app giveaway!

Articulation Games is an app I reviewed back in September. Check out my review here!  Go check out the review and then enter to win one of 5 copies below on the rafflecopter widget! 

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Early Literacy Recommended Apps

With my literacy group this summer, I spent a little time sorting all my phonological awareness and early literacy apps into one folder. I thought I'd share what exactly is in that folder for you! All of these apps were purchased by yours truly (unless otherwise indicated). I listed their current itunes prices, but those are subject to change, so check before you download!

Zoo Train is really a fun app. There are train puzzles and this great simple letter matching activity. (.99)

Sound Sorting is a Lakeshore Learning app that works on alliteration. The format is super cute and my kids LOVE it! (.99)

Endless Alphabet is just the most fun app! Little kids and bigger kids alike seem to love the animation. I love working on letters and letter sounds! ($4.99)

Tic Tac Toe Phonics is a great app for kids with a little more exposure to spelling. It asks questions like, 'Which word has the same a sound as cake?' gate, hand, fan. (free)

Starting Sounds is a great app from I Can Do apps. It have various levels of difficulty for identifying the beginning sounds in words. (2.99)

Rhyming is another I Can Do apps creation. It has 5 levels of rhyme identification activities. (2.99)

Syllable Splash (I was provided of copy of this app for my review in May) This app focuses on segmenting words and identify the number of syllables.  (9.99)

Pocket Charts Rhyming Word Match is the digital version of a pocket chart. This super cute app is simple to use and works on matching rhyming words. (.99)

Pocket Charts Uppercase and Lowercase Match is another pocket chart app. Students match the upper and lowercase letters. (.99)

Pocket Charts Beginning Letter Sounds is the last pocket chart app I downloaded! The simple format is still engaging for my preschooler and kindergarten students. (.99)

Profile of Phonological Awareness (Pro-PA) is an assessment app. (14.99) The app doesn't give standardized scores but it's perfect to do baseline assessments with! 

Super Why Adventures ABC is a favorite of my students! It works on sounds, letters and more! Seriously LOVE this one! (3.99)

Word Wagon by Duck Duck Moose let you pick objects off the conveyor belt. Drag the letter to spell the word and then listen as the word is sounded out. (2.99)

Interactive Alphabet is great for the little bits. Like Endless alphabet is engaging for little guys. You click on the letter and an animation appears along with the letter sound. ($2.99)

Do you have any favorites that I missed?! Comment below so I can add them to my collection! 

Speech Therapy for Apraxia (App Review)

I'm back today with another app review! The app was provided to me in order to review but you'll find all these comments to be my very own! Speech Therapy for Apraxia is an app designed by the National Association for Child Development Team.

The app works on sounds in 8 different groups. These groups are mostly grouped by place and manner of each sound (ie: F/V, P/B/M, etc.) The SLP selects one consonant group to target.

Next select the target level. The app starts at single CV words and nonsense words. The difficulty is then increased while continuing to use CV targets. Each picture can be touched to provide a verbal model.

The price of the app is $4.99, making it a very reasonable choice in the market. The app is only available for ipad on iOS at this time.

Pros: The price is right! Simple to use for parents. I like that the difficulty is labeled 1-8. This makes it easy for parents to use. It's quite obvious that starting at level 1 is the easiest.

Cons: No data tracking. The app only contains CV words making it pretty lacking for a busy SLP with a variety of kids on caseload!

All in all, the app might be most suited for parents of children with apraxia or other severe phonological delays. It's lacking variety of syllable structures and data collection for SLPs.

Phono Learning Center (App Review & Giveaway)

Phono Learning Center (PLC) is the newest app produced through Smarty Ears. The app is developed by Mary Huston, MS, CCC-SLP. Based on the Hodson's Cycles Approach, PLC is developed to target phonological disorders in children. The PLC is developed to fit in with your Cycles Approach or traditional therapy with 4 different games and a multi-user format.

Start by clicking on New Session. Add the characters or import them from the Therapy Report Center. 

The front page also links you to a homework page. You can email them to parents directly from your iPad. 

Add a student picture or an avatar. If you select Auditory Bombardment as 'on' there will be a quick auditory bombardment section at the beginning of  the app. At the bottom of the page you can select your phonological targets. 

Select the players you want to play for this round. Adjust the settings to fit the students using the app. Extra tidbits I think are important.You can change the app data collection to the level of prompts (imitate, prompt, independent). The app settings can be set to limit a single phonological target at a time (the Hodson's Cycles Approach) or multiple targets (a traditional therapy approach). 

During the Auditory Bombardment, tap the balloons and listen to the words being said. This is available during single player games.  

From this point the student can select from 4 different activities to practice the phonological process. 

The balloon game features a hot air balloon. The student says the word on the card and then drags that card to the balloon basket. The basket slowly fills with air before taking off!  I have the app set to phrase level for multisyllable words during this example. 

The matching app features a picture card at the bottom of the page. Student then flip over the yellow-backed cards to find the match. It memory with a twist. My poor little kiddo was really sick of saying TOMATO by the end, because he wasn't exactly a 'memory' champ. I on the other hand was super happy to have a tone of data since I had him say the pairs each time! 

The paper toss game was my student's favorite part of the app. First read the word in the given picture. The student then touches the paper with the picture on it.

The paper will crumble and is ready to be tossed into the basket! 

For the puzzle activity, the student says the word on the puzzle piece. I have it set on s-blend phrases here. After you say the word or phrase, tap the puzzle piece. It will float to the puzzle and turn into a picture piece. We had lots of fun with the guessing game portion of this activity, trying to figure out what the picture would be! 

Data collection is available throughout the app in the top right hand corner. Reports are available to share. I like using the 'almost' as a way to give me the idea of the level of cueing. If the kid needed an extra prompt I used the 'almost' scoring. 

To hear the app explained thoroughly check out this video! 

Phono Learning Center by Smarty Ears from Smarty Ears on Vimeo.

Pros: I'd love that the app has researched word targets based on Hodson's cycles. approach.  The app meets the expectations for professionals familiar with the Smarty Ears brand. Phono Learning Center features 4 entertaining activities, paired with the research based methodology for treatment, topped off with effective and efficient data collection. Instead of adapting apps to meet evidence based strategies, PLC is an app developed fully around EBP! I love it!

Cons: Some of the game activities didn't really have an 'ending'. The paper toss game for example. I'd love it if the app had a counter attached. Kids work so much better when you can give them a goal. I had to count aloud the 'shots made' for my little guy to keep him working to 30 points. ((Kinda like when I need a goal set on the treadmill! So I don't blame the kidddo!)) I'd love if it the 4 activities had a better way to 'finish' to keep my students working for a goal.

Future improvements: This isn't an expectation of the app, just my 2 cents! I'd LOVE to see a chart to show a students mastery of goals or schedules of cycles. For example, the SLP could track which weeks/dates had been spent on each phonological process. As it stands you can look back through the reports to monitor progress but I'm envisioning a chart that the SLP could just look across and see that they had spend x amount of session on a certain phonological process.


Ok.  Phono Learning Center is on sale for $14.99. Regular price will be $24.99. You can find it on iTunes.

Smarty Ears has donated one code for a lucky SRN reader! Just use rafflecopter below to enter for your chance to win the app!

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Smarty Ears provided the app for this review. No other compensation was provided.