iPractice Verbs {app review and giveaway}

By the time you are reading this, I will be in Atlanta for the National Association of Neonatal Therapists conference!   Be sure to follow on Instagram (@carissatenhoeve) for updates!

Yesterday, you read about an app from Smarty Ears called Preposition Remix.  Today, I bring you another fabulous app from them called iPractice Verbs!

Here's a description from Smarty Ears:

iPractice Verbs is an app developed to help children learn and practice basic English verbs in a variety of levels (word, phrase, sentence) and tense forms (present, present progressive & past tense). iPractice Verbs was designed by a licensed and certified Speech-Language Pathologist to serve as a tool for children with language delays and as a tool for children and adults learning English as a second language. iPractice Verbs is very intuitive to use and it is compatible with the Therapy Report Center ( A FREE caseload management application).

Enter and select your student or students.  Once you do so, the app will pop up a box for you to choose an activity- either flashcards or find it.  

Here is what the Find It activity looks like.  First, select which tense you would like to target.  There is a sentence at the bottom, and the student is to identify which picture matches the sentence.  If the student chooses incorrectly, the picture disappears. 

Here is what the flashcards look like.  You can change the tense or the length of utterance on the left hand side.  Also note the green, yellow, and red buttons in the lower right corner for data collection.  

When the activity is over, a screen similar to this will appear.  You can choose to view the student's stickers, their progress, or generate a certificate.  

Here is what the sticker page looks like:

Here's is what a progress report would look like:

You can also generate certificates!  The great thing about this is that you can select the level of mastery so that the certificate is personalized to their abilities!

One of my favorite features is the HOMEWORK!   These can be used as homework or as practice sheets for other sessions.  

Overall, I really like this app.  It truly is intuitive, as they have advertised.  This app is perfect for some of my students who are working on verb tenses and subject-verb agreement.  My students always benefit from receptive components as well as expressive activities, and this app provides both!  As always, I love the data collection and report capabilities and the fact that they can be exported to Therapy Report Center.  I also appreciate the use of real images over symbols, which helps my younger students understand better.  It is a great addition to my collection of apps. 

You can find this app in the iTunes store for $9.99 at the time of this post.  

Smarty Ears has generously donated a code for one lucky reader to win!  Enter the rafflecopter below for your chance to win: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: A code for the app was provided for my review.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions expressed are mine. 

Preposition Remix {app review and giveaway}

You all already know my love of Smarty Ears apps.  They are great quality and are researched-based.  I always know I am getting a great product from them.  Their app Preposition Remix is no exception.

Here's a description from Smarty Ears:

"Preposition Remix was created­­ specifically to help children improve their mastery of spoken language. Designed by a certified speech-language pathologist, Preposition Remix contains hundreds of carefully selected high-quality images. Perfect for working on the skills needed to understand the relationship between nouns/pronouns and other words, Preposition Remix will help children and English language learners gain the skills needed to follow directions and create grammatically correct sentences."

As always, start by entering your player.  You can import from Therapy Report Center, which is another great option.  Once you know who your player is, use the settings to determine the target prepositions.  You can choose to target all of them or just a pair (i.e. in/out).  You can also determine which cues are used and what happens if the student chooses the wrong answer.

To start, hit "Play." The app will go through a series of pictures with instructions to target the selected prepositions.  If the student chooses the correct answer, music notes and a "Well done" image will appear.

One of the great things about Smarty Ears apps is that they include data tracking.  At first, I was concerned because I didn't see anything where I had to click.  But this turned out to be fabulous because it DID track data.  Whenever you hit, "Done" in the bottom right corner, it will pull up a screen for you to view the reports of each student.   Select the student, and this report will appear.  As always, you can print or email it.

I really like this method of data collection because there is nothing extra on the screen during the game to distract the students.  My students don't always understand what a green, yellow, and red buttons mean, and then they click them randomly, which makes the data invalid.  So I LOVE that it is taken "secretly," if you will.

Overall, I really like this app for targeting prepositions.  My younger students think it is a very fun way to practice and achieve their goals.  It works great for one on one clients or during centers, where the students rotate from station to station.  I wish it had capabilities for multiple players, but it is still a great app!

If you would like this app, you can find it in the iTunes store for $9.99 at the time of this review!

Smarty Ears has generously donated a code for one lucky reader!  Enter the  giveaway below for your chance to win:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: A code for the app was provided for my review.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions expressed are mine. 

S...peachy Feedback Linky Party: April

It is that time again--S...peachy Feedback time!    If you're just hearing about the feedback linky for the first time, welcome!  Head on over to Allison's Speech Peeps to read all of the rules and see everyone who has linked up.  She has a brand new website, too, so be sure to check it out!

This month's winner for me is....

MELISSA SIGMAN!!

Thank you, Melissa, for sharing this awesome idea of saving it to the desktop and searching by keyword!! I am so happy you've found this resource helpful and worth it!  I love hearing how it has helped you and others!  

Melissa, please email me at homesweetspeechroom.gmail.com.  You have won your choice of a non-bundled product from my store!  Check out my store here and let me know what you would like!!

Lastly, thank you to absolutely everyone who has left feedback!! You are all amazing.  Your kind words are what keep me motivated!

iName It {app review and giveaway}

As I'm sitting here writing this, there is a HUGE storm passing through.  We are getting tons of rain and hail.  Hope all of you are staying safe in the crazy weather we are having this spring!!

Today, I wanted to take some time to write about an app from one of my favorite app companies, Smarty Ears!  It's called iName It.  This is one of the very first apps I purchased when I got my iPad.  I knew I needed something that I could use with both adults and children who had language goals.  The best part--it's evidence-based!

Here's a little bit about the app to get started.  Smarty Ears has this description on their website about the app:

"iName It is specifically designed to help individuals with difficulty recalling the names of common items found in the home. Developed by speech-language pathologists, iName It provides users with a systematic way to recall functional words needed for activities of daily living. iName It consists of fifty nouns that are displayed within the context of the rooms where they are typically located, such as bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, etc… Each target word can be elicited by using one of more of the five different types of cues available: phonemic, phase completion, whole word or semantic."

Pretty complete, right?

Start by adding your student and then selecting one of the following scenes: Bathroom, Bedroom, Garage, Kitchen, or Living Room.

Once you select a room, the app will take you to a picture of that room.  There will be items listed at the bottom for the student or client to name.  Each scene has ten different vocabulary words.  The picture below is the living room.

Select an object at the bottom, and it will make the whole scene go black and white except for the target object.

If the student names the object right away, click the green checkmark.  If he or she does not, hit the blue button.  A series of five cues then pops up.  These cues vary from enlarging the picture, giving the first few letters of the word, sentence completion, or a complete visual cue.  The SLP can mark that the student or client either got it with that cue or missed it.

One thing I love about all Smarty Ears apps is that they take great data for you. Then, they compile a report that can either be printed, emailed, or imported to Therapy Report Center.  It's great for progress monitoring!

Another awesome element of this app is that it is available in THREE different languages: English, Spanish, and Portuguese!  As our world is becoming more and more bilingual, this is an awesome feature that I will always be looking for in apps.

Overall, this is a great app that can be used with almost any caseload.  Both adults and children with language or word finding goals will benefit from it!  The app is offered in three languages and collects data for the SLP, which makes for easy progress monitoring.  It is simple easy to set-up and use, too!  Finally, there is solid research behind the app and the cues that are built into it.  It is so important to me to know that my interventions are evidence-based!

This app is currently listed at $14.99 on iTunes, and you can find it here!

Smarty Ears has generously donated one code for a lucky Home Sweet Speech Room reader!  Enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note:  I was contacted about writing a review for the app. I previously owned this app.   No other compensation was received.  All opinions expressed are mine. 

Sports and TBI

I'm going to preface this post by stating that it may be a little bit of a rant.   Hopefully, you will hang with me.
My fiance and I were out to lunch with friends, and the St. Louis Blues were playing the Chicago Blackhawks (hockey).  We are Blackhawks fans (we are from Chicago).  We were excited to watch the game, since both teams are great! My excitement stopped when a fight occurred.  Yes, I understand that fights and checking are all part of hockey.  What made me upset was that the two players planned it, had it in the middle of a break in the action, threw their gloves and helmets down, and got set up for it.  This all happened while the refs were watching.  I'm sorry, but HOW do you just stand there and let it happen???  I understand that fights happen a lot during normal play, but this one could EASILY have been stopped.  Of course, the fight proceeded, and both men were hit in the head 5 to 10 times a piece.

As a health care professional, this really bothers me.  One thing we learned in my cognitive communication disorders class is that getting hit in the head over and over and over again can and will lead to a moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI).  This includes punches in hockey, hits in football, etc.  I know there has been a push in recent years to reduce the number of hard hits and hits to the head in all sports.  What I don't understand is why they allow it to happen when it could have been prevented.

Here's why I'm concerned:

-In 2009, 2.4 million visits to the ER, hospitalizations or death were related to TBI.
-In 2010, the estimated cost of TBI was $76.5 billion (per person in a lifetime).
-TBIs can lead to cognitive, emotional, linguistic, and physical deficits.
-Damage is cumulative.

What about concussions?
Concussions are actually mild TBIs.  They are a temporary lapse in brain function and the results look similar (just more mild) than a moderate to severe TBI: emotional, physical, psychological. A person may have a headache for a week or two and some nausea/vomiting, but he/she will return to normal fairly quickly.  However, once a person has one concussion, they are more susceptible to another.  As they have more and more concussions, the damage adds up.  The problem is that a lot the signs and symptoms of TBI may not be present until later in life, when dementia puglistica occurs for example.  Just look at the sad reality of what happened to Muhammad Ali years later.

I'm not going to say that I don't approve of contact sports, because that is just not true.  I LOVE football.  I like hockey.  I did gymnastics when I was younger.  The aggression and danger is just a part of sports.  However, steps should be taken to protect the athletes.  I know they are trying, but the incident during this weekend's game was proof that they are not trying nearly as hard as maybe they should.

I don't know. I don't have the answers.  It's just hard for me to watch as punches to the head are thrown over and over and over again.