SPEAKall! {app review}

As I may or may not have told you, I had an AAC internship in graduate school.  I loved it!  One of the big discussions we had was tablet technology versus speech generating devices (or devices created specifically for AAC).  I was excited when I was contacted by SPEAK MODalities about a new AAC app to check out.

Watch this video:

A great place to start is the extensive user manual.  It walks you through every part of the app and how it works!

One thing I like about this app is that it's designed to help move the AAC world towards tablets.  More specifically, it's designed to help a student move from PECS to the tablet.

This app is focused on sentence formation.  The student will simply touch the word/ symbol they want, and it appears at the bottom in the blue box.  When the sentence is formed, touch the "SPEAKall" button to the right, and the app will say the sentence.

Editing in this app is pretty straightforward.  You can edit the page set or each individual symbol. It comes preloaded with symbols in each page set, but you can add other symbol to a given set in order to customize it to your student.  

You can also edit the individual symbol.  You can record your own audio for it, adjust the image size, change the label for that symbol, and determine which media collection the image will go under.  You can also make notes under "Media Item Notes."

Bottom line, this is a great AAC app.  It's user friendly and easy to customize for the individual using it.  It's backed by research out of Purdue University (you can read more about it here).  I appreciate the simplicity of the app and that it is not overwhelming and does not create a sensory overload for our students.  I really like being able to add my own pictures, which allows for further customization. It's an affordable, intuitive option that I think many students with autism or developmental disabilities will benefit from.

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

Coming Soon: The Simplified Speech Therapy Planner

Save The Date: April 2, 2015

The Simplified Speech Therapy Planner is coming your way!  It is designed to help you plan more, save ink, and stay organized! 

Yapp Guru March Madness Competetion

Back in July, I wrote a post about a new adventure for me: Yapp Guru.  You can read about it here!

Here's a quick refresher for you:

-Yapp Guru is a website that has lists of apps that are relevant to our field.  You can search by app title and by category/ target area.
-The apps are reviewed by expert, app user speech-language pathologists.
-It's important to use apps that experts recommend because they have taken the time to confirm whether or not the apps are good for therapy, provide a lot of production opportunities, are based on research, and if the price is worth it.  These are just a few of many reasons!

So that being said, I am a Yapp Guru expert!  You can check out my reviews here!

I am participating in Yapp Guru's March Madness Contest!  It is a competition where some other experts and I are competing to see who can write the most reviews during the month of March.  Cheer me on!!

Have a fabulous Wednesday!

Junganew: A Herd of Sounds {app review}

Happy March!  Hope your week is off to a great start.  I wanted to post about a new app that I recently had the chance to review: Junganew: A Herd of Sounds.

This is a different style app than I have ever seen.  It tells a story! Follow me through it:

Use the map to navigate around the app:

It starts with Theo going off on his adventure.  He begins with practicing hearing the difference between his favorite sound (th) and Miss Snake's sound (s). 

One activity is "show and tell," where everyone in the class brought something that starts with /s/.  They go around the room and share what they brought.

Another one is auditory discrimination, where students will sort between an /s/ and a "th."

Another activity is Blender Express, where students will students will add a w, m, n, or k to the blender and the output is an s-blend.

Students can also practice s-blends at the ends of words with the cupcake activity.

Cocoon Coliseum is where the butterfly will put on a costume and the student will choose which item the costume is missing.  This is a medial /s/ game.

There is also mirror models to help the students practice saying their /s/ sound properly.  The snake reminds them to keep their tongues behind their teeth.  The app also records how the students say the sound, so they can go back and listen.  

Guess the Goose is where the student picks the correct goose from the clues given.

Balloon Pops: Students find the word that rhymes with the word given.

Vocal Chords:  Students practice changing /s/ to /z/ by using their voice.

At the end of the app, there is a celebration!

What I love about this app:
-There is a mirror feature so that the students can see what they are doing/ how they are producing the sounds.
-It has beautiful pictures.
-The games each provide a lot of trials for the students.
-There is an auditory bombardment feature, which I love!
-It's a good price.

What I would love to see:
-This app took me awhile to figure out how to use.  I would love to see more explicit instructions.
-Some of the sounds were difficult to hear without headphones.  I would love to see more easily discriminated sounds.

If you would like this app, you can find it in the iTunes store for $4.99!

Note: A copy of this app was provided for my review.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions expressed are mine.