Category Apps

Category Carousel: This app was developed by speech pathologist Lois Kam Heymann. The app offers nine general categories: transportation, animals, clothing, food, occupations, household, summer, winter and instruments. There are subcategories within animals (birds, bugs, farm, water, jungle, forest), transportation (land, water, sky), clothing (body, head, feet), food (breakfast, desserts, drinks, meat, fruit, vegetables), and household (cleaning, furniture, toys, tools, bathroom, kitchen). The screen for each category presents 12 photographs of items within the category selected. The child needs to drag each of the pictures into the category icon at the top of the screen. Each picture touched is named and when it is dragged into the icon two things happen: the number of items placed into the icon are counted and shown with a number and there is verbal praise. I like the large variety of items presented for some categories. For the categories with many pictures, each time a picture is placed in the icon, new picture appears on the screen so that there are always 12 pictures from which to select until the picture limit is reached. Some categories, such as winter, have only 12 pictures. One has the option of rotating the pictures on the screen by tapping the circular arrows at the bottom.

Although the focus of this app is categories there really is no challenge for the child in this respect. This is because the child does not need to determine the category nor sort pictures according to their categories. The challenge only occurs when the child needs to sort pictures into their subcategories. This app, however, is a good choice for vocabulary learning.

Ages: 3-8
Ratings: +++
Developer website: pocketslp.com
Cost: $9.99

Clean Up Category Sorting: This app focuses on three catgories---foods, toys, and clothing. An item appears on the screen. It is named and the  narrator asks, “Where does/do the _____go?” The child plays the game by dragging the  item into either a shopping cart, toy bin, or clothes closet at the bottom of the screen. This limits the learning of categories to three: food, toys, and clothes. A correct answer elicits a positive narrator response such as “Yah,” “Way to Go,” or clapping accompanied by a fleeting visual reward of either thumbs up, blue ribbon, star, confetti, or balloons. After all the items have been placed, a score screen shows the percentage correct for the session. There is no database for storing the scores of the children who use the app. This app can also be used for vocabulary building.

Lacking any creative elements, this app is basic and bland. The items that appear on the screen are photos common to the paper materials that have been around for years.

Ages: 2-4
Ratings: +
Developer website: Difflearn.com
Cost: $1.99

Families 1 and Families 2: My First Apps consistently puts out good apps for the 2-5 year set.  These apps are similar in layout to the association apps I reviewed last November. There is a central box with seven pictures surrounding it. In Families 1 and 2, the center box has three items in it of a particular subcategory. Surrounding the box are seven pictures. The child has to find the picture that fits the subcategory presented in the box. For example, the screen may show different pictures of foods. The pictures in the center may be fruits. The child has to find and drag a fruit into the box. The next screen may be drinks. Again, the child has to scan the foods and drag the picture of the drink into the box. The types of drinks are varied so that the child is simply not matching pictures. 

The drawn pictures are clear and pleasant. I like the variety of general categories as well as the inclusion of the higher level concept of subcategory learning. There is also a lot of vocabulary to enhance the learning process. The pictures in Family 1 are more visually similar, making this app easier than Families 2

Ages: 2-5 for Families 1; 3-5 for Families 2
Ratings: +++
Developer website: myfirstapp.com
Cost: Free for two categories for each of the apps. One can upgrade to eight groups for $.99.

What Does Not Belong: One can tell by its name that this app takes a different approach to category learning. I downloaded the first level which is free. Five photographs pop up on the screen. Four fit the same category and one does not. The child needs to drag the one that does not fit in the category into the trash can at the bottom of the screen. As a vocabulary task the child can name each of the pictures. The pictures are not named when they are tapped. The child can also explain why the one picture does not belong in the group. When all the pictures in the level have been correctly placed in the trash, a screen with additional levels appears. I did not purchase the other nine levels so I cannot comment on whether or not the tasks become more challengin. I found the photographs to be mediocre. Some were images of amateurish looking ceramic animals.

Ages: 3-5
Ratings: +
Developer website: brain-go.com
Cost: Free for the first level; $1.99 for the nine additional levels.

Communication Assist Apps

When the iPad first came out, I thought that this device was a godsend for people whose communication skills were so impaired that without assistance they were locked into silence or were wholly reliant on someone else to communicate for them.  For those in that situation, the iPad has the potential to offer them a level of communication independence they may not yet have known.

I downloaded seven AAC apps to review. 

Touch Voice: The user of this app can select a screen with prewritten words and phrases or a screen to type in a word or phrase of one’s choice. The former is accessed by tapping the Words button and the latter by tapping the Letters button. The words and phrases are written on buttons and arranged in keyboard like fashion. There are 142 phrase options, from which to select, 28-30 per screen shown over five screens.  To find a word or phrase, one scrolls through the screens until one finds what one wishes to communicate. They are grouped somewhat categorically in that, for example, words for grooming are near one another. Tap on the button and the same word or phrase appears in a bar at the top of the screen. Below the bar is a Speak button. Tap on it and the word or phrase in the bar is spoken. To compose one’s own message, one taps Letters to access a touch keyboard. Whatever is typed appears on the bar at the top. Tap Speak to have the phrase spoken. There are Yes and No buttons at the bottom of the screen for quick replies.

This app uses e-speak, a computer-synthesized speech engine. As such, the speech is robotic and, in my opinion, unpleasant. The clarity is fair. Sometimes, I could not decide if the robot was American, British, Australian or South African. Any of them is a pleasant accent when spoken by a human but still annoying in the robotic e-speak.

The app developer states that the app “may be able to help” are those who have brain cancer, amytropic lateral sclerosis, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, ataxia as well as those who have had their larynx removed, stroke, or traumatic brain injury. As an AAC device, this app does the job albeit in a sterile fashion. For those individuals, whose vision and reading my be impacted by their illness, the presentation of the words and phrases may make finding the correct word or phrase a challenge.

Ages: Adults for whom reading is not a challenge

Ratings: ++
Developer website: Touch-voice.com
Cost: $19.99

Sono Flex Lite: This app is similar to Touch Voice in that it presents words and phrases in a keyboard layout and both have a keyboard option to type in what one wishes to communicate. But that is where the similarities end. The keys on Sono Flex have stick figures and pictures with the word or phrase written above them.  I like the pictures. They are fun, lighthearted and make the app. Also, the voices, although synthesized, are pleasant and easy to understand. The top of the Sono Flex screens are divided into four compartments: History, Quick Phrases, a box where the selected words or phrase appears with its picture, Keyboard and a Home button that also functions as a Select Context button. Tap on History and the screen changes to show what words and phrases were used in the last 30 minutes, today, and earlier. Each of these time periods has its own box at the top of the screen. Once simply needs to tap on the time period to see the phrases used. One has the option of deleting the phrases on in History. Tap on Quick Phrases and the screen moves to keys containing common phrases. The Home screen has keys for basic words I, be, do, like, not, how, it, can , have, want, to, and what. Below these keys are buttons for the categories: pronouns, verbs, describe, things, body and clothing, food and eating, people, time, places, short words, question, and write phrases. Tap on any of these buttons to see the relevant vocabulary. On the far right are context buttons. One selects four out of eight contexts (about me, lunch, art, math, circle time, Mr. Potato Head, I spy and playground) to appear on the Home screen. Tap on the context and relevant vocabulary is shown.

Even though some of the content of this app is geared towards children,  I think adults will find the app appealing. There is a lot of content pushed into this lite version. For those needing more, there is a non-lite version of this app, with 11,000 symbols.

Ages: 5 to adult
Ratings: ++++
Developer website: www.tobii.com
Cost: Free for the lite version, $99.99 for the non-lite version

Verbally: Similar to Touch Voice, this app contains letters, words and phrases in written form only. One can select from lists of words and phrases at the top of the screen or type in one’s own communication on the touch keyboard at the lower part of the screen. In the middle of the screen, on the left, is a white blank window where the desired word(s) print after being selected or typed. On the right are four gray boxes.  After the first letter is printed in the white box, four possible word choices appear in the gray boxes; if a word is typed or selected, four choices for the next word appear in the gray areas. If none are desired, one can type in the first letter of the next word to see choices that start with that letter. Each subsequent letter typed refines the choices that appear. On the keyboard is a Speak button that says the word(s) appearing in the white window. Once that word or phrase is spoken, it is erased. If one wishes the app to repeat what was just said, one taps on the Repeat key (below the Speak button). Not only is the word(s) repeated, it also reappears, for a second or two, in written form in a black box. One has the option of having each word spoken as it is printed by tapping on the Speak Each Word button. The voice is robotic and speaks a little too rapidly but is intelligible.

Ages: 8 to adult
Ratings: +++
Developer website: www. verballyapp.com
Cost: Free. There is an upgraded version for $99.99 that I have not tried. According to the developer, the upgrade allows one to save phrases and conversation history, has an email connect option and the choice of  voices----male, female or child.

I downloaded four more AAC apps that I will just mention briefly. They are geared for children and merit the “meh” factor (let’s say one +). The resolution of their displays is not great and the vocabulary they offer is meager. But they are free.

Pics Aloud Lite (imjsoftware.com/picsaloud), Tap to Talk (taptotalk.com), ComApp  and My Voice Free (in Hebrew): These apps show pictures that, when tapped, elicit a human voice saying either the word or using the word in a phrase such as, “May I have a drink, please?” or “I am tired.” Pics Aloud, ComApp and Tap to Talk offer upgraded versions that I did not purchase. The free version of Tap to Talk became unusable after I tapped on the icon for more information. The new screen offered purchasing options or a visit to their website for more sample content but first one needs to type in one’s name and email address.

An App Dedicated to Social Skills, Conversation and More

Conversation Coach: A few weeks ago I was getting ready to review this app. Here’s what I had written at the time: “It took me a fairly long time to learn to all the options available. But, that may be electronically challenged me. Even though the app’s Help section does a good job explaining how to use the app and make changes, I found myself going back and forth when trying to make changes.” Before posting my review, I contacted the developer, Jan Hopkins at Silver Lining Media, to ask her a few questions. She told me they were in the process of updating the app. I decided to wait for the updates. Glad I did. The updated app now has an "Intro" that offers a clearer road map of the workings of the app. My feelings of electronic inadequacy have diminished, but just by a bit.

This app has many facets to it within three general modes of use: talk, tell and practice. Talk mode focuses on the give and take of conversation. One person waits until the other has spoken before responding. Then it is the second person’s turn to wait while the other person responds. Visual assistance for turn-taking is in the form of a ball. The person who has the ball talks while the person without the ball waits. A picture of an icon saying, “Sh,” is an additional visual cue to wait one’s turn. Tell mode turns the app into a communication device, allowing the user to make requests and comments.  A very nice feature in this mode is that various options demonstrate the sequence of events for everyday tasks such as dressing, getting ready for school, the child’s day at school and more. In practice mode, the user practices two-way conversations, with the iPad functioning as the other person. Questions are randomly asked by the device and the user is given response choices.

This app is complex on many levels. There is a learning curve for navigating the app before it can be used with clients. The easy part is deciding the mode of use. Once that is done one needs to select the category of conversation from an extensive list. For instance, will the child work on greetings, feelings, clothing, or holidays? One can personalize the program further by adding one’s own pictures, recordings, and text.  I found this part challenging. Until I got used to using Editor, I found myself writing down the editing sequence explained in Conversation Setup. I thought I had to remember if I were editing for the Tell or Talk mode if I wished to challenge my brain or make my life easier and write the mode down. When I thought that there must be an easier way, I looked back at the screen and noticed that the information was right there at the top of the screen. Now the challenge was to remember what I had changed as I exited Edit and went to Play mode to see if I had edited correctly. Success! I think the challenge of recalling my edits had to more to do with the randomness of my editing rather than the complexity of the editing. I edited the recording for one picture rather than a set of pictures and I was not making changes for a particular child.

I like the clarity and rate of the narration. For readers, the text is clear. Color and black and white photographs are the visuals. Their quality is good. In Player Setup one can select specific conversations to display, whether or not the user is a reader, sound or no sound and the lag time for the computer’s turn.

As I worked on getting to know this app, I thought about its target population. The first group that came to mind was children who had difficulty with turn-taking or staying focused while waiting one’s turn. The app can also be used by an individual who needs a communication device. I can see this app getting a lot of use in a class for children with multiple handicaps. Autistic children and others challenged by conversational tasks are groups for this app. Children with organizational and executive functioning challenges may find the way that the app presents the sequencing of daily events helpful. Parents of children, whose communication skills are severely limited, will find many ways to use the app.

Have any of you used this app? I would appreciate hearing your opinions and will post them to share with others.

Ages: 4+
Ratings: ++++1/2
Developer website: Silverliningmedia.com
Cost: $49.99 for the full version; lite version is $1.99 which includes full access to the editors for the first 24 hours.

A Terrific Receptive Concepts and Directions App

Auditory Workout: This app, developed by Beata Klarowska, M.S. CCC-SLP, is one of the best I have seen for receptive language.  She has clearly given a lot of thought to all aspects of app usage for professional use.

The app strategically works on prepositions, colors, size, quantity, spatial, and temporal concepts in a following directions format within four sections in ascending order of complexity: Basic Concepts, Quantitative and Spatial, Temporal, and Conditional Directions. One can start a student in the section and level of one's choice. The instructions for each screen are clearly narrated. Once the narrator finishes the instruction the child taps on one of the pictures. (I appreciated the narrator’s rate of speech and the time given for the child to process the instruction.) Each screen has five pictures that are clear and uncluttered. Now here is an example of a well-thought out app. When the instruction is being given, the pictures choices are framed individually and the screen is slightly opaque. At this point, the child who taps the screen does so in vain. Nothing happens. The child needs to wait until the complete instruction is given. At that point, the frames disappear and the picture choices are seen in their full clarity. There is a Repeat button on the bottom of each screen.  The top of each screen clearly indicates the type of direction, the level being worked on, the name of the child and the direction (Example: "Follow directions with concept before in the beginning of the sentence + size + object"). The child can see basketballs accumulate for each correct answer. As the child sees his progress in basketballs, the adult will see the child's level of accuracy, in percentages. Later, one can review each child's scores for each level in the database.

The Settings screen allows one to select a number of features such as automatic paging, sound indication for a correct or incorrect choice, and turn on/off the the answer. If one turns off automatic paging a Go button needs to be tapped after the child has tapped on his answer. A third button, Next Page, appears at the bottom of each screen after the child's response has been determined to be correct or incorrect. This button allows the adult to to proceed to the next page. The app allows for there to be multiple users during a session by changing the User Alternate Count.

The app offers two reward game options: basketball and catch ball. In Settings, one can determine at what point the game reward appears. The app recommends basketball for older children and catch ball for the younger crowd. I tried both. I found the basketball game to be awkward. The area of play is narrow; the net and backboard are bordered by walls to the left and right. One needs to hit the walls on precise points in order for the ball to drop into the net. Otherwise the ball drops frustratingly down to the floor. Catch ball was easier and thus more rewarding. In catch ball, one moves a box around the screen and catches as many balls as possible as they enter the basketball court. The child can view his score on the screen’s backboard for each game.

For those of us who find working on following directions and concept learning a tedious affair, an app, such as this, is what makes the iPad an incredible tool and the task enjoyable.

Ages: 4-8 years (The developer designates the age range for this app to be four to ten.); adults who are aphasic or for those who may be mentally declining.
Ratings: ++++1/2
Developer website: Virtualspeechcenter.com
Cost: $19.99

Apps targeting articulation

Sometimes I feel like the Simon Cowell of app reviewers. When some rave about an app, I am left feeling disappointed. Then I feel like I need to apologize for not liking an app that others love. I do like to give good reviews because I know that developers have the best of intentions when trying to provide apps that will be useful. They also invest time and money. Plus, I know that many of us are eager to have really good professional apps in our therapy arsenal.

Those of you who have read my earlier blogs, How Effective Is the iPad as a Therapy Tool, Minimal Pairs App, and Is the iPad Worth the Investment, have read that voice recognition technology is highly inaccurate. The technology works best when it recognizes the user and when it analyzes large communication segments, such as words in phrases. The finer the analysis needed the less accurate the technology becomes. This means that voice recognition technology is highly unreliable when it comes to analyzing sounds in words, syllables and in isolation. I have examined two apps that target sound production. One relies on the adult to determine whether or not the phoneme is correctly produced and rewarded. For the other, voice recognition is an integral part. This difference is critical.
Speech Stickers: This app was developed by speech pathologist Carol Fast. This app targets the following sounds: /m/, /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /n/, /k/, /g/, /s/, /ʃ/. These phonemes are practiced as either CV (consonant-vowel) or VC (vowel consonant). The vowels used in the app are:  /ʌ/, /ɒ/ (shown as /a/ in the app), /u/, /i/ and /o/.

The workings of this app are straightforward. The app opens to a screen on which one can tap on play, options or instructions. Tap on play and a screen, with the first phoneme /m/, is displayed at the top of the screen accompanied by the narrator saying /m/.  At the bottom of the screen are five faces: a girl, boy, alien, cat and monster. The child selects one of the faces. When the face is tapped, it appears on the middle of the screen and /m/ is said again. On the right side of the screen is a vertical bar, or meter, with numbers 0-5 in ascending order. The goal is for the child to produce the sound five times. Each time the child produces a sound, the adult either taps on the green check mark, for a correct repetition or red X if incorrect.  Either the check mark or the X must be tapped for the face to show up on the meter and for the sound to be produced again. This level of control allows the adult to carefully monitor the child’s production and give feedback before the game can progress. Once the five repetitions are noted as either correct or incorrect, a new screen, with 10 objects (rocket, hiking boot, bomb, shark head, bus, train, tractor, wand, balloon and a dragon), appears at the bottom of the screen. The child taps on the picture of choice and watches as the object performs a short action.

If one wishes to switch sounds or work on the sound in syllables, one taps twice on the phoneme at the top of the screen. (I like the idea of tapping twice to keep the quick tapping fingers of children from making the changes.) This opens a screen showing all the targeted apps as well as the sound in CV and VC. One can switch phonemes or select to work at the syllable level by tapping on a specific syllable. There is a scoring feature for each screen. As noted above, the child’s production is marked as correct or incorrect. The number of correct is tallied and shown as a percentage for only that screen. There is no database to refer to at another time. Also, the app can be used only in vertical position.

I like that care is given to the production of the target sounds; their clarity in isolation and syllables is good overall. The graphics and animations are basic.This app can be used with children who are at the beginning levels of learning a new sound. I can see the app being used as a fun diversion from basic sound and syllable repetition that is typical at the early stages of phoneme learning.
Ages: 3-5 years
Ratings: +++
Developer website: Serioustree.com
Cost: $14.99

Tiga Talk: This app offers 23 phonemes designed to elicit the sounds in isolation. One taps on the target sound one wants the child to say. A screen appears with an animated animal producing a sound, a picture of an item beginning with the targeted sound, the letter for the sound and a sound meter whose lights move with the speaker's volume. On the left side of the meter is a mouth icon. Tap on the mouth icon and the child is able to view a mouth moving as it produces the targeted sound. The animal instructs the child to say the sound. Once the child has said a sound at least two times, he is praised and stars explode on the screen. The child is then told, “You’re doing very well. Let’s play a game to celebrate.” There are four game choices: Driving, Balloon Pop, Smash and All, which offers a selection of the three games.  The child is asked to say the target sound. Choose Drive and a vehicle moves closer to its destination each time a sound is said. Balloons cover a vehicle in Balloon Pop; balloons pop, to reveal a vehicle, each time the child says a sound. Each time a child says a sound in Smash, tires, hay bales, logs, boxes, rocks or tires are thrown aside to reveal a vehicle.  I used this app with one of my clients who does not have an articulation problem. He enjoyed repeating the sound after the animated character told him it was his turn. He also enjoyed playing the game. 

The website for Tiga Talk states, “Game play rewards are based entirely on participation, not accuracy, so the child is constantly getting positive feedback as long as they are trying to make sounds!” This is  important to keep in mind before purchasing the app. A child who cannot yet produce a particular sound in isolation, consistently, should be supervised when he uses this app. Here is why. Let us say that the target sound for the game is /d/. Whether I said /d/, /g/, /v/, or “muh,” the app recognized the sound as the correct production. This leads me to disagree with website's statement that Tiga Talk “can improve speech clarity and articulation.” Unsupervised, the child will get rewarded whether he says the target sound or another sound. This happened for every sound the app offered.

Another word of warning: a fast talking child, eager to move the boat across the lake, let us say, may be able to say the incorrect sound a few times (thereby self-reinforcing an incorrect sound production) and will receive positive feedback from the game before the adult might have a chance to intervene. I am concerned that this has the potential to make the adult’s task more difficult. The child might wonder why the app said, “Great job,” but the adult indicated that the sound was not correctly produced. I would have preferred that this app not rely on voice recognition, but rather on adult feedback as Speech Stickers does. Also, visuals for mouth movements, is, like voice recognition, a tricky feature to put into apps. I found that the mouth movements, except for bilabials, difficult to see and easy to misinterpret.

Tiga Talk has serious limitations as a speech app. For children who can easily say the sounds without error, it can be a fun game that children will enjoy.
Ages: 3-6 years
Ratings: +1/2
Developer website: tigatalk.com
Cost: $4.99