More Language Adaptable Apps

My PlayHome Lite: This app offers two pleasant scenes, a kitchen and a living room. Tap on the refrigerator or cupboards and the doors open to reveal food that can be removed and placed on the kitchen table or counters. Place a pan on the burners, food in the microwave or oven and turn them on with a tap. Cereal can be poured into a bowl and a drinking glass filled at the tap or with soda from a bottle taken from the refrigerator. Tap on the washing machine and watch the clothes clothes being washed. In the living room one can turn on the television and watch a real program (no sound) or place a CD in the CD player and listen to music. Tap on the wall clock and it ticks, close the curtains and the room darkens. Tap on the light switch or lamp to turn the lights on or off. There are five figures that can be placed in the rooms: mother, father, brother, sister and baby. This app can be used when working on following directions (open the refrigerator then fry the eggs), "wh" questions, location, prepositions, descriptive concepts and opposites such as on/off, up/down, light/dark, empty/full, hot/cold, top/middle/bottom, and in/out.
Ages: 3-5

Ratings: +++

Developer's website: www.myplayhomeapp.com

Cost: Free for the Lite app. The full version includes the kitchen, living room, backyard, bedroom and bathroom scenes for $3.99.

Zizu Cooks Up a Tune: This app is designed to be a music game. However, its colorful and happy kitchen scene and animation make this app easy to use for language therapy. Tap on the various kitchen items and hear the sounds they make. Touch the kitchen table planks, with the baguettes sitting on it, and hear the musical notes of a piano. I would use this app for following directions, location, descriptive concepts and following sound patterns.
Ages: 2-4
Rating: +++
Developer’s website: www.bubululabs.com
Cost: Free

Lingua Kidz: The free version of this app offers a colorful forest scene. A boy, girl and various creatures populate the scene. This app offers two modes of play. Tap on the blue button and the narrator names the object or creature as it performs an action. Tap again and she offers a relevant short phrase. For instance, when the rain cloud is tapped, it moves in the sky as rain falls and the narrator states, “A cloud.” Tap again and she says, “Oh, it’s raining.” Tap on the green button and the narrator asks “Where is the ________?” When the child taps on the person, object or animal named stars fly out and it disappears. This app can be used to target location and descriptive concepts, sentence repetition, and “is verbing” structure.  This app is offered in American and British English, Chinese, German and Swiss German.
Ages: 2-4
Rating: +++
Developer’s website: www.lingua-kidz.com
Cost: Free for the forest scene; the full version offers forest, beach and kitchen scenes for $.99.

Bruno the Monkey: This app has four games, two of which are videos and two that are still pictures. All games are narrated by a speaker with a British accept. Bouncing Ball and Skipping are videos that demonstrate and can be used to elicit Noun(s) + is/are + verbing. Bouncing Ball opens to Bruno and 3 different colored balls. He lifts each one and the narrator states, "Bruno is bouncing the ___________(color) ball." When he lets the balls go, they bounce. When all the balls are bouncing, the narrator states, "All the balls are bouncing." The video can be stopped at any time to elicit a repetition of the phrase from the child. Skipping works along the same lines demonstrating, "The green alligators are going to teach Bruno to skip" and "Bruno is skipping." The video also demonstrates the superlative "faster." The still games are call eBooks. Bruno's Hats shows different hats that demonstrate the prepositions high, low, big, little, right side up, and upside down and various descriptive words such as fuzzy, bubble, thin, flat, thick, round, tall, plain, fancy and more. The fourth game, Flashcards, presents drawings of airplane, boat, clock, kite, and tractor. Nothing more to this game than hearing the item named or asking the child to name it.
Ages: 2-3

Ratings: ++1/2

Developer: Sargent York

Cost: Free

iKids Lessons Lite: This apps consists of four games. Theater focuses on emotions, Playroom on opposites, Bedroom on shapes and colors, and Playground on actions. Each game consists of two scenes with some change in detail. The change in scenes is done by tapping on the rotating arrows at the top of the screen.The primary difference is the vocabulary content.  Theater is a small theater with five children as actors and five children in the audience. Each actor depicts an emotion when tapped and the narrator names it: irritated, cheerful, and cunning on one scene; serious, surprised, frightened, evil, and joyful on the other. Tap on a member of the audience and the child performs an action named by the narrator.  I felt the emotions and actions depicted were mediocre and words like “grooming,” “cunning,” “evil” and “irritated” too advanced for the type of app this is. There are five concepts presented in Playroom along with a number of toys. Tap on a toy and it is named; tap on a child and a concept is named with its opposites on the second scene. The concepts on one scene are: short, full, few, little, on, in and close; concepts on the other are: long, empty, many, under, and open. Because the opposites are on different screens, the child is unable to see a side-by-side comparison that will help her understand the two opposing words. Shapes and colors are on the blankets of sleeping children and objects are strewn around the room. Tap and colors, shapes and objects are named. Children are involved in different activities in the Playground.  Again, I question the choice of vocabulary. How many children today know what a boom box is? How many children will understand “aiming” simply because the boy is holding a basketball and looking at the basket? The narrator of the app has a slight accent. On occasion her production of a word is not clear and there is an occasional grammatical error. This free version has advertisements that move from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen, where they obstruct the written word of the object just tapped. There is one more annoying feature. Background music is constant.
Ages: 2-4
Rating: +1/2
Developer’s website: alphaproduction.com
Cost: Free with advertisements; $1.99 with no ads

Apps Targeting Language for Middle Schoolers

Far fewer middle school students need our services as compared to the number of preschool and elementary aged children who do. Those who still need therapy present with the unique challenges. After all, they still need our services. Finding apps for our middle school population can be challenging.  I have found a few apps that can be used with those students who have deficits in language.

Proverbidioms: After publishing this post, I downloaded this app. Rather than publish a new post, I decided to edit the post by adding my review of this app. T.E. Breitenbach produced an illustration, Proverbidioms, in 1975, that became a popular poster. It is now produced as an app. It approaches the understanding of 264 proverbs and cliches in two ways. The student is given a list of idioms. He selects one and then searches for it in a scene where a specific illustration demonstrates its literal meaning. The scene is busy but one can increase one's specific area of focus by moving two fingers outward on the screen. This enlarges a specific illustration. This also allows one to scan the screen and see more detail. Once one matches the idiom and picture, a screen appears that defines the idiom and its derivation. If the child correctly makes the match on the first attempt, he is awarded a gold star, two attempts a silver star and three attempts a bronze star. I think middle school students will enjoy the pictures and the challenge of matching idiom and picture. A word of caution: some illustrations may be more explicit than one may consider appropriate for this age group.

Ages: 13 to adult

Ratings: ++++

Developer: Greenstone Games
Cost: Free for one illustration, $1.99 to $2.99 for additional illustrations 

Word Stack Free: This app can be used to strengthen a student's vocabulary and reasoning skills. It does so by presenting a stack of words. Each word is arranged in random order on eight blue stacked strips on the left side of the screen. The task for the student is to find relationships between words. Words can be synonyms, antonyms, or be made into compound words. To start the game, the student reads the starter word that is on a green strip on the bottom right hand side of the screen. The student looks to find a word on a blue strip that is a synonym, antonym or can combine with it to make a compound word. The student places the word selected on top of the first green strip. If the selection is correct, the strip turns green. There is now a two word green stack. Next, the student must find a word on the left for the new word on the stack. Again, it must be a synonym, antonym or combine with it to make a compound word. The task continues in this fashion until all blue strips have been correctly stacked and are green. If the word the student selects is incorrect, it cannot be stacked and returns to original position. I played a few rounds and found that, at times, finding the right word can be challenging. (A word of caution: words can be randomly placed until one is found that turns green.) To extend the task further, the child can be why the words are the same or opposite in meaning. If a pair of words forms a compound word, one can ask the student to use the new word in a sentence.

Ages: 12 to adult

Ratings: ++++

Developer: MochiBits
Cost: Free for 40 game stacks (one stack per game). One can purchase additional stack packs for $.99 each or all four stacks for $1.99.

Confusing Words: This is not the first time I have downloaded an app and then months later cannot find it in the app store. But I was able to find what looks to be a similar app, called "Which Word?" Both of these apps try to help untangle similar sounding words that tend to confuse such as affect and effect, passed and past or there and their. I have not downloaded Which Word? so cannot review it. However, it looks similar to Confusing Words but in a more pleasing format. Each word is defined and then used in a sentence. The confusion of similar sounds words can be most evident when students write. This app may help students better understand which word to use.

Ages: 10 to adult

Developer: Triad Interactive Media
Cost: $.99

Feel Electric: I reviewed this app a few months ago for my post on descriptive apps.  Feel Electric is animated, interactive and offers a variety of options for learning a range of 50 emotions. The student starts with What's the Word to see faces of real people expressing each emotion. From there, the student can select her emotions at the moment, create a diary of emotions, manipulate the facial features of creature to show specific emotions and play a Mad Libs type game that, when completed, will create a zany story based on the words selected. There are three fun interactive games where the child needs to pair the facial expression with the written word. Each of these 3 games is scored. The app also allows one to add ones own pictures, music and videos. This is a great app to use with middle school students. It can be used to help tweens and teens identify and discuss a range of emotions they may be prone to feel. The app's activities can be expanded to make this a fun language learning activity.

Ages: 5+
Rating: +++++
Developer: The Electric Company by Sesame Street
Cost: Free

Out of Africa and back in the US

I write this with mush-brain from jet lag, long hours on a plane, and readjusting to being back. I have just returned from Africa---a trip of a lifetime. I visited Cape Town, Victoria Falls, and went on a safari in the greater Kruger Park National Park area. The food, accommodations, people, places we visited and animals we saw made this trip one of the most unique and enjoyable trips I have ever done. I feel so fortunate!

Now back to the real world. Before I left I began working on a post for apps for middle school age children. I hope to finish it in the next week or so.

Starting Point Apps in Language Therapy

I downloaded nine sing-a-long apps because I liked their graphics and cheerful animation. I thought that they might have a use for therapy so I hung onto them.  I went back to look at them again for this post and saw that each has a different theme. It occurred to me that each app offers a starting point for us to use in therapy targeting grammatical structures. Also, each is rich in vocabulary. These fun apps are called Kids Jukebox. Below, I review each app and how I would use it in therapy.

Ages: 2-5

Ratings: +++

Developer: Kidskids
Cost: Free for two songs in each app; $3.99 for each apps complete set of songs and a game

Kids Jukebox-Dream: The two free songs are Can You Sing and When I Grow Up. I would use the Can You Sing song as a starting point for targeting "can" questions and the response to a "can" question. When I Grow Up can be used when the grammatical target is "when." The full set includes the following additional songs: Fairy Tale, Have You Ever Seen a Dragon, Magic Show, Welcome to My Bedroom, Bad Dreams and A Dance Festival.

Kids Jukebox-Art: Listen to Me Play and I Play the Piano are the two free songs in this app. I would use them to target the simple I+verb+object structure. The child can select an instrument to make-believe play and then state the I play _________ sentence. One can expand to other items the child plays or plays with. The complete set includes the following songs: What Do You Want to Be?, I Want to Be an Artist, What Do You Need?, Draw a Picture, Hurry Up! and Make a Card.

Kids Jukebox-Daily Life: Yummy Yum Yum and Mealtimes are offered free of charge. Like the Art app, above, I would use them to target the simple I+verb+object structure.The child can talk about what food he/she likes and then expand to other things the child likes. Mealtimes can be used when targeting the time of specific events. Concepts targeted in the app are morning, noon, between meals, and evening. These time concepts can be expanded to include other activities the child does at those times of the day. The complete set includes: Have a Bath, In the Bathroom, When I Have a Cold, That's Too Bad, For You and for Me and Let's Make a Swing

Kids Jukebox-Sports: Look at Me, Follow Me and Warm Up are free. They can be a starting point for experiencing verbs such as follow, bend, stretch, raise, relax, sweat, and touch. Other apps in the series are: Let's Go Out and Play, Oh, What Fun!, That Sounds Greats! Let's Play Together!, What Are You Playing With and At the Beach.

Kids Jukebox-Picnic: Look at the Flower and Where Is the Spider are free. I would use these apps primarily to elicit language. The complete set includes Do You Like Sandwiches?, Let's Set the Table!, We Like to Sing, There Is a Monkey, Water, Please and My Yummy Sandwich.

Kids Jukebox-My Town: Welcome to My Town and I Am Going to the Supermarket are free. Their focus is on places such as bank, hospital, bakery, bookstore, dress shop, beauty salon, supermarket and park. One can use this app as a starting point for talking about what one associates with those locations. The other apps in this series are In Your Bag, Point to the Desk, Let's Go by Bike, Traffic Lights, How Much Is This Skirt? and How Do I Look?

Kids Jukebox-Weather: It's Warm and How's the Weather focus on seasons and the weather one associates with those seasons. The other apps in this series are Go Outside, Sunny Day Play, How Do I Look, You Look Good!, Put On, Take Off, and Gout, Go In.

Kids Jukebox-Favorite Things: The app consists of the free songs What Color Is It? and What Is Your Favorite Number? The targets are what the names state. Other apps in the series are I Like Apples, It's Fun!, What's Red and Blue?, I Like to Draw, Cucumbers Are Good for Me and How Much Is That?

Kids Jukebox-Me, Myself: Where Is Mommy can be used to target the concept "where." The second free song, My Face, focuses on parts of the face. The rest of the series consists of What Is This?, Where Are You?, What Am I Doing, I Am Happy, I Love My Dog and Jump, Jump! Say Hello.

App Development Update

I met with the management team last week. I called the meeting because I was becoming increasingly frustrated with the pace of the project. To me, this project seemed to be moving at a snail's pace. In the past five months, the project had advanced to the drawing of only four characters and the team was now working on the backgrounds. Was I correct about the pace of the project? Yes and no.

Based on the information I had, I was correct. However, at the meeting I learned that these characters had actually moved along in the process towards animation. So the project was not stuck as it had seemed.

The result of the meeting was that the project manager would keep me better informed. She promised to  send me a flowchart of the process. Every couple of weeks the project manager will send me an email indicating where on the flowchart the project is at that time.

For me, this experience highlights the importance of communication between the consumer and the expert. The app development team knows where they are in the process, how far they have come, and what is up head in the short term. I only know what I am told. This sparsity of knowledge and information led me to incorrect conclusions.

This not-quite-so-meeting-of-the-minds got me to thinking about our profession and how well we convey the process of therapy to parents (and children who are old enough to understand) and if we do our part in keeping our clients informed. Have my clients made assumptions on therapy based on what I do not tell them? Have I taken it for granted that my expertise and time-lines are known to the layperson? These are some questions I'll keep in mind in my client-professional relationship.

Six More Language Adaptable Apps

Where Am I?: There are vocabulary apps that focus strictly on vocabulary and then there are these apps that go an extra step. Where Am I apps show targeted vocabulary and then place each in its appropriate scene on the following screen. Thus, one can talk about where the object is, what it is doing, who uses it, as well as extract additional vocabulary from the scene. There are six Where Am I apps: In the City, At the Zoo, Seasons, On the Farm, At Home, and At the Park. The pictures are clear and attractive.

Ages: 2-4

Ratings: +++

Developer website: jollygiraffe.com

Cost: $.99 each

The Shopping Cart Game: The app starts out with the mother cat sending her kitten to the grocery store. She has a shopping list with five items that the she needs to buy. The kitten needs to find each item and place it in the cart. When all items are in the cart, the cashier totals the cost of the items, subtracts the amount from the $20.00 the mother gave her kitten and tells the kitten how much money she has left. The kitten can buy a toy with the remainder. This app allows one to work at different levels of competency. Older children who are readers can work independently. They read the list and decide in what aisles to look for the items. Each aisle has a number of food choices along with their prices. When the food on the list is found, the child places it in the cart and checks it off the shopping list. Younger children who are non-readers may need assistance. Besides vocabulary, this app can be used to work on food categories, money concepts, and general discussions of supermarket shopping.

Ages: 5-8

Ratings: +++

Developer websites: poddcorp.com; theshoppingcartgame.com

Cost: Free

Tilly's Petting Farm: The first thing to know about this app is that the narrator speaks with a British/South African/ or Australian accent. I'm thinking South African. There are four scenes containing various farm related animals and objects. There are two tracks. Click on the hand and the narrator will name the object the child taps and tell something about the picture. Click on the question mark and the narrator asks a variety of "wh" questions about the objects. The child needs to listen to the question and tap on the correct animal/object. I like the questions because they are meant to encourage the child to understand associations and functions. The following are examples: Which animal do you ride? Where is the food the farmer gives the animals in the winter? What animal plays in the mud? Preceding the questions is the narrator's directives, "Pay attention. Here comes a new question," or "Listen Carefully. I will ask you a new question." There is some simple animation: apples fall from the tree or rain falls from clouds when tapped. This app can also be used to target prepositions, descriptions, function and location concepts

Ages: 3-5

Ratings: +++

Developer websites: teacher-tilly.com

Cost: $.99

iLearn Solar System HD: This is a beautifully done app. When entering the realm of the solar system, one can select Explore or Play. Enter Explore and one can select a card with a specific solar system object or term about one wishes to learn more. Tapping on Play brings one to a screen with the solar system in the background. An astronaut avatar asks a question that the child needs to answer by correctly tapping on the item visible in space. A blue alien side-kick reacts when the the correct or incorrect picture is tapped. The solar system is beautifully depicted in high resolution and with vibrant colors. The vocabulary on this app ranges from simple to moderately difficult. Explanations in Explore, given verbally by the avatar and in written form below, can be complex. Solar system objects can be made bigger or smaller with two fingers or rotated by swiping. This app can be adapted to target descriptions, explanations, and concepts.

Ages: 5-10

Ratings: +++++

Developer website: animagik.com

Cost: $1.99

Gazzili Words: This app focuses on one vocabulary word at a time: fingerprint, rainbow, balance, art, healthy, patience, seed, electricity and strong. Each is described in poem form with a considerable amount of conceptual detail.  After the poem is read a game screen appears. This screen offers pictorial representation of the targeted vocabulary word. For instance, the game screen for electricity is a room with different electrical appliances that can be turned on or off with a tap. The game for balance engages the child in building an ice cream cone. Once the scoops are on the cone, the child keeps them balanced on the cone by moving the iPad. The games are creative and do a good job of making the vocabulary come to life. This app can be adapted to target prepositions, function, associations and descriptions.

Ages: 5-7

Ratings: ++++

Developer website: gazziliwords.com

Cost: Free

My Happy World: This app offers scenes with an abundance of items that the child has to find and match to it's black and white counterpart at the bottom of the screen. The child taps on an item. If it is one of the black and white items, the item is named and the black and white item transforms into color. The child needs to find as many items as possible before time runs out. At the end of the time period, a new screen appears showing how many items were found. One can then move onto the sticker book where all the found items are displayed. Tap on the item and it is displayed individually with the word under it. There is one especially annoying feature to this app. The accompanying music is impossible to turn off. This app can be adapted to target prepositions.

Ages: 3-5

Ratings: ++

Developer website: ringzerogames.com

Cost: Free for the lite 2 scene version; $1.99 for the full 16 scene version