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

Another Hamaguchi App Winner

First Words International                 
Patti Hamaguchi has developed another well thought out and executed app. First Words International is a basic vocabulary app. It offers 50 words in seven different languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, French, Japanese, Hindi and Russian. What sets this app apart from other vocabulary apps is the way in which Ms. Hamaguchi has made this app fun for children. She has done this through sound, animation and record/playback features.

The receptive vocabulary aspect of this app is presented in the following fashion: A picture appears in the middle of the screen. The narrator says, “Here is a _______.” Four different versions of the same object then pop up. As each picture appears, it is named. Thus, the child hears the same vocabulary word five times. The child is then instructed to “Find the ___.” Tap on one of the five pictures and the screen changes to show the object among four other entirely different objects. The child finds the object, taps on it and hears it's name again. (By now, the child has heard the vocabulary word repeated seven times---a nice amount of auditory bombardment.) Once that is done, the screen again changes. This screen has a slot machine-like spinner that spins when the PLAY button is tapped. It spins through different objects until it stops on the object practiced on the preceding screens. The narrator says, “What is it? Say it.” Tap on the red button to record the child as she says the word. Tap on the blue button with the ear and the child hears her production. Tap on the CHECK button to hear the narrator say the word. This is also the screen that allows for scoring. Tap on the green check if the child’s response is correct or on the red X if she is wrong.

Built into app is a reward in the form of an animation. One can set the reward to appear after one, three or five responses.  Each of the animations is different and appealing for children. Once the animation is finished the screen moves to the next vocabulary word.

Settings allow one to select whether or not the task will be to find, say the word or both. One can also select the order of the activities, specific words or a random presentation and picture style (photo, color, or random). One can also select random or custom presentation of animations or no animation as well as random or custom sounds. Text can be turned on/off. This app collects data for up to 15 children.

The vocabulary is appropriate for children who are about 18-30 months old. Bilingual educators and parents, who wish to introduce their children to other languages, can use this app with any age.

Ages: 18 months to 30 months as a vocabulary app; any age for second language learners
Ratings: ++++

Developer website: Hamaguchiapps.com

Cost: $9.99

Reply to Smarty Ears

Before I respond to the various replies to my Buyer Beware blog, I would like to share what I knew about Smarty Ears and Barbara Fernandes prior to Buyer Beware. I knew that Ms. Fernandes was one of the first speech pathologists to develop apps for the profession. I knew that her company had grown and so had the number of apps she had put in the iTunes store. I knew that her LinkedIn group forum was called GeekSLP. I had no idea what any of her apps were like since I had never purchased any of them. Hence, I had never had the occasion to form any opinion of Smarty Ears apps. More importantly, I have never held, nor have had any reason to have held, any biases for or against Ms. Fernandes, her employees or her company.

A super long time ago, during grad school, I took a research methodology course. One of the objectives was to learn to critique research. An important educational point made was that one should not always take claims of efficacy, cause-effect, results and conclusions, even those done by researchers in reputable institutions, at face value. Nevertheless, sometimes I will just believe a claim without question because it is just easier than “checking it out.” Then there are times, when a connection or claim is made and my interest is piqued. That is what caused me to post Buyer Beware. As a result of the post I received many replies, three of which were written by people affiliated with Smarty Ears: Sean Sweeny, MtMarySLP and Barbara Fernandes.

Regarding my issue with Ms. Fernandes reviewing one of her apps, Mr. Sweeny, the New Product Development Manager for Smarty Ears, stated, “As for Barbara leaving a review, that is something that can be done when an app is downloaded, and it's pretty transparent as to who she is.” The overriding question is, should it have been done? In my opinion, no. Does everyone who reads the Smarty Ear app reviews really know that Barbara Fernandes owns Smarty Ears? Wouldn’t transparency come in the form of Ms. Fernandes stating her name, followed by CEO of Smarty Ears? Clearly, Ms. Fernandes liked the app because she accepted someone’s idea and it is now in her product line. I simply disagree with the appropriateness of reviewing an app that is her product.

After that post, cmf-slp posted about her disappointment with Smarty Ears Match2Say app and the amount of money she paid for the app. In reply, I posted that another gripe I had with Smarty Ears that had to do with the way some of their app descriptions state that the app is based on research. MtMarySLP, who helped author an app for Smarty Ears, noted, “The introduction of the app, where it cites research, is written by the author of the app - not Smarty-Ears.” That may be, but Smarty Ears offers the app as its product and is responsible for what is written on its site. MtMarySLP makes another point, “Many questions are asked about the research and efficacy of using apps in therapy.  As SLPs we are responsible for doing research and using best practices. If an app is based on theory and research and can support that with cited articles - shouldn't it be stated?”  I agree that we are each responsible for doing research and using best practices. That is precisely what I did when I questioned Smarty Ears citation.  Should we, as professionals, take at face value a statement such as, “supported by research?”  Can it be that the research does not exactly support the premise of the app? Let’s take the Go-Togethers app, the one whose description caught my attention, as an example. The app description notes that the “…app is based on research around vocabulary and word meaning development in students.” The next sentence alludes to research by “McGregor, Newman, Reilly & Capone (2002).” The paper (McGregor, Newman, Reilly & Capone, Semantic Representation and Naming in Children With Specific Language Impairment, JSHR, Oct 2002; 45: 998 – 1014) examines the relationship between a child’s aptitude with semantic knowledge, synonyms, and word retrieval and word naming accuracy. Go-Togethers targets associations and categories, important skills in language development and reasoning tasks. The problem is that associations and categories were not the focus of the study nor were they mentioned as relevant to the outcome of the study. So why mention the study? Is it meant to lend credence to value of that particular app? These two questions were what led me to my comment about research being used as a marketing trick. Perhaps, “trick” was too strong a word. But the reference is misleading.

Regarding my interest in reviewing her apps, Ms. Fernandes asked, “… why do you feel like Smarty Ears is under any obligation to give you our apps for free so that you can do a review? Yes, we do give them to bloggers and reviewers, however our resources are limited and we are not able to accommodate everyone. I am sorry about that, but making a blog to "write unbiased reviews" does not make anyone entitled to FREE CODES for app reviews. I did not mean to sound too critical but I do not feel that this post was done in a fair, balanced, or even with the “SLP hat on”, so I wanted to provide our perspective on it.” I am sorry, Ms. Fernandes, that you feel that, by pointing out that you reviewed one of your own apps, and that my questioning the link to research purported to support Go-Togethers was unfair, unbalanced and unprofessional. Are we to conclude that a fair, balanced and professional speech pathologist is one who raises no questions about what you write or what you do? Raise a question about Smarty Ears and one is accused of using vitriol as when Mr. Sweeny stated, “I am confused by the vitriol here.” Vitriol as in malicious, malevolent, hateful, hostile, virulent, and nasty? Really?  Really, Mr. Sweeny?

Regarding free apps: I understand the limitations an app developer has when handing out free apps. I do not feel “entitled” to receiving any developer’s apps. However, I can assure Ms. Fernandes and other app developers that I would provide unbiased reviews of their apps. I would do so not to please the people at Smarty Ears or other app developers. Rather, I would so because the readers of my blog have a right to read about the pros and cons of apps they may want to purchase. Most of us do not have unlimited funds to spend on apps. Apps can be expensive and unlike hard materials they are not returnable for a refund. We need to spend wisely. And we need to know that the reviewer will not be bent to the will of the app developer nor does he/she benefit financially from her positive reviews.

Beware of Customer Reviews at the App Store

I don't too often read the Customer Reviews at the app store. But maybe I should start. A speech path, on one of the many lists I subscribe to, recommended an app. I wanted to see what it was all about and went to the app store. I read the description, looked at the visuals and glanced down at the reviews. I saw that Barbara Fernandes had reviewed the app. You may not be aware, but Ms. Fernandes is the owner of Smarty Ears and her company is the developer of the app she reviewed. Hello, hello, Ms. Fernandes.

A while ago, I offered to review Smarty Ears apps but Ms. Fernandes did not respond.

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