Can author/customise

Type of exercises & brief description             

• Practising conversations
• e.g.
•     turn-taking
•     listening to conversation partner
•     staying on topic
•     communication aid use
• The ipad starts a topic of conversation and you can practise your responses by replying, commenting, asking questions.

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues:

• Written phrases or pictures
• Spoken words or phrases
• The ipad prompts when it is your turn to respond

Comments/N.B

• Can customise conversation topics and content
• Would need someone to customise the topics and vocabulary to be most useful for someone with aphasia

Type of exercises & brief description             

• Spoken word finding of 418 common nouns (animals, body parts, clothing etc) and unlimited personalised items
• 4 modes: practise, test, picture-word naming & eliciting of adjectives to describe the noun
• 10-100 items can be selected per exercise
• In practise mode, the items are presented and a variety of cues are offered to aid spoken naming. In the other 3 modes no cues are presented
• In description mode, the user is encouraged to use a variety of adjectives to describe the noun depicted to aid them retrieve the spoken word
• If using independently, the user must monitor themselves whether they have named the item correctly or not
• A tutorial is provided to demonstrate how the app can be used

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: In practise exercises, semantic, first letter, written word &  phonemic cues to choose from

Record results: Results are shown after the session with % of items named correctly with and without cues. It also highlights the cues used. Results can be emailed to a designated address.

Comments/N.B

• There is only one version for UK, US, Aus and there are a few American words (e.g. zipper, fries, cookies)
• The results recorded are reliant on the user self monitoring and knowing whether they named the item correctly or not. There is no facility for recording speech attempts and the app itself does not determine level of accuracy. This app would therefore not be appropriate for independent use by someone with poor self monitoring
• FREE TRIAL available through the languagetherappy Lite app

Supplier: Tactus
 

Type of exercises & brief description             

• Fill the blank, anagrams, picture spelling, spelling to dictation of nouns
• 3 levels (easy/medium/hard) - the harder levels provide more letters to choose from in the anagram exercises
• Can choose 10-50 exercises per session and 3-10 letter words
• Can designate upper/lowercase display

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: Written and spoken word given as cues on request. In the harder levels, there is a 'hint' button which reduces the number of letters to choose from and will provide the initial letter if the user makes 3 errors.

Record results: Can email results to designated  email address. Details include score and which cues were requested.

Comments/N.B

• Written instructions provided on how to use the app. These would not be accessible to someone with compromised reading skills
• FREE TRIAL available through the languagetherappy Lite app

Supplier: Tactus

Type of exercises & brief description             

• Phrase matching, sentence matching, phrase completion, and sentence completion tasks for adjectives (82 items), nouns (260 items), verbs (107 items) with the choice of 10-100 exercises per session
• All exercises provide 4 multiple choice answers.

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: None

Record results: Results are presented at end of session in % format, but cannot be reviewed later. They can be forwarded to an email address.

Comments/N.B

• There is only one version for UK, US, Aus and there are some American words (e.g.' store' in place of 'shop') however due to context, this shouldn't be a problem.
• Some of the answers require the user to 'infer' an answer from the context which could be useful for higher level readers.
• FREE TRIAL available through the languagetherappy Lite app
   

Supplier: Tactus

Type of exercises & brief description             

• Listening and/or reading comprehension at single word level of: verbs (107 items), adjectives (107 items) and nouns (507 items, 10 categories)
• 3 levels of difficulty
• Can present from 10 to 100 exercises per session

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: 3 items are provided but consecutive unsuccessful identification reduces items to 2. Consistently correct selections, increases items to 6. No other cues are provided.

Record results: Results are summarised at the end of the session in % format but not recorded for future reference. Can set a default email address to send results to.

Comments/N.B

• In easy and medium mode, distractors are not always phonological, semantic or visual. In hard mode, distractors are visual and semantic.
• FREE TRIAL available through the languagetherappy Lite app

Supplier: Tactus

Type of exercises:

• Verbal and written naming of nouns, verbs, adjectives (e.g. people, weather, hobbies, nature, clothes+ customised/personalised vocab  (needs to be able to be pictorially represented))
• Single word and sentence level spoken word finding
• Word level semantics
• Spoken repetition exercises
• The My Words suite of exercises uses the words the user is practising in a range of different exercises in order to intensively work on the same words in different exerise formats (e.g. matching, repetition, naming, spelling)
• Up to 10 levels of exercise, gradually increasing in complexity
• Assessment items provided to gauge start level & vocabulary

Developed with SLT: Yes



Theory based: Yes. Lots of evidence to support this software, some of which is on the research evidence page of this site



Record own speaking attempts: Yes



Correction of own speaking attempts: No



Customisation/personalisation: Yes



Error handling: Yes. Spoken, written, phonemic & video cues given, options reduced & then correct answer provided to copy. Can’t make more than 2 consecutive errors.  Clinician can specifiy degree of accuracy required before the program automatically moves the person onto the next level of exercises or moves them to an easier level of exercise



Prompts/cues given: Yes. Written, spoken, video, phonemic



Tutorials: Yes. Comprehensive, step by step video tutorials provided for each section of the software for both users and clinicians



Free trial: Yes



Support: Free phone support & in-program video tutorials



Comments:

• Sentence level: e.g. incorporating the word ‘tea’ into the sentence ‘I would like a cup of …’
• Assessment stimuli can be used as a start guide and for re-assessment of progress
• Gradual building of skills through graded exercises. User moves on to next level automatically once competent at the previous level (SLT can set the criteria for when to move them on). Equally, if they fail to achieve a certain % the SLT can set the facility to automatically provide an easier level of exercise
• Can remotely update and download exercises & results (with the clinician version of the software)
• There is the facility to write therapy notes within the program if the clinician is doing the exercise with the user
• Personalised vocabulary and photos can be programmed and the clinician can provide the phonemic cue (phonetic keyboard provided) & a video of mouth shapes as well as sentence level examples of the word's use

N.B:

  British accent

 

Type of exercises:

• Word or sentence level speaking.
• Spoken conversation phrases
• Describing pictures
• Answering Yes/No questions
• Turning statements into questions

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: No

Record own speaking attempts: Yes

Correction of own speaking attempts: No

Customisation/personalisation: Yes. Can modify the exercises provided or create your own. Opportunity to create exercises around specific sounds, not just words and phrases

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: Written model, spoken model, written cues, can provide own for customised exercises

Tutorials: No

Free trial: Yes

Support: Free lifetime technical support via phone, email or online livechat

Comments: Can customise or modify exercises so can use an alternative accent

N.B:
    Exercises provided are Americanised

Type of exercises:

• Auditory & visual picture finding
• Picture identification (multiple choice)
• Sentence completion
• Written picture naming
• Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: No, based on clinician experience

Record own speaking attempts: N/A

Correction of own speaking attempts: N/A


Easy to use? No. The user must click on an answer, then click again to input their answer and then click again to move onto the next question.

The internet subscription exercises are very slow to accept the answer making multiple activations possible and therefore potentially confusing.

Customisation/personalisation: Yes

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: Only for picture naming exercises

Tutorials: Yes, online

Free trial: Yes but not the complete program

Support: Via Livechat or the suppliers can take over the user’s PC. All support takes place 9am-5pm New York time

Comments:

• The online subscription allows access to all the modules available so as the user progresses they don’t need to purchase new modules. It feels like an app when downloaded on an ipad
• The CD version has more functions than the internet version
• A download version exists for $19.95 per program but works only on Windows, not mac
• Picture naming gives cues (multiple choice/first letter/description/semantic)
• Remote access to results is possible as long as the SLT has the user’s login & password.

N.B:
    US terminology/vocabulary
    Naming exercises are long words with no previous build up exercises to practise pre-spelling skills
    Voice is American and computer generated
    No visual rewards for correct answers
 

Type of exercises:

• Word or sentence level speaking.
• Spoken conversation phrases
• Describing pictures
• Answering Yes/No questions
• Turning statements into questions

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: No

Correction of own speaking attempts: No

Customisation/personalisation: Yes. Can modify the exercises provided or create your own

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: Yes. Written model, spoken model, written cues, can provide own for customised exercises

Tutorials: No

Free trial: Yes

Support: Free lifetime technical support via phone, email or online livechat

Comments: Can customise or modify exercises so can use an alternative accent

N.B:
    Exercises provided are Americanised

 

Type of exercises:    Speech production, single word and sentence level targeting a range of linguistic/grammar structures.

Examples of exercises provided:

• sentences with prepositions
• sentences with adjectives
• sentences with prepositions and adjectives
• why questions
• complex sentences with multiple verbs and nouns

Access:    Mouse (including click & drag), Touchscreen

Developed with SLT:    Yes

Theory based:    Yes 

Record own speaking attempts:    Yes

Correction of own speaking attempts:    No, the program does not judge the correctness of utterances

Number of exercises:    Over 800 + unlimited if creating own

Easy to use?    To some extent

Customisation/personalisation:    Yes

Error handling:    None

Prompts/cues given:    Yes. Words/sentences are modelled. User can listen to verbal models of each word. Sentence completion words are provided. Possible to customise own prompts (e.g. semantic ones). Model sentences are also provided.

Record results:    Yes. The users’ speech (& photos) can be made into a video which they can send to others directly from within the program, via email (Windows version) or, in the iOS version, via the full range of sharing options (email, messaging, Facebook, Instagram, etc)

Tutorials:    Yes

Free trial:    Yes but not full version

Support:    Free technical support via email or phone

Comments:

• Ability to customise own exercises with target vocabulary
• Don’t need any reading or spelling skills to use
• Practising speech at sentence level at the user’s own level and speed
• Designed to encourage self-monitoring of speech so whilst there are example models, there are also no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers
• Word finder dictionaries (customiseable) are available to aid sentence construction

N.B:    

• need to use click and drag if not using a touchscreen
• interface could be difficult to follow initially for some users 
• American accent

Supplier details:    www.sentenceshaper.com