Developed with SLT

Free software designed for people living with aphasia.

Practice spelling/ typing

Access via mouse or touch screen

Range of categories: social media, text messaging, online shopping, frequently used words

Personalise with own word categories

Collate results across tasks

Choose level of support / difficulty

A straightforward phone/tablet based app which supports practice of single word picture naming.

Photographic picture prompts are provided one at a time for naming.  Users can also access cues for the initial written letter of the word, the full written letter and/ore the full spoken word.  

500 + stimuli items are provided.

Picture stimuli are presented in random order for naming.  Choice of items cannot be customised. Once app is restarted, the users restarts where they left off last time.

Target pictures are not categorised semantically but instead across three levels of complexity: simple, moderate and complex.  Target complexity is based on concreteness and imagability as determined through the developer's clinical experience. Target images have not been normed.

The app does not provide feedback regarding the accuracy of user's production.

App interface is intuitive and uncluttered.

N.B. The price of the android and iOS apps differ.

Available in English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Portuguese (Brazilian), Filipino.

A phone/tablet based app which targets issues with single word reading associated with alexia & aphasia

Written and spoken words as well as pictures are used to re-build associations between semantics, orthographics and phonology

600 stimuli items are provided and up to 30 'trials'

Initially, the user is required to complete a test of reactions, vision, reading, spelling and writing. They then do 'look & listen' exercises to familiarise themselves with the target words.  There are then 'trials' using auditory to written word matching with pictorial support.  The initial tests are time consuming but can be paused

Familiarisation tasks and trials are automatically created based on performance and change according to progress made

Audio and visual, on-screen aphasia guides are provided to guide the user through how the app works

Results are recorded and include training time taken, reading accuracy and reading speed

Tasks to work on spoken and written comprehension of nouns, verbs and occupations.

2200 functional stimuli items, from 10 different categories e.g. clothing, health & body, home & garden, leisure, nature

Includes a training section where the user can familiarise themselves and practise with stimuli items before moving onto the comprehension tasks

In the training tasks, the client can hear and/or see 2 examples of the target word, then match the word to the correct picture (choice of 3)

In the photo shuffle: tasks, the client is required to match the spoken and/or written word to the pictures (choice of 2-6)

In the word match tasks, the client is required to match the picture  to the correct spoken and/or written word (choice of 3)

60 tasks with a functional bias to work on:

• Auditory comprehension (sounds/words/paragraphs/rhyming/auditory instructions)
• Speech (word repetition, picture naming, reading aloud)
• Semantics (written & spoken)
• Spelling (picture naming, copying, anagrams, auditory naming)
• Reading (picture-word matching, reading comprehension, written lexical decision making)
• Attention
• Visual processing
• Time telling
• Map reading
• Cognitive function
• Problem solving
• Planning
• Reading & understanding numbers

There are 2 versions of the therapy app - a user version & a clinician version

In the clinician version, the clinician can remotely edit exercise sets and access results

Supplier: Constant

Comprises a naming test and 3 treatment activities: describe, guess & repeat. There are over 500 stimulus items from categories such as personal, out & about, food & drink, objects

Test: the user is asked to name a picture aloud (there is no option for them to record their spoken attempt). If they struggle, they can request 4 written/spoken options to pick from. The user then judges whether they said the word correctly or not by clicking on a tick/cross

Describe: the user is encouraged to describe a picture using semantic feature analysis prompts (there is no option for them to record their spoken attempt). They are not required to judge whether their attempts were correct or not

Guess: the user is encouraged to name an item from a series of semantic descriptions (there is no option for them to record their spoken attempt). They are then prompted to judge whether their attempt was correct or not

Repeat: A picture is provided and a spoken voice repeats the word 3 times. The user is encouraged to tap out the word and verbally repeat it (there is no option for them to record their spoken attempt). They are not required to make a judgement about whether their attempt was correct

Results are stored in-app and can also be emailed 

NB The app uses Apple voices which are quite robotic, however enhanced US voices can be used if they've been downloaded to the user's ipad.  Users need to have good self-monitoring skills to know whether their utterance was correct

Free app co-designed by consultants with aphasia and researchers at City University to encourage people with aphasia to engage in creative writing

Select a piece of writing (your own or one of the 10 included) as your starting point. Automatically erase most of the words to reveal a small set of words to work with. Add and erase words until you have a set of words you'd like to work with. Arrange these words to make a piece of writing and save a photo of it or share it via Twitter or the other apps on your ipad (e.g. email, text, Whats App etc).

Free demo app for Advanced Language Therapy

Try out exercises for Advanced Comprehension Therapy, Advanced Naming Therapy, Advanced Reading Therapy & Advanced Writing Therapy apps (search each app separately for more detailed information)

1 trial is provided for each section of each app to enable you to inform purchase decisions for the apps which can be purchased separately or as a bundle in Advanced Language Therapy

Supplier: Tactus

4 bundle app containing:

Advanced Comprehension Therapy, Advanced Naming Therapy, Advanced Reading Therapy & Advanced Writing Therapy. We recommend searching each app separately for detailed information on each app however below is a brief summary of each:

Advanced Comprehension Therapy:

Written and auditory comprehension exercises, & sentence building exercises

3 modes: Identify (picture matching), Build (sentence building) & Follow (follow directions). Each set of exercises has 12-16 levels

Advanced Naming Therapy:

4 sets of sentence and conversation level exercises: Using verbs to make sentences; Comparing similar items; Category association naming; Generating conversations

Advanced Reading Therapy:

3 levels of paragraph level reading exercises with functional materials (cards, texts, stories)

Advanced Writing Therapy: Matching letters to sounds; Spelling words to dictation; Typing to dictation; Writing sentences & paragraphs

Free trial: yes, free trial available through Advanced Language Therapy Lite app

Supplier: Tactus

4 different spelling & writing exercises from letter to sentence level:

1. Matching letters to sounds

12 exercises incorporating letter names, consonants, vowels & blends. The user can also record their spoken attempt if they wish to practise saying the sound or repeating the sound from a model.

2. Spelling words to dictation

Select nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, function words, irregular words or words with specific vowels for 300 common words. Hear the word spoken in isolation, then in a sentence. The user must type the word but can choose a list of 4 options if they are stuck.  The user can also record their spoken attempt if they wish to practise saying the word or repeating the word from a model.

3. Typing to dictation

Chose from 1-8 word sentences. The user must type the words dictated. If they struggle, they can ask to see the word/sentence & then try again or they can keep the sentence on screen to copy. Their errors remain listed under the stimuli so they can check back if they've made the same mistake.The user can also record their spoken attempt if they wish to practise saying the sound or repeating the sound from a model

4. Writing sentences & paragraphs

Choose a focus (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, function words, personal information, text messages, taking notes, making lists, writing cards, emails, letters, personal information, directions). A key word is then given for the person to make a sentence with. If they struggle, they can ask for a word bank to help them construct their sentence. Once they have constructed a sentence, the written sentence is read aloud for the user to decide whether they would like to edit it or whether it is correct. The user can also record a spoken attempt at reading their sentence aloud or repeating it after the text to speech model. The app does not say whether the sentence is correct or not, the user must judge this themselves

Error handling: None - an auditory sound is given to indicate correct or incorrect responses but no error handling is given

Prompts/cues: Pictorial, auditory & written cues can be requested.  

Record results: a score is given at the end of each exercise (apart from sentence/paragraph writing exercises where no results are given) and results can be emailed. The user cannot look back at previous results within the app

Free trial: yes, free trial available through Advanced Language Therapy Lite app

Comments: On-screen, aphasia friendly instructions on how to use the app are provided. Comprehensive written instructions are also provided however these would not be accessible to someone with compromised reading skills. Chose upper or lower case presentation, 3 levels of exercise (easy, medium, hard) and a large bank of stimuli

Supplier: Tactus