Free trial

Type of exercises & brief description    

• Auditory memory and basic sequencing with adjectives.
• Can also be used for reading comprehension of adjectives and position.
• A verbal and/or written description is given (e.g. the red one is bigger than the green one), user must select the corresponding picture from a choice of 12.
• 60 items in total

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: None

Comments/N.B

• American accent

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             

• Practise of lip and mouth movements (e.g. lips together, mouth open etc)
• Videos of movements and voice over describing how to execute movements
• Can allocate only certain movements to be practised
• 54 movements to practise

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: None

Comments/N.B

• Limited program, only illustrating lip and mouth movements  but it is free and could be useful as a preliminary to dyspraxia or dysphagia therapy

Type of exercises & brief description             

• Practise of speech sounds
• Videos and voice recordings of vowel and consonant sounds to copy
• Can allocate only certain sounds to be practised
• 40 sounds to practise
• May be useful as part of dyspraxia therapy

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: Video of lip movements

Comments/N.B

• Limited program, only illustrating lip shapes and speech sounds but it is free and could be useful as part of dyspraxia therapy to practise at home
• American version so could affect some vowel sounds
   

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:

• Listening exercises from pre-word level up to conversation level
• Auditory discrimination (pre-word)
• Understanding words
• Understanding sentences
• Understanding conversations

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: Based on SLT experience

Record own speaking attempts:N/A

Customisation/personalisation:No

Error handling:None

Prompts/cues given:None

Free trial:Yes

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

Comments:

• No reading required at all, purely listening exercises
• The module covers a huge ability range.
• Each area covered has many sub sections and up to 7 levels within those subsections.
• The conversation level exercises also work on auditory memory to some degree
• This program can be purchased as a monthly subscription which gives access to all the React2.com modules. This may work out cheaper than purchasing the stand alone module, depending on how long it is needed for. A stand alone, offline version exists for those without internet access.
• Requires use of a mouse only

Supplier: React

Type of exercises:

• Semantics
• Sequencing
• Spelling
• Homonyms & synonyms

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: No



Error handling: None



Prompts/cues given: Only for one set of exercises



Tutorials: Yes, online



Free trial: Yes but not the complete program



Support: Via Livechat or the supplier 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
• Need reading skills (single word and simple sentences)
• Sequencing exercises work on functional, everyday activities (e,g, parking, dressing). They go from 2 step to 5 step sequencing
• Remote access to results is possible as long as the SLT has the user’s login & password.

N.B:

    US terminology/vocabulary

    Voice is American and computer generated

    No visual rewards for correct answers