Theory based

Aims to improve understanding of spoken word.

Includes 800 words - presented singularly or in a sentence

Gamified activities - match spoken words to pictures.

Choose sets of words to practice

Part of a current clinical trial - can choose to participate in research during use of app - or decline.

Tested in clinical trial with 30 participants living with aphasia. They compelted 85 hours practice over 12 week period. 31% imprvement seen for practiced words.

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).

Work on answering questions with help

Questions on current affairs, updated weekly

Work on asking questions and social phrases

Work on people’s names with video and spelling practice

Spelling with sounds

Letter spelling

Rhyme judgement

Reading tasks

Matching tasks

Sentence processing (e.g reversible sentence ordering)

Written & spoken sentence building

Semantic associations

Tasks for working on verbs in a sentence context

Conversation starters

Articulation: 5000+ videos of target words and phrases, including breakdown into individual syllables & phonemes

Features a communication props drawer with maps, drawing board, numbers, time 

Multiple ways to create hierarchies (e.g. according to word length, sound, frequency, number of phonemes)

Video tutorials are provided to demonstrate how the app works & each exercise has its own tutorial to demonstrate how to complete the exercises

Can create multiple therapy sessions and can share sessions over internet

Error handling: Wrong answers are removed; the response is read aloud for the user to judge;  contextual information is given

Prompts/cues: Closure cues; spoken word

Record results: Results are shown after the session with % of items completed correctly. Can request additional details about accuracy, speed and help requested. Results can also be emailed to the clinician.

Option to break up sentence level questions into chunks to support reading and listening

Comments:  

• Can choose option for items to remain on the screen until the user moves onto the next exercise (i.e. no automatic scrolling onto the next item).  This is useful when used in therapy to discuss the user’s response
• Advanced settings for SLT to designate exercise features for each exercise set
• Remote management/allocation of exercises and results

Free version, monthly subscription option, 1 & 3 year subscription options

Supplier: Tactus

4 sets of sentence and conversation level exercises:

1. Using verbs to make sentences

250 concrete & abstract verbs. A verb is provided and the user must make 3 sentences by generating content or choosing from multiple choice options. They can write and/or speak & record their options.  The user is then encouraged to expand on their sentence.  6 activties are generated from each verb, encoraging more autonomy with differing levels of cues.

2. Comparing similar items

206 concrete & abstract items are presented in either image or text form.  The user is invited to verbalise how the items are alike and different.  They can record their spoken attempts.

3. Category association naming

320 concrete and abstract categories are provided.  The user must name from 3 to an unlimited number of associated items (e.g. things starting with /r/, appliances). This activity can be timed. There is also the possiblity to carry out a 1 minute semantic fluency test and a 1 minute phonemic fluency test to assess verbal fluency

4. Generating conversations

507 images are provided (e.g. funny food, unusual objects) to prompt description and/or conversation. Questions are provided to prompt the description or conversation.

Error handling: none. The user must decide themselves whether or not the got an item correct

Prompts/cues: In the verb sentences exercises, multiple choice items are provided.  The user can also opt to hear their sentences spoken aloud. Keywords are also provided as hints. No cues are given on the other exercises

Record results: a score is given at the end of each exercise 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

Supplier: Tactus