Tutorials

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 & brief description             

• 50 nouns for verbal naming of common household items  from 5 visual scenes (bathroom, bedroom, garage, kitchen and living room)
• The user monitors themselves whether they have named the item correctly or not
• A tutorial is provided to demonstrate how the app can be used
• The SLT can use it with a variety of different users, each of whom can have their own profile

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: User identifies an item to name. If they struggle, they can request a written cue (first few letters of the word), a written and spoken semantic cue/definition, a functional spoken and written phrase, a phonemic cue (first sound) or the whole word written and spoken

Record results: Results are recorded showing the date of practice, the sections practised, % of items named correctly with and without cues. It also highlights the cue which most successfully aids the user. Results can be shown on screen, emailed or printed out

Comments/N.B

• Many of the items are in American English (e.g. faucet, bath tub, refrigerator, garbage can)
• 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
   

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

 

Type of exercises:

• Category discrimination & reasoning (semantics)
• Category naming & completion (semantics)
• Cause & effect (what would happen if…)
• Conditional statements (if X then Y…)
• Deductive reasoning (semantics)
• Form & function (semantics)
• Inferential naming (semantics)
• Logical thinking
• Problem solving (pragmatics)
• Reasons why (pragmatics)
• Situation Reasoning (pragmatics)
• Things in common (semantics)

Access: Mouse for all exercises except inferential naming which also requires keyboard

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: None

Tutorials: Yes

Free trial: Yes but not the complete program

Support: Via Livechat. The suppliers can also log onto the user’s computer. 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 subscription version
• A download version exists for $19.95 per program but works only on Windows, not mac
• The pragmatics exercises are aimed at ‘what if’ scenarios
• Remote access to results is possible as long as the SLT has the user’s login & password.

N.B:
    US terminology
    Voice is American and computer generated
    Need single word/simple sentence level reading or good auditory comprehension to complete the tasks
    US terminology & vocabulary
    No visual rewards for correct answers
 

Type of exercises:

• Time problems
• Money handling
• Calculator maths
• Timed mental maths
• Traffic sign recognition

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 confusing.

Customisation/personalisation: No

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: None

Tutorials: Yes, online

Free trial: Yes but not the complete program

Support: Via Live chat or the suppliers can take over the user’s PC. However 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
• The calculator maths exercises provide real life calculations
• The time management exercises provide real life time concepts and problems
• Remote access to results is possible as long as the SLT has the user’s login & password.

N.B:
    Money exercises all use US $
    Voice is American and computer generated
    Need sentence level reading or sentence level auditory comprehension to complete the tasks
    No visual rewards for correct answers
 

Type of exercises:

• Pre-reading, reading comprehension (single word to paragraph level), spelling, word identification, homonym judgement tasks.
• Includes:
      picture, shape, photo, symbol, letter and number recognition
      word to paragraph level reading comprehension
      grammar exercises (e.g. correct verb forms)
      anagrams for simple spelling exercises

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: Based on SLT experience

Record own speaking attempts: N/A

Correction of own speaking attempts: N/A

Customisation/personalisation: No

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: None

Record results: Yes

Tutorials: Yes

Free trial: Yes

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

Comments:

• Highest level word building is high level
• When building words, can see what the word would look like before making a selection
• Vast selection of exercises covering a very wide ability range.
• Paragraph level reading includes high level inference exercises
• Spelling includes exercises with phonemic chunks which can be confusing

N.B:
    Distractors aren’t always visual, phonemic or semantic
    Some people may find some line drawings confusing
    All spelling exercises are based on anagrams. There are no exercises for generating whole word spelling
    British accent

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.

Supplier: React
 

Type of exercises:

• Associations
• Relationships
• Odd one out
• Classification/categorisation
• Opposites
• Synonyms (words that mean the same)
• Homonyms (words that sound the same)
• Elimination (finding something by what it isn’t)

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: Based on SLT experience & traditional paper exercises

Record own speaking attempts: N/A

Correction of own speaking attempts: N/A

Customisation/personalisation: No

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: None

Tutorials: Yes

Free trial: Yes

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

Comments:

• Wide range of different semantic exercises. Most require auditory comprehension. Only the very basic odd one out & association exercises don’t.
• Exercise complexity increases by providing more semantically similar distractors
• Some exercises on adjectives and prepositions
• All exercises have a picture and written word version so they cater for anyone wishing to work on semantics whether they can read or not
• 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.

N.B:
  British accent
 

Supplier: React