Australian English

Brief description

• Word prediction (in any web & Windows application)
• On screen keyboard
• List of up to 12 word predictions
• Can customise the dictionary to improve prediction
• Text to speech facility to hear the words predicted before selection
• Screen magnification
• Can listen back repeatedly to the sentence being composed
• Examples of word useage (for homophones)

Who could benefit

• People who can spell the first 2-3 letters of a word

Brief description

• Keyboard familiarisation tasks
• Spelling exercises
• 80 activities included or create your own
• Results are recorded
• Use standard keyboard or onscreen keyboard
• Prompts provided
• Can be used by lots of different users, each with their own exercise set

Who could benefit

• People needing to practise:
• Keyboard skills
• Spelling skills

Brief description

• Speech recognition program
• As the user speaks into the microphone, the speech is automatically turned into text
• Can read back &/or listen back to what has been typed

Who could benefit

• Someone with good speech & listening skills but compromised spelling &/or reading skills

Comments

• Need to train the program to recognise your speech
• Noise reducing microphones work best
• Requires good cognitive skills to remember commands & adapt speaking rate

Brief description

• Word prediction, speech recognition & screen reader
• The program predicts to aid spelling, gives examples of word useage, reads aloud text on the screen (what you’re typing or what you’re reading).
• Can also use speech recognition to ‘type’ in words.
• Can customise the dictionary to improve prediction
• Screen reader, prediction & speech recognition works within all programs/web pages (e.g. can use within email, social networking sites & web searches)

Who could benefit:

• People who can spell the first 2-3 letters of a word before getting stuck
• People who can spell words but sometimes find it easier to say a word

Comments

• All parts of the program work on PC. Mac users only have access to the word prediction & screen reading parts of the program, not the speech recognition part
• Switch accessible only if using Wivick connection cable
   

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             

• 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             

• 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:

• 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:

• Letter and word recognition.
• Written naming.
• Multiple choice matching tasks and gap filling naming tasks.

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: Not a particular theory base, SLT experience



Record own speaking attempts: N/A



Correction of own speaking attempts: N/A

Customisation/personalisation: No



Error handling: Only for picture naming exercises.



Prompts/cues given:

• Spoken semantic cues
• Spoken model cues
• Spoken answers

Tutorials: No



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



Comments: In deluxe version, automatically moves user on if they are getting responses correct but not in this version



N.B: Have to backspace previous answer before entering new, correct response

Type of exercises:

• Multiple choice and gapfiller sentence, phrase and definition completion

Developed with SLT: Yes



Theory based: No specific theory base, SLT experience



Record own speaking attempts: N/A



Correction of own speaking attempts: N/A



Customisation/personalisation: No



Error handling: None



Prompts/cues given: Can listen to question and hear answer spoken but no actual auditory cues



Tutorials: No



Free trial: Yes



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



Comments:

• Need mouse to exit before the end of the exercise session
• Extensive number of items to complete
• Some flexibility with answers (multiple correct answers)

N.B:

Have to delete previous answer before correcting a response

Writing tasks but also working on semantics

Need sentence level reading

Spoken answers are with an American accent