Reading sentences

6 levels of reading, listening and topic vocabulary exercises for those with moderate to mild reading difficulties who are keen to practise independently

Within each level, there are 10 everyday topics (e.g. making a journey, reading a paper, reading an email, how to lose weight), each with 6 different exercise sets

Web based program - exercises can be allocated remotely & results can be accessed by the SLT remotely

The clinician purchases a yearly license and patients have free access to the software on a computer or via an app on a tablet or phone device

The software is designed for learners of English as a foreign language but can be useful for people with aphasia

Exercises to practise speaking at a sentence or conversation level.  The topics are all around problem solving situations

50 problem solving scenarios where the user must identify the problem, cause and solution in the photo.  The user can record their spoken responses and/r  they can choose from a selection of 3 written choices 

16 exercises providing written scenarios or questions to which the user must respond with a spoken response which can be recorded

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: the written scenario is also spoken aloud, on the multiple choice exercises, 3 options are provided to choose from

Record results: spoken attempts can be recorded. On the multiple choice exercises, results are recorded. On the exercises where the user is invited to provide spoken responses, the user must judge for themselves whether their response was correct however the fact they attempted the exercise is logged in the reports section of the app so they can look back at previous exercises completed. It is also possible to organise results by date. Results can be sent by email

Comments: after successful completion of tasks, the user is given a jigsaw to solve as a reward.  This option can be disabled

By turning off the audio, the  exercises could be used as  reading exercises

Writing exercises:

• Copying letters & words
• Written picture naming
• Complete the phrase (spell a word to complete a saying)
• Sentence scramble (re-arranging words to form a short sentence)

Speaking exercises:

• Articulation & oro-motor exercises
• Functional spoken word & phrase repetition
• Flashcard naming (spoken picture naming of nouns, verbs & adjectives)
• Naming using semantic feature analysis strategies

Reading exercises:

• Letter, word and phrase matching
• Written word/sentence to picture matching
• Written word sentence completion
• Article reading based around current news topics

Listening exercises:

• Spoken word to picture matching
• Spoken phrase to picture matching
• Spoken question to picture matching
• Following auditory directions

There is also a large bank of memory, semantic categorisation & maths exercises 

There is also a large bank of ADL exercises (e.g. reading menus, reading product labels, telling the time and reading calendar entries).

The memory and ADL exercises also work on various language areas e.g. auditory memory, functional reading, semantics, auditory comprehension and inferences.

Error handling: Yes

Prompts/cues: Yes

Record results: Yes, very detailed, specifying which cues were required, which answer was chosen, how long the task took to complete and dates tasks were attempted

Comments/N.B

• There is only one version for UK, US, Aus

• 3-4 levels of difficulty, depending on exercises

• Very large bank of over 13,500 items

• 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

Program: Aphasia therapy online

Type of exercises:

• listening (auditory/word matching, auditory/picture matching, spell a spoken word, auditory letter discrimination)
• reading (single words & short phrases, matching upper/lower case letters, answering simple, written Y/N questions, auditory letter discrimination)
• spelling (picture naming & spelling spoken words)
• written picture naming, spoken picture naming

Access: keyboard & mouse

Developed with SLT: yes

Theory based: no

Record own speaking attempts: no

Correction of own speaking attempts: no

Number of exercises: several levels and 40-50 items per exercise

Easy to use? yes

Customisation/personalisation: no

Error handling: only 1 error is allowed before answer is given, to prevent errorful learning 

Prompts/cues given: initial letter/semantic cue, can limit word length

Record results: no

Tutorials: no

Free trial: program is free

Support: from the SLT who developed it

Comments: user must make own judgement of whether spoken naming was correct. No spoken models are provided to make this judgment

Languages: In addition to English, this resource is available in both European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese - either the therapy tasks or the entire website as preferred.

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 client version & a clinician version.  The clinician version is free. The client version requires a yearly subscription.

Supplier: Constant

4 bundle app containing Comprehension Therapy, Naming Therapy, Writing Therapy & Reading Therapy for people who want to work on all 4 areas of language

Look at each app's details individually for more information on what each one contains

Word to picture, picture to word and word to word matching

Phrase to picture, picture to phrase and phrase to phrase matching

Picture to sentence, sentence to sentence matching

Sentence completion

12 categories of everyday words to choose from

Results are recorded and can be emailed

Word and phrase level reading exercises but also exercises to practise spoken words and compose written sentences

Word to picture matching, picture to word matching, phrase to picture matching, picture to phrase matching, read & answer simple questions, compose simple written phrases

Opportunities are given to speak aloud words/phrases and record spoken attempts

No cues given, no error handling

Words/categories can be selected.

If user makes errors, the app will automatically reduce the number of multiple choice answers on display

Results are recorded and can be sent by email. Detailed breakdown of results is provided (e.g. the particular semantic categories where errors occurred)

Up to 4 words are presented for the user to make a sentence.

Many settings: words only, spoken hints, picture hints, choose sentence length (2-4 words), pick specific words or sentences to work on, uppercase or lowercase presentation, autoprogression option

Type of exercises & brief description             

• A trial version of 4 apps: Comprehension Therapy, Naming Therapy, Reading Therapy and Writing Therapy
• 5 items are available under each therapy category so you can trial the 4 apps before buying the full versions

Error handling: See individual app descriptions

Prompts/cues: See individual app descriptions

Record results: See individual app descriptions

Comments/N.B
Not a therapy tool in itself, a taster/demo