Saying single words

Type of exercises & brief description             

• Practise speech exercises for 26 (capital) letters of the alphabet, numbers 1-20 and 12 colours
• Videos and voice recordings of letters & words to copy

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: None

Comments/N.B

• Limited program  but it is free and could be useful as part of dyspraxia and aphasia therapy
• Can allocate specific letters, numbers, colours to work on
• American voice

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

Type of exercises & brief description             

• Practise of speech sounds for apraxia of speech & other motor speech disorders
• Building speech –  to practise basic speech patterns & build up to sentence length utterances, (includes basic  functional phrases)
• Using speech – to practise continuous speech (includes phrases for the phone, & at a restaurant)
• Creating own speech samples
• The user is expected to produce the sounds in unison with the model provided
• They can watch their own production of sounds simultaneously if their device has a camera

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: Video and audio clips of oral movements

Comments:

• It is recommended that headphones be worn to do the exercises
• Success relies on many, many repetitions so user needs to be motivated to do this kind of therapy
• For a fee, user can send own phrases to the company for them to create conversation scripts
   

Type of exercises & brief description             

• Practise of 21 consonant phonemes progressing to phoneme production in initial position of word/phrase
• The user is expected to produce the sounds in unison with the model provided
• They can watch their own production of sounds simultaneously if their device has a camera
• Sounds are organised into sound families and contrastive sounds

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues: Video and audio clips of oral movements

Comments:

• It is recommended that headphones be worn to do the exercises
• For a fee, user can send own phrases to the company for them to create conversation scripts
• Can designate specific exercises to be completed
• Only consonant phonemes provided

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             

• 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             

• 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:

• Verbal single word naming of numbers, amounts and time
• Verbal single word repetition of numbers, amounts and time

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: Not a specific theory base, SLT experience

Record own speaking attempts: Yes

Correction of own speaking attempts: No

Customisation/personalisation: No

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: No

Tutorials: No

Free trial: Yes

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

Comments:

• Up to 150 exercises for each ‘lesson’.
• No visual cues (e.g. pictorial representation of a number or a clock face)
• Aimed at reading aloud numbers, time or money amounts

N.B:
  Model voice is American

Type of exercises:

• Verbal single word naming of numbers, amounts and time
• Verbal single word repetition of numbers, amounts and time

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: Not a specific theory base, SLT experience

Record own speaking attempts: Yes

Correction of own speaking attempts: No

Customisation/personalisation: No

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: No

Tutorials: No

Free trial: Yes

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

Comments:

• Up to 150 exercises for each ‘lesson’.
• No visual cues (e.g. pictorial representation of a number or a clock face)
• Aimed at reading aloud numbers, time or money amounts

N.B:
  Model voice is American
  Supplier details: