Picture dictionary with opportunities to practise simple conversations

Designed for foreign language learners but useful resource for people with communication difficulties

Unit 1 is free

Explain a word without using the 6 associated words on the card

Good for high level semantics or word finding and for speaking under pressure

Can be used as a game or therapy tool

Type of exercises:

• Multiple choice written word to picture/spoken word matching
• Stimuli can be presented as pictures or with spoken words

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? Yes

Customisation/personalisation: No

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: None
 

Tutorials: Yes, online

Free trial: Yes but not the complete program

Support: Via Livechat or the suppliers 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
• Remote access to results is possible as long as the SLT has the user’s login & password.

N.B:
    US terminology/vocabulary
   

Type of exercises:

• Finding antonyms (fill in the blank)

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? Yes

Customisation/personalisation: No



Error handling: None



Prompts/cues given: First sound, similes

Tutorials: Yes, online



Free trial: free trial available through Advanced Language Therapy Lite app



Support: Via Livechat or the suppliers 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
• Remote access to results is possible as long as the SLT has the user’s login & password.

N.B:

    US terminology/vocabulary

Designed to elicit basic to high level conversation.

Can be used for eliciting verbal or written language.

Can be used to work on any area of conversation: eliciting opinions, making descriptions, making inferences, giving definitions, reminiscing, talking about emotions, making predictions, telling stories or even working on fluency and speech clarity.

Could be used for self practise if the person has a means of recording their speech/writing or could be used during therapy sessions with the therapist.

Results (as rated by the therapist or conversation partner) are recorded and can be emailed.

Can customise the written content to elicit specific types of language or work on particular language areas.

The user can choose to have the questions read aloud.

Free trial available through Conversation Therapy Lite app

Supplier: Tactus

Attach voice recordings to your photos to tell people about yourself and what you've been doing

The person needs single word reading to identify the photo they want to pick from a written list

Spoken word to picture matching. Written word is also presented.

Click Yes or No to say if the word matches the picture.

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?: Yes but can be confusing because sometimes when you click on 'No', the computer says 'Yes' as the reward for a correct response.

Customisation/personalisation: No

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: None

Record results: Yes

Tutorials: Yes, online

Free trial: Yes but not the complete program

Support: Via Livechat or the suppliers 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
• Remote access to results is possible as long as the SLT has the user’s login & password.

N.B:
    
    Voice is American and computer generated
    No visual rewards for correct answers
 

Supplier: http://www.parrotsoftware.com 

For working on speech sound production. May be useful when working on phonological awareness, articulation, dyspraxia, reading (phonics)

Can choose to work on one or all of: initial sounds, initial clusters, final sounds, final clusters and can work on these phonemes in isolation or within words/non-words

The sounds/words are then presented in a flipbook which is divided into 3 parts each of which flip over separately.  For example, allowing the user to practise a specific phoneme in final position with many different initial and/or medial phonemes

Highly cutomiseable. It is possible to generate personalised word/non-word lists

The user can record their own speech attempts

Supplier: Tactus

Auditory comprehension exercises including auditory word-picture matching, listening to & following basic directions, temporal directions and conditional directions.

There are up to 9 levels of difficulty & 1700 items

Results can be recorded and emailed. A score is given at the end of each exercise & a record of exercises attempted is also recorded within the app but scores are not saved in these reports.

User can record their speech although this is an app to work on auditory comprehension rather than speech.

Ability to turn on background noise & set for multiple users.

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