Verbal word finding exercises for 104 words associated with men, based on semantic feature analysis

A picture is presented for the person to name.  8 levels of cue are available (including phonemic, initial letter spelling, semantic description)

The exercises encourage semantic questioning (What type of thing is this? Can you describe it?)

The many levels of cue would be useful for communication partners wanting useful strategies to adopt to aid word finding

Specific stimuli can be presented from 104 items if wanting to work on specific items only

There is no option to record own speaking attempts

% scores recorded

Designed to capture and organise ideas but could provide a useful tool for generating communication with photo/picture support. For example, someone could use it to generate a simple family tree to show relationships which they are unable to express verbally.  Another use could be to discuss an issue and attach all the feelings surrounding that issue. Another possibility could be for semantic therapy.

The possibilities are endless, it is content free and therefore can be used however the user sees fit.

The user must build a sentence to describe a picture.  The choice of words may include: subject, object, verb, adjective, modifier, connectors, prepositions

3 levels of exercise

Audio reinforcement is provided for correct answers

Could be useful for working on agrammatisms

Picture naming tasks where the person can record their own spoken attempt

Picture supported daily planner. Can add own photos

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

Visual scheduler with auditory prompts and alarms

Fully customiseable with own pictures/photos. Day/week/month view

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.

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

2-way &  group conversations are possible

Initiate and respond to conversations with a variety of language: questions, observations, change the topic

The user can record and save conversations as well as email them to their therapist

There are 8 conversation themes and they are very adolescent focused. However, with creative use, it could be used by adults.

The user has to select the correct response from a written choice of 3 and then record their response. However, they could choose to record an alternative spoken response