Proloquo2Go App Sale!!

Proloquo2Go will be 50% off soon!

Posted Thursday 24 Sep 2015

We are excited to announce Proloquo2Go 4.1 will be released very soon. This major update includes support for Spanish!

You will be able to configure your vocabulary in English, Spanish or both with the ability to switch instantly between languages at any time, even mix languages mid-sentence. Choose between two regional variants, Castilian and North American Spanish with a range of matching voices that includes 2 children voices. Proloquo2Go will be a completely bilingual AAC system with its new Spanish Crescendo™ vocabulary.

For existing users all of this is included for free, no in-app purchase, no new app to purchase.

To celebrate, Proloquo2Go 4.1 will be sold at a 50% discount for the first 48 hours after release.

Subscribe to the AssistiveWare letter to be notified when Proloquo2Go 4.1 is released so you can take advantage of the 50% introductory discount. Don’t speak Spanish? No problem, the discount is for everyone.

Note that during the discount period no extra discount is available through Apple’s educational Volume Purchase Program.

App Review: rubycube

Image from rubycubeapps.com

Looking for a fun new app to try out for story comprehension and retell?  Check out rubycube!  The app supports multiple different stories (give “Trudy Goes to the Beach” a look – such a great summer story to remind you of what sun looks like in the middle of winter!). 

Once you enter the story, there are several great features to support comprehension and retell.  The story includes a minimally animated image (perfect for stimulating interest, but not too distracting), and specific phrases are highlighted in blue – when you click on these, the user gets to select the semantically correct phrase from 4-5 options.

You can set the app to read aloud for you, or you can have the student record and then listen to themselves reading or retelling the story.  Stories also are broken up into chapters, and the app’s navigation makes it easy to move between chapters and stories.

Rubycube is a great app to check out this winter – or any season!  See rubycube’s short tutorial video here for a preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYRFK5WLupg

App Review: Bitsboard

Image from bitsboard.com

Here at the SLP Center, we are always on the hunt for ways to make speech fun and engaging for our clients, and Bitsboard is a phenomenal way to do just that!

Bitsboard allows you to create flashcards – really for anything!  You create a “board”, or a set, of flashcards.  You type in the target word, phrase, or sentence, and then select a picture from any of Bitsboard’s included images or search the internet and add an internet image.  You can flashcards to speak the word aloud, or not.  You can either use the program’s voice or you can record your own!

The app also allows users to play games to review their flashcards, including true or false, memory, match up, word builder, pop quiz, and several other options.

The great thing is that you can share a board that you create with any other iPad that has Bitsboard on it.  This way you can not only use flashcards you create in therapy, but also at home!

We’ve used Bitsboard to help build vocabulary, practice articulation target sounds in words, phrases, and sentences, practice past tense verb conjugation, learn attributes, and enhance word-finding skills.  The options really are endless!

App Review: Speech Tutor from Pocket SLP

Image from PocketSLP.com

Finding articulation to be a struggle?  That one sound just isn’t happening?  Check out Speech Tutor from Pocket SLP, an SLP Center favorite!

The app provides a “see-through” face, which you can switch to a side or frontal view.  You can then see exactly where the tongue goes within the mouth, relative to the palate (roof of the mouth) and the teeth.  You can also watch the shape that the lips make.  There’s also a nice visual that “shows” the air.

Sounds offered include /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /n/, /m/, “ing”, “th” (voiced and voiceless), /f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, “sh”, “ch” “j”, /l/, and /r/.

This app is a great one for kids who aren’t responding to auditory corrections or who are having trouble figuring out just where to put their tongue for specific sounds.  What better way to demystify articulation?

Another App Sale!

We love Virtual Speech Center for their fun and functional apps!  They are currently having a sale on their apps, so you can buy them with a 40% discount.  The sale ends on 11/29, so don't miss out!

Head over to the Virtual Speech Center website to see which apps are on sale!

Read about some of our favorite Virtual Speech Center apps below:

Sequencing Post Office

Image via virtualspeechcenter.com

A great way to practice sequencing skills for real life events, including making a sandwich, brushing teeth, and taking out the trash.  Perfect for children ages 3 and up who struggle with sequencing events in their daily life, telling stories, or understanding cause and effect relationships.

 

Image via virtualspeechcenter.com

Auditory Workout

For children with receptive language delays and disorders, try out Auditory Workout!  This app allows you to choose instructions of varying levels of difficulty, including embedded concepts (e.g., size, spatial concepts, quantitative concepts, color).  Auditory Workout also allows the addition of background noise to simulate real-life situations.

Real Vocabulary

Image via virtualspeechcenter.com

Real Vocabulary helps children in elementary school target expressive and receptive vocabulary through antonyms, synonyms, definitions, idioms, and multiple meanings.  Each target vocabulary word is accompanied by a color photograph and audio cues, and is based on grade-appropriate core curriculum vocabulary.
​
Thanks for reading!  As always, for more information, visit us on our website or like us on Facebook.

OperaVox Review

Looking for a great new application to assess and track progress for voice patients?  Check outOperaVox!  The SLP Center just got this great new app, and we have already been putting it to good use.  

Image via operavox.co.uk

The app has several price points, including a free edition, one with limited users, and one that allows for multiple users.  The users feature allows you to track multiple patients, and the app will store previous testing data to allow you to track progress over time.

Within the full package, you’re able to give the Voice Handicap Index, a rating survey that has been standardized and allows you to see how your patient’s voice disorder is affecting them functionally, emotionally, and physically.  You are also able to analyze pitch and voice stability.  For this assessment, the patient holds “aah” for 5 seconds, and then pitch is determined as well as jitter, a measure of how much variability is in the voice.  Maximum phonation time assesses how long a patient can hold “aah” without stopping.  Finally, Reading Pitch Range Analysis requires the patient to read a passage (the Rainbow Passage is included in the app and is easily accessible during the assessment).  This analysis assesses both the average pitch and the pitch range of a patient while they read.  I actually also used this analysis a second time to see what my patient’s average pitch and pitch range looked like in conversation – I just gave them a quick prompt (“tell me about your family”) and had them speak into the iPad again. 

Image via itunes.apple.com

One thing to keep in mind is that you want to make sure that the patient is the same distance from the iPad each time you administer the tests.  I measured a piece of string that I’ll have my patients use each time to make sure they are a consistent distance from the iPad.

This app is a great option, whether you’re a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) evaluating and treating voice patients, or if you’re an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor looking for before and after measurements for surgery purposes.  It’s easy to use, easily accessible on the iPad!  A must have for data collection and progress monitoring for voice patients – check it out today!

Thanks for reading!  To learn more about the SLP Center, check out our website or "like" us onFacebook!

App Review: Bitsboard

We have shared about this app before but we can't help but share it again!  Bitsboard is an awesome and FREE app that is great for speech-language pathologists, educators and parents! Bitsboard allows the user to create cards with words and/or pictures that can then be used as flashcards or to play a variety of games (memory, matching, photo touch, etc...).  You can pull pictures and sound from the Bitsboard library or customize the cards with your own pictures and sound.  Once your board is created you can easily share it so others can search for it by name and download it to their own iPad.  This is our favorite app for creating materials to be shared between therapy and home!  Download Bitsboard today and give it a try for yourself - we are sure you will love it too!   

Image from bitsboard.com

Click here to download Bitsboard from the iTunes store: 

Bitsboard

Thanks for reading!  Don't forget to share this on Facebook and visit our website, www.slpcenter.com, for more information! 

Angry Bird App Review

This App Review of Angry Birds was written in a therapy session by one of our teenage clients. This activity was done to address a variety of skills including sequencing, describing, organization and written language goals. 

"Angry Birds is an amazing game for ages 5 and up. The characters are birds and pigs. The birds are the ones that you control and the pigs are the ones that you try to destroy. There are a lot of game settings in Angry Birds. They are held in different places such as space, the desert, and in the mines. The point of Angry Birds the game is to knock all the pigs off the gigantic towers.

The first step to play Angry Birds is to put your finger on the bird on the screen. Then pull the bird back and next try to aim toward the pigs on the tall structures. Look to see what you knocked down. If all the pigs don’t fall down and if you don’t have any birds left then you lose. If you have birds left you keep trying to knock all the pigs down. You win the round by knocking all the pigs down before you run out of birds.

I rate this game 3 out of 5 stars because I would like it better if it was located somewhere different like movie scenes and backgrounds of popular television shows."

By J.C.

Visit our website for more information! www.slpcenter.com

iPad Round Table: November 10, 2010

Image from blog.difflearn.com

Speech-Language Pathology Center is looking forward to attending an upcoming workshop that will address iPad usage for special education, particularly in the area autism spectrum disorders.  This will be a round table discussion, by invitation, at the Apple store in Chestnut Hill.  Some of the attendees include parents, educators, speech pathologists and other AAC professionals. I'll keep you posted for any new tips and tricks that I utilize to promote communication skills.