Sunday, April 21, 2013

App Review: Starfall

I know that many SLP's involved with the schools will be familiar with this app, but for those of you who don't know about it, Starfall is a great reading and phonics app to use in therapy and especially to suggest to parents whose children are having difficulty with reading.



This $2.99 app tackles each sound as well as blends, digraphs and diphthongs.  It is a great starting point or a place for beginning practice in reading and phonics.  I have several children on my schedule who have used this at home and the parents have been very pleased with the app as well.  Additionally, there are free versions at www.starfall.com that also  tackle reading levels from single letters to reading short stories.

Both the app and the website are great additions to your reading repertoire and can be very helpful for parents to try at home.  Also, many of the activities are set up as games so children sometimes don't even realize that they are learning to read.

Give it a try and let parents know about the app as well as the website that is accessible for free!

Friday, April 12, 2013

Review: Flow Free and Follow Me Free

Today's review is of two apps that I have really enjoyed for following directions, memory and attention.  Flow Free and Follow Me Free are two very similar apps that are fun and great for working on several different areas.

Flow Free is a maze-like app that I love for working on problem solving and following directions.  There are pairs of dots in various colors that you have to connect while taking up a whole grid and they cannot cross each other.  Most of my kids can't do this on their own, but we work on counting the number of spaces and following locational directions.  Usually good for a good 5 to 10 minutes of direction-following-fun!

Follow Me Free is very similar but works on memory as well as following directions.  Very similar to Flow Free, dots appear on the screen and move to their end point, then the player has to retrace the dot's path.  You have to really pay attention and remember the path that the dots take.  Usually I have my kids follow one dot, and I will do the other to take some of the pressure off.  You can rewatch the moves as many times as necessary, and this is a good way to track improvements in memory and attention by looking at how many times they need to watch before they are able to replicate it.  I will often also use this for following directions by remembering the path and verbally guiding them.

Both are very simple games that provide a lot of complex skills.  I have also given these to parents as home practice and they have gone over well, especially as they are free.  Just another great couple of apps to add to your repertoire!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Broken Links!

I just wanted to write an apology to anyone trying to follow the review links on the list of apps page.  The links to the Google Play sites were working, but a number of the links to the reviews were broken due to an error when I copied the links.  I am very sorry to anyone who was trying to get to the reviews from that page!  They have all been fixed and should now be linking appropriately to their reviews!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Friday, April 5, 2013

App Review of Cooking apps for following directions

Here is another trio review, this time for some decorating apps that were found on the Bubadu.com page of Google Play.  The three apps that I really like from them are their cooking/decorating apps.  There is Ice Cream Kids Cooking GameCupcake Kids Cooking Game, Pizza Maker Cooking Game, and Cake Maker Kids Cooking Game.

This first picture is from my favorite, Ice Cream Kids.  There are lots of options available on the free version of this app, as with all four of them, but at the end of each is a game.  On Ice Cream, there are balloons to pop, and by pushing the button on the bottom right more balloons float up.  All four apps are great for descriptions, following directions and are just plain fun for the kids.  I must admit I, myself, had a lot of fun creating the examples for the pictures! Also, at the end of each game you can "eat" the product by tapping on it and circles that look vaguely bite-sized disappear.


In the cake maker, my second favorite due to the great shapes of the cakes (which would be great for kids working in identifying shapes or making requests), has fireworks at the end which are quite fun for the younger kids.  Also, if the candles are on the cake they can be "blown out" using the candle button.

Pizza maker offers more great shapes, as well as a bunch of new options for sauce, cheese, meats, fish, fruits and vegetables.  Again there is a little end game which is reminiscent of fruit ninja where you slice up pizzas as they fly by and try to avoid the toys that are thrown in.


Cupcake maker is my least favorite, but still a great app!  At the end there are bubbles that are blown and popped along with lots of options for cake, icing, toppings and decorations.  

Each of these apps has excellent graphics, show up well on the tablet screen and feature smooth play with an "undo" button that the OCD kids (and adults) will like.  In the free versions ads are rarely triggered other than at the very beginning, and they are visually beautiful.  These would be great to add to any collection for expressive and receptive language, especially following directions.  Sequencing can also be targeted as the cake, cupcake, and pizza versions have the stages in which the products are cooked, decorated, and "eaten" at the end.

Great apps with very good potential for use in speech therapy sessions and at home for carry-over activities!