App Review: Quick Artic

This app is hard to find!  I found it by accident, and now when I search I can never seem to find the page. Quick Artic is an articulation app that offers real pictures.  It's not the best, and some have reviewed that it force closes, but so far I haven't had any problems with it, and it's free, so I have even less to complain about.

It has a good number of real photos for almost every sound, although not all the pictures are great, some are terrible, but for the most part they are adequate especially in a pinch.  It also has tracing for correct and incorrect answers within the app, which is good, unless you accidentally touch the back button which erases all the data.

Overall, for free I think this is worth a try, but it's definitely not a stellar app.

Android Apps for SLPs Review: Cut The Rope

This is a quick app review for Cut the Rope and some ideas for how this can be used in therapy.  As a speech-language pathologist I am constantly searching for ways to make articulation practice more fun and make giving and following directions more interesting and this app can provide that.  This is a an app for both Android and iPad that is deceptively simple, somewhat like "Where's My Water."  The object is to cut the ropes on a food item and get it to hungry monster.  I mostly use this app for a reward and /r/ practice for older children (7-10) who enjoy the challenge and need practice on /ro/ words, which tend to be so difficult.  This game can also be used to target receptive language by having them follow directions on more difficult levels, or expressive language by asking them to guide you in winning a level that they are familiar with.

This game is fun and great for targeting several deficits, but be sure to set a time limit or number of retries as it can quickly take up more time than intended.

Three essential apps for the Android toting SLP

Hello all!  I know that sometimes the world of apps can be a little overwhelming, so I am here to offer some suggestions of apps that I have found to be the most helpful.

Note: I do not work for any of these companies and I get no compensation from them, I just got their apps and found them to be helpful.

The first app is Skitch this is a great app that I use at least once a day, and often more.  What's so great about it?  It allows you to draw on any picture file.  This means that you can scan worksheets, take pictures of books, items, or from other applications and draw on them with this app.  I usually use this for identifying concepts by scanning worksheets or saving them as a jpeg file.  I can then open them anytime and have my kids X out, circle, or their favorite... arrow to the named concept.  They can choose colors and either draw with a pen tool, or use the preset shapes.  This is also great because you can "undo" so if you want to model without leaving the mark you can easily undo your markup and let them take over.  Below is an example of markups on a "what does not belong" worksheet.  Just be sure to go into the app's settings and check the "keep tools active" box so that your tool of choice doesn't automatically revert to the pen tool.

Using Skitch to mark on a worksheet

My second app of choice is one that I recently found, Kid Creation (Kids Scene),  This app has been wonderful for creating "worksheets" on the go for basic concepts, language, and even articulation.  It is basically a sticker program that allows you to choose a background, choose characters and place them anywhere.  You can layer them to allow for "in front" or "behind" when working on prepositions as well as make them larger or smaller.  I love this app, and frequently make a picture with my kids and then save it and import it into skitch to test their grasp of the concepts.   The picture below was made with an articulation client working on /r/ in spontaneous sentences in all positions.

The third app that I highly recommend is the Disney app Where's my Water it is available for both Android and Apple operating systems and is a great therapy app for working on problem solving and as a reward.  All the kids I see love this app!  They will attempt the levels themselves, follow directions to complete ones that are more difficult, and use their expressive language to describe to me how to win the level.  I use this at least once per day.  The levels tend to be quick but later levels are quite challenging.  Not only is this a great app, but you can also get additional resources from the game's web page to bring in more of the story and provide additional language opportunities.  The main idea is that you dig through the dirt, around obstacles, and get Swampy water so he can take a bath.  Kids love it and it makes for an excellent addition to your therapy arsenal.

Give these a try and let me know what you think of them.  I am always happy to hear comments about what you have found useful so that I can add it to the blog!

Hope these give you a good start in the world of Android platform apps!