Price: $2.99

Seller: Shape Minds and Moving Individuals

Tablet: iPad

Educational Aspects:

• Animals

• Colors

• Seasons

• Sounds

• Spatial Concepts

• Cause/Effect

• Auditory Comprehension

• Joint Attention

• Predicting

• Impulse Control

• Receptive Directions

Description:

Little Fox Music Box is an interactive sing along music app that illustrates and animates popular kids songs. It features “Old MacDonald,” “London Bridge,” and “Evening Song.” Each scene is filled with animals and objects to explore. It also has an area where you can make your own music using woodland creatures and kitchen gadgets. It will even provide you three different beats to create with.

Review:

Little Fox Music Box is an aesthetically and aurally pleasing app. It’s child friendly and easy to use. The app features children singing three different songs. It allows you to turn off the singing and accompaniment and simply explore the scene. From a music therapist’s perspective, this is helpful so that the therapist can provide live music and additional prompts. The app unfortunately does not allow the music to simply be paused. So, if you begin “Old MacDonald” and want to prompt your child to “find the pig,” you are unable to stop the music while they search for the desired animal or object. Parents or therapists can easily use the interactive scenes to prompt educational concepts such as animals, colors, or even seasons. Another unique feature of the app is Little Fox’s music studio where kids can create their own music by interacting with various animals and objects throughout the Fox’s studio.

Pros:                                                                Cons:

• You can turn off the music                             • You can’t  pause the song

•  Well-done design                                         • Using mute starts the song over

• Has the option to turn the karaoke                •  The tempo of the songs might be fast for  off or on.                                                               some kids.

• Works with many different concepts

• Buying one copy will work on both iPhone

and iPad.

Almost everything makes a noise in this studio. For the quality of the graphics and content of this app, it is very well priced at $2.99

Click here to view and/or purchase Little Fox Music Box.

Melissa Kelley, MT-BC, SLPA

In honor of their 4 year birthday, Duck Duck Moose will have the app “Wheels on the bus” for free to download starting today Friday January 25th- Sunday January 27th.  This app is great for early learners, as well as using it for the following: following simple directions, describing, imitating, and much more.  I strongly suggest going to the following link and downloading it while its free!

Click here to download Wheels on the bus. (itunes only)

Price: $24.99

Seller: Steven Troughton-Smith

Tablet: iPad

Educational Aspect:

• PECS system (Picture Exchange Communication System)

Description:

The Grace app for Autism is a basic vocabulary of pictures that can be customized by the iPad’s camera as well as photos or images found on the Internet.

Review:

The Grace app for Autism is a non-speaking picture exchange system for non-verbal people to communicate their wants and needs more effectively.  It comes pre-loaded with eight categories (sentence makers, colors, shapes & numbers, my body, food & drink, things I like, things I need, and places).  The app is laid out nicely and easily organized.  The major drawback to this app is the labeling choices on some of the pre-loaded pictures. It is evident that they are not typical labels that we would use in the U.S. (i.e. picture of underwear labeling it as “pants” and picture of french fries labeling it as “chips”).  The edit button does not allow you to edit the wording, it only allows for the picture to be deleted from the category.  This means that you would need to find and add in all the proper pictures with labeling yourself.  If you are willing to put the time into finding the proper pictures for your son/daughter to customize this app, it can be extremely useful.  As a therapist, you could use this app in replace of laminating and making PECS.  It allows for simple communication and can provide the user with a simple way to communicate his or her needs and wants.  It should be noted once again, that this app does NOT speak. This is not to be confused as an AAC (Augmentative Alternative Communication) app.  This app will allow the user to form simple sentences, request, and know the expectations placed on them (i.e. first homework next computer).

Pros:                                                           Cons:

1. Simple to use                                        1.  Pre-loaded pictures labeled improperly
2. 8 pre loaded categories                        2.  Time consuming to find & load pictures
3. Customizable                                        3.   High price point

4.   Grace app manual                                   4.   Edit button only allows for deleting picture

http://www.graceapp.com/graceappmanual.pdf

This app would really benefit from having the “edit” button do more.  If you could easily change the label of the picture, this app would be quick, simple, and ready to use.  For its price point the app should be ready to go for people in various locations around the world.  On the other side, the Grace app website http://www.graceapp.com/ is full of information, videos, and a very detailed manual on how to use the app.

Click to view and/or purchase Grace

Provided by: Andrea Flynn, B.A., SLPA

Apple provides intelligent and innovative solutions for people with disabilities, allowing them to access — and enjoy using — Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV. Join Andrea Flynn of Speech N’ Teach Apps to learn firsthand how Apple continues to set a high standard for accessibility.

Who: Andrea Flynn B.A., SLPA, Lillie Vosa M.S. CCC-SLP, Stefanie Meyer M.S., CCC-SLP, and Melissa Kelley MT-BC, SLPA

Price: $2.99 iPad, $1.99 Nook

Seller: Software Smoothie

Tablet: iPad, Nook

Educational Aspects:

Targets a wide variety of language goals including:

•     Story telling and songs
•     Following directions
•     Describing
•     Spatial concepts
•     Vocabulary building
•     Categorizing
•     WH questions

Description:

Felt Board is modeled after felt boards used by children, storytellers, and teachers. Users can choose from a variety of backgrounds, characters, animals, numbers, letters, and scenery for hours of learning through play.

Review:

Felt Board is a versatile app that is simple enough to target a wide variety of language goals. Children and adults will be familiar with the layout and concept because it is designed after felt boards used in schools. The layout easy to use and look is beautiful with bright colors and simple shapes of all items. Users can select a wide range of backgrounds and items from a categorized side bar to add to a scene and address language goals such as, categorizing, naming/labeling, story-telling, following directions, and describing (just to name a few). Users can also take quick pictures of a scene to be discussed/described later, or to create a saved story sequence. Scrolling and selecting items can be difficult as items are added if they are touched and the scroll bar is very small. However, mistakes can be easily removed by dragging items to the trash.

Pros:                                                                Cons:

1.   Inexpensive                                             1.   Difficult to scroll
2.   Aesthetically pleasing                              2.   No music or recording capabilities
3.   Intuitive and simple
4.   Versatile

Felt Board is an exceptional application for children of all ages. It is simple and versatile with an intuitive layout and unlimited imaginative possibilities.

Below are some promotional codes for Felt Board on iPad ONLY.

Click to view and/or purchase Felt Board for iPad

Click to view and/or purchase Felt Board for Nook

Lillian Vosa, M.S., CCC-SLP

Price: FREE

Seller: Sesame Workshops App

Tablet: iPad, Android

Educational Aspects:

• Non-verbal communication
• Body language
• Facial expressions
• Vocabulary strengthening and building

Description:

Feel Electric is a free app that encourages the exploration of emotional vocabulary and self-expression.  It has three games, a digital diary to record moods and feelings, a creative story maker, and much more.

Review:

When we discuss teaching pragmatics and all that is involved with non-verbal communication, there isn’t a better app then Feel Electric!  It is a jam-packed app full of educational content that can be geared towards an array of individuals in differing age groups.  The app is carefully laid out and detailed step-by-step by the characters on the screen.  Feel Electric provides versatile learning in the areas of body language, understanding complex emotions, facial expressions, and most importantly how to express oneself both appropriately and accurately.  As therapists, using this app teaches critical skills and grows the end user’s vocabulary (outside of the typical feelings happy, mad, and sad).  It provides the individual with engaging tasks that keep them both focused and on topic no matter where they navigate to within the app.

Pros:                                                                      Cons:

1. Free
2. Teaches pragmatics
3. Wide variety of content
4. Versatile to many age group (great for teens)

Feel Electric is a remarkable app that can be utilized in groups as well as individual settings.  It is definitely worth downloading and exploring what it can do.

Click to view and/or purchase Feel Electric!

Provided by: Andrea Flynn, B.A., SLPA

Price: $4.99 or Lite Version- Free

Seller: Eran Talmor

Tablet: iPad, Android,

Educational Aspects:

• Labeling
• Adjectives
• Verbs
• Object functions
• “Wh” Questions
• Direction following (one step/multi-step)
• Prepositions
• Pronouns

Description:

The Sound Touch App consist of drawings and real life pictures. The pictures consist of different categories ranging from farm animals to object functions.

Review:

The Sound Touch App is an outstanding App for children who are working on Expressive and Receptive Language skills. Children will love the bright cartoon drawings that transition into real life pictures, a great concept to teach generalization of objects. Children can follow one step directions (e.g. “show me the cow”) up to  multi-step directions (e.g. “first point to the cow then the sheep”). Test your child’s ability to answer various “wh” questions (e.g. “Who flies the airplane?). The App can also be used to encourage acquisition of new verbs and adjectives as the real life pictures change up to five times when the cartoon picture is touched. Don’t spend money on  flash cards when the Sound Touch app provides an interactive approach for all children.

Pros:                                                                    Cons:

1. Pictures are rotating                                       1. Limited Categories
2. Displays object functions
3. Interactive sounds when pushed
4. Encourages acquisition of verbs/adjectives

Be the first to enter any of the promo codes below to download Sound Touch for FREE!

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Click to view and/or purchase SoundTouch

Provided by: Ricardo Rocha, M.S., CCC-SLP

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We have some promo codes for an app called VideoTouch-Vehicles. It is great for early learners! Just make sure to share or mention Speech N’ Teach Apps with your friends!

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Price: 1.99

Seller: Bonnier Digital Services AB

Tablet: iPad

Educational Aspects:

• Verbs
• Pronouns
• Labeling
• Sequencing/ retelling steps
• Attending
• Following directions/giving directions
• Turn taking

Description:

Toca Hair Salon puts you in charge of being a hairdresser! With a variety of six characters to choose from and multiple tools found in a real hair salon, there are endless possibilities to what can be done.

Review:

Toca Hair Salon is one of the most entertaining, visually appealing, fun yet educational apps available in the App store.  You will know when you have found a Toca Boca app because their kid friendly, rainbow-smile exposed mouth will be showcased in the bottom right corner.  Once you venture into this app, your ipad screen will be transformed into a virtual hair salon.  Their unique layout, and simple design make this app extremely easy to use and operate.  As a therapist, targeting goals with this app can’t get any easier.  It allows us to work on verbs and pronouns as our client(s) sequence out the steps to a haircut.  When you’re all done with your virtual creation, you can also practice retelling the hair salon steps.  Additionally, it allows us to work on some of the harder goals in therapy, such as attending (staying on a task/activity for a specific amount of time).  As if all of these reasons weren’t enough, Toca Boca Hair Salon provides kids and teens with a creative outlet.  This allows them to make the ultimate decisions in “what looks cool” and transform their character’s hair into their own personal vision.

Pros:                                                                   Cons:

1. Easy to use & operate                                   1. Lacks ethnic hair choices (curly, etc…)
2. Kid friendly graphics
3. Array of salon tools
4. Affordable price
5. Camera option allows for saving, printing, and emailing picture(s).

Toca Boca in my opinion has conquered and paved the way for great apps in the App store.  They have a practical price point, outstanding graphics & animation, educational based apps, and a huge fan base.

Be the first to enter the promo codes below to download Toca Hair Salon for free!

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Click to view and/or purchase Toca Hair Salon

Andrea Flynn, B.A., SLPA

I just wanted to let you know that Toca Boca put their doctor app for free in the App Store today to honor “back to school” week.  This is a great app with lots of educational content that usually costs $1.99.  You can click on the link below to find and download it for FREE today.

Click here to view/download Toca Boca Doctor

Price: $3.99

Seller: Shimon Young

Tablets: iPad, Android, Nook

Educational Aspects:

• Pronouns
• Verbs
• Pretend play
• Linking ideas
• Sequencing (first, next, last)
• Forming complex sentences
• WH Questions
• Describing- I-Spy
• Labeling
• Following directions… to name a few

Description:

A virtual playhouse where you are in control! My PlayHome showcases 6 different rooms of a house (kids bedroom, master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, family room, and backyard). This app also comes in a lite version (free), but does not contain all the rooms.

Review:

My PlayHome is an original, multi-purpose, entertaining, yet educational app available in the App Store.  Once purchased, you will be hooked navigating and exploring the different rooms with all you can do!  This app is beyond impressive in its interactive capabilities. It is extremely user-friendly with no instructions needed.  The main screen on the app only showcases one function, “Tidy the House.”  This feature allows you to put the rooms back to the original settings (if you were playing with it previously).  Once you begin, the user can touch to add people into the scene.  To remove a character from your scene you must drag them back into their original spot.  You can also investigate other rooms of the house and see what they have to offer by touching the arrows on the screen.  From a therapist’s perspective, My PlayHome allows you to touch on multiple speech and language goals.  Children and teens get to use their imaginations in this app and create stories, link ideas, and be engaged all while working on verbs, pronouns, labeling, and even following directions to name a few.  This app is also great for working on complex sentences or having them describe a room or what they’re doing (i.e. Q: What is he doing?- A: He is jumping on the trampoline).  Really, the educational characteristics of this app are endless.

Pros:                                                                         Cons:

Price: FREE

Seller: Launchpad Toys

Tablet: iPad

Educational Aspects:

• Storytelling and/or retelling story
• WH questions (who, what, where, when, why, and how)
• Increasing utterance length
• Developing complex sentences
• Pretend Play
• Linking ideas
• Improving syntax
• Following directions
• Pragmatics
• Increasing use of pronouns/verbs
• Comprehending spatial terms
• Intonation
• Teaches flexibility and turn taking… to name a few

Description:

Toontastic is a creative educational app that allows children, teens, and adults of all ages to become the creator of their very own cartoon!

Review:

Toontastic is a one of a kind ingenious app available for free in the App Store!  From the moment the download is complete you will want to immediately begin playing. The catchy background music and advanced graphics are what truly leave this app pioneering the way of future apps to come.  The apps homepage is well organized providing practical navigation throughout the entire app.  The app begins teaching and explaining what is going to happen from the moment you click “New Cartoon.”  From a therapist’s perspective this is brilliant because the app explains the Story Arc and details out what should be happening in each setting.  The creator’s job is to listen and click on the corresponding picture (i.e. setup, conflict, challenge, climax, resolution) of where they want to begin.  Another strong educational factor in this app is its ability to teach emotions/feelings.  It not only lets the characters act out and sound a certain way through recording, but it also ties in background music that directly relates to the mood of the scene. This provides children and teens with a well-rounded view of emotions and feelings and helps them to comprehend Pragmatics. A feature that would be helpful for therapists and other educators on Toontastic, would be providing multiple recording sessions per scene.  When just one person is working on Toontastic managing and recording a scene is rather easy.  However, when you get 3+ people working on a cartoon, it gets hard to animate all the characters and have each child say their line in one recording.

Pros:                                                               Cons:

1. FREE                                                    1.  Hard to record in groups
2. Easy to use                                          2.  Mood music overpowers character’s voices
3. Numerous educational purposes
4. Teaches the Story Arc
5. Encourages imaginative play
6. Toontube feature (watching other videos from around the world)
7. Parent/Teacher Guide on website- filled with helpful information and interactive questions. http://launchpadtoys.com/toontastic/parent-teacher-guide/
8. Toy Store feature- Purchase extra scenes individually or All Access Pass for $9.99

This is a must have app!  Many therapists I personally know use this app across multiple settings.  The creators of this app are genius and seriously thought of everything.  From the kid-friendly look of the app to the Parent/Teacher Guide filled with helpful info, tips and a run down of the Story Arc!  It is innovative, educational, and beyond creative… what else can beat that?

Click to view and/or download Toontastic

Provided by: Andrea Flynn, B.A., SLPA

Price: $9.99

Seller: Hamaguchi Apps for Speech, Language & Auditory Development

Tablet: iPad

Educational Aspects:

Provides simple to multi-step directions including:

• Colors
• Objects
• Prepositions
• Spatial concepts
• Adjectives

Provides reinforcing sounds and animations for correct answers

Description:

FUN with Directions is an engaging app used to target listening and following directions skills.  There are 10 concepts (give, touch, open, close, top, middle, bottom, push, color, erase) to choose from and three different levels within the settings (easy, intermediate, advanced).

Review:

FUN with directions is an aesthetically pleasing app with child-friendly pictures and easy-to-use settings. The user is able to select the appropriate level for the child as well as which concepts will be targeted. Voice commands, other sound features, and text settings are also customizable. Correct answers are rewarded with simple sounds and animations that provide some built-in reinforcement. The three level settings (easy, intermediate, advanced) are very broad with large gaps in ability between each and the user is not able to select specifics within each level (i.e. 1 vs. 2 step directions). Additionally, on some pages within the levels, only the correct item will move which provides the child with unintentional cues as well as limiting the user to the direction given (i.e. no spontaneous or follow-up directions). This app is also a bit overpriced, however it can be used to address a variety of goals or concepts of varying skill levels.

Pros:                                                           Cons:

1. Customizable settings                           1.  Price
2. Many pages                                           2.  Broad range between levels
3. Simple illustrations and layout               3.  Limited to direction given
4. Reinforcing animations/sounds
5. Variety of concepts

Fun With Directions is a simple and user-friendly app that successfully targets single and multistep directions through a variety of concepts.

Click to view and/or purchase FUN with Directions.

Provided by: Lillian Vosa, M.S., CCC-SLP