SillySongs App Review!!!

First I will start off with a little bit of background about the app and then I will get in to what I thought about it. Chicken Lips Apps created an app called SillySongs to target phonology and sound awareness. The app can be used with children to improve speech and language needs related to autism, apraxia, and phonological processes, as well as improve early literacy skills. The repetitive phrases played in this app are set to fun melodies and makes repetition easier for younger elementary students.


This is what the menu looks like when you first open the app. At the moment there are only three phonemes available, but I can only hope in the future the app will be expanded.

When you touch a letter a screen similar to this one pops up. The student or therapist must match the shapes to the outline in the drop zone (green circle). That starts a song. At the end of the song this screen pops up again and another shape is matched.

This is an example of a song screen. As the song is sung the words get bigger so students can follow along with it.

This is an example of a bonus game.

 

This is an example of the flash cards. The words in the songs can be practiced ahead of time.

I would recommend this app for students who are working on these sounds as it is more fun than articulation practice.

Pros:

• The artic practice is set to music.
• You have to find/match the correct shape to unlock the song.
• There is a bonus game feature students can earn.
• Flashcards allow for students to practice the target words before singing the song
• The song plays fully and then repeats with a missing word for the students to fill in.
• The target word becomes enlarged so students know which word they will have to repeat.  

Cons:

• All the songs are to the same tune.
• Once a shape is matched and the song starts there is no way to pause.

The opinions in this review are mine and only mine. I was provided a copy of this app and no other compensation.

Ways to make Articulation Therpay Fun!!!

Over the last few weeks I have noticed many of my articulation students not wanting to play games on the iPad, so going back to my childhood I started creating and purchasing inexpensive materials to make therapy more fun.

1.) Fishing for Articulation Words

 

 



 

The upper fish is from a package of die cuts I bought at dollar tree which I then laminated for durability and attached zip ties to for fishing. The zip ties were purchased at the 99 cent store. The plastic fishing set which comes with 1 fishing rod and 4 plastic fish (I purchased 2 sets) was from target.

I love this idea because you can use any combination of articulation, language, conversation, pragmatics, basically any card to target any goal your students may have. This is great for working in groups with multiple goals.

2.) Ping Pong/ Carnival Ball Toss

Just like with fishing you can use this game to target basically any goal. I bought the cups and ping pong balls at Dollar Tree. This game was difficult for my students, not sure if it was because of the low to the ground table or small cups but I may need to adjust this game before playing it again.

3.) Basketball

Using the set up from ping pong I put numbers inside each cup and used the ping pong balls and the trashcan in my therapy room. The students enjoyed trying to get the ping pong balls into the trashcan. With each shot they made they had to pick a number and complete the task or tasks under the cup.


These activities would work great with my new Gone Fishin' series of activities in my TeachersPayTeachers Store.


What fun things do you do in your therapy room?

Breana

U.T.F.= Unexpected Therapy Find Link Up: Apps

     I recently discovered a new blog written by Melanie at The Speech Place with a great new bloggy link up for Unexpected Therapy Finds. It takes a creative person to keep the students occupied and willing to participate in speech, making those unexpected finds unique therapy opportunities. I am excited to see how other SLPs and SLPAs use different items in therapy.
     I have tons of therapy apps on my iPad, although I swear it was originally purchased for my personal use. Some of my favorite apps are from companies like Smarty Ears or Super Duper Inc., but not all of the apps are therapy based.

My first app is a reading comprehension app from Abitalk Education System. The series of apps ranges from non-fiction, to fiction, to subject specific and come in grade level sets. I use these apps and the pictures in each story for story retell, sentences, and its intended purpose of reading comprehension. Find a sample of this series here.

I love MyPlayHomeStores. I know there are other similar apps from the same developer. My PlayHome can be used for answering wh- questions, prepositions, vocabulary, discussing appropriate behaviors at different types of venues. I am looking forward to getting other apps from Shimon Young. Find more information about this app here.

New-o-matic is a student newspaper app where articles can be adjusted to a students reading level. I use this app for finding main idea and details, articulation, and story retell. I love giving my students an opportunity to learn about a topic that is interesting to them. Find more information about this app here.

What are your favorite non-therapy specific apps?

Breana

New Product Series: Gone Fishin'

My new series of products called Gone Fishin' contains fishing poles and sea creature cards containing words. Each activity targets a specific area of language. I am introducing this series with activities to target irregular plurals and irregular past tense verbs.

 These are the fishing poles students can use to keep the cards after they have successfully completed the task at hand.

 

These are sample cards. The students matches or activity cards are not on matching clipart. 

 

The cards are set up to be used as a memory/matching game, for use with Super Duper Photo Fish or a fishing set as a fishing game, or many other games.  I plan on using my fishing game like these one to give my students something fun to do in therapy.

 

 

 

Find the Irregular Plurals activity here.

 

Find the Irregular Past Tense activity here.

 

Find the Irregular Past Tense Add-on activity here.

 

Find the Irregular Past Tense bundle here.

 

Breana

I'm Taking the TPT Plunge!!!!

Felice at The Dabbling Speechie had a great idea to have other SLP Bloggers share a few of their favorite products as well as promote a best selling from their own TPT store.

My first most used product is Cooking Up Simple Sentences from The Speech Bubble. Many of the students I work with are bilingual and I find myself working on sentence structure a lot. Find the product on TPT here.

My second most used product is Balloon Verbs- Past, Present, and Future by A Speechie's World. I use this product in so many different ways and love the simple theme and versatility of one product. Find the product on TPT here.

My most popular product is my Subordinating Conjunction Super Highway activity. This activity teaches students the difference between sentences and fragments as well as using subordinating conjunctions in sentences. Find this activity here.

Hope you find this helpful.

Breana

March Mystery Box Giveaway!!!

I have been trying for months to win the monthly Mystery Box giveaway. This giveaway hosted by 6 incredible blogs gives away a box full of fun surprises as well as digital products valued at approximately $200 every month. Check out Growing Firsties Blog to get information and enter.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this is my month to win!!!

Breana

Dynavox Mayer-Johnson App Reviews and Giveaways!!!!

Dynavox Mayer-Johnson has provided me with the opportunity to review Articulation Flip Books and PCS Flash Cards and they have provided me with 2 copies of each app to giveaway to my loyal followers. I was introduced to The Entire World of R by a family friend who recently retired from being an SLP and by my current Supervisor, but carrying around all of the different components is hard for me (I work in 5-6 different schools during the week). Getting the opportunity to review part of this program and have it on my iPad is definitely a plus.

First up lets take a closer look into Articulation Flip Books. This app contains three segment flip books for phonemes: ar, air, ear, er, k and g, m and n, or, p and b, r blends, recurrent r's and ire, rl and prevocalic r, s and z, s/r/l, sh and ch, t and d, th/f/v, and w/h/l.

This is a picture of what the home screen looks like.

When you click on the desired phonemes flipbook, this is what the screen looks like.

Each of the three segments can be changed individually, creating an indefinite number of possibilities. This app is also great because it can target expressive language skills such as sentence formation, syntax, and predictions and receptive language skills such as answering wh- questions and vocabulary development.

Pros:

• Targets articulation, receptive, and expressive language
• Settings allow you to turn the text on the panels on and off and mute the sound
• The app can be used on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod
• Each panel is narrated individually (but touching the text) or as a sentence (by touching the blue square in the corner)
• The text turns blue when being narrated as a sentence so non-readers can follow along.
• Easy to carry between multiple locations

Cons:

• Does not include a flipbook for all phonemes
• Some panels may contain unknown vocabulary
• The settings cannot be accessed when in a flipbook

Next lets look at PCS Flash Cards. This app contains flashcard sets to teach or review vocabulary, articulation, language, and rhyming. The information covered can be used to teach students in pre-k through elementary school.

Here are examples of the different homepages for each section.

The vocabulary flashcards include: actions, birds, birthday, body, bugs, Christmas, clothing & accessories, colors & shapes, dessert & snacks, fruit & vegetables, Halloween, hobbies & leisure, holidays, home items, instruments, jobs, lowercase letters, meals, meats & diary, numbers, places, school, signs, sports, sports equipment, states, thanksgiving, tools, toys, uppercase letters, vehicles, water animals, weather & seasons, and zoo animals.

 

 

The phonemes covered are: /b, ch, d, f, g, dz, k, l, l blends, m, r blends and more r blends, n, p, r, s, s blends, sh, t, th, v, vocalic r, z/ in all positions of words. 

Here is a sample of a flashcard.

Pros:

• This app contains flashcard decks for lots of different materials.
• The bottom of the screen tells how many pictures are in each deck and what picture number is being viewed.
• The app is very user friendly.
• Setting allow the user to turn text labels on and off, touch card to get voice production on and off, turn category selection on and off, and turn the progress indicator on the bottom of the screen on and off.
• You can select sort on the bottom of the home screen to select what cards to display and to shuffle the order of the cards. The deck can also be reset from this screen.

Cons:

• The pictures are animated, not real pictures.
• Only one flashcard deck can be selected at a time.

Use the Rafflecopter below to enter to win one of these fabulous apps.

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The opinions in this review are mine and only mine. I was provided a copy of this app and no other compensation.