10+ Essential Speech Therapy Apps for Your iToolbox

image from Polyvore 

I have found so many cool iTools for professionals lately that I decided to start a running post to showcase some of the apps that make my job as a therapist a little bit easier. :). Unlike other posts on SNEAK, which often focus on apps for our kids, this one is for my #slpeeps and other professionals working in the trenches and looking for some great apps to help out. Please comment below if you would like to share professional apps that you find helpful. I will update this list as I find new gems :)

*Note:  All of the app links below are for iPad apps but many of these apps are also available for the iPhone.


Say Hi Translate

Work with multicultural families and need some communication help in a pinch?  This handy app will translate into many common languages when you speak aloud!

Disfluency Index Counter

Keep track of stuttered syllables and more with this handy, disfluency data tracking app.

Artik Pix

A full articulation deck for word and sentence level practice with built-in data tracker, reinforcement, and auditory feedback.  Great pictures and extensive word lists!

Time Timer

An awesome visual timer to help kids stay on task and transition between activities.

Token Board

A visual token board app that helps kids work for rewards and achieve their goals.

Custom Boards

A great, on-the-go app for making visual supports and communication boards on your iPad!  Great symbol library and lots of templates included!

Super Duper Data Tracker

A simple and easy to use app for tracking data during sessions.  Data tracker also includes graphs to help you visualize each student's progress.

3D Human Oral Cavity

Great, 3D models of the human oral musculature to help in patient and family education during therapy.  This series has lots of companion apps for different parts of the body.

Pages

Created by Apple for iPad and iPhone, this word processor is a great way to keep up with your documents on-the-go.  It is a fully functioning word processing app that can be used to write therapy notes, create home programs,  compose letters to colleagues and families, and more!

Metronome!!

Help your students control their speaking rate, motor planning, and fluency with a simple, but handy metronome app.  This one provides visual and auditory feedback and is very customizable.

What apps are in your professional iToolbox?

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App List for Kids With Hearing Loss

App Advice recently shared a concise app list focused on helping children and adults with hearing loss.  Definitely not a comprehensive list but a good start!  Here are a few that I like to use, specifically targeted to younger kids.  Let's grow this list with your input!  Be sure you suggest your favorite apps in the comments below :)



Old MacDonald  by The Royal Institute for  Deaf and Blind Children (RIDBC)

This app is the first in a planned series of apps (Songs for Listening and language) from the RIDBC developed to encourage listening and language skills in children with hearing impairment.  The RIDBC also has a signing app (RIDBC Auslan Tutor-Key Signs for iPad).

Danny the Dragon Meets Jimmy (iStorytime)  by zuuka incorporated

Is the first (and only, to my knowledge) children's eBook app that includes a "sign to me" function that will display the language of the book in ASL next to the pictures.  It is pretty cool and I hope they come up with more just like it soon!

Interactive Touch Books

A great web resource with a free companion app that allows ANYONE to create and publish interactive children's books that can be read on the iPad.  Included in the Interactive Touch Books Bookstore are stories from Rosemary Sanford with embedded ASL videos that sign along with each story.  Check out her titles on Technology in (Spl) Education (a great blog post outlining her path to developing signing stories and details on her stories)  Note:  The Interactive Touch Books app is free from the App Store,  Once you have the App, you can purchase books form the Interactive Touch Books Bookstore

What apps are you using with your hearing impaired child?

Tips for Choosing & Using Apps for Kids with Special Needs

Finding the right apps for your child with special needs can be an overwhelming task.  At times, the search can also feel like a shot in the dark since many app developers offer little insight into the look and feel of their apps.  This leaves us, as consumers, with limited information prior to taking the purchase plunge.  As mobile technology consumers with the best interests of our special kids in mind, we want to make educated choices when it comes to these apps.  After all, the "Ah, it's only 99 cents, what have I got to lose?" idea only goes so far, especially when that $.99 turns into $29.99, $249.99 and so on. :)

Figuring out the best way to support children with special needs as they use this wonderful technology can also be daunting, and at tines, the importance of scaffolding from savvy and supportive facilitators (the would be you:) is overlooked.  Many apps can help children develop new skills, but they are all utterly useless without the proper support from a facilitator (e.g., parent, teacher, therapist).

Here are a few general tips to guide you through the process of choosing and using apps for children with special needs:

Find Apps on Blogs and App Review Sites Before You Buy: The App Store offers just a snapshot of information about Apps, and since the descriptions are written by the developers, they are quite bias. Many times, Apps will have no reviews or few reviews in the App Store.  Many blogs and review sites offer a more detailed, hands-on description and critique of apps. Here are a few great sites that offer reviews of educational apps for kids with special needs:

Bridging Apps (formerly SNApps4Kids)

Smart Apps for Kids
Moms With Apps
Apps for Children with Special Needs (a4cwsn)
Therapy Apps 411

Be sure to visit "SNEAK's Fav Blogs" and "SNEAK's Fav Links" on the SNEAK homepage for more great sources for App reviews.

Connect with Developers:  Many of the developers who create the Apps we use have websites of their own that you can connect to through the App Store.  Going to developer websites helps you gain further information on particular Apps.  It also helps you see what Apps are coming up from that developer and what other Apps they make that you might want to check out.  Sometimes, developers will even have more screen shots and/or videos that let you get a better idea of the App you are interested in.  Sign-up for email updates from App developers you like so you know when they release new Apps.  Don't be afraid to email developers if you have specific questions.  I have found that most are very willing to talk about their Apps and how appropriate they might be for your child. Some of my favorite developers include:

Grasshopper Apps
Toca Boca
Duck Duck Moose

Check for a Lite Version:  Many of you may be well aware of the "Lite" or free versions of Apps.  More app developers are starting to provide this version for their Apps so that users can try before they buy.  However, the Lite version of Apps doesn't always come up first, so you may have to include it in your search terms.

Watch Video Demos When Possible:  Search You-Tube or App developer websites for video demos and video tutorials.  Add "You Tube" or "video" to your search terms on Google and other search engines in addition to the App title in order to limit your results to just videos.  Videos are an awesome way to see if an App is appropriate for your child.  Check out "SNEAK's Peeks" for video demos of Apps as well (I promise to add more videos soon!:)

Ask Around:  Don’t be afraid to reach out to other parents and professionals in your community and/or   through online forums (blogs) by asking questions about specific apps.

Play With a Purpose:  Most, if not all apps, can be used to target a variety of skills when supported by the right guidance.  Work with the therapists, teachers, and others who support your child to see how you can modify App play to promote your child's development of language, speech, fine motor skills, social skills and cognitive skills.  Incorporate real-world activities around the themes and language in the Apps you present to your child.  For example, Playing Toca Kitchen together to model pretending with toy kitchen items and food and then playing with a toy kitchen set works on
refining real-world skills by creating opportunities to experience what is seen on the App.  Technology is a great stage for practice, but real-world experience is the ultimate tool to build long lasting skills.

How do you find great Apps for your child with special needs?  

App List for Kids with Visual Impairment

Here are some great Apps to use with children who have visual impairments.  I will keep adding to this list as I discover new Apps that work well with these kids. :)  Please feel free to recommend other Apps in the comments below and I will add them to this list.  This list is for iPad but many of these Apps are also in Android Form.  You can find them in the Amazon AppStore for Android.


A Few Great Apps for Cause-Effect/Early Play

The apps below work nicely for children with visual impairments because they are visually simplistic and easy to interact with. Many of these apps not only facilitate early, case-effect play, but could also be paired with language modeling to teach many basic concepts and language skills.

Peekaboo Lady Bird Baby Touch


Baby Tap


Tap Bubbles


Bubbles for Toddlers


Hatch! Plus


Balloonmaker


Tap n See Zoo by Little Bear Sees
Created specifically for Children with CVI


Baby’s Musical Hands


Baby Symbolizer


Baby Screen


Bright Start Baby


Baby Finger


Balloonimals



Apps That Encourage Vocalizing/Speech
The apps below are voice activated so they are a great way to encourage vocalizing and speech from young kids with visual impairments.  When activated, the apps move or repeat what you say in a funny way.

Bla Bla Bla

Talking Carl

Talking Carla

 Talking Tom Cat

Talking Baby Hippo

Building Basic Concepts
The apps below are simple apps that also encourage basic concept knowledge because they present numbers, colors, and other concepts.

123 Telephone


Play Phone HD


Peek-a-Boo Barn


Interactive Alphabet


Toca Robot Lab


Music and Songs
The Wheels on the Bus by Duck Duck Moose


The Itsy Bitsy Spider by Duck Duck Moose


Old McDonald by Duck Duck Moose


Drum Kit


Sound Shaker



Music Draw



Flux Tunes

Flux Tunes gives kids sight-free access to music on the iPhone or iPad by turning the whole touchscreen into a fully customizable control pad.  You can change songs and perform other functions with simple touchscreen gestures that do not require you to use your sight.

Art/Drawing

Glow Coloring

Art of Glow

Glow Draw

Neon Draw

Glow Tunes


Kids Doodle Movie


Pretend Play
Toca Hair Salon


Toontastic 

Toca Home


Toca Tea Party


Toca Kitchen


Toca Doctor


ArtMaker

My Play Home

Visual, Motor, & Cognitive Skills

Sparkabilities by Bottle Rocket Apps

Sparkabilities is an App Suite that includes many different "Segments" designed to develop various skills in babies, including visual recognition, tracking, and color theory.  See the website above for a full description of the science behind this app.  

Sparkabilities Babies 1


Sparkabilities Babies 2

Literacy

Interactive books on the iPad are a great way to get your kids interested in reading.  In addition to Apps with interactive books like I Like Books  you can use the Apps below to create your own interactive photo books.

Scene Speak


 Pictello


Scribble Press


Keynote

Little Story Maker

Switch Accessible Apps  (non-AAC)
The following Apps are games that can be played using a Blue Tooth Switch for the iPad.

Games by Inclusive Technology

Inclusive Smarty Pants


Peeping Musicians


Five Sharks Swimming


Auntie Maggie's Recipe


Rad Sounds

 

A Few Great Apps for Pragmatic Language/Social SKills
With these apps, you can integrate video, pictures, and speech to create your own social stories and video modeling tools to teach children about social situations.

Model Me Going Places by Model Me Kids, LLC

Video social story library

Video Scheduler by MDR


Stories2Learn, by MDR

Video/Photo social stories and you can create your own.

My Pictures Talk by Gremble Apps


Put It Away, by Leesueh

This app helps children learn how to clean up after themselves! I think it is a really great concept and the fact that it is customizable and FREE makes it even better! I wish it had sound or music :(

Conversation Builder by Mobile Education Store

This app uses pictures and conversational scripts to help kids learn turn-taking and topic maintenance for conversations. One limitation is that the "correct answers" are somewhat limited and there isn't a text to speech option for the written prompts. I think it is a great start!

What Apps do you recommend?