While at ASHA I had the opportunity to meet the great folks at Expressive Solutions. They are the authors of the ArticPix and Story Pals apps among others. They have recently released an great new app - LinguaPix. It is described as a an app for individuals to practice expressive language skills in three activities: Flashcards, Matching, and Pick or Spin. In these activities, users practice naming, describing, formulating sentences, and more. It's a very flexible app with many uses and target goals. Here's more...
Once the app is open, this is the home screen you begin with showing your choices as well as the scores area and settings:
To begin, select the activity that you wish to do. You will be brought to the player list where you can also create a new player. You can add a photo as well as customize all decks, skills, etc. to fit the needs of the child. There are 15 decks: Animals, Around the House, Body Parts, Clothing, Cooking & Cleaning, Food & Drink (a-m), Food & Drink (n-z), Health & Safety, Hygiene & Personal Care, Occupations & People, School, Sports & Recreation, Tools, Toys & Games, and Travel & Transportation. There are a total of 1,035 photo cards in this app! You can choose 1-15 decks to use at a time and can customize which cards are shown (great for disabling some of the higher level words that are included).
The Expanding Skills are also customizable depending on the student's goals.
The Describing Skills are also customizable depending on the student's goals.
If choosing to play a matching game, there are 3 levels!
This screenshot shows how cards can be selected or deselected in each deck.
In "Flashcards" all activities are available at once which is great for flexibility. A photo cue is given and students can participate in any of the language goals the clinician wants to target. In "Say It" students are asked to name the noun/verb. Data collection is easy on the left and also provides a "prompting" indicator!
In "Repeat It" students are given the noun/verb to repeat. Data collection is still on the left with a "prompting" indicator!
In "Expand It" students are prompted to use the noun/verb in a sentence or use a sentence starter. There are also short and long sentences to repeat. Data collection is still on the left with a "prompting" indicator!
In "Describe It" students are given a question about the noun/verb. Data collection is still on the left with a "prompting" indicator!
The app will remain on the same type of task for a student until you change it which is great when you have several students working on different tasks and levels. To move between students you select their picture or initials circle at the top of the screen.
In-app settings are as follows:
When you are finished you select "Done" and the scores for students show in a screen like these. You can share these scores as well. You can also select what type of prompting you provided in the session
In the matching game, students select a card. When they do, the card prompt is given to say/repeat it.
In Pick or Spin students can "spin" the slot-machine type simuli or you can choose specific questions to pair with the photo stimulus.
This app also allows for custom decks. This is GREAT for curricular vocabulary or any other vocabulary that a student needs to work on. Simply select "create" from the welcome screen and then select new deck. Name the deck and then begin by adding a card. You will need to be able to record audio on these as well.
In the new card section you can choose which questions and stimuli can be addressed using that photo.
After you've added and saved the card, it is available in the deck. You can edit and delete cards after if needed.
Your decks are now shown in the My Decks screen. New decks can be added and they can be edited if needed.
This app has built-in progress monitoring. You can view this in the "scores" section on the home page.
Overall, this is an excellent app that I use often with so many different levels of students! It is so customizable and functional! I am able to use it with my students with severe needs to work on basic labeling and sentence expansion to my 5th graders working on curricular vocabulary, expanding sentences, and answering questions. Here is my quick pros/improvements list:
Pros:
- Nice, colorful, simple stimulus photos.
- Clear voice on stimulus items.
- Up to 8 players at a time.
- Many customization options and easy to do.
- Data collection for each student with prompting level is great!
- Ability to record and playback the student's response.
- Good price for such a comprehensive and customizable app that can be used with so many levels of students.
- LinguaPix has a FREE version to check it out before buying... thanks!
Improvements:
- Some of the photos are difficult to figure out (e.g. body wash and some of the action words) but I just simply go in and remove them from the student's deck after the session.
- It takes a while to "set up" the student so I would recommend going in and doing this before your sessions.
- As far as I see it does not save the recordings or have the ability to e-mail them with the session scores (could be wrong).
- Only currently available for the iPad.
No comments:
Post a Comment