By: Jennifer Tripoli M.S., CCC-SLP
As promised, here is the next installment of my favorite speech and language apps! My February blog post listed a few of my go to speech and language apps that I use during many of my therapy sessions. Here’s a few more great apps that I hope you will LOVE too!
- Panda Games by Dr. Panda ltd.
Price: Apps range from free to $3.99
I recently came across Dr. Panda games app and I fell in love with the adorable characters and interface! Being the therapist I am, I tried to think about how I could use these apps in my therapy sessions. Let me tell you, it was EASY! The company’s mission is to “help kids understand life and the world around them”. There are a slew of Dr. Panda apps, with one being better than the next! Each app has a different theme with countless speech, language and play benefits.
Panda’s SuperMarket is my favorite of the Dr. Panda’s apps!
With this app you can work on pretend play scheme for a grocery store, introduce grocery store vocabulary (e.g. shopping cart, checkout, cashier, produce section, etc.), sequencing (First get a cart, then go shopping, checkout, and put groceries in car), following a shopping list, math/numbers during checkout, and categorizing (fruit, veggies, dairy products, bakery, etc.).
- Check out the other great apps offered by Dr. Panda:
- If you are interested in purchasing more than 1 of these apps, checkout the “bundles” offered as they are cheaper than buying each app individually!
- Conversation Builder by Mobile Education Store
Price: $19.99 for iPad
This is an app geared towards elementary aged children who need help with conversational skills! This app is essentially a conversation simulator that works on children’s conversational reciprocity with multiple exchanges (back and forth practice).
- Different conversation modules/topics available with a variety of different themes for an additional cost (in app purchase)
- Watch the trailer here!
- This app is also available for teens! Conversation Builder Teen for iPad $19.99
- Check out the other great Mobile Education Store language apps here!
- Bag Game by all4mychild
Price: $0.99
- You hide a photo in the bag and your game partner has to try to guess the object you hid by asking questions about it in a process of elimination type way.
- This app is a spin-off of the game “20 questions”. I use this app to address a variety of different language skills
I have also used this without using questions, but having the child (the object hider) use different language concepts to describe what is in the bag! (the child needs to be careful not to say what the item is in the description!) I will go back and forth with the child where they are describer and I am the guesser and I am the describer and they are the guesser. Not only does this work on descriptor skills when they are describing the items, but also word finding skills when they are the guesser!
You can also go a step further and make it like the game “Taboo” where you give the kids words they cannot use in their description (this is very tough).
- At the end of it, all the kids LOVE opening the bag and seeing what is inside!
- It’s a great game for using descriptor words, working on word finding skills, asking questions, and answering yes/no questions as well!
If you are interested in learning about other apps and app resources, please see my February blog post here!
For other speech and language ideas, please visit the Easter Seals DuPage & Fox Valley speech and language department’s pinterest page here!
For more information about Easter Seals DuPage & Fox Valley please visit EasterSealsDFVR.org.
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