Bottom line: Another great app from Smarty Ears that does for phonological processes what Articulate It! did for articulation. A must-have for speech language pathologists.
If you'd like to download Phono Learning Center (iPad only, $19.99), use this link to support Smart Apps for Kids:
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If you've been around our site, or the world of speech therapy apps, for any amount of time you will know that Smarty Ears has earned its strong reputation with quality apps that make my life, and the lives of many other speech-language pathologists, just that much easier.
Articulation apps are useful many times during my day and with many of my students, but for children who demonstrate phonological processes (patterns in their articulation errors), those apps are just not as helpful as they are with other children who demonstrate more traditional sound substitution errors (think "wabbit" for "rabbit"). Well, that was true, anyway, until Phono Learning Center came along.
One quality feature that I loved right off the bat was being able to take student information directly from Therapy Report Center (TRC), Smarty Ears' data collection app, and drop it into this app. With a caseload of 71, that alone saved me about 20 minutes of my day. Another feature that made my heart flutter was the "homework" section in the top right corner of the home screen. Pre-made PDFs for each target area in this section are ready and waiting for any time-savvy SLP to simply connect her iPad to wireless printing, print off the worksheets, and send them home over the weekend for extra practice.
From the home screen, you can start a new session or view the data collected by the app on a particular student (which equals time saved during progress report time). Once you are in a new session, select your students and tap play. (Note: once you create a new student profile, or upload their information form Therapy Report Center, their specific targets are ready and waiting to be played).
Before I get too far ahead of myself, I should talk about adding a new student. When you create a new profile, set that student's goals. Almost everything about this section can be customized — the student's level, the option for auditory bombardment, and, most importantly, the child's targets.
The app isn't perfect. The names it gives to some of the phonological processes are different than what I learned them as/refer to them as, so getting my bearings on what was what took me a little time. Also in this section, I couldn't find quite what I needed for a certain student. He deletes final consonants, which is an option, but he deletes final "d." The only targets for this area in the app are k, p and t. It's not a huge deal because I can target it other ways, but I was a little sad this app wouldn't target all of his goals.
4 games are available for play . . . er . . . practice: Balloon, Matching, Basket Paper and Puzzle.
Balloon — The student's target words/phrases/sentences are presented to the left with an auditory model (which can be changed in settings). Once the child produces the target, you or your student select if they "missed it," "almost" had it, or "got it." (Data collection? Done.) After that, the student drags the picture into the hot air balloon. The object is to discover how many picture cards it takes to make the balloon launch.
Matching — I was so, so glad this wasn't just another memo-type game. In this activity, the student is given one picture and has to find its mate, one card at a time. While it may seem tedious to the untrained eye, an SLP sees it as a wonderful opportunity for tons of practice.
Basket Paper — Most of my students love this game the best! Once a target is produced the students get to "wad up" their target sound and shoot the paper into a basketball hoop. My kids, for some reason, think it's hilarious to throw away their words.
Puzzle — In this game, the targets appear on a puzzle piece. Once they are produced, the client drags them to the puzzle board and one by one they create an image. Don't worry — while puzzle piece outlines are shown, there is not one designated slot per piece.
All in all, Phono Learning Center is an app I know I can count on in a pinch, or to shake up mundane sessions. The price can be a deterrent, but for an app that is one of a kind and has the Smarty Ears stamp of quality, you know your hard earned dollars are going to pay off.
Rachel is a public school SLP working in three elementary schools this year. She drinks a lot of coffee. SmartAppsForKids.com was provided a free copy of this app for review purposes. No other compensation was provided.
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