Bottom Line: Another solid app for speech-language pathologists, it’s also useful for parents to help children practice listening, and for teachers targeting phonological awareness activities. The drum kit reward system is also very fun. [Smart Apps For Kids assumes no responsibility for kids who insist on a real drum kit after using this app.]
If you would like to download Auditory Processing Studio (iPad only, $29.99), please use this handy link so they'll know who sent you:
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Virtual
Speech Center has developed several apps for the speech-language pathologist
useful in therapy,
including Wh-Question
Island, which Jenni gave 4 stars. There is a lot of attention to what the
therapist needs to use an app effectively, including multiple student tracking
in a single session, data collection, even the ability to generate reports.
This offering from Virtual Speech Center, Auditory Processing Studio, is designed to help children who have been diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Disorder or who need to improve auditory processing. They say it is a “bottom-top” approach, targeting the overall skill of auditory processing by remediating the skills involved, including auditory discrimination, auditory closure and phonological awareness activities. All of these activities can also be targeted with or without background noise.
It’s important for parents and therapists to be quite familiar with this app before using with students. After selecting the users, it opens to a page to select the specific activities for each user. This is presented in all text, like “level 7 auditory discrimination — identifying presence of specific initial sounds in words in yes/no format.” With 49 total levels for all activities, this isn’t something I could sit down with in a therapy session for the first time. It’s definitely comprehensive, though.
The adult
user also needs to be sure to adjust the settings before starting, as they are
not accessible from within the activity screens. The settings are numerous and useful. User alternate count allows the number of turns before switching
names to be set from one to five. The audio can be turned off, as well as
instructions on each page. The number of correct responses before a reward is
achieved can also be changed, between five and ten.
The settings area is also where the background noise can be turned on, and the volume adjusted. Again, the adult user should be sure to understand what each level means, because it can’t be adjusted when in the sessions. There are five different kinds of noise: student noises (sounds like a noisy cafeteria), white noise (static on a radio), rainfall, traffic, and nature (lots of tweeting birds!) Unfortunately, the level and type of sound has to be set the same for each student. I wish the settings were accessible from within the task screens, in order to adjust during one session as needed.
When the tasks are selected, the game begins. Each student takes a turn working on their task. These tasks are, naturally, much more auditory than visual (as presenting with visual support might keep a child from actually using the auditory system and instead relying on visual skills.) However, this can be customized by turning off the audio and turning on instructions, allowing the adult to read it to the child.
My first
prompt was, “What word is it?” followed by the speech sounds /f/, /ai/, and
/v/. The student
responds orally, and the parent, teacher or therapist provides
the feedback if he or she was correct. A green checkmark (correct) and a red X
(incorrect) are used to track responses. On some question types, the data is
tracked by buttons to select the right answer (such as selecting “same” or
“different” when targeting auditory discrimination — do "pen" and "pin" sound the same?)
A response can also be recorded using the microphone on the iPad. The first time the app is used, it will ask for permission to access the microphone, and it is necessary to choose “OK” if responses will be recorded.
When the student has completed the item, the adult selects the "next" button in the top right corner, and the next student’s question prompt begins. I prefer apps that allow me to select student turns myself, so that I can go in the order the students are sitting, as well as have students complete more than one question at a time. The number of turns can be set in the settings, but I need more flexibility than that. Sometimes I want students to have two questions before moving on, but the next time they might do five.
I also
noticed a problem with the percentage of correct responses, located on the
right side. When I used the data collection buttons on the side, it recorded
the percentage correct immediately. However, on some question types requiring
the choice of “same” or “different,” the percentage didn’t change until I
returned to that student’s page. This is a minor complaint and didn't happen on every type of question, but the students I
work with noticed it right away. Also, in an individual session, I couldn’t
find a way to easily view percentage on this type of question until the session
was over.
After getting the set number of responses correct (automatically set to five, but can be changed in the settings), the user gets to play with a drum kit. This was exceptionally motivating for my students! A background rhythm is playing; the user can tap drums, cymbals, and other percussion instruments along with the beat. Only one drum can be tapped at a time, but this didn’t seem to bother my students. The background music can also be turned off entirely, and there are even five different options!
I had
difficulty figuring out how to work on multiple goals in a session. It would be
nice to be able to set
how many times to target each one. It currently seems
that a student would have to complete 50 tasks before moving on to the next
goal, which is very impractical for my uses in school speech therapy.
Overall, the content in this app is very impressive, and useful to me in therapy for a good number of my students. A few more abilities to control settings from within the actual activity would make this app even stronger, but parents, teachers and especially speech-language pathologists will find a lot of uses for working on auditory processing skills in students. It’s appropriate for a wide age range — I could use it effectively for preschool through high school, depending on the student’s needs.
***
Heather H. always realizes why she hates
conversations at parties when she uses apps with competing background noise; 50 percent correct with the background noise on.
She’ll stick to eating the hors d'oeuvres.
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