Bottom Line: An app dedicated to describing directed towards use in speech-language therapy. Three activities available, all using real-to- life pictures and audio cues to help children with difficulty in this area.
If you'd like to download Describe It (SLP) ($8.99 iPhone/iPad) please use the link below to support Smart Apps for Kids:
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This app contains no ads or in-app purchases. External links to e-mail and the app store are available under the "info" section.
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What's black, white, and red all over? While I still don't know the answer to this question, these are the kinds of questions asked in Describe It (SLP) from developer Pocket SLP. So many children who receive speech thearapy services, both privately and in a school setting, have difficulty with both describing items and understanding items based on their description. This is a skill that is used quite often in daily communication and therefore an important area addressed by a speech-language pathologist.
Describe It utilizes the five senses, plus category and function, to provide cues for your tot based on a given picture. When your kiddo selects a category, real life pictures appear on the screen and a tiny toolbar appears, listing cues. If there are four sight cues, a number four appears next to the eye (the icon used to represent "sight"). When the aforementioned kiddo presses the icon, she hears audio clues in that category. Ya with me? So for example the picture of a beach falls under the category "Miscellaneous." A number one appears next to the eye icon and the audio prompt in the app says " It has lots of sand."
Once all the clues are out there for your kiddo to peruse, a red "A" icon can be pressed so your learner can hear the answer, or name of the item pictured. This neat feature not only helps with vocabulary but also word-finding, another key area that falls under the expressive language umbrella. When your child presses "next" he is taken to the next item in the category. I was pretty impressed with the number of pictures in each category and their quality. I always like to use real pictures in speech thearpy sessions whenever possible and I was happy to see them here, too.
From the main screen of the app both you and your child can do a number of things. "Mail" and "Info" in the top right and left hand corners of the screen contain outside links to e-mail and other Pocket SLP apps, respectively. The center of the screen has seven images, one for each area focused on inside the app. Animals, Household, Transportation, Clothes, Occupation, Miscellaneous, and Food are each represented with an icon. At least one icon must be selected before an activity begins, but more than one can be selected, which provides nice flexibility during speech therapy or learning at home.
At the bottom of the menu screen are three options for play: Study, Pass It, and Guess It. A tutorial icon is also there, as well as a switch to toggle on/off the audio clue count. "Study" does just that — allows your sweet thing to explore images in any of the categories based on their description.
"Pass It" is a team game (which is great for group speech therapy sessions) that allows groups to compete against each other as well as the clock. You as the adult can select the number of matches to be played and you are whisked off to the game. A ticking timer is heard in the background and groups can shuffle through items in the selected category, all while describing the items they see. The iDevice is passed between groups and whichever group is not holding the device when the timer goes off receives one point. This is very similar to the game Catch Phrase, which I happen to love.
When "Guess It" is selected, a blue box covers the image in the center of the screen and the student must use only the clues given to guess what item is hiding. When the answer icon is pressed the box disappears and the image is revealed.
As I mentioned before, Describe It is available in the app store for $8.99. This price tag is a little high for what I like to spend on apps for speech therapy, or any app for that matter. Describe It uses great quality images and provides some fun spins on describing, but for this price I would like to see more customization available, such as data collection or "Pass It" timer length control. I also was a little confused with some of the audio descriptions used. A rabbit is described as feeling "slippery" along with furry, and the sandal is described as falling under the category of "clothes for your head." Say what?
All in all, Describe It is a good app for a speech pathologist with a generous app budget and a large number of students on her caseload with vocabulary and expressive language goals. It hasn't necessarily reinvented the wheel when it comes to targeting this area of speech, but can be used to supplement a speech therapy treatment session.
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Rachel is a speech-language pathologist in three elementary schools. She would describe herself as "busy" and "a coffee drinker." Pocket SLP is an advertiser with Smart Apps For Kids.
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