Bottom Line: iPractice Verbs is a portable way to teach and practice verbs, especially for therapy purposes, but could also be used for home practice or in a classroom setting. This app uses real pictures and is appropriate for ages 5+. On sale today for Better Hearing and Speech Month!
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iPractice Verbs from Smarty Ears is a nice grammar app to add to your therapy toolbox. With more than 158 regular and irregular verbs, it was developed for children to learn and practice verbs at the word, phrase, and sentence levels. There are two types of activities within this app: flashcards or Find It. The flashcard play is designed to help teach the student the various regular and irregular verbs in present (-s), present progressive (-ing), and past tense (-ed, as well as the irregular forms) at the word, phrase, and sentence levels. In Find It, a word, phrase, or sentence is given, and the child is required to find the appropriate matching picture. This app is designed to increasing success and learning, so if a wrong picture is chosen, it will simply disappear and the student can try again.
While iTunes recommends this app is for children ages 4+, I think it is more appropriate for kids ages 5+, and perhaps even a little older than that. iPractice Verbs uses real-life still shot photos. When working with actions, it's sometimes difficult to determine what the action actually is from a still shot. For example, applaud is a picture of a woman with her hands open. Since you cannot see the action happening, it's harder to determine what it should be. In the settings menu, you have an option to turn the display text on or off, but for this reason, I would suggest the text be left on.
In the therapy world, there are some apps that you can pick up and start using immediately, but there are some apps you may need to work with first to figure out how best to use them. iPractice Verbs is one I had to research and practice with first. I think there are some good therapeutic applications to this app, but some things I wish were different. On the plus side, there is no music. This is a feature I love for apps I use in therapy! I often find music to be incredibly distracting and usually find the setting to shut it off immediately. With many of my students already distracted, this is a feature we can live without. I also like the various uses of this app in therapy. You can work on both expressive and receptive language, including subject/verb agreement, creating complete sentences, and using correct verb tense. In Find It play mode, different listening techniques can be used including interpreting and responding to messages.
Another nice feature is being able to choose if you are working on regular, irregular, or both types of verbs. If you start, and irregular is too difficult, you can always go back and change it to work on just regular verbs. You can also change if you are working on the word, phrase, or sentence level easily in the flash cards section (this is more difficult in the Find It section). Finally, I really enjoy the homework section. It addresses the exact same things you discussed during therapy to allow for continued practice. This app can also be used at home, to continue to reinforce or supplement the strategies used in therapy or school.
As for things I'd like to change, my personal wish would be to see the target words separated from the display words in the settings. Currently, if you go to settings and turn the display word on, the action, as well as the target, is displayed. If you turn the display word off, both are gone. As I mentioned earlier, it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly what the action is. However, if I could turn the display word on and the target word off, I would be able to use the flashcards not just for teaching, but also for additional practice and progress tracking. I feel like this really limits the app more for use in therapy.
Overall, this is a nice app to work on grammar and receptive language. However, it is somewhat limited and at a regular price of $9.99 (currently on sale for $4.99 in honor of Better Hearing and Speech Month), it may not be for everyone.
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Jenni is ready for spring . . . if only it would show up. SmartAppsForKids.com was provided with a copy of this app for review purposes. No other compensation was provided.
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