Some bad moments
Many of us therapists who have worked with individuals with articulation and motor speech disorders had at one time or another wished at the back of our minds for a way to show our clients HOW to position the articulators in order to produce the target phonemes. This app is it. Instead of shining a penlight into ones mouth, this app lets us show our clients exactly what should be done before each phoneme is produced. Features such as information about each phoneme, options to tweak playback speed and viewpoint, and an option to record ones voice are very welcome features that makes this app a must in every SLPs hands.
Im not a certified speech therapist, but as a special education teacher, I’ve found many uses for their apps in my tutoring practice. When a student has difficulty producing the right sound when we are spelling words (I use Sound Literacy for word building) I switch to Speech Tutor or Minimal Pairs.
With Speech Tutor, the student can listen to the sound being produced, while watching either a side view or front view of the mouth as the sound is made. This aspect of the app can be shown at slow, medium, or fast speed, which really helps the student ‘see’ the sound being made. The student can then match their tongue, teeth, and lips to the model, and record themselves making the sound.
A really cool feature is that the animation of the face has a ‘see-through’ quality which allows you to see the position of the tongue in relation to the lips and teeth. Another is the ‘palate diagram’ for certain sounds. This is also handy for helping students understand tongue placement.
In addition, older students can take advantage of the pop-up that explains in detail how the sound is produced. After using this app, my adult client had an ‘aha’ kind of moment, and could produce the sounds more accurately as well as hear the sounds better when I said syllables or words.
After looking at several apps, I found that Speech Tutor has very accurate sound production, eliminating the ‘uh’ sound that is so difficult to hold back…i.e. ‘p’ is ‘p’, not ‘puh’…this is very important for spelling accuracy…i.e. it’s P I G not P UH I G. It’s helping my students tremendously to understand that there are THREE sounds, not FOUR in the word.
This app is very well done, and there’s a short ‘basics’ tutorial on how to make the sounds, so that parents could use this to practice with their children at home, under a speech therapist’s direction. (reposted from my Blog).
Dont waste your time or money. This program will not teach you anything you dont already know about speech disorders or delays. I do not have a degree as a speech therapist but Ive created better phonemes on PowerPoint and using tongue twisters. This is my last time ever buying any educational program on Apples Apps, Ive been disappointed to many times by these so called educational software that just over promise and always under deliver. Ill just take the time to continue to create my own work, at least that way I will get exactly what Im looking for.
This app is such a handy tool to have! It gives an inside the mouth look at phonemes and how to produce them! Its not meant for anything else! I couldnt imagine why it would ever get less than 5 stars. This is great for therapy but its even better for educating parents or teachers to show them how to help the children I work with! I have reviewed just about all of the speech therapy apps out there...pocketslp/synapse apps are the best! I hope for more in the future!
Hello, I am a Behavioral Management Specialist working with a 7 yr old child with ASD. In the last year, my client has been recieving Speech Therapy and was still having problems with several letters/sounds, however since stumbling upon this very comprehensive and easily understood, by me, app, my client, being more visual than most, has shown marked improvements. Watching the animations have been easy for me to use and coordinate with the client to work on the ls, fs, rs. I am using the app on an iphone, wish I had it on an ipad, but it still is easy to see. I have only been using the app for 3 wks, Very happy. This augments his therapy perfectly. Mike
As version 1.1 goes, the animation for many of the phonemes is not very accurate. The tongue moves but never changes shape. The lower jaw never moves, so upper and lower teeth are never shown touching.
In short, better animation please!
This version is like a test sample of what could be me a terrific
educational tool.
Paying nearly 10 dollars for a beta tester does not seem a good deal at all. Fix the above mentioned problems and it will be worth every penny.
