Useful Speech Therapy Apps To Help Learners Improve Their Communication Skills

Useful Speech Therapy Apps To Help Learners Improve Their Communication Skills

Useful Speech Therapy Apps To Help Learners Improve Their Communication Skills

In a study conducted by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), it was found that around 80% of children between the ages of three and 17 have a disorder related to:

Speech
Voice
Language
Swallowing

However, luckily, more than half of these children receive intervention services to provide the necessary help so that they can communicate more effectively. Speech therapy has helped countless children who previously suffered from a range of problems with speech, communication, language and swallowing. Teachers pursuing Online Learning Disabilities Course are equipped to help these learners overcome their speech problems.

Class teachers in inclusive classrooms use speech therapy for a wide range of disorders.

For instance, babies born with a cleft palate is a common situation nowadays. Though a majority of these children receive corrective surgery, however, due to changing the shape of the mouth and face after the surgery, these children need to learn to make specific sounds all over again.

Stuttering too is a common speech problem that often lasts half a year or longer in children. Additionally, children with autism who can talk often cannot comprehend conversational speech by themselves and create their “own language”.

Therefore, in all of the above situations, speech therapy can prove to be a highly effective treatment to help these children with their communication skills which in turn, help in improving their confidence and social skills.

Technology and Speech Therapy Apps

1. Speech Tutor

Considered as one of the best speech therapy apps for young children by providing a clear idea of what happens inside the mouth and throat as we talk, Speech Tutor offers 132 animations for describing both a front view and a side view of the mouth so children can easily notice and understand how to create sounds.

Created by Synapse Apps, Speech Tutor uses 2-D animated movies that allow you to see a side view and front view inside the head. These kinds of views allow you to see how each sound is produced without the tongue getting in the way as you can get a proper view of the mouth to watch sounds as they are being made. Thus if you are unable to make a specific sound on your own, this demonstration helps you to comprehend how to precisely place your tongue or move your throat to make the sound.

2. Articulation Station

This app designed by Little Bee Speech is a comprehensive tool for children with speech sound delays.

It offers multiple activities to practice 22 sounds (with most having 60 target words) that target the initial, medial, and final positions of words at both the word and sentence levels, along with the longer story level.

It includes six activities; such as:

flashcards
matching
rotating sentences
unique sentences
level 1 stories
level 2 stories

Both speech-language pathologists and parents will find this app easy to use because of its colorful photos and an array of tools that includes voice recording for auditory feedback, scoring, and data tracking.

Available on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, Articulation Station is a free speech therapy app. However, if you want a more detailed program, you can upgrade to Articulation Station Pro which costs $59.99.

Best Apps for Speech Therapy: Stuttering

Stuttering also called stammering is a fairly common speech hindrance in children that are also luckily, overcome by most children— as only one per cent of children get affected permanently.

DAF Pro

DAF Pro app is built for people who stutter as well as for people with neurological disorders; therefore it has become a good choice for a wide spectrum of users including those who want to improve their slowing down and correcting speech. A few advantages of DAF Pro include the scope to alter your speech with recorded playback and speak slowly and more clearly.

DAF means Delayed Auditory Feedback and is a speech and language therapy created by Speech Tools to help those people speaking at a fast rate to slow down their speech to enable others to understand.

Apart from helping individuals suffering from stuttering and stammering, DAF Pro is also recommended for people with neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s. Through the use of DAF technology, you can hear your speech in an altered manner. You need to use headphones while using the app.

DAF Pro costs $2.99, and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and also available on Google Play.

Speech Therapy Apps for Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children who are born with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often face difficulty while learning language and understanding basic conversational skills. LAMP Words can help here.

LAMP Words for Life

Utilizing symbols for autistic children who struggle with verbal communication, LAMP Words for Life develops the common patterns of speech and conversation. LAMP Words is designed by Prentke Romich Company specifically for children with autism to use them with Language Acquisition through Motor Planning (LAMP). LAMP Words for Life aims to provide a consistent motor pattern for words to help develop communication skills, providing ample opportunity for unlimited language growth opportunities.

The advantages of LAMP Pro are:

It works for multiple levels of communicators, from beginning to advanced; it includes 3,000+ vocabulary words and also comprises of Text-to-speech feature for non-verbal users. However, its minimal instruction makes it hard to use or program the app for your needs and has no mobile device features

Three levels of vocabulary are included within the app that supports language development from any skill level that includes introductory, with 83 words, transition, and full vocabulary, providing access to over 3,000 words. Online Learning Disabilities Course is something you can think about!

LAMP Words for Life is available for use with an iPad, iOS 11 or later and costs $299.99.