Appy Monday: Apraxia Words

I hope you all are having a nice start to your week.  I’m here today with my second “Appy Monday” post and I’m going to talk about the NACD Apraxia Words App.   I use it with many of my kiddos with apraxia or severe artic disorders.  It’s a pretty simple, no frills kind of an app, but it’s quite useful.  It’s priced at a reasonable, $4.99.

The thing I love most about the app is that the words are grouped according to patterns of articulation.  I also find that to be a helpful feature if I’m using the app with a client who has a phonological disorder.  That way, we can choose the pattern that gives them trouble and go from there.  For example, right now I am working with a young boy who doesn’t put his /k/ or /g/ on the end of words.  For him, I would select the pattern, bilabial-velar, because I want to target the velars in the final position and I know that he can produce his bilabials in the initial position without difficulty.  For my apraxic kids, I love that I can start off with a simpler pattern and stick with what works best for them before advancing.  I like that I can come back to an easier level for a warm up or to give them some positive reinforcement on the sounds that they CAN make.  

Once you choose your sound pattern, you are presented with different levels.  I find that helpful too because you can advance as it’s appropriate for your particular/student client.  Once you select your level, a series of pictures are presented.  If you click on the picture, an audio recording of the sound or word is played.  This is where my kids get interested.  Like I said before, it is no frills- you will not see a balloon pop or an alien dance, but that doesn’t stop my kids from liking it.  They like to touch the pictures and they like to be in control of when they advance to the next page.  Plus, it keeps them actively engaged while doing a lot of speech drills, which can otherwise be very boring.

Below are some screen shots of the app.  The first picture shows the different sound patterns you can choose, and the second two pictures show examples of the picture sequences that you might see at two different levels.