Two Terrific Speech and Language Apps

Need new ideas to address both speech and language goals and want to utilize technology to create meaningful interactions? The following two iPad apps, Imagistory and All About Me, All About You, are creative apps that can be used to facilitate your child’s speech and language development.

Imagistory- Creative Storytelling

Cost: Free to download and two free stories (additional cost to add stories)

About the app: This app provides wordless picture books that allow users to imaginatively create a story line. These detailed pictures allow a therapist to target speech and language goals or parents to engage their child in a language rich activity. Note this app is only for iPad. 

For the Therapist

1. Speech: Speech goals may be targeted at the word and conversational level using the picture scenes. Students may identify target sounds by identifying objects, locations, and characters in each scene of the story. The conversational level of a target sound may be addressed by encouraging the student to create a story with the pictures or to describe what is occurring in the scenario. The recording feature on the app can be used to help the student identify his/her speech sound errors.
2. Language: A wealth of language goals may be met by using each scene of the story. Potential receptive and expressive language goals targeted can include: vocabulary, sequencing, prepositions, temporal concepts, spatial concepts, descriptions, wh- questions, expansion of utterances, and differing sentence structures to name a few. Visual aids can easily be utilized to help address these goals with the app.

For the Parent

1. This app is a wonderful way to create a story with your child. To start the story, ask your child wh- questions (e.g.,Where is the cat? Why is the princess in the castle? What is the dragon doing? Why is the dragon breathing fire?), identify vocabulary terms, and model storytelling by describing the scene. Be creative and silly! Your narration will engage your child and encourage his/her imagination. This is an excellent way to spend meaningful time with your child and promote language!

All About Me, All About You: Pictures for Conversation

Cost: $3.99

About the App: 56 illustrated picture flash cards with a conversation prompt to teach essential questions to ask when getting to know someone. This app allows you to save cards under a child’s name- a way to reduce repeating cards and keep track of data.

For the Therapist

1. Speech: Speech goals can be targeted at the conversational level to monitor the client’s speech sounds.
2. Language: This app allows you to build rapport with your client while addressing several language goals. This app may be used to focus on pragmatic goals of various kinds (e.g.,starting a conversation, asking questions, making appropriate comments, continuing a conversation, ending a conversation, eye contact, body language, etc.). Expressive language goals can also be addressed (e.g.,using appropriate tense and grammatically correct sentence structures, describing, comparing/contrasting, answering wh- questions, and sequencing).

For the Parent

1. This app can provide an aid for producing a meaningful conversation between members of your family. It provides an opportunity to model conversational skills with your child and prompts to encourage your child to communicate. Pick one prompt to discuss with your kids in the car or use for a family game night to see if others can answer the question for the selected family member!

-Natalie Keller, M.A., CCC-SLP