With more and more SLPs taking on the role of reading specialist in the school environment, important reading strategies must be reviewed with current evidenced based practice (EBP). Additionally, multilingual clients bring a greater challenge to the SLP teaching phonemic awareness. In fact, reading and writing can be more complex in English than in many other languages because English has a moderately complicated spelling system. In Spanish, for example, the relationships between letters and sounds are typically 1:1, meaning each sound is usually written using one spelling unit, and each spelling unit is typically pronounced one way. There are exceptions with a few letters like the “C,” which has a “soft c” and “hard c” distinction in both languages.
Many apps are on the market now for speech and language purposes, but some go even beyond that to cater to bilingual students. A majority of these apps are for Spanish speakers only. A complete list of apps for a variety of languages is currently being developed. The following apps meet this need and make our lives a little easier:
1. Adjetivos Remix – This app is a great tool to use for individuals who present with difficulty identifying and using adjectives! Developed by bilingual speech therapists, this app also features various opportunities for customization. For example, there is a settings tool where the app can be customized for colors, appearances or feelings. The Spanish demo could not be found but the English version is included here and has the same user interface and design.
What I love about this app: The ideal feature that makes any speech therapist’s life easier is a progress monitoring feature. The app features an opportunity to take data and then email the data to track progress.
Who this app is appropriate for: As stated above, the intended users are individuals who present with difficulty identifying and using adjectives. While this app would be especially great to use with children in a school setting, the fact that the app uses actual objects and not drawings makes it more age-appropriate for adolescents and adults who have language difficulties. It’s also user-friendly so parents will probably enjoy it immensely as well and use it with their children. The app is $9.99 on iTunes. This app also has an English version, which is the same price and can be found here.
2. Bilingual Articulation Phonology Assessment (BAPA) – Now this app is a whopping $84.99, and honestly for that reason I have not yet used it. However, with that being said, it is a standardized assessment (which are usually much more expensive) and appears to be a notably credible assessment tool at that. In fact, please watch the demo included here Continue reading “5 Bilingual Speech and Language Therapy Apps That Make Our Lives Easier”→
bilingualspeechtherapist.wordpress.com 