As a best-selling speech therapy app for the iPad, Speech Therapy for Apraxia has already helped many parents and therapists deal with children’s apraxia, and with the latest update, the app now has the ability to track the user’s progress and e-mail results to loved ones, therapists, teachers or anyone else involved in the child’s development.
Gregg Weiss, founder and CEO of Wellington-based Blue Whale Apps, knew he was going to help a lot of people when his company helped develop Speech Therapy for Apraxia, but he had a special interest in the app. His daughter was born with Down syndrome in 2007. With the help of Lori Riggs, a certified speech-language pathologist at the National Association for Child Development (NACD), they created the iPad application that helps assist children with apraxia of speech.
Apraxia of speech is an oral motor speech disorder that affects an individual’s ability to translate conscious speech plans into motor plans, and that leads to limited and difficult speech ability. In adults, the disorder is caused by illness or injury. The cause of apraxia in children is unknown.
Speech Therapy for Apraxia helps children practice speaking by presenting a variety of phonemes and moving through a gentle progression of levels that challenge motor planning for speech. By repeating a series of simple articulation exercises, children with difficulty speaking can improve their overall proficiency using a suite of tablet apps for iPad, Kindle, Nook and Android tablets.
Frequently found in the Top 25 Medical category for paid iPad apps, Speech Therapy for Apraxia is the No. 1 speech therapy app available on the market.
The app organizes groups of consonants in eight levels roughly by developmental difficulty and place of articulation (bilabial vs. labial). Beginning with a consonant group of their choice, users learn the production of syllables by completing repetitive activities in which they produce different sounds. The lessons progress through increasingly difficult production sequences. The app also includes artfully drawn illustrations, audio and repeat features to support users as they practice each sequence.
Speech Therapy for Apraxia also tracks the user’s progress, share the user’s success with others via e-mail, offers eight different consonant groups for a total of 19 consonant sounds to target, features eight levels to practice for each group, provides detailed instructions explaining how to choose an appropriate consonant group and practice level, moves through a logical progression of eight different levels for motor planning for speech, provides illustrations and audio for each syllable, offers an option to repeat levels and can be used for straight articulation drill for particular phonemes.
Speech Therapy for Apraxia is the first of the NACD’s line of apps. Speech Therapy for Apraxia: Words, the organization’s second release, builds on the lessons taught in the original app by focusing on the production of words. It is also available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Amazon App Store and Nook store.
Speech Therapy for Apraxia is available for $4.99 on the following stores at the iTunes App Store, Google Play, the Amazon App Store and at the Barnes & Noble App Store.
For more information on Speech Therapy for Apraxia and Speech Therapy for Apraxia: Words, visit www.speechtherapyapraxiaapps.com.
Wellington-based Blue Whale Apps is a mobile app development company specializing in high quality and engaging iPhone and iPad applications for medical professionals and the healthcare industry. For more information, visit www.bluewhaleapps.com.
