2 is Always Better Than 1

Two problems I have found using a tablet in therapy is that it frequently doesn't lend itself well to group therapy and smudges/sanitation. Here is my solution to both these problems.

A half-sized binder fits most 7 inch tablets. Because Android tablets are much cheaper than iPads, you  can buy two decent ones for less than the price of 1 iPad.  For instance you can by 2 Lenovo A2107s right now for $150 each.  These tablets have offline GPS so they can be used for GPS navigation without a data/WIFI connection (not available in iPads).  Another option is to get the Kindle Fire for $160 each. Two of either of these sturdy tablets are cheaper than the $329 for the iPad mini.

A2107	Kindle Fire

Both of these tablets should fit in a half-size binder. The binder protects the tablets from smudges and is easy to wipe off. Now you can do articulation therapy using Pocket Artic with one student and language therapy with a few others using the Irregular Verbs Fun Deck at the same time. Like many other apps, you can email the students results when you are done.

With either the A2017 or the Kindle Fire you can access the Amazon Appstore, providing a free app every day, several of these in the last year have been great for therapy (not available in iPads). There are plenty of speech and language apps in the Amazon Appstore (see my list of over 101) and with the A2107 you can access even more in Google Play. If you are not interested in either of these tablets there are 100's of other Android tablets available cheaper than iPads.

On top of all this, Bluestacks can be installed on Windows computers and run Android apps from the Amazon Appstore. Check back here next week for more details.  

SLP Android Apps in the Amazon Appstore

I have started a list of speech language therapy apps in the Amazon Appstore. Comment Below if you know of any to be added to the list.

Email to Autism iHelp

I downloaded the Android version of Autism iHelp – Play yesterday.  The home screen is not sizing properly on most of my devices. This app was tested on a LG DoublePlay, Lenovo A1, and Kindle Fire (1^st Generation). The start screen only sized properly on the Kindle Fire. Access to games and options in cut off on my tablet and only the toys and outdoor activities are accessible on my phone. I tried both the Google Play and Amazon Appstore versions. Besides this major drawback this app works well. Thanks for storing the majority of the app on the SD card.  Let me know you fix the home screen and I will update my review on my blog and Amazon.

Roger Wagner CCC-SLP

www.rwslp.blogspot.com

Autism iHelp - Play

Name	Autism iHelp - Play
Developer	Autsim iHelper
Price	Free
MB	18.4
Type General	Language
Type Specific	Vocabulary
Operating System	2.2 or higher
SD Card	No
My Rating	««¶¶¶ (2/5)

Autism iHelp – Play is another Android App that the start screen is not sizing properly on most of my devices.  This app was tested on a LG DoublePlay, Lenovo A1, and Kindle Fire (1^st Generation).  The start screen only sized properly on the Kindle Fire. Access to games and options in cut off on my tablet and only the toys and outdoor activities are accessible on my phone.  Besides this major drawback this app works well.  It provides flashcards with good pictures and voice output (which can be turned off if the options can be accessed).

The games feature is nice. It's too bad it only worked on the Kindle Fire.   It is a multiple choice game for labeling pictures where the audio is optional.

GoToApp

Name	GoToApp Demo/Full
Developer	District Data
Price	Free/$2.25
Size in MB	.5
Type General	Utility
Type Specific	App Organizer
Minimum Operating System	2.2
Stores on SD Card	Yes
My Rating	««««« (5/5)

If you are looking for an app to organize all your other apps look no further.  GoToApp allows you to create unlimited folders to organize your apps within. You can create shortcuts to the folders on your home screen or place folders within other folders.  Apps can be arranged alphabetically, or you can position them.  When placing apps in folders, they can be filtered into new apps or apps that aren't in a folder. You can try the free version, which is the full version for the first few weeks. All information is saved when switching to the full version. The app creator was quick to respond to questions.

Free Version	Full Version

Email to Pocket SLP

Below is my Email to Pocket SLP

Dear PocketSLP,

I am enjoying your speech therapy apps for android devices.  I have a tablet and phone and am using both your Pocket SLP Articulation, and Little Jude Sky 1 apps.  I like them both, but have a few suggestions for improvement.  Many android apps let you store most of the app on the SD card.  Both your apps are over 20 MB. Please give your apps this feature, because I am running out of space on my tablet.

The Pocket SLP Articulation app works great on both my tablet and phone. It is by far the best articulation app I have found.  There are a few mistakes/glitches I have noticed while using the sentences feature though.  There are no sentences for ‘z’.  It just goes to the word level for both the word and sentence level.  

Some sentences aren’t really sentences.

• One thousand kids.
• The smoking volcano.  
• The number four.
• The number five.
• A smoking volcano.
• The number seven.

There are a few capital letter mistakes.

• Look at the Chalk stick. (C)
• The Orange is good. (O)
• The Gorilla is mad. (G)
• I bought some Art today. (A)
• We went to oregon state. (o)

One sentence is missing an apostrophe.

• The kitten lost its mittens. (it’s)

Two sentence missing a letter.

• The went north yesterday.  (They?)
• Buy some tomatos. (tomatoes)

One sentence missing a period.

• Game starts with G(.)

The start screen in Little Jude Sky’s Very Strange Day Pt. 1 isn’t sized properly on my Lenovo A1 or my phone. “I can read” is hidden behind the “Cancel” and “Read” buttons on the tablet and completely inaccessible on my phone.  When the app is run in ‘Read to me’ mode on my tablet, there is a glitch on the fourth page if ‘window’ is selected for ‘moon’, the app consistently crashes and closes.

I really like your apps.  Fixing these problems and allowing SD card storage will make them even better.

Thanks,

Roger Wagner CCC-SLP

Battery Saver App

I have been on the search for a good battery saver app this week.  I got fed up with the advertisements on Easy Battery Saver. In addition to the annoying ads within the program it has started putting ads in the notifications bar. I decided it was worth the 3 dollars to purchase an app without ads. My favorite feature of Easy Battery Saver was the easy access to turning on and off data, and of course the improved battery performance. Without a battery saver my phone and tablet last about a day and with them at least 2 days. 

So after much deliberation, I decided on GreenPower Premium. I tried the free version (with ads) first. I am happy so far. It has lots of good features. I ended up disabled having it control my Wi-Fi on my phone, so I can use it to quickly disable/enable my data. It can also disable or enable Wi-Fi/data for specific apps and has night options. My battery life is still around 2 days. If ads don't bother you, I suggest Easy Battery Saver which is free.

Email to AbiTalk

Hello Abitalk,

On Tuesday, I purchased your Irregular Verbs – English Language Art Grammar App from the Amazon App Store.  After downloading it, I discovered that the app doesn't work properly on my tablet or phone.  The home screen of the app is cut off on both devices preventing access to the majority of menu.  I could enter into one of the areas I had access to and start an activity, but when I selected a verb the app entered into a continuous audio loop which only stopped after I shut off the device. I was unable to get a refund immediately after the purchase from Amazon.  Please fix these problems or refund my purchase.

Thanks,

Roger Wagner CCC-SLP

www.rwslp.blogspot.com

Caution Purchasing This App

I hate to pick on a specific company selling Android apps, but if an app isn’t working I want to let others know!  I purchased and downloaded the ‘Irregular verbs - English Language Art Grammar App' today from the Amazon Appstore. It doesn’t work on my Lenovo A1 or my phone (LG DoublePlay); I couldn't figure out how to get a refund.  It does work on the first generation Kindle Fire.  If you don’t have a first generation Kindle, I don’t recommend downloading it or probably the 'Irregular Plurals - English Language Art Grammar App'. They may not work on your devices.  I will contact Abitalk this week and see if they can get it working.

Another language game as Amazon's App of the Day

Download This App Here


Amazon has another great word association/word finding game as the free app of the day. Bleep is a word guessing game which looks like it would work great during language groups with older elementary students. Two teams play against each other, taking turns guessing a target word described by other single words (e.g., puppy described by dog, pet, cat, kitten, cute). If you are an SLP or want to practice your students', kids', or your own language skills, download this app for free in the next few hours. It is normally only $0.99.

Free Language Apps from Amazon

Everyone loves getting stuff for free.  Here are some Apps that I use or recommend for language based activities; these apps can be used in therapy or at home and best of all they are all free.  On the down side many of them  have ads, but can be purchased for a dollar or two without ads. I recommend trying the free version and if you like them than purchasing the ads-free version.If you don't have the Amazon Appstore on your android device find out how to get it here.

Fact or Opinion App by Super Duper Updated

Super Duper updated their Fact or Opinion App last week.  I tested it today with some students and it is working much better.  The student data is sent within the email and as an attachment. Previously it wasn’t sending the data at all. Overall I am impressed with the response to my email. Now let’s see if they get around to updating the rest of their apps.  Hopefully they will make all of them send the student data within the email.

The Fact or Opinion App is a great app for older elementary, middle school and high school students. It works great with an individual and groups.  

Free App of the Day on Amazon Appstore for SLPS Today!

A word association game is the free app of the day in the Amazon Appstore today. Check it out and download it here. It is only free for four more hours. Sorry for the short notice I just got back from a family trip.

Do and Does Fun Deck

Rating: 4/5

This is another good language app that is working well on my Android devices.  Like the Super Duper Inc. other apps, if SD card is on the device it will store most of itself on the SD card so it only takes up 2 MB. My only problem with it is that it sends the data in an attachment instead of within the email.

Super Duper Name that Category Fun Deck

Rating: 5/5
This app provides you with all of the Super Duper "Name that Category" flashcards. It works well with single student or a group, providing automatic switching between students.  All of the Super Duper flashcard apps provide a high quality audio of the flashcard option if it is touched, this one has a correct and incorrect button which keeps score. The data can be sent within an email.  The data for the email is created in an html file which is saved on the device/SD card. I would recommend this app for lower elementary students working on basic categorical skills.

New SLP Android Apps Page in Google+

Check out my new Google+ page about Android Apps for SLPs here.

Opposites Fun Deck

Opposites Fun Deck provides you with access to all of Super Duper Opposite flashcards on you Android device. Like many of the recent Super Duper apps, this one provides the student with a choice of 2 words (e.g., “full” or “empty”) to complete a sentence.
All of the Super Duper flashcard apps provide a high quality audio of the flashcard option  if it is touched. Their apps work great for single student or multiple students at the same time. The data can be sent in an email when completed. The data for the email is created in an html file which is saved on the device/SD card. This app is currently sending the data as an html attachment and not within the email.
For some reason this app is not storing itself on the SD card of my devices.  It takes up over 14 MB of space on your device. All of the other Super Duper flashcard apps I have tested store most of app on the SD card by default, so if you have an device with and SD card, you have more room for other apps and stuff.  Kindle Fires do not have SD cards so it doesn’t matter for them. 
I am giving this app 3 stars until it is updated to send the data within the email and store itself on the SD card; otherwise it works well.  I would recommend using this app for preschool and lower elementary students.

Another Email from Super Duper Inc.

I got another email from Super Duper Inc. today.  They said the email problem with Fact or Opinions should be fixed with the updates that are on there way.

Reply from Super Duper Inc.

I got a reply back from Super Duper Inc. yesterday.  They said they would work on the problems, so I guess now we wait for app updates.

Email to Super Duper Inc.

Below is an email I sent to Super Duper today.

Hello,

I am a SLP who is enjoying many of your great Apps on my Android Devices. I currently own 14 of you them, most of which I have purchased through the Amazon market. I am currently in the process of reviewing all of these apps on Amazon and my website. I have noticed some issues with a few of the apps and thought I would let you know.

I have been unable to get the Fact or Opinion? app to send student data through email.  Every time I click email results, it says “Error email file not created”.  I have tried this on my Lenovo A1, LG Doubleplay, and Kindle Fire and gotten the same result on all of them.

Opposites Fun Deck and Data Tracker do not store themselves on or allow me to move them to my SD card. It would be nice if these apps stored themselves on the SD card like your other apps especially Opposites Fun Deck which takes up over 14.5 MB of space.

I enjoyed the change in some of your initial apps that placed the student data within email instead of an attachment.  Having the data within the email makes it a lot easier to find and view as well as takes up less space.  I was surprised that this change didn’t continue with the new apps.  Of my 14 apps Understanding Inferences, Name That Category!, Let’s Name Things, Wh Questions at School, Wh Questions at Home, All About You, All About Me, and Fun Deck Following Directions send the data within the email; Data Tracker, Regular Past Tense Verbs, Opposites, Irregular Verbs, Plurals, and Homophones send it as an attachment.  Fact or Opinion? isn’t working.

Storing a copy of the html file used to create the email on the device may be helpful for some people, but I just find it annoying to have to go and delete sometimes fifty+ files on the device. You may want to let your customers know that a file is being saved on the device so they don’t run into problems. Not too many people look at the folders on their tablets or phones.  If possible in future versions of the apps you might want to at least provide the option of deleting the html file after the email has been sent.

Overall your apps are great tools in therapy. I use them every day and look forward to new additions and improvements.

Thanks,

Roger Wagner CCC-SLP