Since Vanessa has been diagnosed with Apraxia, I have been doing whatever I could to find things that would be useful or beneficial to her. I was told by the Pediatric Neurologist that saw her plus all her therapists, that it would be good for her to get her an iPad or other tablet to help her learn to communicate or help her communicate. They had also given me a list of apps to use for her since she is so interested in my iPad (and can probably work it better than me).
Lots of research has been going on for me. Trying to find causes, reasons, anything. I happened to stumble across this app. I was happily shocked to see that this app was created by a father who has a son that was diagnosed with Apraxia at 2.5 years old. His son could only make a couple small letter sounds (much like Vanessa). So, in the anxiousness of wanting to help his son, he created this app. It is available on the iPad and NOW on the iPhone.
Within this app, there are over 700 pictures/words to help teach your child basic letter sounds to form words. Child with Apraxia do not have the ability to do this, thus intensive speech therapy is needed. Vanessa works best with verbal cues and putting emphasis on the major letter sounds that the words start with. Even though the beginning letter sound is important, the app also includes words with the middle letter sound and the ending letter sound. You can switch between these sounds by the simple touch of a button and the pictures will swap out. I also really like that you have the ability to add your own pictures and record yourself saying the word matching the picture. I added pictures of her brother and sister right away.
I quickly introduced this app to Vanessa’s speech therapist at her next session.
Vanessa’s therapist checking out the SpeechBox app.
She was very impressed with the app itself and liked everything that it had to offer. She quickly put it to use with Vanessa.
Vanessa going through the app with her
Vanessa recently had an appointment with the school board to get enrolled in Head Start/Early Childhood. The therapist was adamant in showing the therapists with the school board the app as well. They wrote down the name of it and where talking about getting it to use in the school.
Since using this app, Vanessa has started making more single letter sounds. We don’t get them often, but I take whatever I can get. I cannot wait to see her develop more and more with the use of this app and I am so very thankful that I got the opportunity to review it. Also, please ignore the fact that the quality of the pictures are not that great. Vanessa also does not like to have her picture taken, so I have to sneak pictures that include her.
This app isn’t just for children with apraxia. It can also be used with children who have autism and down syndrome or any other problems affecting their speech.
To check out this app for yourself visit SpeechBox. To download this app visit your app store on your iOS device and search SpeechBox. You can currently download the app for only $19.99 on the iPad or $9.99 on the iPhone.
I was provided with this app free of charge for my honest review. All opinions within this review are my own.
