1. Language Adventures

Price: from $24.99 to $14.99

Link:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/language-adventures/id510822157?mt=8

2. Reading Rehabilitation Toolkit

Price: from $9.99 to 7.99

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reading-rehabilitation-toolkit/id590202982?mt=8

3. Syllables Splash

Price: $9.99 to $5.99

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/syllables-splash/id625296207?mt=8

4. Pro-PA ( Profile of Phonological Awareness)

Price:  $29.99 – $14.99

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/profile-phonological-awareness/id484657843?mt=8

5. Minimal Pairs Academy

Price: $29.99 to $19.99

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/minimal-pairs-academy/id483691470?mt=8

6. Apraxia Ville

Price: $24.99 – to $19.99

Link:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apraxia-ville/id611587011?mt=8

7. Reading Comprehension Camp

Price: $24.99 to $14.99

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reading-comprehension-camp/id592934497?mt=8

8. Syntax City

Price: $24.99 to $14.99

Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/syntax-city/id561981400?mt=8

For those of you unfamiliar with www.appabled.com, it is a website specifically designed to help parents and teachers find apps designed to help children with special needs. AppAbled is run by parents for parents. Based around the world (Australia, Ireland, US), AppAbled offers a unique perspective to providing app reviews and showcasing the developers with the vision to create the apps utilized and needed by so many.

As the featured developer of the week, Smarty Ears will be showcasing several of their most popular apps, a different app each day. The apps will be on sale for a limited time.

Monday: Articulation Scenes

Articulation Scenes is the newest articulation app by Smarty Ears. Based around a movie theme, Articulation Scenes provides numerous opportunities for children to practice their sound production. With over 1200 practice words, 72 built-in scenes, and four activities for every scene, Articulation Scenes will intrigue children of all ages. Skills targeted include auditory bombardment, single-word production, and sentences/story production. Original price $29.99 – featured price $19.99.

 Tuesday: Custom Boards

Custom Boards was designed to serve as a board and activity creator for SLPs, teachers, special educators, and parents of children with special needs. With over 11,000 built in symbols and the ability to import photos, Custom Boards allows for the easy creation of activities, signs, worksheets, schedules, and templates for communication devices. Custom Boards allows saving of individual templates into folders which are able to be organized by student. In addition, Custom Boards is one of the few apps that can save templates to your computer based iTunes account as a PDF. Original Price $39.99 – featured price $29.99.

 Wednesday: Language Adventures

Language Adventures is a unique app designed specifically to work on higher order language skills such as Antonyms/Synonyms, Categories, Inferencing, Multiple Meaning Words, and WH Questions. Language adventures is a multi-user app featuring built-in board games, multiple levels, and a variety of complex language skills designed to assist children in developing and strengthening word connections. Original Price $21.99 – featured price $14.99

 Thursday: Profile of Phonological Awareness

The Profile of Phonological Awareness (Pro-PA) was developed specifically for evaluating and describing the phonological awareness skills of children. Using Pro-PA allows educators and clinicians to identify early reading difficulties in children. Pro-PA offers customization of sections administered, color-coded scores, and the ability to print or email results immediately. With Pro-PA early identification and progress monitoring has never been easier. Original price $29.99 – Featured Price $14.99

 Thank you AppAbled for selecting Smarty Ears Apps to be a featured developer!

Read more: Language Empires – TOP Learning Apps for Communication and English Language Arts Skills – Fun Educational Apps: Top Apps for Kids Reviews!
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Introducing: Reading Rehabilitation Toolkit App!

This app was created by a Speech-Language Pathologist and includes 6 different activities.  It automatically links up with the Therapy Report Center application.  You can chose to use the “quick start” or pick a student/client from the list you have generated so you can track the data.

The 6 activities:
1.Word-Images match: In this activity, the app provides your student or client with a word and an image.  They must match accordingly using their phonics and reading skills.  Then students have the opportunity to read and record their responses and rate their reading skills.

2.Image-Words match: This activity is the reverse of the above.  Students/clients are provided with an image and they must select the correct word using their reading skills.  Again, you can record the production of the word.  This is great for articulation, self-correction, and extra practice.

3.Phrase-Images match: This activity provides users with one phrase and they must identify the corresponding image.  Just like the other activities, again they can record their responses after they have selected the appropriate image.

4.Image-Phrases match: This activity is the reverse of the above.  They are provided with an image and they must select from choices the appropriate phrase.

5.Read & Answer: Users must attempt to read simple questions and answer based on the provided scenes.  This works on answering questions and reading comprehension.

6.Phrase Building: This activity shows an image and three words.  Students/clients must read the words and understand how to put them together to produce a short phrase.  This activity requires a variety of skills and is the highest level of them all.  Once they have moved them into the appropriate phrase placement, they can practice reading it out loud and record it.

Skills this app works on:

• Reading
• Phonics
• Word finding
• Vocabulary
• Syntax
• Expanding utterances
• Answering questions
• Comprehension
• Self-monitoring and self-correction
• I don’t currently work with adults but I can see how this app would be great for those working with adults with aphasia.

Last but not least, this app does collect data and generates score reports.

Learn more about this app by visiting iTunes.

by Rick Waters ’95
Updated: Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Barbara Fernandes ’08 MA is the founder and CEO of Smarty Ears apps, an industry leader in speech therapy and assistive technology. (Photo by Carolyn Cruz)

Barbara Fernandes ’08 MA still calls it the “a-ha moment.”

In fall 2008, she was a first-year speech pathologist and language evaluator for the Irving school district, the only bilingual therapist in the district, when she met Michael, a 5-year-old preschooler who had not spoken at school in his first two months. His teacher suspected autism.

Fernandes knew the boy liked cars and trains, but he had little interest in talking or looking at flashcards with her. He did, however, think her mobile phone was a toy with which he could entertain himself.

Rather than put the device away, Fernandes did a search for “transportation,” downloaded some images of various vehicles and handed over her iPhone.

“Boat,” the boy whispered. “Plane.”

His voice grew louder and more assured.

“He just began naming them. I was just trying to get him to speak, for him to say a word, and this unlocked him,” she said. “I never expected to have that kind of immediate response.”

The iPhone was less than a year old then, but Fernandes realized paper flashcards were an ancient technology and mobile devices had worlds of possibility with images and sound and animation.

A technophile growing up in Brazil, Fernandes tinkered with her own website growing up and had come to the United States to study assistive technology, but now she had a vision for how it could be used in schools and homes with children with disabilities and their parents.

In fall 2009, she published her first app under the name Smarty Ears. It featured the entire phonetic alphabet with corresponding sounds, words and images for each letter or blend. She took it to conferences and got a lukewarm response.

“Most people were very resistant at first, but some were really intrigued,” she said. “I was surprised it wasn’t 100 percent.”

But families loved it. What used to be a frustrating daily practice was now being seen as play.

As word-of-mouth spread to practitioners and they tried it, the app began selling fast. By then, Fernandes was about to release her second app — on conjugating verbs — and had four more in the works.

In the spring of 2010, Apple released the iPad and Smarty Ears “really took off,” she said.

“It pushed me to make my old apps better,” she said. “The tablet is really the ideal size for working with children.”

Now, Fernandes has 60 apps in English, Spanish and her native Portuguese and is considered a pioneer in the speech therapy industry. Ranging in cost from $1.99 to $49.99, Smarty Ears apps are the No. 1 brand with more than 150,000 downloads and are used in more than 40 countries, covering language development, articulation, autism, aphasia and voice disorders.

Fernandes and her husband Jonathan, a former English teacher who now helps craft the curriculum, employ six programmers, illustrators and interface designers. Smarty Ears has published 26 authors in nearly every practice within speech pathology and language evaluation. The company also has an 11-member advisory board of experts, parents and teachers.

Those first Smarty Ears apps seem primitive compared to the ones the company makes now, which include games, stories and animation that rival computer games and Saturday morning cartoons. Voice recording and camera technology also soup up the experience, allowing students to listen and watch their own mouths form phonics and sounds. There are also sophisticated reporting components built in, which track students’ scores and allow speech therapists to monitor progress.

Now, Fernandes is a highly sought speaker at conferences and is considered an expert in assistive technology.

“I have people come up to me now who just want to shake my hand or take a picture with me like I am some personality,” she said. “It’s gratifying to see the impact this is having.”

After you are done entering ALL your students you are ready to start taking advantage of the features of TRC. However, if you already own Smarty Ears apps, you must be careful on how to use this application to avoid deleting data accidentally.

There are two main functions on TRC that you will start using after you add your students:

1. If you have a brand new Smarty Ears app or if you have an app that you do not have any data built in yet and you would like to automatically add all the students into that app you can just tap on “ export students” and select the students to export to the app:

Within a few seconds you have your brand new app ready to go with all the students:

If you have an Smarty Ears app that already has all the students entered on it, you DO NOT have to export the students from TRC on to the app. That step was already completed by you manually so there is no need for you to do it again. Save the joy of doing this for when you download a new Smarty Ears app.

Exporting students FROM TRC to Smarty Ears app is a step ONLY needed if you have a brand new app.

2. Exporting data from all apps to TRC:

If you already own Smarty Ears apps and have data on those apps that you do NOT want to lose, you should NOT export students FROM TRC to the app. The exporting students from TRC and importing data to each student functions are NOT related to each other.

Once you have data from any student from any compatible Smarty Ears app, all you have to do is to export the results from the app on to TRC.

Let’s use the example here of Language Empires:

You can see I have the data from Ben Aflik and all I have to do now is to export the date obtained with Language Empires on to TRC:

Once TRC is loaded you get to pick the student you want to place that data on to. Technically you could just place that data anywhere, under any student. TRC does not know where that data came from- all it knows is what you tell it to do: You must tell it to copy this data on to the correct student.  Therefore, it did not matter how you got that student on Language Empires at first place. All it matters is that now you have the data from Language Empires organized on TRC with all the other possible data you might have imported to that student:

Once the data from Language Empires is placed on TRC this is how it should look like:

After you have imported the data from Language Empires once, you can now import data for this student from any other compatible app! Happy TRC use!

The prize package, which totals to over $400, includes all you need to get started:

• A new Apple iPad mini 16GB WiFi;
• A Cygnett Workmate shock-absorbing iPad mini case;
• A huge collection of apps to kickstart your iTunes library!

Custom Boards Voice Over from GeekSLP on Vimeo.

I am always looking for ways to make articulation practice fun. Picture cards and worksheets work but if I get bored then I know the kids are too.  I found that using hidden pictures is a way to work on targeted sounds with a fun twist. Now this app from Smarty Ears brings this twist to my iPad along with more options to spice up articulation therapy.

This is how I use this app in a traditional articulation session with a few twists included.

1. Find the hidden items:

*      Touch each word and find it in the scene

*      Touch a picture and say the word or make up a sentence

*      TWIST: set a timer and see how many items you can find AND say correctly

1. Tap and say it:

*      Touch each word and record your voice

*      Touch each word and record a sentence

*      TWIST: Create a silly sentence by using 2 or more pictures in the scene

1. The Movie Theater:

*      Listen to the story and read the script and record it

*      Create your own story and record it

*      TWIST: Select create your own story and record it BUT don’t let anyone hear you…yet!  When you are finished have others listen and see how many items in the picture they heard in your story.

1. The Production Room:

*      This area allows for generalization of correct sounds.

*      Create and record your story or use the provided scripts.

*      TWIST: Record your story but leave out the target sound words and have the others guess what word fits the best from the scene. Example for R blends scene:  One day I rode on a blank to the beach (train).  I sat in my chair and ate blank (grapes).  My blank (friends) played in the sand.  Suddenly a blank (dragon) flew over us and we ran to the castle.  (You could say blank or toot a horn, bell etc.)

Now I always use apps in as many ways as possible and this app is no exception. I can use this in my language and fluency sessions too. Here are some more “twisted” ideas to try.

Fluency:

*      Use the scenes to practice easy speech in words

*      Practice easy speech in sentences and stories

*      Recording helps the student to identify stuttering and easy speech patterns

Language:

*      Use the scenes to work on syntax- he, she, they, is, are, etc.

*      Give clues describing an item in the scene and have others guess- I spy…

*      Work on positional concepts and find items between, next to, on, etc.

*      Use scenes to work on creating questions: Where is the ball? Who is walking?  What is purple?

*      Work on sequencing by creating a story for a scene with a beginning, middle and ending

Oh and don’t forget the homework documents!  You can send them home as traditional practice sheets for words or “twist” it up and put directions for creating stories or other ideas that I have listed above.

Designed by Speech-Language Pathologists, Nichole Hanneken Ontis and Danielle Sears, Language Adventures is a theme-based game board that incorporates standard game play settings such as dice rolling, token moving, and player selection. This exciting app helps children develop vocabulary, naming, and description in the context of a real-world setting such as the classroom, cafeteria, and playground. With its exciting interface and colorful graphics, this visually appealing app can be used by multiple players with different skill levels and target goals.

“I have personally used Language Adventures with students in 6^th through 12^th grade. The students are very excited to use the app and frequently ask to play it!” said co-author, Nichole Hanneken Ontis, “The app set-up makes it easy enough for students to learn while playing independently in a small group, yet allows endless opportunities for the therapist or teacher to build on the context-based questions to increase learning opportunities for increasing language skills. The data tracking within the app has allowed me to track their increased progress over sessions and has made it easier as a therapist to collect data and be involved in the app use. Having the 3 level game boards and hundreds of target words has made this app a great therapy tool that can be used over many sessions without the students getting bored with it.”

Fun and Functional and Go-Together were both authored by SLP, Rosie Simms and were created to improve language comprehension and expression in children. Fun and Functional helps children to identify and describe how real-world objects function, thus strengthening their language and life skills while Go-Together targets categories of items and helps children to identify objects with a semantic association. These customizable apps effectively measures receptive activity and can be used by individuals in all age groups.

The fourth app recently released by Smarty Ears, Categories Learning Center helps students build their memory, word retrieval, and vocabulary skills which are vital for them to effectively listen, speak, read, and write. Authored by Barbara and Mary Huston, Categories Learning Center increases receptive and expressive vocabulary through picture stimuli and aids individuals with category naming and category selections.

“Through sorting items into categories and subcategories – for example, not just animals, but also ‘animals that live on a farm,’ children can develop key word networks that help them learn and retrieve vocabulary words,” stated Sean Sweeney, Production Development Manager for Smarty Ears. “Categories are everywhere in our world, and though students with language difficulties struggle with verbal organization, this app provides an engaging way to work on these skills…”

All four apps, which are currently available in the iTunes apps store, can be used with an iPad, running on IOS 4.0 higher. Fun and Functional and Go-Together are also compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch. The prices of these easy-to-use apps range from $9.99 to $19.99.

For more information about Fun and Functional, Categories Learning Center, Go-Together, Learning Adventures and other Smarty Ears products, visit smartyearsapps.com or contact Smarty Ears at contact@smartyapps.com.

###

By: Cindy L. Meester MS,CCC/SLP

I use this app in the receptive only setting as a way to measure a child’s ability to identify objects and their functions. The app allows me to set how many items are shown on the screen, which makes it easy to set up for the different ability levels of my students. I can even adjust how similar the items are related in this level. The student completes the task and I have the data saved and emailed to me. I love that I can modify the receptive level and adjust at the student’s skills improve.

In the expressive setting I am able to see how well my students can explain functions. I use this setting to measure their expressive language skills, grammar, fluency and even carryover for articulation skills. I am able to mark their responses in 3 different modes: Missed it, Almost and Got it! and email the results to myself. I have even had some of my students rate themselves.

In the alternating receptive-expressive setting I have the best of both options! I can see how well they “get it” receptively and move directly to how well they can “explain it” expressively. If I have a student who couldn’t identify the function on the receptive screen I may choose to skip the expressive screen by touching the next button.  Once again the data is saved and I can email the results.

Options: Here are some other ways I have used this app

• Guess What Game- I turn the sound off on the iPad. We use the Expressive Level setting. The group decides on a category and in settings I turn off the other categories. Some groups have asked for a challenge and then we use all the categories. Each student takes the iPad and gives two clues for the picture on the screen before asking for guesses. The goal is to get the others to guess the item. If the item is guessed with only 2 clues they mark it Got it! If it takes 3-4 clues then they mark Almost and if it is not guessed it is marked as Missed it.

• Cold, Warm, Hot- In this game we use the Receptive Level setting.  The goal is to be able to explain how the items on the screen are related. The setting option allows you to see 2, 3 or 4 items per screen. The more items shown the harder it is to explain similarities.
  • To play an easier game we choose this in settings: Receptive more similar and two items per screen.
  • To play the most challenging we choose this in settings: Receptive less similar and four items per screen.
  • Each student takes a turn and tells how the items on the screen are similar. As a group we judge if their ideas were cold, warm or hot.
    • Cold: their explanation was not related or they could not think of a similarity
    • Warm: their explanation was close but maybe a stretch
    • Hot: their explanation was right on target

Developing students’ semantic abilities is one of my favorite parts of my job! I think words, and the connections between them, are just really fun! Building semantic networks provides students with a stronger vocabulary base, which in turn gives them points of reference as they learn new words. Enter Go-Togethers, an app I helped design along with Rosie Simms for Smarty Ears Apps. Go-Togethers targets identification of word associations as well as expressive naming. When designing the interface for this app, we wanted to utilize more innovative responses in terms of gestures that take advantage of the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone’s touch screen. For this reason (although a simple tap will also work for students with fine motor difficulties), receptive connections are made by a tap-and-drag, essentially creating a semantic word map for each target.

Each screen allows you time to discuss the associations with students (targeting rationales such as “Yes, a cow goes with milk because milk comes from a cow!”)

Likewise, the expressive level allows you (or the student) to tap-and-tally both associated items (e.g. “a cake!” and, optionally, rationales “because eggs are needed to make a cake!”) for an open-ended language intervention experience.

Consider Go-Togethers as one “go-to” intervention for your students with word retrieval difficulties (especially for its data-keeping functionality) and for those students who don’t do so well on the CELF-4 Word Classes or Word Associations subtests. With 200 target items in 20 categories across two levels of difficulty, the app offers SLPs and other educators (and parents!) a LOT of content to work with. For a full video demonstration, see below!

We will be giving away one app per day for the whole month of April. In order to participate you must sign up on our website or on our Facebook page. Winners will be announced on our Facebook page daily at 6 pm central time. Parents, Speech Pathologists, and special education teachers are welcomed to apply for a chance to win one of our 38 apps for iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

Sing up for the giveaway here:

Email Marketing You Can Trust

You only need to enter once and you will have a chance to win everyday!

See below past winers:

4/17/2012 – Language Adventures – Naomi Hertsberg

4/18/2012 – Go-Togethers – Natalia De La Rosa, California.

4/19/2012 – Fun & functional - Patti Vogt, Missouri.

4/20/2012 – Articulate it! - Kari Lokken, Minnesota.

4/21/12 – Custom Boards - Jessica Ashford, California.

4/22/12 – Custom Boards - Christine Carey, Wisconsin.

4/23/12 – Custom Boards - Tracey Fraser, Manitoba, Canada.

4/24/2012 – iPractice Verbs – Debbie Barron, Michigan.

4/25/2012 – Categories Learning Center - Jaclyn Molina, Texas.

4/26/2012 – iName it – Ann D’Agostino, Massachusetts.

4/27/12- Sunny Articulation Phonology Test- Kari Robinson, Indiana.

4/28/12- Profile of Phonological Awareness – Lisa Truitt, New Jersey.

4/29/12 – SLP Goal Bank – Pam Palmer, Virginia.

4/30/12 – Preposition Remix - Md. Sohel Ahmed - Bangladesh.

Dallas, TX (March 22, 2012) – Approximately one million people in America (one out of 275 adults) suffer from some form of Aphasia and/or Apraxia. As a result, the majority of these individuals face word finding difficulties, the inability to think of and retrieve the right words. Clinicians have created several evidence-based cueing strategies for word finding. However, it has been difficult to pinpoint a universal approach that is suitable for patients as each individual’s case is different and requires mixed or combined approaches for successful treatment. Therefore, it is essential to have a tool that incorporates each of these approaches in order to effectively help patients with various levels of communication.

Published by Smarty Ears, iName it was created by certified Speech-Language Pathologists, Elizabeth Begley and Mary Pitti to assist individuals with word finding difficulties that are secondary to Aphasia and/or Apraxia. “This app is essential for every SLP who works with people who have Aphasia. The app targets basic functional words that people use on a daily basis. The target words are found in attractive visual displays that are realistic. The user has several cueing methods to choose from when trying to elicit the target word. This app is bound to be your favorite in your collection,” states Mary Pitti, Clinic Program Director and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at Ithaca College.

iName it includes fifty word finding items that are typically found in the household and around the community. By using the household visual scenes such as the garage, kitchen, bathroom, and living room, patients’ word finding skills will significantly improve.

“Clients can select a room in the house and then work with a therapist, spouse, or alone, to name relevant items in the room. While the target item becomes central in the screen, the context of the room is always visible in the background. In addition, the ‘adult look’ of the items and scenes will appeal to older individuals who often reject childlike or cartoon images. This app encourages and reinforces multiple practices both in the therapy setting and at home,” says co-author, Elizabeth Begley of the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Clinic at the College Station Medical Center.

iName it can be used by speech-language pathologists, family members, and individuals with word finding difficulties. The easy-to-use app is designed for adults, but it is appropriate for all ages. “I am amazed at the number of adult clients who buy iPads and are just looking for appropriate apps to aid in their language recovery.  iName it can be an excellent adjunct to regaining naming competence,” Begley adds.

iName it is currently available for $14.99 and can be purchased from the iTunes app store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iname-it/id486781414?mt=8. The app is compatible with the iPad running iOS 4.0 or above.

For more information about Smarty Ears or iName it, please visit smartyearsapps.com or email us at contact@smartyearsapps.com.

Articulate It! And Custom Boards are two of five finalists chosen to compete in the ‘Favorite Special-Needs App’ Category

San Francisco, CA (March 5, 2012)–We are pleased to announce that Smarty Ears’ apps, Articulate It! and Custom Boards have been selected as two of five finalists in the 2012 Readers’ Choice Awards for “Favorite Special-Needs App,” presented by About.com. The popular annual reader-driven awards program highlights the best products, services, and features in hundreds of categories that span across a majority of About.com’s channels from technology to hobbies.

 Smarty Ears was founded in 2009 by Speech and Language Pathologist, Barbara Fernandes. Smarty Ears is an innovative company that specializes in creating mobile educational apps and has quickly emerged as the leader in creating convenient, affordable, and easy-to-use apps that serve the needs of parents, speech therapists, teachers and, students with speech, language, and hearing disabilities. Smarty Ears currently provides users with over 32 mobile apps and 3 Android apps.

 “We greatly appreciate the positive responses that our products have been receiving and are humbled by the recognition About.com’s readers are giving Custom Boards and Articulate It!” said Fernandes.

Custom Boards and Articulate It! were created to help improve children’s speech and language skills. Custom Boards serves a visual support system that enables teachers, parents, and speech therapists to enhance learning for each child with special needs. The app also provides parents with an affordable way to aid their child at home, creating a link between the child’s learning environments and reinforcing the learning process. With the Smarty Symbols’ advanced and comprehensive library of over 11,000 symbols incorporated into the app, Custom Boards offers its users a pool of templates to create customized communication boards, schedules, and meaningful activities. Custom Boards was launched on October 6, 2001 and quickly became the #3 Bestselling Educational App on iTunes.

Articulate it! was created to help parents and speech therapists improve the speech of children with delays in speech. This universal app contains over 1 thousand pictures and includes all of the phonemes of the English language. Articulate it! is currently the only application on iTunes that enables speech therapists to work with a group of students simultaneously, which is a great need in school settings.

We encourage each of our users to show their support by voting for their favorite Smarty Ears’ app. To vote, visit the following link:  http://specialchildren.about.com/b/2012/02/22/vote-for-favorite-special-needs-app.htm.

Users can vote for Custom Boards or Articulate It! once per day until March 21. About.com will announce the winner on March 30.

For more information about Articulate It!, Custom Boards, or other Smarty Ears’ products or how to vote in the poll, contact us at contact@smartyearsapps.com.

by Tiffani Wallace

Call me a little partial, but I LOVE this app.  Dysphagia2Go has given me a new way to utilize my iPad in my dysphagia therapy.  I also can use it with the confidence that it is HIPAA compliant.  Yes, I am one of the authors, but this app was created out of the need to complete a quick and simple Clinical Dysphagia Evaluation.  This app was created to assist clinicians in assessing all areas for dysphagia and to complete a chart review that is as thorough as possible.

When you open the app, you will first begin by adding your patient information.  You can save patients or you can bring up previous patient information.  When adding a new patient, you will be prompted to input a Patient ID, Patient first name, Patient last name, Patient Date of Birth and Physician’s Name.  If you are not comfortable adding a patient name, you can assign each patient a number or simply use initials.

 One thing you will want to make sure to do is go under settings and add your therapist and institution information.  Turn the information on to add it to your reports.

Once you have added that patient, you can either view a saved report, or you can add a new evaluation.  To begin the evaluation, you will select the chart review tab.  The chart review will prompt you to input the reason for referral, physician order (yes or no), diagnosis, current method of nutrition, respiratory status, etc.  There is also a text box that you can input any other pertinent information from your chart review.  Don’t worry, new sections are being added to complete a more thorough chart review.

Once the chart review is completed, you can go assess the patient and begin to start the Oral Mech Exam.  This will prompt you to input information regarding all the oral and pharyngeal areas that we assess, including the tongue, teeth, lips, etc.

Upon completion of the Oral Mech Exam, you will be able to assess trials.  Either use the consistencies provided or skip the consistencies not used.   For each consistency, you will be able to assess oral control of the bolus, pharyngeal stage of the swallow and add any comments needed.

The final section is the Recommendations section.  You will be able to recommend compensatory strategies, exercises, MBSS, FEES, therapy, no therapy, or referrals.

Once the evaluation is complete, you can download the report and either print it wirelessly or email it to yourself and print it.  You also have the option to email it to yourself and cut and paste into your computer-generated report if your facility has a report that is required to be completed.

A few tips to remember with this app, first and foremost, please make sure to lock your iPad with a passcode.  This helps to ensure the privacy of the information that has been saved on your app and also helps to protect your valuable information that is stored on your iPad, should someone “borrow” it.  Also, please remember that this is a work in progress.  This app will continue to have new feature added.  One feature that will soon be added is the cranial nerve assessment section.   Please write a review of the app.  This is how we as the authors and Smarty Ears will know how to improve the app so that it can be useful for everyone.

We hope you enjoy Dysphagia2Go!!

I’m sure most SLPs have tried a variety of techniques to improve articulation sound errors. My iPad has not only helped to improve communication but it has opened up options on where I provide therapy.  I am now able to move out of my speech room and work in a classroom or even a hallway. What a hallway! Wasn’t that what we used to do in the “olden” days. Well maybe but now it is a very functional option for some of my articulation students.  Here’s how it works for me.

Scenario 1: I often have several students who are close to using sounds in carryover. I found that working twice a week for 20 minutes or so was not that effective especially as my caseload grew and grew.  I started with the first 30 minutes of the day and called this my Articulation Rounds.  This worked well as I moved from room to room and worked with each student for 5-10 minutes. I would take with a binder filled with word lists, pictures, reading passages plus my data sheets. But it did get cumbersome. Then I got an iTouch and my tired arms relaxed and when I showed up at a classroom and held up my iTouch the “coolness” effect take over.  The speech student came willingly and all the other kids wanted to join in too.  Now with my iPad I have a bigger screen and more kids that want to join in! I now have started using this model with some of my students who have multiple sound errors and poor overall speech intelligibility.  This gives them the opportunity to practice more often and I am finding they are able to focus better with these shorter bursts of service.  I love using Articulate it! in my Articulation Rounds. I can have all the materials necessary to meet my students’ needs. The school I work at even has benches in the hallway that I use. And BONUS it keeps track of the data too!

Scenario 2: I use Articulate it!  with students in my speech room too.  The app allows you to have more than one student practicing at a time. There is an option to choose to take a photograph of the student and a newly add option of an avatar.  My students were excited about this new choice and all have changed their image to avatars. Who wouldn’t like being a smiling face with blue hair! I use the app just like using traditional articulation cards.  I can have them practice at the word level or make up sentences for each picture.  The record option allows each student to work on self-correction.  And BONUS it keeps track of the data too!

Scenario 3: I use Articulate it! for my fluency students (stutterers).  I have them practice easy speech in words and sentences.  I use the record option so the students can help analyze their own speech or practice a technique and hear it in their own voice.  And BONUS it keeps track of the data too!

Scenario 4:  I have a student working on vocabulary or expanding their descriptive language skills.  Each student is assigned a phoneme and they take turns giving two clues and receive can push the green check mark if the other student(s) guess correctly. It’s about providing good clues and not trying to be tricky! And BONUS it keeps track of the data too!

In all these scenarios I can add a note to each student’s data. This allows me to note if we practiced in words or sentences or if they needed models etc.  I can then e-mail the data to myself or upload it to iTunes.

There have been some issues of the buttons disappearing. It has happened to me too. Thanks to Smarty Ears team they figured out the problem.  If you use the lock button on your iPad the control area buttons will disappear.  Here is a video link to fix: http://vimeo.com/34134714

An update is coming so stayed turned for the new exciting features!!!

There are many options to use the Custom Boards app within speech therapy sessions. Let me show you a few ways to get you started.

Activities & Games Templates:

I used the Christmas Tree template and imported pictures from my Photos that displayed different emotions. I printed one master copy. You could laminate this or put it in a protective plastic sleeve. I printed one extra and cut out the ornaments. The object is to pick an ornament, label the emotion and make guesses on what the gift might have been. For example: Excited (red): she received an iPad or Upset/Mad (orange): she received a pair of used boots. It can be a fun brainstorming activity and lead to a social skills lesson on what to say and what to keep in your thinking bubble.

I used the Board Game (Simple) template to create a quick open-ended game that could be use for different objectives. This one is called Blizzard. You can use a coin (heads=2, tails=1) or a die to move. If you land on the purple blizzard you lose one turn. If you land on snow day you take another turn. Now landing on the red dice is the open ended part of this game.

• For articulation students use articulation cards or the Articulate it! App and if they land on a die with 5 they say a word five times or five words or even use the words in a sentence. Play continues as long as time allows.
• For language students use the Label Set #3 template found in Signs & Labels and add vocabulary words or pictures to the circles or “snowballs” and they draw from the pile when landing on a red die. You might have them provide a definition, describe and have others guess; use the concept in a sentence, etc.  You may want them to just draw one “snowball” on their turn.

I used the Matching Cards template found in Activities & Games to created two syllable word cards. I cut them apart and laminated them. I made them color-coded to help with matching the two pieces.

1. The students can draw these in a matching game format.
2. I have also placed or taped one half of the word in the room and they try to find their match.
3. We placed these on the floor in a hopscotch form and they say each syllable while hopping on them. They like to collect as many pairs as they can.

These are only a few ways to use the many possible options available on the Custom Boards app. Be sure to explore the many templates available the possibilities are endless!

Sean is quite the expert in the industry. Sean holds a master’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Boston University and an additional master’s degree in Instructional Technology from Framingham State College. He has served as a Private Practitioner for the past eight years at the Ely Center, located in Newton, MA, in which he provides treatment  to clients with social communication issues. Sean has 10+ years of experience as a school-based Speech-Language Pathologist and he has also worked in the public school district as an Instructional Technology Specialist.

In 2010, Sean created the blog, SpeechTechie.com, to share info with users on how to integrate technology into speech therapy and soon after, won the 2010 Best New Blog from Edublogs. He not only authors his own blog, but he also contributes to the popular industry blogs, ASHAsphere and the Mindwing Concepts Blog. Consequently, Sean has spent the past few years providing consultations and making presentations at conferences, area clinics, and the annual national ASHA convention. He has presented on topics concerning webtools, apps, and social media venues that SLPs can use to enhance their practice.

“I am hugely excited to join the Smarty Ears team! My experience in Instructional Technology in educational settings was primarily geared around helping teachers use (and in many cases work around) the features of available tech tools in order to meet their lesson objectives.  In my role with Smarty Ears, it will be wonderful to be able to actually design tools for SLPs that are customized to clinical needs!” Sean expresses, “As an SLP, I have always been a fan of products that provide a broad context and strategies that can be implemented outside treatment sessions.  I hope to apply that strategic and contextual focus toward developing apps that directly target language and literacy skills, while engaging students by taking advantage of the interactive potential of iDevices.”

Barbara Fernandes, Founder and CEO of Smarty Ears, “We are glad to have such a talented SLP join our team. We have watched all the great work he has done in promoting the integration of technology into therapy on his blog and we look forward to the great work he will do as the Smarty Ears App Development Manager.”

For more information, contact Smarty Ears at contact@smartyearsapps.com or visit www.smartyearsapps.com.

Barbara Fernandes, Smarty Ears’ CEO, is among a number of distinguished presenters who presented on Thursday on “Using Evidence-Based Articulation Therapy” and on Saturday on “All about the iPad for Speech Therapy”. Both auditoriums were full, with attendees sitting on the floor or standing in the back of the room. Fernandes was applauded throughout the presentation as she demonstrated the wonders of Smarty Ears apps to a full room of top notch Speech-Language pathologists.

It was clear from these three days that Smarty Ears is the most liked, respected, and recognized company in terms of apps for speech therapists. “It felt great to have people come by our booth and want to shake my hand just to say, ‘thank you for making my life easier,’” said Fernandes. Smarty Ears was the first company to integrate speech therapy into mobile applications. The company has grown significantly since their first appearance at the 2010 ASHA convention in which 12 apps were presented; within a year, Smarty Ears has swiftly become the leader in speech therapy mobile apps development with over 29 apps for iOS devices and 3 Android apps.

Smarty Ears released two brand new apps during the American Speech and Hearing Convention in San Diego: Custom Boards & Dysphagia2Go. Authored by Dyspahagia Specialists, Tiffani Wallace and John DuBois, Dyspahagia2Go is an easy-to-use app that administers swallowing assessments and assists clinical speech experts in properly evaluating patients with Dyspahagia; it is among the Top 25 Medical Apps featured in the iTunes app store.

Custom Boards is a popular and cost-efficient speech therapy app that serves as an activity creation center and visual support system, enabling speech-language pathologists, special education teachers, and parents of children who need symbols for communicating and learning to create and print meaningful activities, schedules, and communication boards. Custom Boards was recently released on October 6, 2011 and quickly became the third Bestselling Educational App on iTunes.

Smarty Ears was established in 2009 by ASHA-certified Speech Pathologist and CEO, Barbara Fernandes. She has organized many initiatives that have transformed the lives of many people. She states, “The smiles I see on the therapists when I show them our products: that’s what makes this all worth it. Reading the several emails with positive comments and reviews about our apps is rewarding; however, meeting users and showing them how the app works in person I get to experience nothing but gratitude and enthusiasm.”

It is without a doubt that, with Smarty Ears, speech therapists and teachers can provide individuals the best tools possible that will facilitate learning efficiently while fostering proper communication skills.

For more information about Smarty Ears, visit our website.

Device Requirements:
* Compatible with iPad
* Requires iOS 4.0 or later
* 10.8 MB – Dysphagia2Go
* 387 MB – Custom Boards

Pricing and Availability:
Dysphagia2Go 1.0 is $99.99 USD and Custom Boards 1.1 is $69.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store.

Custom Boards was created to offer teachers, parents, and speech therapists the tools they need to support learning for each of their students while providing parents with an affordable way to facilitate continued learning at home, creating a link between learning environments and strengthening students’ process of learning.

Custom Boards serves as a visual support system that enables speech and language pathologists, teachers, and parents to create and print meaningful activities, schedules, and communication boards. This excellent app allows users to select from a pool of templates in three areas: Communication Boards, Schedules, and Activities. Custom Boards includes over 11,000 symbols from the Smarty Symbols library. The Smarty Symbols library is advanced and comprehensive with vocabulary that is organized into semantic and meaningful categories (such as communication and expressions) and features a unique low frequency vocabulary not found in any other symbol library. By utilizing Custom Boards, users can save, print directly from the iPad, and email countless templates.

Custom Boards has the flexibility of being used on the go, at school, in therapy sessions, and even at home. “I created individual boards using Custom Boards for many of my students today. Articulation pictures for some, requesting for others and vocabulary for all!” stated Cindy L. Meester, an educator who recently purchased Custom Boards, “I even made a game board to use with a theme unit for fall. And I can save them to use again and again! I can print them off for home practice too.”  The reviews on iTunes also show the level of excitement that Custom Boards is generating: “A Must Have App! Intense! Universal! Multi-Functional! Adaptive! Ingenious! is this App. It is well-suited to meet any Therapist, Teacher, Parent, and Child’s needs. This app has set a new bar for board creations,” review by beVerbal.

Older computer-based programs charge between $399 and $799 for their software; Custom Boards, available in the app store for only $69.99, is a product that educators, speech pathologists, and parents can afford and use in various learning environments. Custom Boards is cost-effective, user-friendly, insightful, and easy to use.

Custom Boards can be purchased from the iTunes app store. The product was officially launched on October 6, 2011 and quickly became the #3 Bestselling Educational App on iTunes.

For more information about Custom Boards and Smarty Symbols, visit us and watch the video tutorial before purchasing at www.smartyearsapps.com

Companies that hire speech pathologists spend numerous hours making direct phone calls and browsing through online resumes, hoping to find a therapist to fill the thousands of open positions across the country. The current shortage in the field of speech pathology has forced companies, school districts, and hospitals to spend a great amount of time, making enormous efforts to find a therapist that is available for the position. At the same time, employment in this field is expected to grow 19 percent, thus companies need a clever and innovative way to reach them. In the past, companies heavily relied on websites such as Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com to post their job openings. However, their ads have become lost in a sea of countless irrelevant or unrelated job openings from companies across the globe.

The iPad and Google Maps are remarkable technologies that have been made available to us. SLP Spots has decided to take advantage of this opportunity to make job matching for speech pathologists easier and hassle free. The map feature allows speech pathologists to view the location of the available positions on the Google Map directly on their iPad; this map even allows speech therapists to actually see how far each opening is from their own home. SLP Spots will have each available opportunity mapped out so SLPs can see which cities are displaying the jobs they are specifically looking for.

Barbara Fernandes, the CEO of Smarty Ears, informs us that with SLP Spots, “speech pathologists can utilize a search filtering feature that was built specifically for speech pathologists and include filters such as setting, population served, and certification level. This is an extremely useful feature not only for SLPs but also for companies.”

SLP Spots is currently available in the app store. It has been already downloaded by nearly two thousand speech pathologists, and the number is rapidly growing daily. While SLPs download the app for free to use, post resumes, and browse through job posts, companies pay an affordable price through an in-app purchase to place their ad on SLP Spots. The ad will become visible, immediately after purchase on the app store, to the over 20 million people who use an iPad and purchase apps through the iTunes store. There is no doubt that SLP Spots give companies the resources they need to conveniently and quickly find the right candidate for their position.

Companies can start posting their openings immediately by downloading SLP Spots and making an in-app purchase. Prices start at $29.99 for a 30-day ad placement. For more information about SLP Spots, visit http://www.slpspots.com or send an email to Smarty Ears at contact@smartyearsapp.com.

Professionals in the field had been relying on symbols developed in the early 1980s, and the development of a contemporary symbol set was overdue. Smarty Symbols is a symbol set that provides nearly 12,000 symbols for developers of educational or medical apps and manufacturers of AAC devices to use on their apps in order to promote the learning and development of communication skills for individuals with disabilities. By using symbols, many children have gained the ability to communicate with loved ones and many adults have regained their communication. The Smarty Symbols set is appropriate for all age levels. Through the presence of Smarty Symbols, developers and manufacturers of products for individuals with disabilities can create learning and communication materials that are more appropriate and attractive thus providing a more rewarding experience for children and adults with communication difficulties.

“Developers and AAC companies can license our high-quality product, Smarty Symbols for a significantly lower fee than our competitors. We want to revolutionize our field with Smarty Symbols. The current license options include a one-time payment for lifetime usage of 11,000 symbols, or a one-time set up fee plus a royalty payment schedule based on the sale of products using Smarty Symbols.”

Smarty Symbols has a modern, up-to-date, comprehensive and very transparent library. Vocabulary is organized into semantic and meaningful categories (such as food, animals, fruits, drinks, communication, expressions, and colors) and can be easily retrieved by the user. It features a low frequency vocabulary that cannot be found on competitors’ symbol sets such as adult intimacy, college life, employment, and Internet and social media vocabulary. Smarty Symbols is also currently being translated into Spanish and Portuguese.
Smarty Symbols will play a vital role in the communicative experience of children, teens, and adults with disabilities. Barbara Fernandes explains:

“We want to empower individuals with disabilities with a vocabulary that reflects the communication being used today by everyone which includes words that did not even exist five years ago. Smarty Symbols is a modern symbol set and allows users to express themselves fully like it should.”

Smarty Symbols is currently featured in some of Smarty Ears’ iPad apps available on the app store, Custom Board, That’s How I Feel, and Expressive. It has already been licensed to developers across the world to be utilized into apps, computer software, and traditional alternative communication devices that are currently in development. Soon, professionals and users will start seeing more and more products using Smarty Symbols.
For more information about Smarty Symbols, visit http://www.smartysymbols.com or contact Smarty Ears at contact(at)smartyearsapps(dot)com.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smarty-Symbols/144792392259713
Twitter @smartysymbols

The advisory committee will act as a group that will help with decisions we make. We want to hear what you guys need, so we can continue to improve our products. We want to hear from everyone: Parents, teachers and Speech Pathologists. If you are selected you will be asked to join our Facebook.com private group, where all discussions will take place.

Criteria:

1. Must own an iPad

2. Must own at least one Smarty Ears app

3. Must be a teacher, SLPs, parent, or person involved in the app community.

4. Must have a Facebook.com account

5. Must have written at least one review for one of Smarty Ears apps on iTunes

What will be expected from you:

1. Vote on decision we will ask such as your favorite icon for our next apps, suggestions for promoting specific apps, suggestion for updates, etc…

2. You will be asked to write reviews for our apps on iTunes,

3. Share a photo and a Bio to be posted on our website as a member of our advisory board,

4. Help us sometimes with testing an app before the app goes on sale on iTunes

5. Anything else you want to help us with.

This does not represent any form of employment association with Smarty Ears. You will be referred to as a member of our Advisory committee board.

What will you gain from it:

1. You will get to learn about our upcoming app releases before anyone does,

2. You will be able to put this on your resume as a member of an advisory committee,

3. You will receive a FREE copy for personal user of all Smarty Ears apps – one per month, or when new releases come.

4. You will be mentioned on our website when your Bio and photo are posted.

We hope you contact us if you are interested. You can use our contact us page to send your message. Please let us know why you are interested, and what you can bring to the table in helping Speech Therapy and educational apps better.

It is very important that you keep your iOS system up to date in order to have apps run smoothly and also take advantage of the enhancements  and the possible bug fixes provided by Apple.

Updating your iOS system is FREE

While most apps will work on older versions of the iOS system, keeping an up-to date update will guarantee you best performances.

In fact, some apps also do not work on older iOS versions (e.g 3.1); therefore you will not be allowed to purchase the app from the app store. First let’s learn how to identify which version of the iOS system you are running on your device.

1. Identifying the iOS system on your device:

1st. Go to the setting area on your device and click on “General”:

2nd. Under the “General” menu, click on ” About”:

3rd. Under the “About” menu you will see the information you are looking for under the “Version“.

On this example you can see I have the Version 4.3.2 of the iOS system; which is the most most up to date version as of 4/23/2011.

2. Understand app’s iOS requirements

Now that you know how to identify which version you have, now let’s learn about the fact that some apps do not support older version of the iOS system.

When you are purchasing an app from the app store you will notice that the app has several requirements, one of them is compatibility with iOS systems. Take fore example the number one, best selling educational application: Star Walk for iPad ; it requires that you have the iOS 3.2 in order to run this app. See image below:

Notice that the app requires that you have iOS 3.2 or later; if you have anything older the app will not install. Another example is an AAC app called Expressive:

As you can see, Expressive requires that users have the version 3.1.4 or older in order to run the app on the devices.

Now that you know how to identify your iOS system, and understand that some apps will not run on older versions of the iOS system; you will need to know how to update it. This is the easy part of the whole story.

3. Updating your iOS system

You will need to connect your device ( iPhone, iPod or iPad) to your computer to update it.

1. Plug your device

2. Open iTunes

3. Select your device and make sure you are under the ” Summary” section.

4. Click on “Check for Update”.

You are all done!

I hope it helps… Now go update your device 

There are two ways to redeem your code.

1. On iTunes
2. Directly on your iPhone or iPad

If you are redeeming your code on iTunes, follow these steps:

1. Open iTunes and find the “App Store” button;
2. Find the “redeem” button on the right side of your screen on iTunes;

3. Enter the code provided to you;

4. Wait until app is downloaded

5. Enjoy your app and we hope you can write a review telling us how you like the app.

If you are redeeming your promo code directly on device, follow these steps:

1. Open the ” App store” on you iPhone or iPad,

2. Navigate to the “featured” section;

3. Scroll to the bottom of the list to find the ” redeem” button;

4. Enter the promo code and tap ” redeem”

5. Once you are done; click on ” done” and check to make sure your app is being downloaded.

Forty-eight companies applied for this award, 24 were selected to participate on the 5 minutes pitch day. Barbara Fernandes, the CEO and Founder of Smarty Ears presented about the impact Smarty Ears is making in the lives of children with communication difficulties.  There were 9 finalists ( 3 in each category):

Environmental Category

Green & Sustainable Services, LLC

Solar Logic

Terra 360 Recycling

Community Category

Geowhiz Universe, LLC

Image Vision Labs’

Smarty Ears, LLC

Health Category

Medhab LLC

Silcore LLC

Vital Art & Science, Inc.

“ It was amazing to be part of Tech Fort Worth Impact Awards next to so many brilliant entrepreneurs. All these companies are doing their best to make our planet a better place. Five minutes was a very short time to talk about all Smarty Ears has done in the last 14 months, but I had fun”. Says Barbara Fernandes

The response Smarty Ears received from participants was extremely positive. While many start-ups are ery successful by creating one of two products in their first year, Smarty Ears has managed to create 21 products for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android users.

“More than 400 community leaders, entrepreneurs, technology advocates, and potential investors from across North Texas are expected to attend the awards luncheon on May 18 at the Brown-Lupton University Union Ballroom at Texas Christian University. The event will help raise funds to support business incubation programs for technology-based entrepreneurs.” SEAN MAGGARD

Hardware: iPod Touch 2^nd Generation. OS v.4.2.1. (No built-in microphone, No built-in camera)

Child: Diagnosed with Autism with very small verbal expression.

REVIEWED BY MARCOS VAZQUEZ :

This is my initial review (on the first week and a half of use) of Smarty Ears Expressive 1.2. Once I learn and work with my son for a month or two, I will revise or rewrite another review. I have been using the application for a little bit I am still in learning mode before fully understood and use it with my son.

My first impression about Expressive is that this application is solid! It is easy to use and after few minutes interacting with it I felt pretty excited!! I realized the potential benefit for my son in the long run. Expressive can be customized to his particular needs and that is what makes this app so incredible.

I tried to use the app for the first time with my son, few minutes after installed it on an iPod Touch we have. He seemed pretty happy with the visual appearance, and I let him start pushing icons. That seemed to be a mistake because he deleted two folders in matter of 2-3 seconds, so I thought it was not a good idea to let him use this without close supervision. After couple days of using the app I found that deleting or editing content can be restricted in the app settings so it was great that they thought about locking it down.

From a functionality stand point I think this app is quite easy to use but I am a very computer savvy person. Single phrases and words can be put together easily but one thing I didn’t like much is the fact that you have to navigate back and forth to different folders in order to create a phrase. I believe the best way to use it will be creating new folders with actions, verbs and word to specific scenarios to practice. For example, in the morning before he goes to school, I created a folder using the built-in icons to create a list of things he normally does before school such as dressing up, choosing his clothes & colors, and foods he likes for breakfast. We have formed small sentences and he has repeated them successfully. I think in the long run he will learn those phrases and will be able to say those independently down the road.

Expressive has the capability to load your own pictures and record sounds, however I could not tested that because I have an iPod Touch with no built-in camera or microphone. I will buy one of those headsets with microphone to try this functionality later on. Another nice thing is that besides the built-in library you can import pictures from your existing library. I imported pictures I already had in the iPod Touch library and it was pretty straight forward, but again no sound to record for the newly created icon.

Finally, I believe this app is very well designed and will be a great tool for my son to develop speech skills and I highly recommended this app to parents with kids with speech problems or speech therapy professionals. Below is the summary of Pros and Cons I could find so far.

Pros:

-        Affordable – not bad at all for the price, however if you don’t have any portable device to load the app you’ll need to buy one.

-        Ease to use – I thought everything was pretty straight forward but again I’m a computer savvy person.

-        Customizable – I loved this flexibility! I can create any scenario for my son to practice based on his needs and vocabulary.

-        Adding more stuff is easy – Adding actions from the built-in library, iPod Touch pictures can be really straight forward. I have only one concern that the app might have a limitation of how many additional icons you can create and it will be great to see that documented in the Expressive website.

-        Ability to lock down the app – I thought this feature was missing and a big flaw to permit changes but after finding it I have no fear that my son will delete everything from the app.

Cons:

-        Small Icons and letters – I believe this app was developed for larger devices such as iPads rather than iPhones or iPod Touch devices and it is a little tough to read some of the words. It would be nice to be able to customize that as well making larger the icons.

-        Screen rotation unavailable – Because the icons are too small I was hoping that the screen could be rotated to display larger icons. Well, at least I have seen other app vendors have used that screen rotation feature to take care of the small icon issues, enlarging icons and fonts.

-        Sound too soft – you really need to be in a quiet environment in order to listen to the voice. I know this might work better for an iPad or Android tablets and that confirms my earlier statement that this app seemed to have in mind that tablet device market.

-        Built-in library – It has many icons built-in and when adding those to the scenarios I was creating I needed to scroll down or up until you find what I wanted and it was a little overwhelming to find stuff. I’d suggest that the library should be organized by categories to make browsing and adding icons a better experience.

-        Cost low?? – It is only for the app but it might be in the hundreds of dollars if you don’t have a portable device or want to upgrade for a tablet version.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) March 7, 2011 –
The launch of the new iPad 2 highlighted how, with the right software, tablets are being used in clinical settings such as in the therapy of children with Autism. Smarty Ears LLC, a Dallas, TX-based leader in the development of iPad and iPhone applications for speech therapy, has just introduced 3 new and updated apps designed for individuals affected with Apraxia, Autism and Stuttering. These new apps were a highlight at last week’s Texas Health and Speech Association Conference and will now be showcased at the SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin, TX.

The first new app, Smart Oral Motor v1.0, uses animation to help children practice their oral motor skills, which are impaired in many children with communication disorders such as Apraxia of Speech. Oral motor skills refer to the skills needed for basic functions such as eating and speaking. We know that in order to practice these skills effectively, children need to follow basic directions involving movements of the muscles in their mouths. Smart Oral Motor is a fun and engaging application for children who need a little more entertaining during practice. Clever the Duck provides auditory and visual cues for practicing oral motor exercises. This application includes a total of 15 exercises, auditory information and fun animations

The second new app, Expressive v1.2, is an entry-level easy to use application that allows children and adults with speech impairment to express their wants and needs through the use of pictures. Expressive is part of the segment of Augmentative and Alternative Communication methods (AAC), which refers to methods that supplement or replace speech and writing when these are temporarily or permanently impaired. It does not matter if an individual is having difficulty communicating due to Autism, Apraxia, Stroke or any other communication disorder; Expressive will give that person the ability to communicate basic needs and interests through the use of pictured images and corresponding audio. The best thing about Expressive is its ease of use. It does not require any knowledge about programming or manuals; Expressive allows simple and intuitive customization to the individual’s communication level and needs.

The 3rd app is called Fluency Tracker v2.0. The recent Oscar for Best Picture awarded to the movie “The King’s Speech” increased awareness of the issue of stuttering, which affects about 1% of the world’s population and about 3 Million people in the U.S. Fluency Tracker is an iPhone application designed for individuals who stutter and parents of children who stutter. With Fluency Tracker, individuals are able to track changes in the frequency of disfluency, changes in avoidance behaviors, and feelings associated with speaking. As a compliment to the services of a speech therapist, this application keeps a log of this information over time to allow individuals to track progress towards a more fluent speech and positive feelings regarding communication.

Barbara Fernandes, Smarty Ears’ Founder and CEO, said that Smarty Ears was created on the premise that technology is a powerful mechanism for developing functional and engaging tools to improve communication abilities of children and adults with speech and language difficulties, regardless of their native language. “Our company designs and publishes apps in a variety of areas (fluency, articulation, language, etc.), catering not only to persons with communication disorders, but also their parents, educators and therapists”. According to Dr. Jose A. Briones, Smarty Ears’ Director of Marketing, both Expressive and Smart Oral Motor are now within the Top 50 Medical Apps in Apple’s iTunes store. With a total of 21 apps for the iOS system and 3 apps for the Android system, Smarty Ears will continue to invest in new apps to make therapy and educational sessions highly interactive.
For more information visit Smarty Ears’ website: http://www.smartyearsapps.com

or Expressive’s website: http://www.expressiveapp.com/

iPhone, iPad, iTunes and iPod Touch are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.
Smarty Ears is a trademark of Smarty Ears, LLC

How educational institutions can purchase Smarty Ears apps and get 50% off on all our apps.

Apple has implemented a program called “The Volume Purchase” program.  This program allows approved educational institutions to receive 50% off when 20 or more copies of the same app are purchased for their staff members. It is important to note that the developers have the option to opt out of this discount; therefore, not every application will offer the discount even if you purchase 20 copies. All Smarty Ears apps have opt in (option) for the discount. This way, if an educational institution chooses to purchase 20 copies of any of the Smarty Ears apps, they will receive 50% off on the cost of the application. This is a significant saving for the educational institution.

Here is how the program works:

Someone from an educational program must enroll by becoming the program manager for your institution.  The program manager will be in charge of making the purchases, and after the codes are downloaded this person is in charge of distributing codes that teachers, therapists and other staff members can use to download the application free of charge on their end.

How to sign up

The program manager can sign up for the program by visiting the following link: http://edu-vpp.apple.com/asvpp.html

Forms of payment

The program manager can make payments using credit cards (American Express, Discover, MasterCard, and Visa), debit cards, cashier’s check, money orders, and even wire transfer. Financing is also available. For more information you can visit : http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/volume/us/terms.html

How do I get the app?

After the program manager purchases the copies of the application he will receive codes that can be distributed to the staff members or students. Each person receiving the code must login to their iTunes account and redeem the code. The redeem link is on the right side of the iTunes store (see image below).

Now just click on the link and redeem the app by entering the code given to you.

Macworld 2011: Expressive helps the speech impaired learn and communicate

by David Winograd (RSS feed) on Jan 28th 2011 at 6:30PM

Speech therapist Barbrara Fernandez foundedSmarty-Ears apps last January and has since created over 15 apps for the field. I spoke to her about Expressive (US $29.95) an augmentative-alternative communication (AAC) app that at first seems similar to the much more expensive Proloquo2Go, but it serves two purposes.

Like most AAC apps or devices, it allows those without the power of speech due to Autism, Downs Syndrome or even temporary verbal problems to communicate. Tapping on categorized symbols allow one to build phrases that are spoken. The app contains 450 pre-set symbols and more can be added.

The second purpose of the app is to teach language and the relationship between symbols and words. Many children have a limited vocabulary and too many unfamiliar symbols would be confusing and overwhelming. “You can start out and delete everything and slowly build the vocabulary and specifically design the application to meet the needs of a student. I think that’s the main concept here.” Expressive helps with “limited expressive language communication skills” so it’s appropriate of all levels of communication disorders.

Expressive is meant to be used by speech therapists in conjunction with parents to build a child’s vocabulary and communication skills. In its simplest iteration, you would start with a noun. When that has been learned, an instructor can odd modifying words and build up from there. Although it may sound simple, seeing a picture of a ball and understanding that it represents all balls may not be obvious for some. There is an edit mode where symbols can be added or deleted and a user mode that doesn’t allow changes. Without this a child could inadvertently delete everything.

Original Source : http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/28/macworld-2011-expressive-helps-the-speech-impaired-learn-and-co/

With its 1001 ways to improve the life of any human being, the use of the iPad has also been a hot topic in the disability community. It is the combination of superb touch screen devices with the scientific knowledge and experience from a speech therapist that is making the difference for thousands of children and adults with special needs around the world. Barbara Fernandes, a speech pathologist and CEO of Smarty Ears has been developing applications for Apple devices for over one year to help children and adults with a variety of speech and language disorders to improve their communication skills and consequently their quality of life.

Smarty Ears will be showcasing their most recent releases at the Macworld Expo 2011 in San Francisco. Macworld 2011 is “a four day celebration that entertains and educates. Macworld offers access to hundreds of Apple related products and services.” Source: MacworldExpo.com

This year parents of children with a communication disorder such as stuttering, difficulty pronouncing words, or children that cannot communicate due to Autism or Apraxia of speech will have a chance to try out Smarty Ears apps at the Mobile Apps Showcase at the Macworld 2011. Smarty Ears wants to share with the parents and professionals that already use apple devices how this technology can help children with their communication skills.

Smarty Ears will be showcasing their newest app releases. “Articulate it!” is a application designed to help parents practice pronouncing sounds with their children. Many children with articulation disorders have difficulty pronouncing specific sounds. This application gives parents a fun way for in-home pronunciation practice.

Match2Say is a game also designed for children with difficulty pronouncing their sounds in the English language. Match2Say is a game that allows children to have fun while listening to high quality samples of specific sounds while learning at the same time.

Many children with developmental disorders, such as Autism or Down’s syndrome have difficulty speaking using their own voice. Smarty Ears created an application called “Expressive”. With Expressive, children who may have never expressed themselves have a chance to combine pictures that will speak for them.
At US$34.99 Expressive is one of the most affordable apps on the market and it costs a fraction of the devices it rivals, which typically cost anywhere between US$800 and US$4000.

Smarty Ears, a company created in August of 2009 has been the new breakthrough in the area of speech and language therapy. They have released innovative products that combine technology and speech and language sciences, making speech therapy more affordable, fun, and greener. Smarty Ears has already released 15 products on the app Store as of January 2011 and it is expected to release at least 5 new products this spring.

For more information about Smarty Ears visit http://www.smartyearsapps.com You can also contact them at support (at) smarty-ears (dot) com

References:

1. AAC App for the iPad and the iPhone Makes Communicating Affordable for People with Disabilitieshttp://srph.it/hkdpPA
2. New Company Combines Technological Advancements With Speech And Language Sciences.http://bit.ly/bK8vqH
3. Macworld 2011 http://www.macworldexpo2011.com
4. iPhone App for Speech and Language Pathologists http://bit.ly/9389nn
5. Teacher and speech therapist combine skills to help children with language and articulation delayhttp://bit.ly/9PqsCx

HOLIDAY SALES EXTENDED! ENJOY 30% OFF ON ALL OUR APPS UNTIL JAN 6^TH, 2011.

We have extended our Holiday Sales until the 6th of January due to overwhelming response and requests. Now you have time to talk to your school about our promotion.

It is time for the Macworld 2011. Smarty Ears will be participating at the Macworld this year with other Mac fanatics.  We have 50 free guest passes to give away. If you wish to come, join us and try out our apps just send an an e-mail to support@smarty-ears.com and we will add your name to our VIP guest list granting you FREE access to the Macworld expo.

Special education apps are increasing its exposure on the internet and on iTunes. Apple once again spotlighted one of Smarty Ears apps. Two of our apps this week are not only amongst top 10 best selling education application on iTunes, but they have also been featured by Apple as “New & Noteworthy”.

Smarty Ears has had a history of very successful products which are recognized by Apple inc. as worthy.

Articulate it!: An application that helps children with speech delays practice their sounds, was also this week #3 best selling education application just one day after its release to the iTunes store.

Smarty Ears would like to thank our users for their support and positive suggestions that have allowed us to create products that help speech therapists, special educators and parents work as a team to help our children with special needs.

If you would like more information about Articulate it! Visit our website; if you would like to download it click the button bellow to see it on the iTunes store.

Match2Say has just been released and it is already a success thanks to all of you who love using Smarty Ears’ apps. Today Match2Say was featured on “New and Noteworthy” on iTunes. This is another great accomplishment for Smarty Ears, speech therapists, teacher and most importantly children with speech delays.

At the same time on 11/07/2010 Match2Say was the top #5 Best selling education app:

If you want to download Match2Say : $34.99

Click here

They seemed like a match made in heaven in the eyes of every friend, but their passion for helping children made Jonathan and Barbara Fernandes an even stronger couple.  For the last year Barbara, a speech therapist and Jonathan, a Dallas ISD English teacher have been creating apps that can help children with a variety of delays to communicate better.

Barbara and Jonathan have created nearly 20 applications within the last year, all of them towards helping children with a form of a communication difficulty. Barbara has always been “geeky” and started experimenting with graphic designs and programming by the age of 11. Jonathan is a passionate artistic English teacher and the voice featured in almost all of their applications.

“We love spending time together, recording and editing our voices that will be used to help so many children all around the world.  Some of our apps feature both of our voices. It is a lot of fun to see the result after many hours of work!”

As an English teacher and artist, Jonathan is responsible for making sure children are learning good English skills. As a speech Therapist, Barbara makes sure all apps are appropriate to target some skills that are affected the most by children with language disorders. They are building the bridge between regular and special education by working as a team.

Speech Therapy most of the time is expensive and the parents rarely have access to the same materials used to practice speech and language skills. While Smarty Ears’ apps do not replace speech therapy, the developers love being able to tell a parent that they can now also help their children at home with these apps in order to maximize the results. It is a well know fact that the more children practice the quicker we are to accomplish results; parental support is the key to success.

“Our apps are simple to use and can also be used not only by special education teachers but also by teacher in regular education that should always be providing support to children with speech delays” says Barbara Fernandes.

Smarty Ears has apps such as: Articulate it! Or /r/ intensive that are designed for children that have difficulty pronouncing some sounds. In order to improve the ability to say certain sounds, children will need lots of practice daily.  Parents can use these apps to help their children at home with drills based on the sounds they are having difficulty with.  One of our apps called Match2Say is a matching game that organizes the sounds and allows children to play while practicing the sounds they have difficulty with.

Smarty Ears also has apps for children and adults who stutter, and also apps such as iPractice Verbs and WhQuestions for children with language delays. This month we will also be releasing our first Augmentative communication app: Expressive. Expressive is an application designed to help individuals who do not communicate verbally to be able to express their basic wants and needs. Expressive is an alternative communication application that is intended to be functional and easy to use. It is very easy to program and make the words fit the child’s need. We also plan to release it in Portuguese and Spanish still this year.

Apple has given our world an amazing set of devices. Developers can now make these products available to parents at a price that is a fraction of what comparable technology or services would cost.

To contact Barbara or Jonathan you can e-mail them at support@smarty-ears.com or visit the website www.smartyearsapps.com for tutorials  and more information.

We are always very happy when Apple decides to feature Smarty Ears’ apps on “What’s hot section” on iTunes. This is not the first time Sunny Articulation Test has been featured on What’s hot! Actually, both Sunny and Mobile Articulation Probes are often features by Apple. This is a sign that not only consumers love our apps, but also Apple as well.

Aug 03, 2010 – Smarty Ears releases the first articulation test available on a mobile device (iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad). The Sunny Articulation Test is an individually administered qualitative clinical tool for screening, identification, diagnosis and follow-up evaluation of articulation skills in English speaking individuals. It was developed by Barbara Fernandes, a Trilingual Speech and Language Pathologist and Smarty Ears.

The Sunny Articulation Test can be used with individuals of all age groups. The Sunny Articulation Test is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch & the iPad.

This app features:

a. The ability to enter student’s name and track progress over time;
b. Tests all phonemes of the English language including clusters;
c. Offers two options: Screening & Full Assessment
d. The ability to record student’s production with the same tool you are using to administer test;
e. Complements information of standardized measures;
f. E-mails test results immediately after administration;
g. Provides immediate positive feedback to students throughout the test administration;
h. Sample recording of target word is available as you touch each image;
i. Ability to add notes on the app during the assessment.

Sunny was released in the app store on July 3rd and is already a successful product. Two days after its debut, Sunny was among the top 10 best-selling educational apps in the iTunes store. This is a great accomplishment not only for Smarty Ears but also for Speech therapists and the children who will have a lot more fun when going to their speech therapist.

Sunny Articulation Test is especially useful in determining patterns in the speech production of students, something that saves significant time for Speech Therapists who in the past had to analyze the words from a speech test protocol.
Now Smarty Ears not only provides speech therapists with a tool for assessment but also a tool for therapy. Smarty Ears has an app for therapy: Mobile Articulation Probes, and one for assessment: the Sunny Articulation Test.

Sep 05, 2010 – The iPod has already been known for its gaming capabilities, and innumerous apps to everything you can imagine. However, it was not until a speech therapy company released its first application that the iPod started becoming utilized in treating children with speech problems. Speech disorders are one of the most frustrating difficulties children may present early in life as it impedes their ability to communicate with others, sometimes even with their parents.

Smarty Ears –a company that has already developed 13 applications for speech therapy– released in January of 2010 the first app for treating children with articulation problems called Mobile Articulation Probes (MAP). According to the developers, sales of this application have been enormous given the high percentage of speech sound disorders in children.  The basic concept of the application is the use of a pool of over 2 thousand images divided by phonemes (sounds). This application was designed to be used by speech therapists as well as parents of children with speech sound errors who wish to practice with their children at home.

Parents are always encouraged to practice with their children at home to supplement the services of the speech therapist. Mobile Articulation Probes provides a very easy way for parents to practice with their children at a very affordable price ($29.99). The results can be e-mailed to their child’s speech therapist to follow up with the treatment. On the other hand, if this application is being used by speech therapists the words that the child is not producing appropriately can be e-mailed to the parents for daily practice at home.

If using the iPod/iPhone/iPad for treating speech errors was not already an astonishing enough progress, a new app was released to screen for speech errors and it is called the Sunny Articulation Test. The Sunny Articulation Test is a revolution in the way speech tests are presented to children. In the past, children’s articulation skills were assessed by the use of a pictured book. The Sunny Articulation Test makes the screening of these skills a lot more fun and interesting to the children while making it a lot more practical for the speech therapist. The Sunny Articulation Test automatically calculates percentages of accuracy and provides instantly at the end of the test. The speech therapy of the parent can print the results minutes after its administration.

May 13, 2010 – On May 11, Smarty Ears released an innovative new app that focuses on therapy for one of the most common articulation difficulties among young children: the production of the /r/ phoneme. Smarty Ears’ new app, called “R intensive SLP”, is a fun, well structured, yet easy to administer way of practicing the most feared English sound.

The /r/ phoneme is one of the most complex phonemes in the English language and therefore one of the most frustrating sounds, for not only for speech therapists but also for children and parents. Often,  students are enrolled for many years to learn to produce this one sound in the English language.  Individuals who come from other countries often also have difficulties learning to pronounce this very “tricky” sound.

Developed by Barbara Fernandes, a trilingual practicing speech and language therapist, “/r/ intensive SLP” uses a phonetic approach to teaching the R phoneme. It provides over 450 target “r” words and phrases divided by its phonetic “environment”.  First, the speech therapist can use this app to perform a PROBE and attempt to identify the specific phonetic environment the student has difficulties with. For example, sometimes students only have difficulties pronouncing /r/ when it comes in clusters, or prevocalic-R.

The Probe option will give SLPs a pool containing 20 words from all phonetic environments for later analysis.

After the probe has been administered and analyzed, the SLP will be able to direct the therapy towards the student’s specific difficulties rather than a list of general “r” words.  This is one of the most useful apps available on the market not only for speech therapists but also for the parents to practice with their children at home.
“/r/ intensive SLP” allows speech pathologists to select the following phonetic variations of /r/ :

1.   Pre-Vocalic /r/
2.   /r/ Clusters
3.   /rl/
4.   /Ir/
5.   /ajər/
6.   /ar/
7.   /er/
8.   /or/
9.   /ər/

Speech therapists are now able to have an easy access to a pool of “r” words organized by allophones in  a compact, and portable device: their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch! Since most evaluation tools do not address the variations of /r/, this can also be used as a complementary tool for the collection of data during the assessment. “/r/Intensive SLP” provides /r/ targets at the phrase level as well as at the individual word level.

/r/ Intensive SLP is the only tool on the market that allows Speech therapists and parents to not only practice the production of the /r/ phoneme,  but it also provides a list of accurate/missed words for homework practice, and it tallies the percentage of accuracy at the same time with the same tool: your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

For more information visit Smarty Ears’ website at http://www.smarty-ears.com

In order to download this app or view it on the app store visit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/r-intensive-slp/id3712003 …

Apr 26, 2010 – In today’s global economy, the need for learning foreign languages is of critical importance.  It is also well known that children have the ability to learn languages much more easily and faster than adults.  What has only recently been demonstrated is that the ability to actively learn languages is present much earlier than previously assumed.

Researchers have recently documented that even newborns cry in their native language.  Comparisons between babies a few days old in France and Germany revealed that newborns cry in the same melody patterns that are typical of their respective mother tongues.  The data showed an influence of the surrounding language phonemes, pitch and rhythms on the babies’ cry (1).  According to Dr. Kathleen Wermke, “The melody patterns practiced in crying are building blocks for subsequent sound productions, from cooing and babbling through to the first words and sentences”(2).

Additional research has shown that hearing two languages during pregnancy puts infants on the road to bilingualism by birth.   A recent study showed that infants born to bilingual mothers (who spoke both languages regularly during pregnancy) exhibit different language preferences than infants born to mothers speaking only one language (3).  The work revealed that language discrimination is robust at birth and that language preference at birth reflects previous listening experience (4).

These findings point the way to new approaches to teach foreign languages to newborn babies.  By utilizing a system based on scientific principles of language acquisition, parents can provide their children with the opportunity to start learning the basic sounds of a foreign language in a more effective manner than just listening to simple words and sentences.

Smarty Ears LLC, a company from Dallas, TX, has released a new patent-pending teaching method to expose babies to the sounds of a foreign language.  The application is called “My Bilingual Baby”, and is available for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, and iPod Touch®.  “My Bilingual Baby” may be utilized with children of any age starting as soon as a few weeks from birth.

The goal is to expose children to all sounds of the target language as soon as possible to prevent the potential loss of their natural ability to learn a foreign language.  Based on the premise that the sooner children are introduced to the sounds of a foreign language, the easier it will be for them to become proficient later in life, Smarty Ears has developed this method to boost the child’s inherent language acquisition abilities.

“My Bilingual Baby” goes beyond simple lists of words and phrases.  Unlike other teaching methods for babies and children, in this system the baby is exposed to phonemically balanced words, carefully selected by trained speech and language professionals. In this product all phonemes of the language are presented in the three positions of the word: Initial, medial and final.

One significant advantage is that the phonemically balanced words are also presented to the child at the phrase level. The child will become familiar with the intonation of the language and of its various grammatical features. He/She will learn that each language has a different intonation and speech pattern.  An additional product feature called “Polar Opposite Sounds” will teach children that a change in a single feature of a particular sound can change the entire meaning of the word.

One of the options in “My Bilingual Baby” is to automatically play all of the sounds with the feature “Play All”.  With this feature parents can place the iPhone or iPad next to the baby while they relax or attend to other chores.  It is also a useful bedtime strategy, since parents can rest assured that their children will be cognitively stimulated listening to the sounds of the language until they fall sleep.

“My Bilingual Baby” has already sold hundreds of copies all around the world.  The Spanish language has been chosen for the first version of the product, and is available for English- and Portuguese-speaking parents.  However, Smarty Ears plans to release this application in a variety of other languages.   While the graphics are optimized for use with the iPhone and iPod Touch, the application can also be used with the iPad.

With this product, bilingual or monolingual parents can introduce their children to the sounds of the Spanish language.  The application for English-Speaking parents can be found at this linkhttp://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id353788600?mt=8 and the application for Portuguese-Speaking parents is available at this link http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id360586208?mt=8.

Smarty Ears, LLC has developed over 12 iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch applications for Speech Therapy and Language Development.  For more information about the company, please visit the websitehttp://www.smarty-ears.com/

1)   Newborns’ Cry Melody Is Shaped by Their Native Language, Current Biology, Volume 19, Issue 23, 05 November 2009
2)   Language begins with the very first cry. University of Würzburg 05/Nov/2009
3)   Bilingual babies: The roots of bilingualism in newborns PhysOrg.com February 16, 2010
4)   The roots of bilingualism in Newborns, Psychological Science, 21 (3) 2010

iPhone and iPod Touch are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.
iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc.
Smarty Ears is a trademark of Smarty Ears, LLC

Smarty Ears has already released 10 products on the app Store as of March, 2010 and it is expected to release at least 3 new products per month. Amongst its most popular products is “Mobile Articulation Probes” – an exciting original app that allows for practicing and probing of articulation errors, “WHQuestions” –  a great app that provides over 120 Wh questions for practice, “ iPractice Verbs” – an innovative app with visual and auditory information on over 130 verbs at the word and phrase level, “Fluency Tracker” – a handy app that allows for tracking of changes in behaviors associated with stuttering.  Smarty Ears will be releasing apps in the area of dysphagia and aphasia within the next month, as they are very enthusiastic to help improve every aspect of speech therapy.

In the past, parents had limited access to Speech and Language materials, which are not only expensive but also usually only advertised for Speech Pathologists. Smarty Ears gives parents the ability to provide their children additional practice in those areas affected by a speech or language disorder. Smarty Ears’ apps are both affordable and easy to use by both parents and children with a communication disorder.

Up until recently Speech Therapists have been limited to ordering paper & pencil activities or creating their own materials to be used with children with communication disorders. These materials are often expensive. Smarty Ears adds one additional possibility to the market, which is the ability to instantly download materials on the iPhone or iPod as well as the ability to order materials way below the price they would pay for flashcards or other paper and pencil materials.

Smarty Ears gives speech therapists a “green” friendly alternative to other speech products such as flash cards because by using their iPhone apps Smarty Ears  improves their product whenever there is an application update that users who have already purchased the product can download for free. Printed materials and traditional publishers by contrast are neither generous enough to issue updates to customers that improve their product for free nor consciousness of the waste produced when an older product becomes obsolete. No more having to create eventual waste and fill landfills with products that eventually wear down, get damaged, or become obsolete. Smarty Ears appreciates and listens to both their customers’ needs, and recent research in the speech community to keep their products relevant in an ever changing world.

Not only is Smarty Ears a more environmentally conscious method of conducting therapy it’s also in most cases a more convenient one. Speech therapists often have to move  therapy materials from one room to another and often may have wished that everything was more compact. With Smarty Ears, products are all conveniently at your fingertips on the one item that goes everywhere with a person—their iPhone—no more having to search the room or strain one’s arms to gather therapy tools or hope that there isn’t a piece broken or missing.

Children with communication disorders sometimes have reduced attention spans, which makes it difficult for improving their language or articulation skills. Smarty Ears adds the component of technology that children from this generation in particular love, increasing their attention span and making therapy, practice, and progress a much more intrinsic experience.

Smarty Ears is the result of the efforts and creativity of Barbara Fernandes, a licensed and practicing speech and language pathologist. She is a trilingual speech and language pathologist that currently works for a public school district and has worked with children from a variety of multicultural and linguistic backgrounds with a myriad of different needs. Barbara plans to create apps in a variety of languages, which makes Smarty Ears ever more important as the world becomes more and more multilingual and multicultural.

The amount of materials for Speech therapists in languages other than English is very limited. Smarty Ears will be a game changer as publication of its products become available in more and more languages. Smarty Ears already has released two apps in Spanish- “ Mobile Articulation Probes” and “ My bilingual baby”. Bilingual speech therapists are celebrating this new very welcome addition to their “library”.

Smarty Ears mascot “Clever” has added a key feature to Smarty Ears products. The response we are getting from the addition of a mascot to our company has been great! He was first utilized as part of the app iPractice Verbs. “The kids love how funny and silly he sounds!” Says Barbara Fernandes, owner and director of the company.

Smarty Ears has already sold hundreds of applications worldwide and it is now one of the finalists for receiving the IMPACT award for making a significant impact in the area of health sciences.

For more information you can visit their website at http://www.smarty-ears.com
To find all Smarty Ears apps just search on your app store for the key word “Smarty Ears”.

Now speech therapists can count on an application that will provide more than 200 questions ready to be used in therapy. The questions are grouped in 5 categories: what, where, who, how, and why.

Often times, parents may feel discouraged with practicing with their child who has the need simply because they don’t feel they have the tools accessible to give their child the much needed help. “WHQuestions” is designed to empower the parents of children with difficulty answering questions with the ability to practice this language skill with their child at home at any time.

In addition, “WHQuestions” comes equipped with the ability to track the percentage of accuracy so that the speech therapist can focus more on the therapy itself instead of the tracking data.

“WHQuestions” is being sold for a promotional price for the first month of only $14.99 USD. When you consider how the average price of just one deck of cards that has only one type of question sold at popular speech therapy conventions costs about $14.99 and a deck containing all questions costs on average $64.99, “WHQuestions” offers a potential savings of $50 without the hassle of cards that can get lost and damaged over time. As you can see this product is offering a real value for its dollar.
“WHQuestions” © was designed by Smarty Ears – an innovative company that is devoted to producing technology that can be used both in therapy and by parents of children with language disorders.

If “WHQuestions” becomes as big of a hit as Smarty Ears’ first application “Mobile Articulation Probes” the company will have to start creating new applications every month. This is Smarty Ears’ second release in one month!

It seems that Speech Therapists are finally joining the group of professionals that embrace that technology is just part of the reality of this new century. Are you ready for it?

My Bilingual Baby is a teaching method developed by a Speech therapist- not just another app!

This is a teaching method to teach your baby as soon as possible to listen to the sound of a foreign language. With this app your baby will be exposed to all sounds of the Spanish language, in a variety of formats: sounds, words and phrases! These were all carefully selected to provide your baby with exposure to the Spanish language as early as possible.

+++++++++

THE METHOD:
We want to start teaching children another language as soon as possible. One obstacle to teaching babies is that their oral motor system is not yet developed to produce the sounds their brain knows.

While they improve their oral motor skills to be able to produce sounds and words, they are loosing the ability in their ears to listen to the sounds they will eventually produce. Therefore by the time your child is ready to speak she is only able to her the sounds she has been stimulated these previous months.

“My Bilingual Baby” will do that by auditory and visual stimulation. Your baby will listen to world phonemes until they are able to see when we will provide them with both visual and auditory stimulation to learn another language while they develop their oral motor skills to start speaking another language.

Smarty Ears is a method that uses research based and language specific materials. The vocabulary used was carefully selected according to the structure of each language. The words in this method contain all the phonemes in the language in all positions in the word.

The “Bilingual Baby method” will preserve the linguistic abilities babies were already born with while they develop motor and cognitive skills to be taught to speak the language using language specific phonemes, balanced words, language specific grammatical structures, and intonations.