Smarty Ears

DALLAS, TEXAS: Smarty Ears announced today that they have taken their passion for taking special education solutions to a whole new level with the launch of their new web-based application Smarty Ears Online.

The Smarty Ears Online launch is going to introduce a versatile library of fully interactive activities for Speech-Language Pathologists to use with students to support speech and language outcomes. This Smarty Ears pay-per-use model includes many activities and games that mirror the most popular Smarty Ears apps, including Articulate it! Apraxia Farm, Articulation Scenes, Reading Comprehension Camp, Talkie Tot, WhQuestions, and more.

Smarty Ears is already widely known and revered within the speech-language-pathologist community for its high-quality and innovative educational iPad apps. A few of their apps and articulation assessment toolkit have even been featured in the highly coveted Apple educational app “New and Noteworthy” and “What’s Hot” sections of the App Store and many of their 60 apps have stayed for years on Apple’s best-selling educational app list. With this release, speech-language-pathologists will no longer be confined to just the Apple ecosystem; the platform will run on any modern computer or tablet with Safari or Chrome browsers. Additionally, it will provide a platform where they can bring together a wide variety of different speech and language activities which can be worked on in a cohesive manner and scale, unlike anything that has been seen before.

The Journey for this innovative web-based app began when key members of the Smarty Ears team took part in the National Institute of Health (NIH)’s iCorps program for a separate piece of technology also under development by Smarty Ears. “It required us to reach out to over a hundred SLPs and parents from across the country to just listen to what was missing and what was their true technology pain point” said Smarty Ears Customer Happiness Director, Jonathan Fernandes.

Among the most frequent concerns was how fragmented the existing special education software industry was with hundreds of fragmented solutions, pushing clinicians to purchase multiple memberships. Halfway through the program duration, Covid-19 forced lockdowns across the world. Suddenly, supporting students virtually had to take a bigger part in the educational ecosystem. This brought to light a whole other range of needs that had to be addressed. Smarty Ears’ team heard the repeated complaint of the lack of Smarty Ears apps outside of the iPad, which required extremely time-consuming solutions without the same benefits.

Smarty Ears Online, on the other hand, can be used by both in-person and teletherapy clinicians to deliver content comparable to high-quality mainstream interactive platforms, with the added benefit of powerful data tracking to support and demonstrate progress and accountability for organizations. All of these are already expected by the hundreds of thousands of Smarty Ears’ app customers.

“We saw the missing book on the shelf, and we already had all the chapters of that missing book written! We already have an enormous amount of content and technology that has been refined over the last 12 years, and all we have to do is put this in one spot, that is not device-specific that can be used on pretty much any device out there,” says CEO Barbara Fernandes.

Just when you think that everything online has been invented, you come across a disruption in the market that seems like it was obviously needed but somehow never implemented; this happened again with Smarty Ears Online by Smarty Ears.

Current focus areas of Smarty Ears Online include:

Articulation & Phonology Literacy Phonological Awareness Alternative and Augmentative Communication Skills Social Skills Language Amanda Shaumburg, a speech-language-pathologist in Amarillo, Texas, who got early access to the platform wrote, “It feels like a dream come true! All the Smarty Ears apps in one place. I love that I can use it on my computer, Smartboard, or iPad! It‘s PERFECT for screen sharing during teletherapy sessions (completely interactive for the student when using remote access features).”

“Our company’s mission has always been to develop exceptional speech and language tools that are accessible, not only for Speech-Language Pathologists but parents and educators as well. With the launch of Smarty Ears Online, we’ve taken a giant leap forward in our mission by developing a growing library of activities that are accessible from any modern browser on any device. The value is incredible, and we’re so excited to offer it at a price point that virtually anyone can afford. The best part is that we’ve got even bigger things planned for the months ahead”, says Barbara Fernandes.

The Smarty Ears Online launch is scheduled for April 20th, with an introductory price of only $19.99/month paid monthly or $14.99/month paid annually for individual clinicians. School districts and organizations can also request access to Smarty Ears Online’s enterprise-level solution by requesting a quote here. For more information or for access to a 7-Day Free Trial, visit smartyearsonline.com.

About Smarty Ears Apps: Smarty Ears has been developing educational applications targeting Speech and Language for over a decade. Under the leadership of CEO Barbara Fernandes, M.S. CCC-SLP has developed and launched over 60 apps and is well-known among speech-language pathologists as an innovator in the field.