4 Apps for Introducing Speech Skills with Technology

As a Speech and Language Pathologist, I get asked a TON of questions about speech and language development. Most recently though, the questions have not been “how do I get my child to talk?” but more “what apps do you recommend we use with our child to help them?”

This has been a difficult shift as an SLP, as I believe the best way to improve speech and language skills, is to play and talk with your child, but there is a place for technology. There are pros and cons to all uses of technology and as parents, you know your kids need exposure to it but also struggle to provide them the best of it. So… I am going to suggest some apps for you to use with your children who are under 5 to help build your child’s speech and language skills. These are apps that I have used in my Early Intervention practice that my kiddos have truly enjoyed.

Peek A Boo HD

Sweet animals that your child will adore. Let your child have fun while learning animal names and sounds. This easy-to-use app was designed for toddlers to play and learn at the same time. The game contains both visual, verbal, and auditory cues and can be set up as recreation from toddlers, as cue cards to learn animal names in English, Spanish, German, Danish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese, or with the written names displayed as a cue before the animal is revealed to nurture intrinsic visual reading skills in toddlers.

Features:

* Well-known animals

* Classic scenery

* Voice over and text in English, Spanish, Danish, Chinese, German, Cantonese, Japanese.

* Adult and child voices

* Toddler-proof setup screen

ABC Food

Expose your child to the exciting world of Food! Our award-winning ABC Series teaches children new words through sight, sound & touch. Let them chop celery, cook pasta, slice strawberries & more through beautiful pictures, lively videos, and interactive scenes.

Key Features:

*Exposure To Food -Tons of pictures, sounds, videos & interactive games

*Extends Vocabulary – 70+ food words

*Links Letters to Words – navigate through the words by tapping letters

*Made Just for Them -simple interface so they’ll never get stuck

*Carefully Curated Content — every video has been screened by parents

Baby Sign and Sing

Your baby or toddler will love signing along with the adorable Baby Sign and Learn animated characters in the Baby Sign and Sing nursery rhymes app.

WHAT’S INCLUDED This app is free, containing one nursery rhyme (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star), to allow you an opportunity to trial the app with your child. WANT MORE SONGS? If you and your child enjoy the app, an add-on pack is available for purchase containing another 9 popular nursery rhymes: Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Old MacDonald’s Farm, The Alphabet Song, Mary Had a Little Lamb, The Wheels on the Bus, Jack and Jill, The Itsy-Bitsy Spider, If You’re Happy and You Know It and more.

Features:

The app is divided into three sections: Explore Signs, Play Song, and Watch Tutorial. This makes it entertaining for your child, as well as explaining the signs used in more detail for the adults.

Play Song: is the main attraction with the cute animated characters singing the nursery rhymes and signing the ASL keyword signs.

Explore Signs: is an interactive play-pad that allows your child to touch different parts of the screen to see the character sign keywords associated with the nursery rhyme.

Watch Tutorial: one of our friendly presenters explains the signs used in the rhyme and provides some tips and tricks on how to perform the signs.

100 Words for Babies and Toddlers

The Kizzu 100 series from Sherston provides one of the easiest ways to help your child develop confidence while learning new words. Through colorful graphics, energetic sounds, and vibrant animations, children have fun learning to recognize and start to establish basic foundation vocabulary

100 words is a speech and English vocabulary learning game for preschool children aged from around one to four years old.

Key Features:

Children can repeat the words at the click of a button, helping them to learn through repetition until they recognize the words on their own. The word recognition will help older children with their literacy skills too.

Educational benefits

– Vocabulary acquisition

– Speech skills and confidence

– Image and word recognition

(info and pictures are taken from the APP store)

For a printable chart version of the information above click here.

These four apps will be a great start to introducing your child to technology in a limited capacity (less than an hour a day). If you have apps that work

really well for you, add them to the comment section, we would love to know what you are working on! I hope these apps were helpful and I will be back with suggestions for older kiddos soon!

Submitted by, Jenn Parsons, SLP