Learning Fundamentals - Apps Overview

Apps Overview

LocuTour products are designed by Speech-Language Pathologists who have many years of experience working with children and adults who have language, speech, and attention issues. Our software uses colorful pictures to grab your client’s attention but the most important part of the software is the built-in voice recorder. Clients can hear their own voice, compare it to our production, hear the difference, and make corrections. After the SLP explains how to make the correct sounds, they quickly become adept at changing their own speech.

The structure of the apps is very similar, so once you are familiar with the options and scoring for one app, you’ll be able to easily navigate all of the others. The main work area of the apps has a picture or pictures, record and playback icons, and a scoring toolbar.

Types of Apps

The forced-choice apps, (Show Me… People, Places, and Things is shown above on the left), have two or four pictures on the screen and the auditory prompt is “Show Me” followed by the target label. Tap on a picture to hear the label of the picture. Double-tap the picture and then listen to a sentence or phrase about the picture. The text can be turned on and off with the sunburst at the top right of the screen.

The “Speech Practice” style apps (Articulation IV is shown on the right), have one picture on the screen and four to six word, phrase, and sentence icons on the side of the screen. Tap on a letter on the screen to hear our production. Use the microphone icon to imitate our production and the speaker icon to check your production. If you wish, you can score the production in the scoring toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

App Categories

The apps are loosely organized into 6 groups: Speech/Articulation Sound production; Phonology; Forced Choice format; Social Skills; Language; and Literacy. There is significant overlap between groups. For example, even though the words in Phonology are based on phonological principles, the app goes beyond that and includes the target word in phrases and sentences. The app Show Me… Social uses polite expressions in natural language settings, it could also be used to learn the forced-choice format, auditory comprehension, language expression or articulation. The En español group has apps that have been designed solely from the Spanish phonological system as well as some popular apps that have been translated from English.

Settings

The Settings button allows you to view the instructions, select words from specific categories; change the scoring options; and view, print, and email the results.

Options

The options are similar between apps. All of the apps let you sign in and the app will remember the name and display it with results. All apps let you reset the scoring—for new clients or a new day. Forced choice apps allow you to score the correct choice of picture by tapping on a small checkbox on the lower left corner of the picture. You can also choose to have either the label or the sentence follow the “Show Me” prompt. The “Speech Practice” style apps let you decide whether text is shown below the picture. Apps like Learning Sight Words let you decide the delay between showing the word on the screen and the auditory prompt.

Scoring Speech Sound Productions

Most apps will allow you to choose between three speech production scoring methods. CDI has Correct, Distorted, and Incorrect scoring buttons in the scoring toolbar. CDSO has Correct, Distorted, Substituted, and Omitted scoring buttons in the scoring toolbar. Sp-Im has Spontaneous Correct, Spontaneous Incorrect and Imitative Correct, Imitative Incorrect scoring buttons in the scoring toolbar.

Email Results

Detailed results for each session can be mailed from within the app. They are also stored on the device and can be downloaded using iTunes^®. An example of emailing results is shown below. Note that we’ve done some calculations of percent correct and incorrect for you.

View and Print Results

To view the saved results pages in iTunes, plug your iPad or iPod into your computer. Open iTunes. Under Devices you'll see your device. Click on the device and look at the top of the screen. You will see a tab labeled iTunes>Apps. Under that tab, there is a section for File Sharing. The name and icon for this app will be displayed. In the documents list next to it you will find all of the results pages that are stored on the device. Drag them to your desktop. They will open in your web browser where you can print them.

Universal App

All of the apps work on iPhone^®, iPad^®, and iPod touch^® but because of the different screen sizes there are slight differences. In general, there is not enough room on the iPhone in portrait mode to show text below the picture in forced choice apps. The new iPhone 5 and iPod touch do have enough room for text so you will see text on those devices. The Settings screen pops out from the game when playing on the iPad. Tap back in the game to continue. There are also differences in appearance when in portrait or landscape mode. We find that portrait mode works best on the iPhone and iPod and landscape mode works best on the iPad.

Apps

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