Follow-Up on ASHA Schools: Tellagami

I had a terrific time attending and presenting at this past weekend's ASHA Schools Conference in Long Beach, CA. I have been to many ASHA Conventions (and will be presenting in Chicago, more info to come), but this was my first Schools Conference. It has a very different feel- more low-key and definitely user-friendly.  As presenters we were encouraged to engage our audiences and make our sessions as practical as possible, which I appreciated. I really enjoyed seeing the motivational, positive-psychology based opening session by Murray Banks, and sessions on executive functioning and instructional strategies for academic writing by Sylvia Diehl and Bonnie Singer, respectively. It was an honor to be invited and counted among the faculty of this great conference, and I would encourage you all to make it to this event at some point if you work in the schools.

I had the opportunity at the conference to present on one of my favorite topics: digital storytelling or content creation apps. For me, though not designed for speech and language, these apps serve as "blank slates" for us to simply create (for or with students) products that can target all manner of skills: academic language, concepts and vocabulary, narrative, expository text, sentence structure or social cognition. It all depends on what you ask the students to do.

A great example of these types of apps and always a favorite when I present it: Tellagami. This free app allows you to create a talking avatar (called a "Gami") and place it in context with any background image.


See Tellagami's YouTube channel for a few other ideas on how to use Tellagami.

Here's how to use Tellagami:

Photo Creative Commons Licensed for Remixing by HarshLight on Flickr

1. Save a background image using Safari. The app also has some pre-loaded contexts. Tap Background to load an image from the app or Camera Roll.
2. Customize your character's appearance (the app allows you to choose aspects such as skin color, hair, gender, clothes).
3. Choose an emotional state for the character.
4. Tap the Character button twice and you will be able to either type text for the character to speak, or record audio which the character will lip-sync.
5. When you are pleased with your creation, you can tap Share and save it to the Camera Roll as a video.

The app is super-simple to use and the results are often hysterical! Here are a few ways to think of Tellagami through the Language Lens:
-As the app allows you to place a single "speaker" in a context, it is a nice one to use to create "newscasts" or advertisements.
-In doing so, you can incorporate virtually any academic context by saving a picture and having a "reporter" avatar speak from that location.
-In turn, you can plan the creation using strategies to structure language such as story grammar or expository text structure, or use this opportunity to target areas of difficulty such as pronoun or tense use.
-Because audio can be recorded, the app can also be used as a motivating way to work with articulation, voice or fluency.
-From a social standpoint, you are limited to one character speaking at a time (though Tellagami kindly responded to me on Twitter that they are considering adding additional characters through an update). Nevertheless, the app could be used as another way to deliver a Social Story™ or perhaps an "advice column" on the expected and unexpected behaviors- based on the work of Social Thinking®- in a particular setting (which you of course would depict with a background photo).

I hope you enjoy Tellagami! The folks at ASHA Schools sure did!

What ideas do you have for using Tellagami? Let us know in the comments!

Appy-Picking Month: Speech4Good

The folks at Balbus Speech in my hometown of Boston have designed an innovative app to visualize speech.  Because I have few opportunities to work with fluency clients, Jessica Chase from the wonderful Consonantly Speaking offered to cross-post here as part of Appy-Picking Month. Thanks so much, Jessica!!  Please check out her great site. Thank you also to Balbus, who offered a few promotional codes to our readers.  If you are interested in entering the giveaway, click on over to the post on Jessica's site.

Back in June when I started my ABCs 4 SLPs series, I reviewed the Speech4Good application by Balbus Speech. Since then, they have updated their application and included a Lite version for users to try. In addition, I have been attending a workshop focusing on fluency assessment and therapy in which the application was recommended as one way to visually/auditorily practice fluency techniques.

Speech4Good is a clean, easy to navigate and use, application that primarily focuses on fluency disorders. The four different menus that one can access on the full version of the application include SpeechCenter, Library, Sharing, and Account.

SpeechCenter shows an oscilloscope (speech graph) which you can turn on and off, uses DAF in which you can turn on and off as well as adjust the delay, and allows you to record a persons' speech. The Library shows saved recordings and notes for sessions. You can also share files to e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook from the Library. Sharing allows you to view which files you have shared and where you sent them to. The Account menu allows you to log-in to Twitter or Facebook and shows a privacy policy. You can view more information about this application's use by reading my previous review here.

I like using the oscilloscope with my students for them to monitor their speech. I also like the ability to record sessions and take notes within the application. One thing that myself as well as many others have noted in previous reviews that we would like to see taken away but is still on the application is the ability to post to Twitter and Facebook. I understand that a user makes the choice to do so, but I do not see why anyone would ever want to share a confidential file with a social media site. E-mail is fine, but it makes me nervous with HIPAA that I might accidentally press the wrong button and load a confidential file to Facebook or Twitter.

Since I last wrote about the application, Balbus Speech has released a Lite version available for $4.99. This Lite version includes the oscilloscope (speech graph) and adjustable DAF. It does not allow the user to record speech, take notes, or save sessions. If you like the Lite version, you have the ability to upgrade to the full version within the application.

From working with a couple of voice and fluency students for the past couple months since school has started as well as attending a fluency workshop, I have learned more about fluency assessment and strategies. Since I am writing a second review of this application due to the fact that the other day was Stuttering Awareness Day, I would like to discuss how the Speech4Good application can be used for assessment and remediation of fluency disorders.

Assessment Using the Speech4Good Application:

• Turn off the "Speech Graph" and the "DAF" to solely record a persons' speech while in conversation, repeating phrases, and reading.
• Take notes following the session about secondary characteristics and types of dysfluencies and save the file to the application.
• Replay the recording(s) as many times as needed to count the number of syllables stuttered and the total number of syllables to get a percentage of syllables stuttered.
• Replay the recording(s) to determine the longest dysfluency, types of dysfluencies, and number of each type of dysfluency.
• Use the information found in your speech report.

Treatment Using the Speech4Good Application:

• Use easy onset and have the client watch the "Speech Graph" to see what a strategy such as easy onset looks like on the graph to help him or her visually monitor his or her speech.
• Record a clients' speech and save it to the application. Play back the recording for the client to self-assess how many times and types of dysfluencies he or she had.
• Plug headphones with a microphone into the iPhone to use the Delayed Auditory Feedback (DAF) function. Determine the length of delay to use with the client.
• Have the client practice his or her fluency modification or fluency strategies at home and e-mail you the files of his or her recordings to keep a record. He or she can also type notes as to environmental/emotional information that might be associated with the severity of stuttering on a given day. He or she can also rate himself or herself and the therapist can keep track of his or her ratings.

Price:
Speech4Good is available for the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad for $19.99. Speech4Good Lite is available for the same devices for $4.99.

Talking Tom on iOS devices

Talking Tom is a free iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad app that allows children to interact with an onscreen cat.  Speak and he will repeat what you say. Pet or poke him and he reacts. You can also serve him some milk, or bore him-resulting in yawns!  The free version has some annoyances (an ad, 3 tease buttons on the side) that you can get rid of by actually purchasing the ad for $2.99.  You can also record a short video and easily upload it to YouTube, as I did below:



Please be aware, you might want to purchase the full version if you are going to be using the app with kids on the spectrum or those who couldn't handle the fact that you can kinda punch Tom around in the free version.  The paid version allows you to "turn off violence."

Language Lens:
Talking Tom has been identified as a wonderful app for kids with autism, but I can see it having many uses, such as encouraging articulation, fluency, or sentence formulation.  It would seem to be a simple version of older, yet more expensive programs such as Talk Time with Tucker.