Review: VAST iPhone / iPad Therapy Apps by Speak in Motion

Speak in Motion provided me with complementary copies of the VAST Songs 1 - Intro app and the VAST Autism 1 - Core app for review.

The VAST Song 1 - Intro app and the VAST Autism 1 - Core app are very different from the typical speech therapy apps. They do not focus on specific sounds. Their target audience is functioning at a nonverbal or minimally verbal level. These are the apps you're going to want to reach for when you have a student who is not responding to traditional speech therapy methods. Specific populations that come to mind are children with Autism, children with severe Childhood Apraxia of Speech, and children with TBI affecting speech.

VAST Autism 1 - Core iPhone / iPad App

The VAST Autism app is focused on practicing functional spoken scripts at syllable, simple word, multi-syllable word, phrase, and sentence levels. Once you choose the level appropriate for the child you are working with, you choose the specific script you want the child to learn. Then the child begins by simply watching and listening to a close-up video of an adult speaking that script slowly and clearly (yet with fairly natural intonation).

The videos stimulate both auditory and visual pathways in the brain. They also allow for simultaneous production which is known to stimulate speech production. The slightly slower production paired with relatively natural intonation also helps facilitate success. The app includes good choices of stimuli. For example, the syllable level includes: mama, papa, moo moo, boo boo, baa baa, beep beep, peep peep, da da, pop pop, la la, Weeee, and Ooooo. These are nice, simple reduplicated syllables using simple consonants and vowels. The levels progess logically from simple reduplicated syllables, to one-syllable words, multi-syllable words, phrases, and then sentences. As the productions get more complex, the stimuli choices focus on functional scripts. For example, some of the sentence level stimuli are: " I need to use the bathroom.", "I am thirsty.", "I am hungry.", and "I need a break.".

Bottom Line

This is an app that consists entirely of carefully chosen stimulus videos. It is accessibly priced at $4.99. If you work with students who are minimally verbal and are not yet responding to therapy targeting specific phonemes this app might be very useful for you. If you do not have any non-verbal or minimally verbal children on your caseload you would probably find little use for this app.

VAST Songs 1 - Intro iPhone / iPad App

The VAST Songs app is a set of videos that show a close-up of either a male of female singer singing one of 10 songs. These videos are useful during therapy because they provide both auditory and visual stimuli and they also stimulate the pathways in the brain involved in music. Research has shown that the rhythm and melody involved in music can often help stimulate speech production. Alternately, they could be used during carryover practice in more traditional articulation therapy (Yankee Doodle for /k/, for example.)

Bottom Line

This is an app that consists entirely of carefully chosen stimulus videos. It is accessibly priced at $4.99. If you work with students who are minimally verbal and are not yet responding to therapy targeting specific phonemes this app might be very useful for you. It might also provide a creative way of working on specific phoneme carryover with other young clients. If you are not working with severely speech delayed children, you might be better off finding a different app for your needs.

Yummy recipe - Easy Hamburger Broccoli Alfredo

My husband and I made the best low-carb dinner Friday night while my parents kindly kept both children overnight. It was so good, we ate leftovers for lunch the next day and then we made a double batch last night so we could have it again with leftovers for lunches for the week.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
16 oz roughly chopped brocolli
one medium onion-chopped up
8 oz cream cheese
heavy cream (I don't have an exact amount here - approx 1/4 cup?)
Parmesan cheese (I don't have an exact amount here either - approx 1/2 cup?)

Directions:

Chop your onion and toss it in a pan with the ground beef. Cook until ground beef is done. Do not drain.

In the meantime, lightly steam the broccoli (we did it in the microwave). Then add to the ground beef/onion mixture.

Soften your block of cream cheese in the microwave. Mix with some heavy cream using a whisk until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then begin adding parmesan until the mixture is thick and slightly grainy with parmesan. (I have used milk instead of cream cheese to make this "alfredo" sauce in the past and it comes out fine.)

Add the alfredo sauce to the beef and broccoli mix and simmer on medium heat for 5-10 minutes.

Let it all sit for 5-10 minutes and the sauce will thicken as it cools.

We just served it in a bowl and ate it with a spoon and it was extremely yummy!

Here's a picture of our double-batch ready to go in the fridge to feed us for the week.

(and no, neither child will eat it, but I refuse to let it dim my enthusiasm)

The Weekly Review: Week 81

SLP Resource of the Week

SpeechLanguage-Resources.com has an excellent set of guidelines on eliciting /s/, /sh/, /k/, /l/, and /f/. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the links.

Ava this Week

Ava is in the midst of a huge developmental growth spurt. She's taking 2 hour naps daily. Shoes that were loose six weeks ago are snug now. She's understanding concepts and communicating on a whole new level. She's also feeling needy. She will come to me as I am busy with some task and sweetly ask, "Mama, when you are done with your work can you please come play _____ with me?" She's learned that I have much more difficulty resisting specific activity suggestions. If she just asks me to play, I can often say no. If she names the specific activity she wants to play (build a marble run, play with squinkies, color with her) I have much more trouble resisting. They can be so sweet when they're little and all they want is some of your time and attention.

Weekly Michael

As we were walking to school last week we stopped to examine a patch of clover. I showed the children how each clover has three leaves. I told them that very rarely, a four-leaf clover grows and people search for them because they are supposed to be good luck. I said it happens so rarely that I had never found one in my entire life.

One afternoon this week I had sent the children into the backyard to play. Michael came running inside calling that he had found something for me. He was trembling with excitement and anticipation and was obviously incredibly proud of himself. "Mama, I brought you a six-leaf clover!" he declared. I figured he had pulled up two that were tangled, but as he brought it over to me I could only see one stem. I took a close look. He had carefully torn each leaf of the three leaf clover in half. He explained that he was going to make me a four-leaf clover, but decided a six-leaf clover would be even better. It was so sweet and creative.

Weekly Weight Loss

I am off the antibiotics and have started probiotics. I am down 1.3 pounds from last week. Essentially, that is a net stall for the last two weeks. I went low-carb five weeks ago. I lost about 9 pounds in the first three weeks and then gained and lost a pound in the two weeks after that (the antibiotic two-weeks). I am sincerely hoping that I will return to losing a little weight for all this effort and willpower over the next week. Time will tell I suppose.

Weekly Speech Resource Kit Update

The survey is complete and /k/ was the clear winner. I have started the /k/ Resource kit. I've finished the initial /k/ section and I'm most of the way through the final /k/ section. I still have to do the medial and mixed /k/ sections and work on the intro and appendix resources. I'm hoping to have the kit up by the beginning of November. I'm going to try to stick with a schedule of adding one new kit a month to the store.