Phonological Processes app for iPhone and iPad

****The jungle/safari theme is adorable! The kids loved the board game and all wanted to land on the hippo and the snake. I like the multiple ways to target the processes. (Carries Speech Corner)****
****If you choose the Game Board option, you get to have some fun in the jungle!! My students are always asking if we are playing the jungle game each time I pull out my iPad! This app is great for data collection and sharing information with parents and teachers! (Kristin C., SLP and blogger)****

The Phonological Processes app was created by a certified speech and language pathologist for children ages 4 and up who exhibit phonological disorders or delays. This research-based app implements a linguistic approach for treatment of phonological disorders by engaging users in minimal pair contrast therapy.

Children will have fun drilling with flashcards while playing a colorful animated board game full of surprises. In addition, children can record their productions and compare them with the targeted productions pre-recorded in this app.

Phonological Processes app includes the most common phonological processes in the following activities:

-Auditory bombardment with minimal pairs
-Auditory discrimination with minimal pairs
-Minimal pair production
-Single word production

Phonological processes addressed in this app include the following :

-Affrication
-Deaffrication
-Cluster reduction (with “ L”)
-Cluster reduction (with “R”)
-Cluster reduction (with “S”)
-Cluster reduction (mixed)
-Final consonant deletion
-Fronting
-Gliding (with “L”)
-Gliding (with “R”)
-Gliding (mixed)
-Prevocalic voicing
-Stopping of fricatives
-Stopping of affricates
-Stopping (mixed)

The Phonological Processes app is easy to navigate and allows users to employ several tools to perform the following tasks:

-Enter multiple students
-Change settings and use randomization
-Select auto-scoring
-Select alternate counts for multiple students
-Track correct and incorrect responses
-E-mail results at the end of the session

Background

Phonological processes refer to typical patterns that are used by children to simplify their speech. For example, a young child may say “tar” for “car” or “may” for “make.” Phonological processes are very common among three- and four-year-old children, but most of them should spontaneously resolve by approximately age 5. If phonological processes do not disappear by this age, the child may need formal speech evaluation and intervention.

Treatment of Phonological Disorders

The Phonological Processes app employs minimal pair contrast therapy. The minimal pair approach to phonological remediation teaches children the function of sounds, emphasizing that changing sounds changes the meaning of a word (Barlow & Gierut, 2002).

Minimal contrast therapy targets pairs of words that differ only by one sound. It may focus on the perception of contrast or production of contrast. In the perception task, the child is asked to point to target words when presented with two or more pictures (minimal pairs). In the production task, the child is asked to verbally produce minimal pairs (Bernthal and Bankson 1998).

REFERENCES

Barlow, J. A., and Gierut, J. A. (2002). Minimal pair approaches to phonological remediation. Seminars in Speech and Language, 23(1), 57-67
Bernthal J. E., and Bankson N.W. (1998). Articulation and Phonological Disorders. 4th edition.