8 Best Speech Apps For Children and Teens

Speech Apps are a great way to help children with disabilities at home stay ahead. Apps are a great way to build communication skills, teach social skills, and express/receptive language. However, as humans evolve so does technology. Speech Therapists, Educators, and Doctors are looking at new ways in which we can teach special needs children who suffer from speech delays at an earlier age.

Children hit milestones at different times and many factors also influence when and how that child meets those milestones as well. However, if your child isn’t talking by Kindergarten it’s safe to say that they suffer from some type of speech or communication disorder and need assistance from a Speech Therapist immediately. If your child needs help with one of the following areas listed below then contacting your local community special needs/disabilities board or school district will be a start.

• Receptive Language: Children/persons who have trouble receiving language
• Expressive Language: Children who struggle to speak and express themselves
• Pragmatic language problems: Trouble using language in socially appropriate ways.

Also, keep in mind that Speech Therapy cannot be fixed overnight and takes months or even years depending upon the person. Practicing and utilizing daily interventions such as the speech apps listed below can help your child along the way.

How Speech Apps can help?

Speech Apps can improve your child’s receptive, expressive, and pragmatic language in many different ways. First starters children enjoy working on iPads and other tablets due to their small complex size as opposed to a computer or another adult hovering over them. Working at a table for 30 minutes a day can prove to have a huge impact on your child’s learning and also bring engaging moments amongst the parent and child, and also for a child with selective mutism to talk. So let’s take a look at some speech apps/communication gadgets and apps to add to your list this 2021.

Huni

Huni is a speech recognition-powered speech training app, designed for children specifically (children speech therapy). The application prompts you to a list of words to say, you can listen to the pronunciations and then one-by-one repeat it out loud. The app will recognize the ones you pronounce correctly and you can always try multiple times and train your speech. It’s your personal speech therapist!

Leeloo AAC

Leeloo is an app that helps non-verbal children communicate with their parents, teachers, and friends. Leelu is built on the principles of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) and PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System). Which is a powerful strategy in autism treatment and autism therapy in communication.

Language Therapy for Children with Autism (MITA)

In a 3-year clinical trial of 6,454 children with autism, language score in children who engaged with MITA increased to levels, which were 120% higher than in children with similar initial evaluations.

Apraxia RainbowBee

The Apraxia RainbowBee app gives therapists the flexibility not only to choose between three levels of complexity but also to manipulate the prompting of visual, auditory, tactile, and lexical stimuli presented to the child. The therapists are also able to choose their targets and the number of stimulus trials at each level. In addition to using hundreds of photos and video recordings included in this app, the therapists can add their images and record their videos, making speech therapy more individualized.

Articulation Carnival

The Articulation Carnival app is a comprehensive and flexible articulation program to practice pronunciation of ALL English phonemes at the word, phrase, and sentence levels. The app includes thousands of photos and prerecorded audio stimuli. It allows speech therapists to edit targeted words and add their own photos and audio recordings.

Phonological Processes

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 the treatment of phonological disorders by engaging users in minimal pair contrast therapy.

Slingo

The Slingo app from the Speech and Language Store offers children a way to learn listening and language skills by playing a fun, interactive game with aliens and spaceships. The app was designed by speech and language therapists to focus on nouns, verbs, prepositions, and adjectives. It comes with a range of age possibilities, including early language development to a much more complex level of combining several aspects of language at once.

Proloquo2Go

Proloquo2Go is an app specifically designed for people who are nonverbal. It promotes language development and allows people to communicate through the use of pictures. It’s designed not only for autistic children, but their families, therapists, and educators. It presents users with images they’re most likely to use and has a level-based system for basic to advanced vocabularies.

Endless Reader

One of the first steps in learning to read is recognizing sight words, which are some of the most commonly used words in children’s books. Endless Reader begins here, teaching children the words most important in learning to develop reading skills. The app and first package of words are free! The app uses colorful monsters and fun sounds to keep users entertained and engaged.

Conclusion

Overall, as stated before fixing any speech or communication disorder doesn’t happen overnight. However, practice, discipline, and being consistent with your child can help improve their overall speech skills. Leave us a comment below about which apps you have used in the past or plan to use shortly.