Reading Rehabilitation Toolkit by Smarty Ears- App Review

March app review madness continues with a review of Reading Rehabilitation Toolkit by Smarty Ears!  This app was designed by a speech-language pathologist to improve reading ability in adults with reading difficulties.  The visuals used in Reading Toolkit are actual photos of objects which best suits adult clients.  Let's take a closer look at some visuals for Reading Toolkit.

After hitting the practice button in the bottom right corner, you will be brought to a screen to add a player.  It is quick and easy to create a profile, but if you would rather play without a profile, you can select "Quick Play."Another button is the TRC, which stands for Therapy Report Center.  This app must be installed separately by Smarty Ears and it is FREE right now!   Basically, TRC works as a home base for all your Smarty Ears app profiles.  It saves you time from having to create a profile on every Smarty Ears app or iPad that you use at work!  Definitely worth installing if you are smart enough to own more than one Smarty Ears app!

The next screen page is the: "Select Activity" menu.   Here you will see six levels to customize game play.  Keep in mind that NONE of these levels includes audio because the goal is to build reading skills.

The "Select Activity" screen has a link for settings in the upper right hand corner.  Once you tap this button, you will find even more possibilities to customize game play.  There are nine categories including: actions, animals, body parts, clothing, colors, food, numbers, objects, and transport.  You can also select how many pictures you would like shown per item.  If you need to work on articulation, you can add this to game play by selecting, "Prompt for Voice Recording." It even allows you to activate automatically increasing complexity if the client is successful!  Automatic Advance allows you to move immediately to the next item without having to hit the "Next" button.  As if all of these options weren't enough, you get one more edit!  When you tap the "Edit Exercises" link, you are brought to a list of items in each of the nine categories.  If you want, you can remove items here from game play.

Now I am going to show you an image for each of the six different activity levels.  I selected up to four incorrect answers, so you will see five choices per activity.  The final image is an example of a recording screen to work on articulation of sounds in words.

WORD IMAGES MATCH

IMAGES WORD MATCH

PHRASE IMAGES MATCH

IMAGE PHRASE MATCH

READ AND ANSWER

PHRASE BUILDING

RECORD A RESPONSE

When it is all said and done, you can view a report that efficiently shows results.

I practiced this app at home, but could not give it a try with adult clients since I currently service pediatrics.  Having worked in the hospital and rehabilitative settings, I could see Reading Toolkit being helpful for those recovering from a stroke.  The best thing about having this resource is that you can make it part of home programming if he or she has access to an iPad.  I really liked that it was customizable!  Reading Toolkit appears to cover all the bases to support adult reading rehabilitation.

You can purchase Reading Rehabilitation Toolkit for your iPad for $9.99 at iTunes.

Disclosure:  While the generous folks at Smarty Ears provided me a code to review this app, no other compensation was received for this write-up.  All opinions are unbiased.