Phonological processes app employs a minimal pair approach for treatment of phonological disorders

• By Beata Klarowska, M.S. CCC-SLP
• Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Phonological processes app employs a minimal pair approach for treatment of phonological disorders

Burbank, CA, June 19, 2012 – Virtual Speech Center Inc., a leading developer of mobile applications for speech and language therapy, announced today the release of Phonological Processes, an iPad application for children with phonological disorders, available for download from Apple’s iTunes app store.

The Phonological Processes app employs a linguistic approach to the remediation of phonological disorders by challenging users with minimal pairs (pairs of words that differ by one phoneme) in four different types of activities: auditory bombardment, auditory discrimination, minimal pair production, and single word production. These tasks help children understand that changing just one sound in a word can change the meaning of the word and can lead to communication breakdowns.

The Phonological Processes app addresses the most common phonological processes including affrication, deaffrication, final consonant deletion, cluster reduction, fronting, gliding, stopping, and prevocalic voicing.  Children learn the distinctive features or functions of sounds in both perceptual and production tasks by using flashcards or incorporating a board game into the flashcard activities.

The Phonological Processes app makes speech therapy engaging and fun for children by enabling them to drill with flashcards while playing an animated board game. Children can actually spin a spinner, collect rewards, and watch animated jungle animals. In addition to this fun component of this app, children can record their productions and compare them to the targeted productions pre-recorded on the app. The app offers additional features that can be useful for speech and language pathologists, such as ability to turn off the pre-recorded voiceover, set randomization, and collect data.

 “The Phonological Processes app is evidence based and focuses on a linguistic approach to the treatment of phonological disorders or delays,” said Beata Klarowska, M.S.-CCC-SLP (co-founder of Virtual Speech Center Inc.)

 To install the Phonological Processes application, please visit the Apple app store page below.

To learn more about this application, please visit:
http://www.virtualspeechcenter.com/Resources/phonological_processes_app.aspx