Blog Image: What is the big five you ask? No, we are not confused speech and language pathologists talking about a new football conference (it is football season after all with a lot of teams in new conferences, so I can see how that may be confusing!). We are talking about the big 5 "wh" questions we often work on with children targeting expressive and receptive language goals: Who? What? Where? When? Why?We are using technology more and more in speech therapy, and have found that children especially love using the iPad during our therapy sessions. There are so many great options for apps to use in therapy, including apps that are specific to speech and language goals and apps that are not speech related but are fun and useful in therapy to work on communication goals. We will be reviewing apps periodically so you can add them to your repetoire, whether you are a speech and language pathologist looking for new material or a parent looking for new ideas on how to work with your children on specific skills. Brittany, one of the therapists with Therapy Toolbox, has reviewed the Super Duper Publications "Wh" Question Card app, including describing how to use it and some pros and cons of using it in therapy. Super Duper Publications "WH" Question cards So we all know that the Super Duper cards are a great way to target all of those tricky WH questions but who wants to carry around a box of cards for all five of the WH questions?? Not me! As a traveling speech therapist, it is difficult to carry all of your materials around with you daily, so this app is a great way to lighten your load when working on WH questions with your patients.This app is easy to use and great for all ages. You have the option to select the difficulty level by changing the answer choice difficulty level from multiple choice, using the decoder, matching, and drag 'n match. Through the game settings, this app also has the option of turning the auto-read on or off so that it can read the question for those who have some reading difficulties or if you want to work on auditory memory, decoding. When using this app you can play with multiple players, which is great for targeting pragmatic goals as well.After playing the games with my kiddos I developed the following pros/cons list:Pros:Can be used in an individual or in a group settingCan be used to target pragmatic skills such as turn-takingAffordable56 cards for each WH questionFlexibility as far as changing the response format (matching, multiple choice, dran 'n match, and using the secret decoder)There is an audio option for all questions and answersIt is easy to use and just takes a few touches on the iPad when making your question choice before you are using the app for therapyCons:You have to buy each set of WH question and answer cards. I think this is a big con because this once cheap app can become expensive if you want to use all 5 WH questions. (Each WH card set is about $2.99)You cannot incorporate all WH questions into one game. You have to select the "use the question" decks individually to play the games. This would be a great option for those who may be more advanced in answering WH questions. Also, it would require more auditory discrimination and listening comprehension to differentiate between each of the five WH questions within one activity.There is limited variety in the questions asked, so once a question is mastered, there is no way to take that out and and add a new one to work on (but that is a con with all card type activities like this one).For more information, visit the website at:http://www.superduperinc.com/products/view.aspx?stid=660&s=font-color=#e10606>free-font>-wh-question-cards-appOr purchase in the iTunes store:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wh-question-cards/id515954148?ign-mpt=uo%3D8Overall, the Super Duper Publications "Wh" Questions app is a good tool for your toolbox. It can be used in therapy for children working on language goals or it can be used with children working on speech goals in an unstructured setting to assess sound mastery. If you are a parent who wants to target these questions in a fun way, this is a good app choice to do that as well. Be sure to check back in a few weeks for another app review from Therapy Toolbox (and even sooner than that for another blog!).-Brittany
