Review of Listening Power K-3 App

Review of Listening Power K-3 app

Click on the link under picture to go to itunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/listening-power-grades-k-3-hd/id1065753089?mt=8

Listening Power K-3  provides over 1000 listening practice questions on the iPad. Designed by Patti Hamaguchi, a licensed speech-language pathologist. It can be used with children 5-10 years, ESL students and older students with cognitive challenges. I have personally used this app with challenged students ranging in age from 10 years to 17 years old. I have already used it as a screening tool, follow up after a hands activity and as a reward.  Every speech therapist would find this app a valuable addition to their speech toolbox. 

There are 5 activities with varied levels of easy, intermediate or advanced and with choices in a field of 2,3 or 4 pictures.

 1. Listening for Descriptions: provides listening practice for adjectives and descriptions in increasingly longer sentences with 2 to 7 critical elements, including exclusion.  50 questions for each level. Total 150

2. Listening for Meaning:  vocabulary terms are introduced in context with a follow-up question. Intermediate: The infant was sitting in the chair. Who was sitting in the chair? A baby/teenage boy/woman/very old man 50 questions for each level. Total 150

3. Listening for Grammar: practice listening for incorrect grammatical concepts including regular and irregular plurals, verb tenses, articles, omission of auxillary verbs, pronouns, and negation. 50 questions for each level. Total 150

4. Listening to Stories: a story is read slowly and clearly with accompanying pictures and sound effects, followed by questions about the story such as who, what, and where questions. As stories become more advanced, there are less pictures.  There is also a “background noise” button feature.  25 Stories for each level, with 5 questions each. Total 375.  Stories can be printed. 

5.  Listening for Word Memory: student touches a sequence of 3,4,5 or 6 objects in the correct order from a field of 9 pictures starting with a slow presentation of 2 words with pictures to a fast presentation of 3 words with delay in showing the pictures.

 

Video - see link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhLCTH1u09E

                             

Rubrics Rating 1-5 5 is best	Listening Power K-3	Likes	Suggestions
Curriculum 4	Material is accurate & evidence based and addresses specific tasks.	I love that this app focuses on 5 different listening activities.   Now I can utilize a hands on activity and follow up with this app for learning and as a reward. Little do students know that they are still working!     Activities can be aligned to the Core Curriculum. I am thrilled that I was able to print out all 25 stories!!	Would love to  be able to print out a list of concepts in advance for: 1.Listening for Descriptions-student needs to know concept before working on this skill. 2.Listening for Grammar –I would find it helpful to have list of printed sentences to assist those students who require a visual along with auditory.
Flexibility 5	Flexibility to adjust settings & add/delete photos, add/delete tasks,  audio recordings, back button	There are a variety of settings which can be adjusted: auto advance vs manual. Depending on your student’s level, you can provide choices in a field of 2 to 4 pictures. You can start with an easy level and quickly change to a more advanced level. There is a “hear again” button if student requests to hear the sentence again.  It doesn’t change the score but is recorded in the Session Record.
Ease of use 5	Can use app quickly, instructions from developer, no glitches	Love the simplicity of this app – it’s self- explanatory. There is an info button which explains how to use this app.  You can turn the text on or off, I like that you can manually control when to go to the next sentence
Interest 5	Captures attention of user, nice graphics & sounds/music, interactive, maintains interest	I work with challenged older students 9 to 21.  This app has maintained their interest, especially when they look for an object behind a door or shoot a basket on the “rewards” page.
Value – Outcome 5	Accountability- time needed to complete task, results in improved student performance- records data	This app provides a valuable source for helping a child to improve listening skills. You can keep track of the student’s data.  There is also a “play missed items” button.  It is a little pricey at $19.99 but worth the price. I would highly recommend purchasing Listening Power Preschool HD for $15.99 (can be used with older challenged students.) Having both apps gives the therapist a broad range of activities for students of all levels.