When the team at London Speech Therapy tweeted a request for bloggers to review their Colourful Semantics app I volunteered. I was given a complimentary copy of the app in order to review it.

The principle of Colourful Semantics appeals to me, as I’m a fan of clear structure, but the hundreds of small pieces of coloured paper always put me off! Watch Helen Blatchford explain how Colourful Semantics works.

This app removes the need for lots of printing, cutting and laminating, it’s all there ready to go. The app is loaded with a set of photos and the corresponding sentences. You can work at various levels: who, what doing, what, where and describe – which are all colour coded. When you start the game, a photo is presented and the child is asked a set of questions, for example: “who is in the picture?” The child responds by selecting the correct symbol from a choice of four and is given feedback as well as an opportunity to practise saying the sentence after the model.

What I like about the app

• It can collect data about a child’s performance, the app tracks how a child is doing – what a time saver.
• The app is visually motivating for children, and I think they’d find it fun and engaging.
• There is a clear structure, so children would quickly learn what they’re expected to do.
• The voice that says each sentence is a lovely clear British accent!
• The app is customisable; you can turn the music off (I’m easily distracted,) turn the praise off (see my view on praise here) and mute the rather directive: “your turn to say it.”

Things I think could be improved

• It seems to present the pictures in the same order each time you play, which becomes repetitive.
• The app presents the whole sentence (the cat is eating food outside) when you’re on the simplest level and the child is practising ‘who’ – which is confusing.
• It’s wonderful that you can add your own photos to the app, however the procedure is currently time consuming and some of the options (e.g. symbols) I required when I tried to add a picture of myself eating a bowl of soup weren’t available.

Mirla Gaz uses this helpful heuristic when reviewing apps:

“In order for me to recommend a therapy app, I need to feel that it can simplify the life of the therapist and will be a fun learning experience for children.”

This app will be a fun learning experience for children. When I compare this version of colourful semantics to the paper based one, it absolutely simplifies life for the SLT. However, in its current form, adding your own photos is not yet simple enough for me to justify the £27.99 price tag.

The book, with the hat used in the game!

I recently got my hands on Communication & Language Activities – Running Groups for School-Aged Children, edited by Sarah Nash. Disclosure: I was given a copy of this book by the publisher to review, I used to work in the Hackney Team and Sarah is a friend. That said, here’s what I think.

I loved the illustration on the cover, and was keen to see how the book had been structured. There’s a comprehensive and clearly written introduction, covering topics like planning the sessions, dealing with difficulties and supporting carry over to the classroom.

Next there’s more than 140 activities, organised by the skill each activity targets for example: attention and listening, understanding, phonological awareness and social communication. Each activity has it’s own page: at the top it states clearly the expected time it takes (quick, mid-length, lengthy) the challenge level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and the resources needed. Then the aim of the activity is identified, followed by an easy to follow description of the method. Some activities also have suggestions for making them easier or harder, as well as helpful hints.

The second part of the book contains resources, including a handout that explains to parents what a communication group is and some visuals to photocopy, such as lotto boards.

I thought the best way of test-driving a practical resource like this was to use it to plan a group! I was off to model a social skills group for three boys in a reception class last week, so I opened up the book to see what I could find.

I decided on:

• Do What I Do: a non-verbal copying game, to encourage the children to look at me.
• Who is Wearing the Hat? an attention activity, to encourage the children to look at each other.
• Tower Game: each child waits for their name before adding a brick, to practise listening.
• I Made a Horrible Sandwich: a memory and vocabulary game, to give them a reason to listen to each other.

I also used Toca Store on the iPad, as a motivating game at the end of the session, to practise taking turns, and answering simple questions. Toca Boca apps never fail!

The activities worked well, the boys were engaged throughout and the Learning Support Assistant who’ll be running the group was enthusiastic about taking it on. When I showed her the book she commented that it looked really easy to use, there were loads of activities she’d like to try and she’d ask the SENCO to buy it immediately.

As I’ve been running language groups for a while, I wasn’t sure how many new ideas I’d find in this book. I was pleasantly surprised. Three of the activities above were new to me, and they worked a treat. The book is clearly laid out, easy to flick through for inspiration and has a great index. I’ll use it again and have already started recommending it to school staff. This book would be a useful tool if your service is trying to support other professionals to run universal and targeted interventions.

At £29.99 it’s good value. It’d be useful for therapists, SLT students, teaching staff and parents. The only thing I’d change: I hate having to photocopy pages from books (it’s not spiral-bound) so an electronic version that I could print the resources from would be fantastic. Or perhaps an iPad app?! Simply select the activities you want, make a personalised session plan and then track the children’s responses!

If you’d like a copy of this book Hinton House is kindly offering a 15% discount. Do you run or plan language groups? What’s your favourite activity?