Disclaimer: SpeechBox provided me with a free copy of this app to review. I was under no obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a giveaway.
When the developer of SpeechBox contacted me a couple of weeks ago and asked if Jake and I would like to try out his new app, I was happy to oblige. After all, I am always looking for new and exciting ways to practice words; all this repetition can start wearing on you after a while. Also, I’m a big believer that when it comes to apraxia, you can never have too many activities for your little one to do.
Let me start off by saying that drilling words now versus one year ago are day and night. When Jake was 3 years old quite often he would stand on his head on the couch (or jump on it) as I coaxed each little word out of him. His energy level was off the charts and speech drills needed to be quick, easy, and stimulating.
Today, Jake is 4.6 years old and has been in speech therapy for 2.4 years. I’m happy to report that he really enjoys doing his speech work now. He is cooperative and his focus is excellent. No more ants in his pants! These days, because of his hard work, he is mainly working on sentences.
One thing I really like about SpeechBox is its versatility. It is beneficial for a child just starting out with their first words (including those with high energy) and also the child who is a little more advanced like Jake is now.
SpeechBox has 700 words on it and because of the great pictures, the single words can easily be elaborated into full sentences.
What does Jake like about this app?
- Visually being able to see the words/photos scattered around on the iPad screen so that he knows up-front how many words he’s about to say. Just like my other two boys who are always flipping to the end of a chapter book every couple of minutes to see how many more pages they have left, Jake is the same way with words.
- Control! He likes being able to choose which word he says next, which makes him feel independent. He likes to feel like a big boy and his confidence reflects that.
- Pictures and audio are great.
What do I like about SpeechBox?
- Sounds are in alphabetical order.
- Each sound can be practiced in initial, medial, & final positions.
- Word is visually displayed while audio is played. Kids with apraxia need as much exposure to reading as possible!
- Part of Jake’s speech therapy is looking at a picture and coming up with a sentence for it. Now, I can easily work on this skill at home and have hundreds of pictures to choose from.
- Extra categories are great – body, clothing, colors, farm animals, foods, letters, machines, numbers, and zoo animals.
- A parent to an apraxic child envisioned this app and made it a reality with the help of SLPs.
One of my favorite features on SpeechBox are the customizable pictures with 10 seconds of recordable audio. Also, it’s great that I can type in the words that I say. Visually seeing how words are broken up in a sentence helps Jake considerably with his speech. Here are a few examples that I’ve already uploaded:
- Picture – Jake at the kitchen pantry. / Sentence – “I have food allergies.”
- Picture – Peanuts, almonds, and fish (Jake’s severe food allergies) cut & pasted from Google. / Words – “Peanuts, almonds, and fish.”
- Picture – Jake at his last birthday. / Sentence – “My birthday is _____.”
I am excited to work on sentences that need to be mastered and I’m so glad Jake and I were given the opportunity to demo SpeechBox. It will be a great tool for us this year.
For more information about SpeechBox, please visit http://www.speechboxapp.com. To contact Henry, you may email him at henry [at] speechboxapp.com.
Jake's Journey with Apraxia 
I also have a 4 yr old son with Apraxia who loves to practice on the iPad /iPhone . Would love to try this app
My son, 4 years old, would benefit from this app on his ipad. We were one of the lucky recipients of the ipad from CASANA and it has been a great blessing.
Maureen – Congrats for getting an iPad from CASANA! All those apraxia walk dollars going to good use. The iPad is such a great supplement to speech therapy.
My 5 year old daughter Olivia would love this app. I love how the cards are scattered for them to choose and see how many are left. We would love a chance at this give away. Jake is doing so great!! Great job mom on your dedication and hard work.
Oh and we use the iPad
Jen- Thanks so much for your words of encouragement. Yes, the cards scattered is a really cool feature.
I have both and iPad and iPhone! But if I were to win I’d prefer the iPad app! My daughter Harper is 3.3 and we are fairly early on our apraxia journey. At this point we work on beginning sounds of words. Thanks for sharing about Jakes journey!
I would love for my 4 year old son to get to use this new App on The iPhone or iPad. Jake sounds great in that video!
Thanks so much Kim for the compliment. You know us apraxia mamas love to hear those words! I keep listening to that video over and over again b/c it makes me feel so happy.
I would love to try this app with the children I see for speech/language therapy. I’m always looking for new and exciting things for the students to make speech fun! I would be interested in the Ipad version.
I’ve got a 4 year old son with apraxia. I think he’d get more benefit from the iPad version, but we could also use it on the iPhone!
I’d love to use this app for my nearly 3 year old son Tommy, who has apraxia. We would love either the iPhone or iPad version.
Would love to try the speech box app for the iPhone!!
My 2.5 year old son loves his ipad and I know this app would be a perfect tool in our apraxia journey. Thanks for sharing your story. It is so encouraging to me to listen to the early audio of Jake and now this one. He sounds fantastic! It gives me so much hope!!!!
Melissa- Thanks so much for saying my babe sounds fantastic! It makes my heart smile. Once you get in a routine & are able to figure out what works for your guy, it gets so much easier. Now, I genuinely feel blessed that apraxia entered our life. Every single word has brought me such happiness! An apraxia mama friend of mine is always saying, “Find joy in the journey.” Such good advice.
I would love for my daughter to try Speechbox. I have read many positive reviews and think it would help her and my son. My daughter was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum and my son has a speech delay. This app is definitely on my wish list for their iPads.
My almost 3-year-old son LOVES the iPad … any tools I can use to help him on this challenging journey would be amazing … This app sounds incredible!!!!
Welcome back Tara! Good to hear from you again. Hope all is well.
My little is about to turn 4 🙂 We are currently working on the /s/ and /f/ in our therapy and at home. She loves some of the speech apps but only if they are fun as well. I think this one would be great with the variety of pictures and allowing her to steer the session vs. it being Mommy driven! We use either, iPhone or iPad! Also love the video. Its so fun to hear the progress they make over time! Thanks for sharing and reviewing the app!
xmomof2 – So your girl likes to be in control, too? Having a wrestling match with the iPad is never fun! 🙂 By the way – I’m enjoying your posts for the blog challenge. Glad to hear from you again.
Oh yes. Quite a control freak : her newest fave phrase is “No Mommy, I do it” for EVERYTHING!!! Thanks for reading and I am glad to get back in the swing of it. I had been away for too long 🙂
My Emmett just turned 3 and I’m just trying to learn how to utilize the iPad to help with his apraxia. This app looks great and very easy to use! Thank you for sharing your video of Jake too. I just found your blog recently, and seeing where Emmett could be in 16 months is inspirational! Congrats to you and Jake for all your hard work! He sounds wonderful! (My favorite word was turtle:))
Bridget – Yes, very easy to use. Even the pics/audio you can customize is super easy. No way to mess it up! My favorite word was turtle too! 🙂
My Little Dude is about to turn 4. We recently had to quit private speech therapy due to cost and we can use all the help we can get. I’m afraid that he may be regressing a little bit but at the same time, I find strangers understand him much better than I ever expected. I truly love your blog and it has saved my sanity many times as well has given me wonderful ideas – thank you and your Little Dude!
Amanda – So sorry to hear about having to stop private therapy. Just keep keeping on. That’s great though that strangers are understanding him and he’s not even 4 yet! That didn’t happen for us until just recently. Thanks for stopping by and I’m so glad my blog has been useful for you and your little one.
Wow, your son sounds wonderful!! I love his sentences, thank you so much for sharing! My eight year old son has Down syndrome and speech/reading delays, he would definitely get a lot of use out of this on his I-Pad.
Aww … thank you Cindy for complimenting my baby’s voice. Do you read the blog Words of HIs Heart by Alyson? She has a son with Down Syndrome & apraxia. She’s always posting great things & it’s one of my favorite blogs.
Oh, thanks for that, I will go and check her blog out right now! 🙂
I can’t find it with a google search and am not sure how else to find it!
Cindy – it is – http://wordsofhisheart.wordpress.com/
Thank you!! 🙂
I have a granddaughter who has apraxia. She loves working with the IPAD. This sounds like a great app to use to help improve her speech. She has difficulty now with certain sounds and is trying to put three words together now. It may not result in a complete sentence but every step is progress.
Martha- How nice that you are so involved in your granddaughter’s life. My mom is the same way & I feel beyond blessed to have such a good mama! Best of luck in your family’s battle with apraxia.
I would love to use the iPad version with my apraxia kids! This would make practicing sounds so much more fun!
I have a 5yo girl with DS and apraxia. We are homeschooling as we could never get the school system to address her speech needs. We have an iPad mini for her but we are just beginning to unlock its potential for her! Would love to try SpeechBox.
We homeschool as well (I have an 8 year old son with Down syndrome)– and don’t usually run into too many other people who homeschool. 🙂
I’ve been reading your blog for a while and it’s my first time posting. My 3 year old son has severe apraxia and mixed receptive-expressive disorder. Your blog has been very inspiring and I enjoy seeing Jake’s progress. Because of your blog, I am now interested in seeing holistic doctor. I live in metro Atlanta, and I think I found the doctor you see. (I happened to find your comment at the doctor’s website) I’ll see if I can make an appointment with her for my son.
Thank you for sharing your stories. Please continue blogging.
Naomi – Yay! Someone local. So glad you’re considering going to Dr. Bhatia. As far as I’m concerned, she is the best Holistic MD in the United States right now. We are blessed to have her within driving distance. I heard from another mom today though that she’s booked until July, so go ahead and get on her calendar. Also, If you have any questions about bio-med, feel free to email me. Seeking Dr. Bhatia’s medical advice has been life changing for us and absolutely the best thing I ever did for my little guy.
Always looking for new activities. My son is at the “standing on his head” age right now so anything new would be great. We have an Ipad.
G’s mom – Jake was always standing on his head & wanting to be upside down from age 2-3. Glad to hear someone else has a kid like that! I think Jake’s vestibular system is off. He can spin around forever & never gets dizzy.
I was actually introduced to this by one of the parents that I work with. I immediately fell in love with it. I love the pictures and the variety and the fun way that it is all displayed. But most of all, like you said, I love the control it gives the child. I am a Pediatric Speech Pathologist in private practice and serve about 40 children. Most, if not all of them, could get some benefit from using this app. I have an iPAD that I use for therapy. Having to purchase all of my materials by myself gets costly. I would love to win a free app so that many many children could use this in therapy. Thank you for sharing this information. I also want to congratulate Jake and you for all of the hard work you have done. It is certainly paying off!!! Keep up the great talking Jake!!!
Suzanne – Thanks so much for stopping by and introducing yourself. Yes, SpeechBox would be great for a wide variety of kids. Thanks also for your kind words about Jake and I … love it. 🙂
Love your blog! My little guy has a working diagnosis of Apraxia. I cannot enter your contest as we do not have an ipad or iphone. As you know the diagnosis isn’t as overwhelming as the process of therapy and discovering everything that you need to do to help your child learn to speak and be understood. I love your blog for this reason, you are hands on with therapy and you have a great optimistic outlook! When I first began my research on Apraxia I became emotional at how hard and hopeless some parents seem to be, YouTube was an emotional experience. On Youtube I could hear how similiar Lucas sounded to other kids with Apraxia, but when parents would talked about how involved therapy programs have to be to gain minimal amout of speech, I cried. Now, I look towards people like YOU who work hard to help their kid and do your best to enjoy the process, as tough as it is. So THANK YOU for taking the time to post about your experience and wonderful products like the speechbox.
Marti Ann – Thanks so much for your comments even though you’re not able to enter the contest. I love hearing things like this b/c it encourages me to keep on keeping on. Yes, I remember those early days crying over those YouTube videos & hearing things like an apraxic child has to practice a word 3,000 times before they get it. It’s kind of crazy how much my brain has changed since then. At the time, that sounded so overwhelming, but now it doesn’t even seem like such a big deal. Thank you for saying thank you. 🙂 Best wishes to you and your little one.
We have an ipad and it would be great to have this app to use. Our journey has been a long one and we are always looking for and willing to try new things.
I use the iPad for my students with apraxia. This would be a great additional tool to use with my kids because they are super motivated and love working with technology!
I would love to try this app with son! We have an iPad and an iPhone.
I have a four year old son with apraxia and he would love this app! We recently had a major house fire and lost about 90% of our belongings, but my iPad will be one of the first things I replace in a week or so when insurance comes through! Izzak would love to use it on an iPad, as he has some vision issues and the larger version would be better for him. I love reading your blog, by the way, as our sons are very close in age and similar in many ways. Thank you so much for offering this! Blessings!
Erika – Don’t you just love these four year old boys? Thanks for your appreciative comments. It encourages me to keep blogging! And so sorry about your house fire. Best wishes for a prompt return to normalcy & for the healing of your little man’s voice. 🙂
I would love to try this with the children I see in speech therapy on the ipad.
Thank you for this post
My son has access to both an iPad and an iPhone. This sounds like a great app. With Summer coming in two months I can see lots of possibilities to help continue learning over the summer break.
I just came across your blog today through Pinterest. I too am a journalism graduate and my son (the youngest of 3) was recently diagnosed with Apraxia at age three. He loves using the IPad to practice speech. The doctor is amazed at how hard he works at his speech sounds. I find a lot of words in flashcard apps are too hard for him. I would love to be able to customize it. We are working on b, d, p initial sounds. He just spoke in vowels for a long time. He has been in therapy since 15 months but he is only able to get it once a week in six week blocks three times a year. We can’t afford private therapy so I’ve been trying to find as much as I can online for us to do at home. We also have an iPod touch, but no iPhone.
You have no idea how reassuring it was to read that a year ago you weren’t able to “drill” your little man. We are a year behind you in our journey, and it seems like anytime my little guy is drilled we get a tantrum. This app actually looks like it might be “fun” for him to “play”.
I would love to be entered into the drawing for the iPhone app for my 5 yr old daughter. Thanks for your blog.
April
My spunky little 2.5 year old has just been diagnosed with apraxia. We are new to the world of speech therapy and flash cards, but I am working overtime to practice at home and make our own set of cards to use at home. She loves to “borrow” her big brother’s iPad when he’s at school. I’m amazed at how proficient she already is working such a high tech device. I would love to have this app as another tool to help target her speech and communication. Thank you!