Michelle’s Weblog

Evaluator:Michelle Bumgarner

Software Title: Aphasia Tutor 1 & 2

Publisher:Bungalow Solftware, Inc.

Publisher Website: http://www.bungalowsoftware.com/downloads.asp?programlist=/download/aphasia_tutor_1_and_2_install.exe

Type of Software: This software is a software used for therapy in the treatment of Aphasia.

Platform: Windows 95 or higher required, Windows 2000 or above recommended. Sound Card, Screen that can display 256 or more colors, CD-ROM drive, and 20 MB Hard Drive space per program.

Treatment Areas: Receptive Language 

Objectives:

Aphasia Tutor 1works to improve recognition and retrieval of letters and words. It has over 700 exercises in 7 different catagories that include:

1. Letter Matching – Shows a letter and patient selects the matching letter from a multiple-choice list.

2. Letter Copying – Similar to #1, but patient must type answer.

3. Word Matching – Pick the matching word from several choices. 

4. Word Copying -Higher level version of #2. Practice with basic keyboard operation.

5. Picture-Word Matching, Nouns – User must pick the word for the picture. 

6. Picture Naming Nouns, Fill-in. – Patient identifies the picture by typing it’s name. 

7. Picture-Word Matching, Verbs: -Follow same format as above when matching

8. Picture Naming, Verbs: Fill-in. -Follow same format as above for Fill-in the blank

Aphasia Tutor 2 works on improving word-retrieval skills at the word and sentence level. It has over 700 questions in 7 different groups that follow the same format as the Aphasia Tutor 1 including:

1. Phrase Completion: Multiple Choice

2. Phrase Completion: Fill-in

3. Sentence Completion: Multiple Choice

4. Sentence Completion: Fill-in

5. Definition Completion: Multiple Choice

6. Definition Completion: Fill-in

7. Sentence -Picture Matching

Documentation and Supplementary Materials:

I do not know if this program comes with a manual but I know that it does come as a cd. The Internet site on this product was very helpful and clearly stated the objectives for the software and the software clearly states the objectives for the lessons. The program also allows you to start the program where ever the client needs it by providing you at the beginning on what category (letters, phrases, ect.) you want to use as well as what answering tool (matching or fill-in the blank) that you want to use. It also provides a feature where you can make the lesson individual to the client  which can include the number of multiple choice answers and the amount of hint that you want them to be able to receive. This way you can allow them to get use to the program slowly and at what ever level that you seem fit.

Age Appropriateness:

This program is designed for adults who have had a stroke or brain injury that resulted in Aphasia. Most of the pictures, teaching strategies, and content are appropriate for an adult. The time is also appropriate because this program doesn’t have any time constraints so you can go at your own pace.

Program Content:

The instruction matches the objectives and give strategies that are based on current research, because they can repeat the lessons as many times as they need to and it allows them to get lots of practice on a specific skill. It does only mainly test the visual learning style, the graphic learning style, and has some of the auditory learning involved but it really does involve the other learning styles. It also allows the client to start at any level and it is not complicated to use so mostly anyone with any intelligence can use this program. It is free of stereotypes, and it is a little out of date when looking at some of the pictures and words that it uses.

Presentation:

All of the information that these programs use can be presented in a logical and developmentally appropriate way as long as the clinician chooses the lessons in the appropriate order. For example, picking letters before working on phrases or sentences. All of the illustrations are very helpful and relevant because it allows the program to teach what they are suppose to treat. They type and pictures are shown clearly and boldly as you type in and choose the correct answers. This program also has the correct punctuation and grammar, and it also looks at the clients spelling. If you are typing in a verb or noun that is pictured you have to be able to spell the word correctly to get the answer right. This is something that you will have to take into consideration when you are looking at the scores of the test because it could skew the results that are presented to you.

Effectiveness:

The information that I found was easy to find and helped me complete this evaluation of the software. The only thing that could have caused a problem was that my trial could only be looked at 5 times before it became a limited trial which means if looked at too many times before completing a lesson I would not have been able to see how it scored the lessons. This should not be too much of a problem because I found a sufficient amount of information in less than the 5 attempts. In looking at this program it made me wonder what other types of programs are available for other disorders, because I have not seen them used in my observations of therapy.

Practive /Assessment/ Feedback:

Each of these programs provides lots of practice. Each lesson has between 50 and over 100 questions in it, and then you can always go back and take the lessons again anytime they are needed. This can give plenty of time for them to learn and receive practice. The questions also follow what it says it is teaching. It is always providing some kind of feedback. It gives the appropriate feedback when ever the client makes an answer choice whether it is right or wrong. When the client gets the answer right it tells them they did a good job or that they did excellent and provides a ta-da sound.  It also shows a picture of a smiley face or a trophy to also give them some visual feedback. When they get the answer wrong it shows a red circle with a “x” in the circle to show that that was the wrong answer and gives them some verbal feedback such as “try again,” “that was a hard one,” or “that’s not the right answer”. It doesn’t however allow the client to respond to open ended questions because it is looking for a certain responce. This can also be a problem because if you do not put the exact word in that they are looking for they count it wrong so if you know and put a sweeper as a sweeper instead of a vacuum the program might count it wrong because it is looking for a specific answer. The program can also be given to the client and then the clinician can leave or they can work together with the program (this seems more appropriate and beneficial).

Ease of Use:

If the client can move a mouse or navigate a keyboard then they can probably use this program. It is easy to follow because the directions are stated clearly, the buttons are big and easy to click, and the text that they type is big and legible. One problem that can occur though is that when you are typing a word if you hold down a letter it continues to duplicate the letter which could be hard for some people that can not move their hand off the keys very fast, but this group could still participate with this program but would not be able to do the fill- in the blank activities. The directions and set up of the program is the same for every lesson and even between Aphasia Tutor 1 & 2. You can access help button very easily and it is clearly marked with a hint button but it does not help you with anything else but the directions are always on the screen. You can also exit the program but it is a small button at the top of the screen. This could be helpful because the clients could not exit every time they just did not want to do the activities. You can not bypass the title of the program but it is only shown on the first screen that asks if you want to start the program so it is only shown for a brief period of time.

User Interface and Media Quality:

The graphics and audio of this program are a little outdated. Some of the pictures showed old camera, a cassette tape, and a tape recorder. These are not really used much but they would still be familiar to the older population. Also some of the pictures you could not exactly tell what the person or object was doing because they were not as clear as some of the pictures today. The sound on the other hand was ok but they defiantly could come up with more interesting sounds for correct and wrong answers. Overall this program is helpful but might need just a few updates to keep it current.

Equality/ Fairness/ Anti-Bias:

This software was gender neutral, free form cultural biases, and was free from violence. None of these were present in this software.