Fun & Functional vs Pictures for SLPs

Unlock the power of functional communication with Fun & Functional, the premier speech therapy tool designed to teach children and adults how to understand and describe the use of everyday objects. Created by certified speech-language pathologists at Smarty Ears, this app bridges the gap between simply naming an item and truly understanding its utility in the real world. Whether you are a clinician working on Common Core standards, a teacher implementing RTI (Response to Intervention), or a parent supporting language at home, Fun & Functional provides a research-based curriculum to build "word consciousness" and advanced literacy. Why Choose Fun & Functional? Evidence-Based Practice: Built on linguistic research, the app targets verb-based vocabulary—concepts that are typically more difficult to acquire but essential for narrative and expressive language skills. Dual-Mode Learning: Addresses both receptive language (identification) and expressive language (verbal description) in a single session. High-Quality Visuals: Features over 20,000 Smarty Symbols to represent real-life items with professional clarity. Multilingual Support: Fully localized in English, Spanish, and Portuguese—the selected language determines all commands, stimuli, and clinical reports. Powerful Features for Professionals & Families 10 Functional Categories: Target specific themes including Electronics, Grooming, Occupation, Kitchen, Vehicles, and more. Customizable Complexity: Adjust settings to show 2, 3, or 4 choices per screen. Control task difficulty by selecting "Less Similar" or "More Similar" distractors. Precision Data Tracking: Automatic "Report Cards" track student progress chronologically, identifying specific areas of mastery. Therapy Report Center (TRC) Compatible: Seamlessly sync data for easy report writing and caseload management. Versatile Design: Appropriate for a wide range of learners, from early elementary students to older individuals with severe cognitive deficits or those in stroke rehabilitation. Educationally Aligned Fun & Functional is the perfect companion for the classroom, meeting Common Core State Standards for sorting common objects into categories and producing complete sentences in shared language activities. It provides the intensive monitoring required for successful RTI Tier II and III interventions. Download Fun & Functional today and help your learners move beyond naming to true functional communication!

This app lets you have thousands of pictures at your fingertips—3,328 to be exact. Use the pictures for all communication goals. Customize the text for each picture. If you have iOS7, the iPad or iPhone will speak the text for you. You may tailor the prompts to develop receptive, expressive language skills, articulation, word retrieval, pragmatics, voice, fluency, and more. The settings screen lets you pick pictures that match the interests of the child you are woking with. There are 11 major categories like Plants, People, and Places and within each category there are sub-categories like Body Parts, Working, Playing, Airplanes, Trains, etc. So, if you have a child who is fascinated by trains or planes, you can pick photos that will keep their interest. If you are woking on expressive language skills, pick a category that they can relate to and ask the child to describe the actions in the picture. Can they imagine eating the food or petting the bunny? Since you might not know what a gerenuk is (a really cute African antelope) or what all the parts of a train are called, we've put brief descriptions of the photos beneath the pictures. You can change the text to make age-appropriate sentences. If you have iOS7, tap on the picture to hear the text. Record and play back the client's voice to practice good speech and score the productions. Results are tabulated and saved for use in IEPs and insurance reports. SLP determines the criteria for Correct/Incorrect etc. Each picture has a “Favorite” and “Ignore” button so you can use just your favorite pictures (if you want) and ignore pictures you are tired of.