Who, What, When, Where, Why vs Verbal Reasoning

To correctly answer a question a child must first determine what kind of question was asked. For some questions, they must also understand the underlying inference that the question is making. Many children can answer the direct WH questions such as "Who teaches a class?" but cannot answer, "How will he know what kind of robot to build?" To assist the child in developing the inference skills necessary to answer the question we provide a picture, Main Idea (MI button), and Topic Sentence (TS button). Listen to the Main Idea (usually just a word) and the Topic Sentence. Discuss how they relate to the picture. This gets the child focused on the details of the picture so that they can more accurately answer the question. Then listen to the Question (Q button). We have provided an answer to the question, but our answer is just one of many possible answers. Other answers that the child gives can still be scored as correct. Disagreeing with the answer is also encouraged to demonstrate that different people see the same question and may answer it differently. The purpose of the exercise is to pay attention to what kind of question is being asked, think about the situation, then answer the question. The record and playback feature allows the child to record their answer and see if it makes sense to them when they hear it played back. Can they determine if they answered the right kind of question? Was their answer correct? This Intermediate Level app uses the content from the Word Practice game from LocuTour’s Artic Games & More CD and requires moderate level inference skill.

Verbal Reasoning is an iPad app created by a certified speech and language pathologist for adults and children ages 12 and up. Verbal Reasoning targets reasoning and critical thinking skills, challenging users with over 1000 stimuli. This colorful and engaging app allows speech and language pathologists and educators to set a reward system when working with children to make therapy more fun and motivating. The children are rewarded with puzzle pieces, and when they accumulate enough pieces they can do various puzzles. This feature can be turned off when working with adults. Verbal Reasoning includes the following activities: - Identifying problems, possible causes, and solutions - Stating problems, possible causes, and solutions - Identifying what will happen next - Predicting what will happen next - What would you do if…? - What would happen if…? - Stating pros and cons - Stating similarities and differences between items - Answering why-questions - Answering negative wh-questions The Verbal Reasoning app can be used with the following audiences and disorders: - Adults with cognitive deficits caused by TBI, stroke, or other brain injuries - Aphasia - Children with language disorders - Autism