ClaroSpeak Plus vs Black Sheep Press Narrative

ClaroSpeak is a reading and writing app with high-quality text-to-speech, formatting controls, a wide range of fonts and styles and cloud storage integration. ClaroSpeak Plus also includes our "Capture Text from Photo" feature with high quality Optical Character Recognition (powered by ABBYY). ClaroSpeak provides visual highlighting in-sync with spoken words, a great range of color and font settings to allow for optimum reading, and word prediction to help with writing. ClaroSpeak is a quality app for proofreading text through listening, helping with reading and literacy development, and creating audio files from any text. PRODUCT FEATURES • Text-to-Speech - Type into ClaroSpeak and have the text read back to you. You can check text and proofread it quickly and easily. - You can import documents into ClaroSpeak from apps such as Mail, or import directly from Dropbox or Google Drive using ClaroSpeak's integration. ClaroSpeak can open a range of document formats including Word doc, PDF and epub. - Text from any app can be copied and pasted into ClaroSpeak ready to be read back. - Apple's speech recognition can be used to dictate text directly into ClaroSpeak, and can be listened back to ensure it is right. - The Apple spell check works in ClaroSpeak too, further helping accuracy. - You can save the text as an audio file using the same high-quality voice. • High-Quality Voices 4 high-quality Nuance Vocalizer voices are available as free downloads, with the language of your choice. The voice can be made to speak faster or slower. The voices are installed within ClaroSpeak, so they work when not online and do not use up any data allowance. Additional Nuance & Acapela voices in 30+ languages and even more accents are available through in-app purchase in ClaroSpeak. • Capture text from photo This feature lets you select a photo from your library or take a new one with your camera. Your chosen image will be scanned for text, using high-quality OCR (powered by ABBYY), and the text in the image will be inserted into ClaroSpeak. ***Minimum camera spec: 2MP*** • Word Prediction & Autocorrection Word prediction helps with writing more quickly and accurately. Train dictionaries from the current text so the best suggestions come up first. Enable Claro autocorrect and ClaroSpeak will use our specifically designed correction list to automatically correct misspelt words as they are typed. • Visual Highlighting Text is highlighted as the text is read back. Highlighting allows you to coordinate reading and listening. ClaroSpeak lets you pick the color and style of highlighting required. There are four highlighting modes to choose from: none, word by word, word trail, or sentence by sentence highlighting. • Font & Layout Change the font type, size or color to suit your needs. Layout the text for easier reading by adjusting the character, line and paragraph spacing and adjusting the page margins. Text can be formatted bold, italic and underlined to emphasize. Images can be inserted into the text from the camera or your library. • Save to Audio Convert any text into an audio file using any of the high-quality voices. This is quick and easy, allowing text to be listened to on the move. Great for proofreading on the go. • Sharing your text Text created within ClaroSpeak can be emailed, messaged, printed, opened in another app, or copied and pasted into another app, like Safari. Sending the text to Facebook and Twitter lets you join in with social media. • Read webpages You can now read webpages in Safari and other browsers, using the "Read with ClaroSpeak" extension from the share menu. • Dropbox and Google Drive Integration Open documents stored in Dropbox or Google Drive directly in ClaroSpeak. Save text and audio files directly back to Dropbox or Google Drive. Great for transferring files between devices and keeping files in the cloud. For the latest news, tips and advice follow @ClaroSpeak on Twitter.

This app teaches the concepts of ‘Who’, ‘Where’, ‘When’, ‘What Happened Next’ and ‘The End’.   Written and narrated by Bec Shanks and Catherine Bowen, the app is designed to complement storytelling work in the classroom. The skill of storytelling plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining social connections, starting in childhood, extending through adolescence and persisting into adulthood. This app mirrors the development of narrative skills in children – from raising their awareness of the individual components of a simple story to retelling and generating their own endings to stories. It is a versatile resource which can be used alongside other narrative interventions in the classroom The app contains 26 games which introduce narrative concepts and provide multiple practice opportunities: An explanation of narrative - A video narrated by Bec Shanks explaining to children that stories are made up of lots of different bits … ‘Who’, ‘Where’, ‘When’, ‘What Happened’ and ‘The End’ An introduction to narrative - three games introducing the colours and icons used in the narrative approach. Individual sections 3 to 8 contain a total of 23 games ’Who' - (4 Games) From simple picture matching to helping Freddy the Magician with his tricks by answering all the ‘who’ questions. Where - (4 Games) From simple picture matching to flying a rocket to the moon by answering all of the ‘where’ questions When - (4 Games) From matching a ‘when’ picture to deciding when Jack might ride his bike - in the morning, afternoon, at lunchtime or in the evening. Consolidation A game to consolidate the concepts of ‘who’ ‘where’ and ‘when’ What happened- (4 Games) From making silly sentences to deciding what might happen if you saw a lion in the school field. The End - (2 Games) begins with selecting the ending to a story the child likes the best to generate and recording their ending to a story. This app has been trialled with children ages 4 - 7 by clinicians, teachers, and parents, producing extremely positive feedback from all groups. Don’t take our word for it, hear what some users say… ‘When he went back to class, despite playing several activities it was the app activity that the child immediately told the teacher about ‘Guess what, we played a game about telling stories… it was about a clown who went to space and saw a pig in pants!!!!!’ The child was very animated and looked forward very much to using it again. It was the first thing he asked for in his following session. Another child did not want to return to class as he was enjoying activities so much.' (Clinician) Easy to navigate, colourful, clear instructions, narrative components are well organised, fun, effective and enjoyable games, handy to have all resources/components and activities in one place. (Teacher) ‘Their favourite things were the monster who you had to feed the story elements. The animation and sound effects were great. They loved the silly stories and enjoyed switching all the sections and hearing the story play back to them. They also loved Pop the Bubbles and the magician. It was great to have a voice-over for all the instructions so my son (4) could play all the games and do all the activities without having to be able to read’ (Parent) ‘The app is easy to use, accessible for children, and brightly presented with lovely colours and pictures to appeal to children. It is easy to navigate, the voices are pitched at an appropriate level for children and nice to listen to. If the child doesn't give the correct answer they don't get a cross or a 'wrong' noise. Games can be played for a few minutes as a stand-alone activity or you could work through them in order.’ (Teacher) Age: 4-7+ years (Appropriateness for older children will depend on the learning and language profile of the child)