Fun with Verbs and Sentences is an app designed to work on various language skills, including and most importantly the creation and speaking of simple sentences. The user builds a sentence of his choice by choosing each of the parts of speech of a basic sentence – the subject, verb and object or preposition. After making his choices, the user then sees a short animation that brings his sentence to life. The app also allows the user to record the sentence in his own voice and listen to the playback. The user is guided through the app with English instructions, such that users who are non-English speaking may require initial guidance and explanation in their own language by a therapist or caregiver. However, because the app allows recording, it can essentially be used in many languages. If using the app in a language other than English, it is recommended to lower the volume during the sentence building phase, to reduce unnecessary distractions, and then raise the volume again during the animation phase. The app provides an engaging and entertaining way to practice building simple sentences.
So how does it work?
Firstly, you need to pick a subject for the sentence. There are three choices – a boy, a girl, or a bear (in English this represents the subjects he, she, and it). For languages that have grammatical gender (nouns have a gender and other words in the sentence will change their conjugation to agree with the gender of the subject), the app provides a nice way to work on gender agreement.
You’ve chosen a subject? Great! Now choose a verb. At this stage, three verbs appear on the screen. These verbs change randomly with each sentence you build. (Verbs can be specifically chosen in the app settings, which will be discussed further on). Choose the verb you want to use or what you want the character to do.
After choosing the verb, then choose the object of the sentence – for example if up to now you chose “the boy plays..”, then choose what he is going to play with.
And that’s it! You’ve built a sentence. At this stage the sentence will be revealed at the bottom of the screen (for example, The girl is playing with the train.”) and the sentence will come to life with a short animation.
After watching the animation, you will then be asked to record the sentence. Press “Start” and speak the sentence. You can listen to the sentence after recording. Throughout the recording process the animation plays providing visual support.
The therapist or caregiver can keep track of a user’s progress by entering users in settings. When you choose ‘End Session” the app saves all data and displays them in detail.
In addition, the app includes detailed settings allowing the therapist or caregiver to choose the type of sentence, the verbs used, and additional features that allow for customizing the experience and the work that the child will be required to do.
The app has both a Lite and a Full version. The main differences between them being the variety of verbs available and the number of users that can be tracked. The paid version includes 39 verbs and can track 75 users. The Lite version includes 10 verbs and can track one user.
Enjoy and let us know how you like the app!