Abstract
The iPad is becoming a popular therapy tool. With its popularity, an increasing number of apps are being developed that can be useful for speech-language pathologists. A few are free, many are below US$10, and the more elaborate ones can be above US$100. Free apps (including “lite” versions of some apps for purchase) often have limited functionality. The Feel Electric app by the Electric Company is a valuable exception.
This is a Parent’s Choice 2012 recommended app designed for the iPhone and iPad. The opening character invites you to express your feelings. There are great live instructions on how to engage with the different elements of the app. Each time you log on, it displays a different emotion and explains the cause of the emotion. You then select 3 words that describe how you feel. When you tap a word, you hear the meaning and see a face expressing that emotion. A young person’s voice relates an experience in which he or she felt one of those ways The app uses more than 50 emotion words, getting beyond the basic emotions of happy, sad, mad, surprised, disgusted, and afraid, enabling discussions of varying intensities of emotions.
The app has four sections: What’s the Word, My Life, My Stuff, and My Games. The What’s the Word section shows a face with accompanying emotion word and explains the meaning of the word. In the My Life section, there are three activities that can help describe your moods. The Mood Dude is a figure that can be configured to your mood. Touching parts of the figure’s body changes its facial expressions and arms/hands positions. There is a Mad Libs-type mood tale where you choose words to create a mood tale. The student selects a photograph that shows a person or persons displaying emotions. Like other Mad Libs, the student is guided through selecting different kinds of words. When all words are selected, the story appears and is read aloud. In the Moodosphere, you can see your mood on a map. The moods you selected each time you logged in are tracked so that you can look at the emotion words you selected over a period of time.
In the My Games section, students match facial expressions to emotion words. “Pets Versus Monsters” is a ball game. An emotion word appears at the top of the screen and is read. Then balls with faces showing different emotions are thrown. By touching the screen, the student positions the batter to hit the ball with the faces that match the emotion word (and avoid those faces that do not match). In “Prankster Madness,” a face with an emotional expression appears at the top of the screen. Goo balls and water balls with emotion words fall from the sky (a voice reads the words). The player controls a character on a skateboard by tilting the iPad. The goal is to catch the word that describes the emotion on the face, while avoiding the goo balls and water balls with the wrong words. In “Hey You Guys, Catch,” faces with a variety of expressions move across a park scene. Word balls with emotion words run along the bottom of the screen. The player loads a word ball in the launcher and must shoot it at the appropriate face.
Finally, the My Stuff section of the app can be customized by adding your own pictures, songs, and videos to it. The pictures (which you can tag on the screen with stickers indicating how the photos make you feel songs) and videos that are included can be used to provide opportunities to describe and discuss the emotions conveyed.
This app could be very helpful with children who are having difficulty in social situations such as those with social communicative pragmatic disorders or with autism spectrum disorders. The app was developed with the cooperation of Military Families Near and Far, an organization that helps military families to communicate, stay connected, and cope with the transitions and issues related to military life. If you work with military families, check out the website https://www.familiesnearandfar.org/login/. The website is in English and Spanish.