StoryBuilder for iPad

I love the idea of this app but it could use some improvements. One of the picture prompts had fireworks and asked what day of the year it was. To anyone who is unfamiliar with Independence Day, this would be a confusing question, and that's the reaction I noticed. Also, another prompt had a boy in a river, holding on to a tree so he wouldn't get swept over the waterfall. I understand how this could develop into a creative story for some, but it made the 3 year old confused & her response was that the boy was in the bath tub. I feel like the picture cues and questions could be improved by having some more baseline experiences represented. I'm having better luck creating story boards on pinterest and developing my own questions than using this app for language development with underexposed children.

This app is entertaining, interesting, and a great learning experience (without the kids even noticing). It teaches imagination, creativity, communication, sentence structure, and listening. My 4 year old is developmentally delayed and this app allowed her to create her own story step by step. It did require adult assistance. The question prompts were great, the recording was easy, and the play back is fabulous. My 8 year old also created his own stories. He was able to be more descriptive making the app fun or him. He required no adult assistance though I was there because I wanted to hear his story. You are able to set up different accounts for each kid and save their own story. I love that the story is in there own voice. That I can create a story today then months later to see the growth of the child. It is easy to use and fun. There are not many apps both my kids can play (and enjoy). This is an excellent app. The only thing I would change is the childs log. I wish the kid could just click on their name when it is entered. Also the setting area should be allowed to add a lock to keep the kids from changing the settings. Beth Comella APPvisory Board Parent

I am the founder of Innovative Speech Therapy and specialize in empowering families and professionals with the knowledge and strategies to use affordable technologies to help kids and adults who have a wide range of communication challenges. I am very impressed with this app and the responsiveness of the company to my suggestions for improvements. It is truly unique. It took me a few tries to figure out what all the options were and when I would use them. Users really need to take the time to read the text displayed after the info button is pressed to realize the full potential of this app. In my practice I use this app to work toward a wide variety of goals. It's great for practicing creating sentences and organizing verbal narrative. I also use it to help others improve articulation, fluency, voice, and word retrieval. I am glad that there are options to turn on and off the initial voice with each new picture- some people find it distracting. The recording quality is fantastic and the process is easy. I like being able to save the recordings to document progress. The pictures are colorful and engaging. This app is a great way to work at the sentence and conversational levels and to promote carryover with both kids and adults who benefit from recording themselves and then immediately listening to their speech. Kids find it motivating to send their completed stories over email. It's a great value for only $3.99!