July is almost here—and that means it’s almost National Ice Cream Month! Speechsnacks is celebrating with an ice cream-themed app review and a giveaway!!!
I was so excited to review this app and share it with you—- created by fellow SLP and award-winning children’s author Erik X. Raj. As you know, Speechsnacks LOVES to use food as a learning tool for speech and language concepts. Erik has created a children’s story that teaches the importance of respect, diversity, and friendship using characters (ice cream monsters) created from ice cream—what a great way to teach social skills and life lessons!! The app is called Ice Cream Monsters…check it out in the itunes store for $1.99. Erik was generous enough to provide me with two codes to give away!! You can enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for this app at the bottom of the post.
Although this app is not designed specifically for speech therapy purposes, it has many features that make it usable in therapy. I used it with two of my preschool cuties before the school year ended. The boys are working to correct their /s/ and /s/ blends as well as some basic language concepts. I used the app with this particular group because the phrase “ice cream monster” is repeated so many times—it was great practice for /s/ and /s/blends (found in words: same, scoops, sprinkles, spoon).
The boys LOVED the story and song!! The app has a catchy little tune at the beginning. (They even asked me if I could play the song again at the end of the story.) The graphics are simple yet vibrant and beautifully animated. The ice cream monsters each have their own little personalities.
The kids loved the fun interactive features on each screen—they could tap images with their finger and fly a rocket ship, change the flavor of the ice cream monsters, make them laugh and help them to play games together.
I also used the app to discussed the concept of same vs different. I asked lots of questions about how they were same or different on each screen—it was a good way for me to observe their sounds in conversation.
We used the story to address WH questions as well…..I asked them to guess WHAT flavor the ice cream was. They had fun guessing and/or making up the flavors. (one of them guessed the green ice cream was pistachio—I was impressed!)
Both boys agreed that some of the scoops looked like mohawks (the ones with the swirly tops)
They debated over the terms “jimmies” vs “sprinkles”
One boy asked if “Planet Amazing Yummy” was a real planet—we talked about what they would do if they really could visit a planet like this —and of course they both said they would eat all the ice cream they possibly could and have fun playing with the monsters.
I like the repetition of the same phrase on each page to drive home the message and make it easy for them to remember it and repeat it.
This was a fun way to incorporate a meaningful life lesson with some speech and language concepts. I will be sure to use it again!!
You can head over to Erik’s website to learn more about him and all the great stuff he is working on!!
Leave a Reply