The cost and advantages of implementing the iPad as a learning tool for speech therapy & Special education.
Modern technology bring interactivity, cost-savings, time efciency while promoting learning. This document is a guide that sets up costs of iPad, apps & accessories.
spend on this new therapy tool. The iPad in of itself is a tool and needs accessories such as apps and other hardware to give you what you need. Regardless if you will use personal nances, grants, or school district funds the savings you have for using the iPad are signicant when you compare it to traditional less dynamic therapy
school districts and grants that allows speech therapists to use funds for purchasing apps, however a lot of convincing may still need to happen. School districts are slowly starting to notice the advantages of the iPad and I hope this document helps speech therapists, and educators to gather more information about the costs associated with purchasing an iPad and using it as a therapy tool. While the research to show the therapeutic and educational benets of the use of the iPad are very limited, we can create a document that describes the nancial benets of the purchase of the iPad, apps and its accessories. Recently I conducted an online survey in which people were asked where the funds to purchase apps came from, over 90% of responses indicated that they had purchased apps with personal nances.
products.
A recent online survey revealed that most speech therapists and educators spend I hope this document shows you that it is their personal nances when purchasing not just about the cost of the device, but apps. Lately, I have seen more and more apps and accessories as well.
The cost and advantages of implementing the iPad as a learning tool for speech therapy & Special education.
The iPad is the rst item you will have to purchase. The initial decision you need to make is: which kind of iPad will I buy? The rst thing you will need to gure this out is how much memory you will need. The iPad currently offers 3 choices for memory size, the more memory you need the more expensive it gets. The rst thing I like to say is, the size of memory is very personal and it depends on your style of use. You have to ask yourself, will I be using
it primarily for therapy or will this be a device for home + therapy use? A
lot of people like to ask which size I have... I always answer, it does not matter. I am a very different user, the iPad I own I use for various presentations, demos, videos, etc. So, my iPad personality may not apply to you. However, I do like to share some statistics of my iPad. The statistics of my iPad can help you see how much memory educational, and speech therapy apps can consume on your iPad.
My iPad stats: Songs Videos Photos Apps Total space used 107 6 1,600 174 (16GB) 21 GB
What does this mean? It means that I could own an iPad 32GB or 64GB but a 16GB would be too little memory for my use. However, this will give you a general idea for considering how you will allocate your memory.
The iPad has different connectivity options: Wi-Fi or WiFi+3G; WiFi+3G is a bit more costly than wi- alone. While the vast majority of speech therapy and educational apps do not require wi-, you may also want to check out the Internet settings at your work location in case you decide to use the Internet on your iPad. If you choose the iPad without 3G, you will need to download your apps from your computer or when your iPad is on the network. If you choose the iPad with 3G, you will have to account for the monthly expense of the 3G network with either AT&T or Verizon.
The cost and advantages of implementing the iPad as a learning tool for speech therapy & Special education.
Area
Name of App
Price
Articulation Assessment
$49.99
$199 ( for a nonstandardized articulation test) $228 ( for two sets of 540 articulation cards) unable to nd a matching card articulation product $59.99 Decks of R ash cards $59.95 ( set of images with mouth placement) $139 ( minimal Pairs deck) $695
Articulation Therapy
Articulate it!
$34.99
$193
Articulation Game
Match2Say
$19.99
Articulation (focus on R)
rIntensive SLP
$19.99
$40
Articulation
Speech Trainer
$7.99
$52
Phonology
$34.99 $167.97
$105 $540
It is evident that the savings of $540 dollars go beyond that number, because you get a lot more for your buck with the app. Lets take the example of Articulation apps versus articulation ashcards. Most of the articulation applications on the iTunes store contain over 800 images on it. Imagine carrying around 800 ashcard!? Besides the apps are not just digital ashcards, they track student data, create reports automatically and the cards are always organized. The words on the iPad, unlike the ashcards, do not get torn, and do not require constant unscrambling.
Lets now take a look at the numbers so far for iPad models + Articulation Apps:
16GB 32GB 64GB
Wi-Fi
$666
$766
$866
Wi-Fi + 3G
$796
$896
$996
The cost and advantages of implementing the iPad as a learning tool for speech therapy & Special education.
Yes, there are free apps available on the app store and it is possible to plan therapy and implement activities with the few apps available. However, consider if you were doing therapy only with the free materials you have available to you ( maybe cups, papers, scissors, etc) and you know that it would take a lot more creativity to make it work.
Area Name of App Price Cost of traditional product Savings from traditional comparable material
$200
Prepositions
Preposition Remix
$9.99
$210.90 (Prepositions software) $11.95 $27.95 ( verbs ashcards) $69.95 ( Verbs Flashcards) $29 ( Game with language exercises) $39 ( functional vocabulary ashcards) $43.90 ( Sentence structure CD) $29.95 ( Figurative Language game) $99.95 ( following directions software) $35.00 ( set of 5 Wh Questions ashcards) $35.95 ( software) $632
Speech with Milo Prepositions Dr.Pine Learn Actions iPractice Verbs Montessori Pre-language Exercises
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Cacher 3
FREE
$39
Syntax
Sentence Builder
$5.99
$38
Pragmatics
Is that silly?
$9.99
$20
$9.99
$90
WhQuestions
$14.99
$21
Problem Solving
$34.99 $104.90
$1.00 $528
Lets now take a look at the numbers so far for iPad models + Articulation +Language Apps:
16GB 32GB 64GB
Wi-Fi
$777
$877
$977
Wi-Fi + 3G
$900
$1000
$1100
As you can see your investment on iPad speech therapy gets more and more expensive as you add articulation and language apps alone. I have personally spent over one thousand dollars in apps for the iPad. At the same time, the savings you have over traditional products is extreme. We have so far saved $1,068 by using apps in place of traditional ashcards.
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The cost and advantages of implementing the iPad as a learning tool for speech therapy & Special education.
iPad/Apps accessories.
Protecting and disinfecting your device can be as fundamental as owning an iPad. For sure, none of these accessories come with the purchase of the iPad and therefore they are extra expenses. Some accessories I like to dene as essential accessories, others as non-essential. If you have a grant or are seeking funding for your iPad, you need to make sure you do your research on the accessories you want to include with the fund request.
1. Stylus pen: $6 2. HDMI cable & adapter: $40 3. Bub Cap protector: $6
$231
$52
The cost and advantages of implementing the iPad as a learning tool for speech therapy & Special education.