This App is user friendly for all parents and professionals who want to give their children a head start on how to pronounce and practice the English sounds in engaging activities. Created by a certified Speech–Language Pathologist to help both children as well as adults learn basic pronunciation and features of English. Also ideal for families with English as a second language.

Parents/teachers are taught how to elicit sounds from their children with the help of Bobbie and Bonnie, who lead the user throughout the application in a lively manner. Children are able to recall from both visual and auditory memories, how to make each sound correctly. The App enhances phonological skills necessary for reading later in life. Children are taught to make the sounds in isolation, as well as in syllables, step-by- step and then gradually in words, as they “play” with the sounds.

Because, this is a parent-based program the order of the sounds in the application is based on the order that children typically acquire sounds naturally. Children do not learn the sounds of English in alphabetical order. Parents can easily elicit the sounds correctly and proceed by gradually increasing the difficulty level for the child, by beginning at the first sound in the Main Menu. If, however, older children have problems producing specific sounds, additional practice for such sounds is recommended. There is evidence that indicates children do acquire the targeted sound regardless of its normative age of acquisition. Moreover, children can practice several sounds at a time in a sequence or cycle with good results (Hodson, 2010).

Kids Sound Lab is excellent for all typically developing/speaking children but has also  been found to be effective for non-speaking/nonverbal children, as a start for learning to produce sounds in a meaningful way.

Kids Sound Lab, is the English version of the Icelandic program “Learning and Playing with Sounds”, that evolved through years of clinical work and studies, following the authors collaboration with the late Dr. Bernard Silverstein professor at University of Tennessee, USA  (b. 1927 d. 2003).

The author, Bryndis Gudmundsdottir SLP, was awarded a “Special Recognition Award 2011” from Global Women Inventors & Innovators Network (GWIIN) and the Icelandic Innovators Network (KVENN) for her innovative work in the field of speech pathology.

Consultants for the English version of the project are Dr. Barbara Hodson at  Wichita State University, KS, and Dr. Katherine Abbott Verdolini at University of Pittsburg, PA, leading specialists in the field of Articulation, Phonology and Voice.

The Icelandic speech material “Learning and Playing with Sounds”. is being used in schools all over Iceland and is also being shown on Icelandic TV, Channel 2.

Illustrations in Kids Sound Lab have been provided by two Icelandic illustration- and graphic artists; Halla Solveig Thorgeirsdottir and Bui Kristjansson, who have made wonderful contributions to this project.

The goal is to reach out to all children, including children with special needs, who want to learn English sounds in an easy and enjoyable way.

The Icelandic Innovation Center supported the English project:

Kids Sound Lab –  for Ipad. 

More information:   www.kidssoundlab.com

Youtube.com/laerumogleikum

support@kidssoundlab.com

Want to learn the Icelandic sounds?  Try out our new App:  Lærum og leikum með hljóðin  (laerum og leikum með hljodin). In Icelandic it means: Learning and Playing with Sounds.        www.laerumogleikum.is

Kids Sound Lab includes:

✔ Free InApp Purchase with the D sound.

✔User friendly parent-based program that is easy to follow

✔ Voice recording and playback feature for monitoring immediate responses

✔ 24 Consonant Sounds in English introduced in a systematic way with emphasis on visual and auditory recall/memory for each consonant 

✔ Vowels introduced separately  A – E – I – O – U as:

1. a) long vowels that say their own names  
2. b) short vowels that do not say their own names 

✔ Consonant sounds in the main menu listed in developmental order of sound acquisition

✔ Sounds that need to be practiced separately can be presented at any time 

✔ Descriptions of how to produce all consonant sounds are provided  by Bonnie and Bobbie, the main characters

✔ Most consonant sounds are practiced in a sound play in CV > consonant – vowel syllables > so all sounds are produced correctly before they are put into words

✔ Sounds practiced at beginning of words where they appear (see disclaimer in app) in English: 

/m,  n,  b,  p,  d,  t,  w,  y,  h,  k,  g,  f,  v, ng, ch, j, sh, s, z, l, r, th – voiceless and voiced/

✔ Prevocalic/consonantal R introduced and practiced (R followed by a vowel – easy to remediate and use to shape other vocalic Rs later) 

✔ The (ng, zh) sounds are practiced at the middle and end of words, because they do not occur at the beginning of words in English

✔ Voiced /th/ practiced at the beginning, middle and end of words

✔ Each sound is practiced at 5 activity levels

✔ Each sound has two interactive game activities at the end of each level 

✔ Auditory memory and recall/vocabulary game with rotating words

✔ Matching game with rotating words when repeated

✔ Original pictures made by illustrators– graphic designers B.Kristjansson and H.S.Thorgeirsdottir

✔ Original music and rhythm by Vedis, Icelandic singer and composer

✔ Encouragement provided throughout the program

✔ Scoring and data tracking for each child/student

✔ Scoring provided for each sound with date, numbers, and %age of correct productions for monitoring progress

✔ Student profiles (name, age, email, gender, notes, photo)

✔ Notes can be added to each score for the sounds

✔ Email options to send scores with dates and notes, number of correct responses, and %age of total correct responses

✔ Extended voice recording time for making sentences with the words that are practiced with each sound

✔ Air print (with printer) with collective data