Category TherAppy

Category TherAppy is the most powerful and comprehensive app available for teaching categorization skills for speech therapy, special education, and stroke rehab. Four activities target category identification, sorting, adding, and exclusion across three levels of concrete and abstract categories. This app is so versatile with hundreds of clear images, all paired with recorded audio & text, to create literally thousands of unique exercises. Whether used in the clinic, classroom, or dining room, this app provides SLPs, teachers, parents, and patients with an affordable collection of category activities for improving semantic and reasoning skills essential in language and cognitive rehabilitation and learning.

Category TherAppy Lite gives you a free sample of the full app with trial exercises in all 3 category types and all 4 modes of play. 36 free exercises in all to try before you buy!

The Basics:

Platforms: iPad, iPad mini, iPhone, & iPod touch
Goal Areas: Semantics, Categorization, Organization, Reasoning, Problem-Solving, Auditory Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, Attention, Verbal Fluency, Divergent Naming, Convergent Naming
Helps: Aphasia, Anomia, Word-Finding Difficulties, Semantic Impairment, Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia, Brain Injury, Language Delay, Autism, Language Learning Disability, English as a Second Language Learners
Vocabulary: Nearly 700 words in 70 categories
Languages: English (US)
Version: 1.0
Price: $14.99 USD

4 Activities:

  • Find the category member

  • Classify which category it belongs to

  • Exclude the one that doesn’t belong

  • Add One to the category members shown

3 Types of Categories:

  • EASY: Concrete Categories (animals, foods, clothing, etc.)

  • MEDIUM: Subcategories (birds, fruit, footwear, etc.)

  • HARD: Abstract Categories (metal things, cold things, flying things, etc.)

  • YOU control which categories to target within each level!

Settings Put You in Control:

  • Field sizes from 2-6 items

  • Child-friendly mode removes adult-themed words & categories as well as disabling links on the home screen to outside sites

  • Select from “Picture Only”, “Word Only”, or “Picture & Word” with real recorded voice for every word & category

FIND:

  • Touch the item that belongs to the target category

  • Nearly 700 full-color images – no drawings or animations

  • Each word can be heard by touching the printed word or speaker

  • Single touch is the only gesture required, perfect for those with limited motor skills

CLASSIFY:

  • Touch the category the target item belongs to

  • The answer floats into the correct category to reinforce membership

  • Review & discuss your answers – full control to go back or skip ahead

EXCLUDE:

  • Touch the item that doesn’t belong

  • Target inferencing & reasoning

  • Hints are available & correct answers are explained

ADD ONE:

  • Touch the item that goes with the other 3, adding to the category

  • A hint is available to reveal the category

  • Audio reinforcement of the target category can be played or turned off

Results are Automatic:

  • Scoring is automated in the app with on-screen tracking of success and progress

  • E-mail results in report-ready format

  • Set a default e-mail address so clients can send results directly to the SLP during home practice

Praise for Category TherAppy:

“Category TherAppy is a very well thought-out, systematic app with a wide variety of uses. It will be a LONG time before you run out of content to use with one patient/student, and the app’s fantastic settings options will allow you to use it with a variety of individuals, regardless of cognitive abilities. Of course, the main purpose of this app is obvious: teach categorization skills. On a deeper level, though, categorization involves many more skills than just being able to categorize. In my opinion, the Settings are what makes Tactus Therapy apps go from good to great. While many apps can only be used with a certain “type” of patient/student (e.g. certain cognitive level), the different settings in this app make it easy to use with a wide variety of individuals.” -speechie apps
“The application is clean and simple to use for clients of all ages. There are real-life photos, a white background, and no distracting backgrounds or audio. I definitely like the settings for the application so that one can use it with multiple clients and also change the settings as a client improves. The ability to e-mail results makes therapy so much easier because you can focus your time on explaining why different choices were correct or incorrect and actually teach rather than have to teach and write down results. You can use the application with both adults and children. What I absolutely love is that the client is able to press the text or a microphone button if he or she needs to hear an item, category, or instruction stated aloud.” -Consonantly Speaking

Video Demonstration of Category TherAppy: