A free app for parents of young children

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A free app for parents of young children

Hello everyone.
You all know me relating to PSP and scripting.
But today, i have something TOTALLY different to offer: an APP.

Check this out: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/words-i-say/id902871305?ls=1&mt=8

The app is currently only for iphones. An Android version will come soon.
If you download this app, it will help with the stats.
If you add a review in the app store, it helps even more.
And if you don't have an iphone, or a young child (or grandchild), share the link around.

If you download this version 1.0, it is FREE and will stay FREE forever, while future versions will not be free (but they will have more functions).

Share around and tell me what you think!
(this is related to my real day job as a speech language pathologist)

What a neat idea! I have a 15 month old so I could definitely use this. Unfortunately I use a Windows phone though! smiley

We actually have a doctor's appointment today where I'll be asking at what point we should be concerned about a language delay. She hears two languages on a daily basis so some delay is expected. I'm just not sure at what point we would need to consider getting help from a professional like you!

Ghislaine, check out the site i just built to accompany the app:

http://wordsisay.com

The question about bilingualism is exactly one that i have in plan to add soon. However, here is the answer i gave to someone who was the exact same thing:

Question:
My son is 20 months and is learning both English and Spanish. I speak to him in Spanish and so does my mom when she visits. My husband and step-son only speak English so he gets that language from them. It's been tough knowing if he's on the right track linguistically; there will obviously be some delays while he sorts out the two languages. He comprehends much more than he speaks. He knows the words in both languages for many different things but he picks and chooses which word he wants to say (usually whichever one is easier to pronounce). If we speak the word he doesn't choose to say, he will say it in the other language. Just wondering if the app will take dual language learners into consideration. It would be nice to be able to track which words he knows and in which language he speaks it to see the progression in both

Answer:
When a child has 2 (or more) languages to learn, he has 2 "dictionaries" to learn and 2 sets of grammar rules to learn. When they are very young, they don't know what is an English word and what is a Spanish word. They are just words. In fact, for the child, there is no difference between calling something a "boat" or a "barco", just like there is little difference between a "boat" and a "ship" when it both means "a mean of transportation that floats on water". That will explain why the child will sometimes pick the word in one language, or the other, no matter who they are talking to.

When the child learns various words, WE categorize them in languages, but he doesn't, so if at one point, he has 50 vocabulary words in total, it would be the same as someone else, in a unilingual family, having 50 words. The "problem" is us: WE look at the vocabulary with the English angle, and think "oh he has only 30 words", and looking with the Spanish angle "oh he has only 20 words". This perception can give an impression of delay, but it isn't. All in all, the child has 50 words in his vocabulary.

Hope it helps.
You can join my mailing list in on the site, and i'll add a Contact us link somewhere (the site is only a week old), but in the mean time, you can contact me at [email protected]

And while you are at the doctor, give the info about the app and the site. It could help others too.

Ghislaine, i just added one blog post about bilingualism for you:

http://wordsisay.com/will-two-languages-delay-my-child/

Thanks Carole,

Would you count American Sign Language as a language for these purposes too? I had started doing sign with my older child in the hopes that it would help bridge the two languages. Based on your answer above that may not really have worked the way I thought it would. That might explain why my older child started talking and signing all together, while I'd expected her to sign first then talk. This second child has more ASL words than anything else.

You might be interested to know that she does differentiate the salutation upon leaving amongst different groups of people. While she isn't really saying the consonants yet, she'll say "bye" to her English only speaking grandparents, while saying "au revoir" to her bilingual grandparents.

Yes, i would consider signs as "words", and i can see why it seems like the signs are replacing verbal words. However, unless signs are regularly used at home to converse, they will fade out as the words will come and be even more convenient for communicating that signs, since everyone can understand words, and not everyone can understand signs.

Signs are often easier to pick up, so they often come first, followed by the words. I encourage parents to use sign just in case the words are slow to develop as it does give a mean of communication to the child who might otherwise become frustrated. However, some children will pick up both at the same time, which in fact, it quite ok: it means that the verbal words are not delayed.

Now, all in all, count the number of words AND signs, to determine his/her vocabulary, not one or the other.

This looks like a wonderful app, and so incredibly useful for parents of young children. I have worked with many children with speech/language difficulties, and I'm sure this app will prove to be a big help. Especially when parents have this vague worry whether there might something wrong, but aren't quite worried enough to go and ask for help, this just might push them to ask for intervention before a child enters school and is screened by a SLP.
I will definitely spread the word about your app. (If you could develop a "blinkie," or a '"button," we could post them on our blogs, and link you up that way!)

Thanks Maria, I have one little button that is basically the app icon for now. I will add it to the site later today for anyone to grab. Thanks for the suggestion.

Maria, as per your suggestion, i added an icon you can grab on the site (below my bio).
You are more than welcome to spread the word about the site and the app.
Thank you.

awesome...thanks so much for sharing smiley