Utility of Mobile Apps in Speech and language therapy: A survey study

Abstract

Mobile apps refer to a computer program developed with the intention of running it on a smart phone or a tablet. Many professionals use mobile apps for their routine duties and health care professionals are no exception. Objectives: To know the knowledge, belief and attitude UG students, PG students and professional speech-language pathologists towards mobile apps. The present study was a survey study. The questions were developed as a Google form and link was sent to 211 speech-language pathologists. Out of the 211 SLP’s, 90 participants responded who served as participants later. The questionnaire was developed in English and it had 3 sections. The mean age of the participants of the current study was 23.2 years. Out of the participants who claimed to use apps, 45% of them were professionals, 35% were PG students and 20% were UG students. The apps commonly used by users were awwaaz, Artis, Lumiosity, Flash card generator, sound generator, constant therapy, Language therapy lite and Articulation Speech therapy, Touch and speak and learning disability app (Crowdell) They used it for children diagnosed with delayed speech and language (spoken language disorders), followed by aphasia, learning disability, fluency, speech sound disorder cases. Most of the participants claimed that they did not recommend to recommend their clients to use apps as most of the apps were in English and were complex.

Keywords: Apps, Service Delivery, Survey