App Review and Giveaway: Between the Lines Level 2

I enjoyed reviewing  Between the Lines Advanced so much that today I am bringing you an intermediate version of this awesome social-pragmatic language app called: Between the Lines Level 2, which also focuses on targeting: Interpretation of vocal tone, Recognition of facial expressions, Interpretation of body language as well as Recognition of idiomatic expressions and slang, just on a less advanced level and in a less challenging format.  The app uses photos and mini videos of people in a variety of real-life dynamic social situations to teach social skills.

You begin by inputting student names for individual or group sessions.  Then in settings there are five options you can modify.

In ‘Activities” you can select what activities to target in a specific session. You can randomize them or complete one activity before targeting the next one:

• Listening and Facial Expressions
• Body Language and Perspective Taking
• Expressions, Idioms, and Slang

You can also choose whether you want to include or leave out slang choices such as (“kicked butt”  or ” who cut the cheese”, etc) as well as the order of activities. You can also select whether you want the student to advance to the next task automatically or manually.

In “Encouragement” you can select how frequently the student receives praise for correct responses, as well as whether you would like to keep the bell sound for correct responses.

In “Answer Choices” you can decrease or increase the complexity of answers by offering the students the choices of 2, 3, or 4 answers (the more choices, the more difficult it is to figure out the answer). You can also display choices automatically or manually, especially if you want the student to formulate their response first without the benefit of visuals, before receiving help in the form of written choices. 

There are also 3 choices of games the clinicians can choose from to periodically reinforce clients, you can do it as frequently as you’d like such as after answering each question or after  answering 10 questions. You can also choose the option of not using any reward games.

The listening tasks involve an off screen speaker saying phrases or a sentences in a particular tone of voice, which express a various  emotions and inflections. Then several choices of photos appeared on the screen and the student is asked, “Who said that? The student then had to select a photograph depicting the facial expression which matches the voice. Here, a nice expressive add-on activity would be to ask the student to justify why s/he selected a specific photo vs. the incorrect ones, by asking them regarding which clues aided them in their decision making process (verbal critical thinking task) as well as justify they they didn’t select the other choices . 

The body language tasks involve short video-clips showing a variety of social interactions and situations. The student is expected to look at the choices of responses and select the one that best matches the facial expression and body language of the person in the picture.  

The expressions tasks involve short video-clips showing a person speaking a sentence which contains  idiomatic expressions  or slang: “Knock on wood.” The student is then asked, “What does that mean?”

The SLP can increase or decrease question/answer complexity by offering the client choices of 2 to 4 responses as can be seen above. As with the advanced version up to 75 users can use the app individually or as a group.

I also really like the fact that Hamaguchi Associates created a list of Extension Activities for this app which can be found HERE.  These include:

Listening: 

• Make the Facial Expression – ask the student to listen to the voice (without seeing the photo) and attempt to demonstrate the expected facial expression.
• Describe the Emotion – what emotion do you hear in the voice?
  • Create a vocabulary bank (written and photos) to aid more impaired students in coming up with ideas
• Match the Expression – ask the student to listen to the audio clip and repeat what was said by matching the intonation, pace and words as closely as possible
• Wrong Choice Reflection
  • Justify why these photos are the “wrong choices”
  • Explain what the people in the photos might be thinking

Body Language:

• Guess it – guess the correct answer without the benefit of multiple choice options
• Act it Out – use the same body language, facial expressions and script to act out same scenes in groups
• Generalize- walk around the school and try to figure out what the people you see around you are thinking?

Expressions:

• Review it – use the idiomatic expressions in sentences to solidify their meanings
  • Have the child create a folder where they could keep track of all the new idioms and slang they’ve learned for periodic review
• Match it – match idioms written on index cards with their respective meanings
• Find more – online, TV, magazines, etc.

I’ve used this app selectively with students as young as 6-8 years of age with excellent results. My students and I had a lot of fun using it and so can you. You can find it on iTunes for $15.99 or thanks to the folks over at Hamaguchi Apps you can enter my Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance of winning your very own copy.

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