Sanapsis+, coming soon!

We are super happy to introduce a new family member, Sanapsis+ - an app for working on speech and communication skills at home.

Sanapsis+, coming early 2021 to AppStore and GooglePlay!

Like all our apps, Sanapsis+ is designed for people with acquired speech and communication difficulties due to neurological deficits. These can include aphasia, stroke, traumatic brain injury, or a neurological illness.

With Sanapsis+, you can enhance active communication in all language areas: Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing. 

In addition to specific language exercises, Sanapsis+ provides ideas and guidance on working on speech and communication skills at home, in our everyday surroundings. After all, the real world is where the magic of communication happens! We are looking forward to sharing Sanapsis+ with you soon!

New content for Sanapsis Svenska

How are you doing? It sure is turning out to be a very different spring than what we were expecting. I hope you are staying healthy and things are falling into place for you and your loved ones (maybe slowly, but hopefully surely).

For us, this has been a busy few weeks. We have been setting up way more telepractice appointments than planned and helping our patients navigate this new environment for many. As such we have has a chance to use Sanapsis in teletherapy more than usual and it has been a blast! Hopefully you have also found ways to make use of the materials and ideas in Sanapsis during these times. We would love to hear how it is going! Please reach out via this site or comment below. Also, please reach out if you need assistance in figuring out a good setup for you, how to share your iPad screen etc. We are here and always happy to help.

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In other news: We are exited to bring more exercises to our Swedish speaking friends! Our update for Sanapsis Svenska (1.5) is ready to download from the AppStore. This free update includes 5 new exercises to be used online or in person with your patients. There is new stuff in three categories: Speech Production, Comprehension, Writing and Perseveration.

For Speech Production we have two new exercises: Descriptive sentence / Bilda en beskrivande mening and Give Instructions / Ge Instruktioner.

Descriptive sentence is kind of like a talkative sister of our earlier exercise Precise sentence. In Precise sentence you show your patient a picture and ask them to provide a simple, straightforward informative sentence, e.g There are cakes on the table. In Descrptive sentence you also get a image prompt, but ask your patient to produce a sentence with as much detail and adjectives as possible, to truly describe the photo. There is an example sentence hidden under the panel you can use as a general guideline of what the sentence could look like. You can find more information on why and how to use this task with your patients under the info button in the right lower corner.

Bilda en beskrivande mening, screen you see when launching the exercise

Bilda en beskrivande mening, with example

Give instructions is a text based exercise for speech production. Here you are presented with a prompt to describe a sequential task. There are two levels. Level 1 has familiar tasks where your patient is asked to produce instructions on how to complete these tasks, such as Explain how to light a fire in a fireplace. Tasks on level 2 has the same idea, but with a twist. Prompts on level 2 include more complex situations and a component of problem solving, such as Your neighbor locked himself out of the house. Tell him what to do. Below you can see examples of both levels. You can find more information on why and how to use these prompts with your patients under the info button in the right lower corner.

Ge instruktioner, level 1

Ge instruktioner, Level 2

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Update 1.5 for Sanapsis Svenska includes one new exercise for our Comprehension category. Follow instructions / Följ instruktionerna is a task where your patient moves the images on the screen following prompts you give them. This task is best used when facing each other at a table where you can read the upside down text on the top of the screen and the patient can manipulate the images. In settings you can switch it up to a reading task. This will switch the text to the bottom of the screen and the patient can follow the prompt while reading. You can also find this exercise in our Reading category in our next update.

Följ instruktionerna as a comprehension task when seated on opposite sides of a table

Följ instruktionerna for a reading task

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In Writing-category we are moving to the keyboard! This update adds a word level copying task, Copy words using the keyboard / Kopiera ordet med tangentbordet. On screen you see a word. Tapping the line pops up a keyboard on screen so you can copy away! If you prefer a bigger keyboard, you can connect a bluetooth keyboard to your iPad and use that. In settings you can see the familiar categories from where the words to be copied are drawn from. Mix and match to meet your patients needs. Ideas on how to make use of these categories can be found under the info button.

Kopiera ordet med tangentbordet.

Kopiera ordet med tangentbordet, settings for instructions and categories.

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In our Perseveration category you are already familiar with tasks using letters and numbers. Now we are introducing a new member to that group, Repetitive naming, pictures / Seriell benämning, bilder. Here you will see images and ask your patient to name them serially while working on strategies to reduce the tendency to persevere. Look for more in depth description on how and when to use these exercises under the info button! And while you are at it, you will discover that some of the familiar categories are presented here too, along with options on how many images per screen and how many objects represented in those images. In this example I have chosen to have only category (Fruit and Vegetable) active and I have 9 images per screen with 2 objects, orange and coconut. I have tapped some of them to reveal the written name, easy to hide by tapping again.

Seriell benämning, bilder

Seriell benämning, bilder, with examples

That is our update 1.5 for Sanapsis Svenska! Hope you enjoy it! Remember, updating Sanapsis is and always will be free. Hope to hear from you soon. Remember we are happy to answer any questions you might have. Stay well.

It's time to take social connections online, not to let go

Hi there.

I am sure you are familiar with the COVID-19 and all the precautions happening all around us right know. It may feel scary as everything is happening so fast. However, it is amazing to see people around the world coming together, determined to beat this thing.

As for for many things, also for speech therapy sessions, this means staying put at home and going online. Namely switching from face-to-face speech session to telepractice, most often conducted via videoconferencing. For many patients online video calls are a familiar platform. For some, this can be a new thing all together. For us SLPs, as familiar and safe communication partners to our patients, this can be an excellent opportunity to open up new and necessary communication channels.

While isolated, many patients are forced to learn new skills and find new ways to connect with their loved ones. Many necessary appointments are also moving online like visits with doctors and nurses. At a time like this, I can not think of a better goal for speech therapy than picking up those new skills and experiences!

If you mostly do your speech sessions face-to-face, taking the leap for telepractise can feel daunting. There are a lot of things to consider to make things safe and secure and making sure you follow the necessary guidelines. These vary from country to country and between states so make sure to check what these requirements mean for you and your practice. With some patients and caregivers it will take some convincing to give telepractice a try (when everything is changing around you, putting speech therapy “on hold until things settle down” can feel like a good option), others will jump at the opportunity. However, if you and your patients jump through the hoops of getting everything ready for telepractice now, it is much easier to keep going if things drag out than to start building up again after some time has passed. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing how long this situation will be ongoing.

When you have your knots and bolts sorted out, agreements signed and patients ready to go, you need to figure out materials and ideas for conducting a session. You have spent a lot of time getting things this far and it sure takes time to get traditional materials transformed into digital form too. And you have that session coming up today, not next week! But fear not, I have something to help you get started.

Lovely set up by Kyllösen kommunikaatio.

Yes, of course I am talking about Sanapsis! Tons of ready to go materials and ideas to implement in your sessions. If you have used Sanapsis before in your face-to-face sessions with the patient, even better! Now there is something they know and are familiar with right there on their computer screen, in a new and different situation. If you are using your iPad for telepractice, share your screen, launch Sanapsis and fire away! If you prefer using your computer (I do!) connect your iPad to your computer, mirror your iPad to your computer (I like to use QuickTime Player, learn how here or here) and share your computer screen (check out the lovely set up from Kyllösen kommunikaatio. Thanks for the pic, Paula!). Easy as pie!

In a time like this, when social isolation is more or less mandatory, there is true power in making and maintaining connections with the people around us. Being there to go through the jitters together with our patients can make a huge difference. We should all embrace the opportunity of being there for our patients with communication difficulties as a low stress online connection. After all, we can help them to be able to connect with others with confidence after practicing these skills with you, their trusted communication professional.

To help you to get over this hurdle, we are offering Sanapsis (English) for free for the rest of March. If you are not familiar with Sanapsis yet, you can Sanapsis Lite for a sneak peak of what we have to offer in all three languages, English, Finnish and Swedish. We hope to be able to enrich your speech therapy sessions with adult patients by providing materials to be used together with your patient, in person or online. Never lose that connection!

Stay healthy. Help keep others healthy. We can do this.

Introducing Sanapsis Lite

We have a new baby in the family! Join us in welcoming our latest arrival, Sanapsis Lite. This new app offers a sneak peek in all of our language versions, Sanapsis (English), Sanapsis Suomi and Sanapsis Svenska.

Sanapsis Lite consists of two exercises in each category: Production, Comprehension, Reading, Writing, Semantics and Perseveration. These exercises come in different languages to provide a feel of the possibilities Sanapsis has to offer to all users in their own language. The exercises include all the information and ideas in instructions but have limited content for material. There will always be more to explore in the full version in your language!

Head over to the AppStore of your choice (links below) to download a copy today.

Sanapsis Lite in the Swedish AppStore

Sanapsis Lite In the US AppStore

Sanapsis Lite in the United Kingdom Appstore

Sanapsis Lite in the Australian AppStore

Sanapsis Lite in the Finnish AppStore