5 Adult Aphasia Apps: Top Aphasia Apps for Adults to Try

Aphasia affects a person’s ability to communicate and understand language properly. When recovering from a stroke, it can be challenging to interact with friends and family due to issues such as not being able to find the right words or understand what is being said in conversation.

But the good news is that technological interventions or aphasia apps can be used along with speech-language therapy to help those with aphasia feel more connected and less alone in their daily lives. These technologies and apps can benefit caregivers, patients, and speech-language pathologists by promoting language and increasing therapy outcomes.

What to Look for in Aphasia Apps? 

When looking for an adult aphasia app, you will want to find one that suits your needs. Tools are available designed to help people with aphasia, including therapy exercises and alternative communication methods for daily life. Some important aspects to consider when deciding whether an app is right for you include finding an app that has an extensive amount of exercises for you to choose from, includes a solid body of evidence to back up the effectiveness of provided exercises, has a means to continue challenging you with exercise progression throughout the duration of your therapy, and provides real-time feedback across all your skills such as speaking, understanding, memory and reading so you know in what areas to continue working.

The most beneficial aphasia apps for adults help patients improve on a variety of skills such as comprehension, speaking, visual processing, understanding, problem solving and more, so you can regain independence, communicate with your loved ones, and improve your quality of life. Many apps available to individuals with aphasia are augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tools that help as communication aides. 

Let’s take a closer look at some of the popular aphasia apps.

Constant Therapy

Constant Therapy is a therapy app with the largest library of (over 500,000) evidence-based therapy exercises for users to engage with on their own or with in-person speech therapy. 

The application was built by clinicians and scientists at Boston University to help users with a broad set of cognitive, speech, and language therapy goals. You can set personalized goals based on what you want to improve on, including skills such as:

• Speaking, reading, writing
• Memory, comprehension, attention
• Problem-solving, analytical reasoning
• And other cognitive & language skills 

Constant Therapy has two apps available on smartphones, tablets, and Chromebooks: one for patients to use at home independently, and one for clinicians to use during in-person speech therapy. A big advantage of this is that your therapy with the clinician can carry-over to your therapy at home, and you continue improvement between therapy sessions, and after discharge on your own. 

Price: $29.99 a month or $299.99 per year.

Pros:

• Constant Therapy offers a free 14-day trial to try it out first. 
• The app tracks your progress and offers real-time feedback on your speaking skills.
• Offers an extensive library with evidence-based therapies that are constantly being updated.
• The exercises automatically advance based on patient performance leading to consistent progress.
• Your clinician can guide your therapy, or you can work on your own.  

Cons: 

• There is no free version after the 14-day trial.
• Needs WiFi / internet

SmallTalk Aphasia 

SmallTalk Aphasia is a free app for aphasia that helps people communicate with others by using the app itself. It comes with a variety of common words and phrases used in day-to-day situations that you can easily tap to speak for you. Videos show the lip and tongue movements needed to make certain words or sounds. SmallTalk Aphasia is available in a female voice and a male voice version. 

Price: Free

Pros: 

• It comes with many pictures or videos that you can tap on to speak for you in everyday conversations with people.
• It is great for people with aphasia and caregivers to communicate effectively together or in a public setting.

Cons:

• SmallTalk Aphasia is only available on the Apple App Store. 

Language Therapy 4-in-1 

Language Therapy 4-in-1  is an aphasia communication app that combines speaking, writing, reading, and listening into one easy-to-use place. It is available for iOS and Android. You can also try their Language Therapy Lite app for a free trial before you buy the whole product. 

Price: $74.99

Pros:

• Purchasing the Language Therapy 4-in-1 saves 25% compared to buying the four apps separately.
• This is a good choice for people without internet access and who want to work on language skills through an app.

Cons:

• It can be overwhelming for some as it doesn’t recommend exercises automatically.
• May require the user to update their app to receive any in-app updates, rather than receiving automatic updates.

Lingraphica’s TalkPath Therapy 

Lingraphica’s TalkPath Therapy is a web-based platform that offers language, speech, and cognitive skill exercises for adults with aphasia. The mobile app is also available for download on the Apple App Store for iPads. Users can work on daily practices online or offline. 

Price: Free

Pros:

• The web-based platform and app are free.
• It offers a playback feature on the iPad to record your mouth position so you can work on proper form. 

Cons:

• The app is not available for Android tablets.
• It doesn’t offer alternative communication.

Proloquo2Go ACC

Proloquo2Go ACC is an excellent app for people with aphasia who can’t talk well on their own. This app offers many of the common words that are needed for everyday living. Proloquo2Go is customizable and includes a type and speaking option to help those with aphasia communicate more personally.

Price: $249.99 one-time cost.

Pros:

• It supports social media access, making it easy to communicate with others on social media.
• The app is relatively easy to customize and edit.

Cons:

• It can be challenging for some to navigate due to the many different categories where words can be.
• It is only available on the Apple App Store and not for Android users.

Try Constant Therapy For Aphasia

Living with aphasia does have its challenges, but thankfully, with the right tools, your quality of life and language skills can improve. 

When searching for the right aphasia apps, it’s important to look for tools that provide extensive libraries of exercises and offer live feedback on your speaking skills to help you get better. Remember that aphasia recovery is a long process, so it’s essential to find tools that can track your progress as you go and help you throughout your recovery journey.

Stroke survivors dealing with hemiparesis or hemiplegia may be able to benefit from some of the same apps. Learn more about hemiparesis and hemiplegia here.

A wide range of apps for aphasia are available, from tools for working with an SLP to fun and challenging tasks for independent use.

If you are looking for an evidence-based app made for persons with aphasia, Constant Therapy offers a unique, personalized experience to help aphasia patients regain cognitive and language abilities. Try it today with a 14-day free trial.