Review by Dana Villamagna, Common Sense Education | Updated January 2013
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Scene Speak

Get it now
  • Download from App Store

Social stories and visual displays connect words and concepts for kids

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • English Language Arts
  • English Language Learning
Skills
  • Communication & Collaboration
  • Critical Thinking
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
Pre-K–5
Great for:
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (1 Review)
Price:  $9.99
Platforms:  iPad

Take a look inside

4 images
Create books for everything from menus and maps to social stories and science flash cards.
While this app is a natural tool for special needs classrooms, it also has uses for all students.
Call kids' attention to specific areas, people, and objects on the screen to highlight those words.
Pre-loaded scenes can be used as is, or edit them to customize to your students' needs.

Pros: You can add your own images and voice recordings or use the pre-loaded pages and images.

Cons: You'll need to read the 32-page tutorial to understand how to make pages and books.

Bottom Line: This useful tool can help kids communicate and learn words in context.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Use this app to customize sequences of images, books, photo albums, flash cards, and more to aid students in developing communication skills, building vocabulary, and understanding social context. The "hotspot" feature can also help kids learn about part-whole relationships. For example, if a kid taps on a hotspot of him- or herself in a class photo and hears the phrase "I am a classmate," (especially if their voice is the recorded voice) that can help make the connection that they are a part of the class. This app can also be used to record students reading stories to practice reading aloud and general speaking skills, and then share them with others who are using the same app. There are so many potential uses for this app that once you master the basics, you can be as creative as you want to be in using it to meet students' individual needs.

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Standards:

Scene Speak is like a create-and-store digital library for photo books, flash cards, diagrams, and more. While used effectively for special needs students, it can also be a helpful tool for all students to connect visuals and audio with vocabulary words. Teachers and parents can make photo books of kids' favorite stories, family photos, vocabulary words, social stories, and more. There's a 32-page tutorial on the app, which most first-time users will need to read. Then use pre-loaded images, upload images from your device's camera or the Internet, add your own voice, a student's voice, or use text-to-voice audio to create pages. Mark "hotspots" on the pages so kids can tap to hear and see the word associated with the object in that section of the page. Scene Speak's Visual Screen Display (VSD) Library comes with pre-made pages of a park, child's bedroom, doctor's office, and more. Tap on one, and the page opens to reveal items inside that room or details of a diagram. Tap on My Books and "edit mode" to create a book or VSD. You can also edit existing VSD pages and add audio.

While not intuitive on the creating (Edit Mode) side, the Play Mode in Scene Speak is very easy to use. It can be a useful tool for creating flash cards, pages, and books to help kids learn vocabulary, context, and self-expression. Kids can also practice naming, listening, and speaking, especially if they are prompted to repeat the words they hear or to record some of the pages themselves. It would be nice to see more on-screen prompts or a video tutorial, rather than wading through such a long written help section. Still, with a bit of patience, Scene Speak can become a go-to tool to create books and pages to help your students practice communicating or learn vocabulary, social stories, and more.

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Kids can record their own voices or hear a parent or teacher's voice recording rather than using prerecorded text-to-voice. Adding personalized images to the pre-loaded scenes can also increase engagement.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

By viewing and listening to information about the scenes and social stories, kids learn vocabulary in context. The "hot spot" feature is particularly helpful in highlighting details of a page for kids to tap and hear specific words.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Reading the 32-page tutorial is essential to fully understand how to use Scene Speak most effectively. It would be nice to see more on-screen prompts or a video tutorial, rather than wading through such a long written help section.

Common Sense Reviewer
Dana Villamagna Classroom teacher
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Speaking & Listening

  • SL.1.2

    Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

  • SL.1.3

    Ask and answer questions about what a speaker says in order to gather additional information or clarify something that is not understood.

  • SL.1.4

    Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.

  • SL.1.5

    Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

  • SL.2.2

    Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

  • SL.2.4

    Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

  • SL.2.6

    Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.

  • SL.3.2

    Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

  • SL.3.4

    Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

  • SL.3.6

    Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.

  • SL.4.2

    Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

  • SL.4.4

    Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

  • SL.5.2

    Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.

  • SL.5.6

    Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, using formal English when appropriate to task and situation.

  • SL.K.2

    Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.

  • SL.K.4

    Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.

  • SL.K.5

    Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

  • SL.K.6

    Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

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Teacher Reviews

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Featured review by
Karyn W. , Other
Other
Orion Alternative School
Redwood City, United States
Lots of possibilities, but cumbersome to use as a creation tool.
I think this could be a powerful tool for teaching ELLs, but I have concerns about the ease of use for my elementary students. The play mode is simple to use, but the real rigor of the tool lies in its creation (edit) mode. I had to read the lengthy user manual to understand how to use the app. This app needs more intuitive navigation tools to make it more easily usable by younger children.
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