The Prosody Toolkit

The Prosody Toolkit is a new suite of apps designed to help SLPs and their clients evaluate, understand, and address prosody challenges. The Prosody Assessment app is available to download on the app store.  This one-of-a-kind formal assessment of prosody can be administered with 2 iPads in 45 minutes. 

The Prosody Toolkit will consist of 2 separate apps that will allow clinicians and their clients to understand and address the specific prosody challenges they’re facing. 

• The Prosody Assessment tests prosody understanding and expression through a battery of subtests. It compiles the results and pertinent behavioral observations into a printable results page.
• The Prosody Trainer allows you to practice skills related to prosody proficiency with or without a clinician present.

Prosody is the pitch, volume, and tempo of our speech. It complements and guides listeners in their interpretation of a spoken message. People can have problems with understanding prosody, conveying it, or both. These problems can undermine a person’s ability to communicate effectively, or, worse, may lead to social isolation.

A person’s use and understanding of the prosodic elements of speech can be significantly impacted by a number of communication disabilities:  

• Autistic people frequently experience differences from those who are not autistic in how they understand and use elements of speech prosody
• The treatment of prosody has been recommended as a critical in the successful remediation of childhood apraxia of speech.
• Evidence supports addressing the use and/or understanding of prosody in people with Dysarthria, Central Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), and Hearing Loss.