No feedback?
Nana Lehtinen
We have had a lot of questions about why Sanapsis gives no feedback to patients, such as a reward sound or green color when you get the task right and a horn or red color when you make a mistake. We are so happy when people ask that question because this is actually one of the key features in Sanapsis!
Sanapsis only records the answers that the patient gives. For example:
Listen to a story
The therapist reads the story displayed to the patient using a normal speech rate. After listening to the story, the patient is asked to determine what the topic of the text was. Each question has three choices, and the patient taps one of the answers to select it.
When tapping the text, the answer changes its color to orange. It does not matter if the answer is right or wrong. Why? Because now you, as the skilled professional, can use this task to target many different goals instead of just what the developers had in mind!
Usually I like to do 3 or 4 stories and then go back and confirm if the answers were right or wrong. While the app does not tell the patient if the answer they chose the first time was right or wrong, I get to have them evaluate their own performance with me. I often ask the patient to verify the answers while helping them find the keywords on which to base their evaluation. It’s a great way to increase self-awareness and self-assessment in patients!
For those patients who need lower level tasks I especially enjoy this “no feedback” feature in:
Word and picture.
Sanapsis shows you one word and 2-4 pictures to which you match the word. Tapping a picture frames it with orange.
Again, Sanapsis accepts all answers that the patient gives whether correct or not. Now you, as a therapist, get to work with your patient to determine if the answer is correct! You can use this as a word-level reading task and have the patient work by themselves for a while. Then go through the tasks together after completion (yes, you can move back and forward between the completed tasks without losing data). Or, you can use this as a word-level comprehension task, where you read the word to your patient in your own voice and at your own pace, give feedback and learn from them. All without the anxiety of a buzzer going off if you touch the wrong picture and never actually knowing why it went off.
With Sanapsis you, as the therapist, determinate the pace and manner in which to work with your patient. As we know, some patients are faster, some need more time and repetition and this is all possible with an app that gives you the power of control.