SlowTunes: 5 different ways to use this app

SlowTunes is a simple music player for iPhone and iPod Touch that lets you slow down your favorite songs without changing the pitch

Brian Stokes wrote SlowTunes for his daughter, who was diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech when she was two years old. She loved the “Time to Sing!” CD, but they all got sick of it after about a million plays. Now she can listen to her favorite songs on the iPhone at her own pace.

In addition to children who have difficulty with the motor aspect of singing songs, SlowTunes has a number of other benefits.

1. Phonological Development

Learning songs and rhymes is such an important part of early phonological development. I often find that the children who have difficulty developing early phonological skills are great at faking the words to common songs and nursery rhymes. This is because they find it difficult to separate the words from each other and identify the rhyme, which ultimately makes it easier to learn the words. SlowTunes will enable children to hear each word more clearly and pick out the words from the melody.

2. Stuttering

Singing enhances fluency in stutterers. The fluency derived by singing has been attributed to a reduced speech rate, memorized material, semantically reduced content, and an imposed rhythm. SlowTunes is a great way to increase confidence in non-fluent speakers.

3. Reading Fluency

Reading the lyrics of songs with the music will promote fluency and familiarity with sight words. What a great way to promote reading in struggling readers.

4. Foreign Language Learning

Recent research has shown that singing in a foreign language can improve a person’s ability to learn that language. SlowTunes will allow you to slow down the song to allow you to hear the words more clearly and learn the language more easily.

Brian provided me with a copy of this app to give away, but I decided that there was a special little girl who would really benefit from this. Her name is Caitlin. She has Cerebral Palsy and sings like an angel!