Naming Nouns and Actions

To kick things off for the Speech Production category, I will cover not just one, but two tasks in this first post! These tasks are Naming, Nouns and Naming, Actions.

As you can guess from the names, one of the tasks contains images for eliciting noun responses and the other ups the stakes by introducing images that show an action. I will save the discussion of the images themselves for a separate post. (That one will be a fun one. Plenty of stories behind the real life images in SanapsisPro!)

Technically these two Naming tasks are very similar. The tasks are the familiar speech therapy flashcard-type tasks. This is propably the first task format you think of when thinking about speech therapy.

In SanapsisPro you can use the Settings to filter the images by category.  You can also choose how many images (1–4) are shown on screen at a time. When you launch the exercise, you see the image(s), and swipe forward or back to go through the images. So simple, so useful and so versatile.

But hey, wait a minute! When you tap an image, it disappears. When you tap the screen again, the image comes back. This seems a bit odd. Why does the image disappear? Seems like something that should be fixed! Or… hmm… is it maybe surprisingly clever? A feature, not a bug? Well, I like to think it is surprisingly clever (as I designed it, hah).

This feature allows you to work on delayed naming or repetition. Ask your patient to name or repeat the object in the image. Then tap the image and ask them to tell you what is hiding behind that black screen.

When I have multiple images on screen I sometimes get my patients to go the extra mile by asking them to:

1. Memorise the items on screen

2. Close their eyes (as I hide one of more of images on screen) and

3. Tell me which one is missing.
   =>  Instant, playful fun featuring memory and naming challenges!

This can work well in group settings too. You can have patients team up for the memory challenge!

You can also change the task up by taking turns to add an element of reciprocal communication. Images are easy to hide and reveal for the patient, and having them quiz you can be a fun challenge. This can target many goals, such as taking a leading role in the exchange, practising memory and attention, and listening and verifying your answers.

With over 500 images in Naming, Nouns and more than 300 real-life action images in Naming, Actions, there is plenty of material to keep your sessions fresh and engaging for a long time. Hope you have fun mixing up the familiar Naming task!

New update - Speech Production category

Happy to announce that the Speech Production category update is live!

Head over to the App Store to download the latest version of SanapsisPro and access the new content. As always, all materials are included for all users at no extra cost.

Moving on to our next category - Speech Production

Speech Production category tasks are designed to support and activate speech production during speech and language therapy. Exercises range from simple naming tasks to more complex tasks that require higher-level cognitive and linguistic processing. In this update, we have expanded the content in some of the old favorites and trimmed down others for clarity. All exercises include improved task instructions and tips on how to simplify or increase the difficulty level, or where to go next. All aimed at providing a well-curated and streamlined user experience.

The Speech Production category includes exercises:

• Naming (noun)

• Naming (action)

• I Want to…

• Build a Question

• Precise Sentence

• Descriptive Sentence

• Give Instructions

• Retell a Story

If you miss the old favorite, Organize a Sentence, you can find it in the Reading section. The task Create a Sentence Around Words has, however, retired. If you would like it to return in the next update, drop me a line!

In the coming weeks, I will share a closer look at each of these exercises. I hope these tasks, materials, and instructions offer an inspiring starting point for you and your clients.

On that note, I would love to hear how you use SanapsisPro in your clinical work! Please drop me a line anytime via email via the link on the upper right hand corner. After all, the strength of Sanapsis is that you and your clients can be as creative as you like, with just a little structure and support help from us.

Next up: Synopsis (and a fun fact about the name Sanapsis)

Synopsis is the last, but not least, task of the Reading exercises before moving on to the Speech Production category tasks.

So, what is a synopsis? Generally, it is defined as a brief summary of a chain of events, like an outline of the plot of a book, play, or movie. You can often elicit a synopsis by simply asking, “In a nutshell, what happens in the story?” Now, while this is a familiar concept and a task for writing a synopsis might seem straightforward, creating a synopsis is not for the faint of heart!

Building a synopsis requires identifying key information and finding connections between events. We need to identify and prioritize essential content while omitting information and details that are not essential for the big picture.

Once this is done and we have a plan in place, we turn to our linguistic planning and execution skills and begin formulating a logical, informative narrative. This places substantial demands on memory, attention, and reasoning, as well as the executive functions that support language planning and expression.

Sounds like a great task for a speech therapy session!

When you open Synopsis on your iPad, a story appears on screen. Ask the patient to read it and write a summary of the story on paper, i.e., create a synopsis. Guide the patient to take notes or create a mind map while reading, to support forming a coherent overview. You can hide the text by tapping the screen and bring it back by tapping again.

Synopsis has two levels reflecting two text styles. Level 1 has stories about people in everyday situations. In the example on the left, Minna and Matti are paying a visit to the museum.

Level 2 consists of factual texts similar to short magazine articles. Here the text talks about the (super fun!) play The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie.

With some clients, you can even turn level 2 type tasks into an ongoing activity: the client selects a short article they find interesting and prepares a synopsis to present at the following session. A great way to incorporate the client’s interests into therapy.

Synopsis tasks bring essential reading and communication skills into one focused activity. Zeroing in on what matters, linking events, and capturing the main idea in a few words strengthens both understanding and real-life functional communication.

This time I will leave you with a fun fact: We named Sanapsis after this task! Sanapsis is a play on the word sana (Finnish for “word”) and the word synopsis. Building a cohesive outline while leaving room for the reader (user) to fulfil the plot with their own expertise seems like the perfect reflection of the core idea behind the app. Synopsis as a task is also a stellar, super versatile workhorse, just like SanapsisPro!

Next up — Speech Production category 🤩

First task of 2026 - Write a Sentence

Let’s start the new year with a surprisingly complex and versatile task from our Writing category: Write a Sentence.

In this exercise you show a picture to your client and ask them to come up with and write down a sentence based on that image. This is a very open-ended task. While the image provides some context, there’s still quite a bit of thinking to do before we even get to think about writing.

First, your client needs to decide what to focus on in their single sentence.

If I were to talk about this sample image freely, I might say: It looks like springtime in a city that has with a river running through it. There are big trees with pink flowers, and a red boat on the river. I don’t see any people walking, even though it looks like a lovely day. If I lived in that city, I think I’d enjoy a walk along the riverside on a day like that. Looks like it might be a bit cold though.

For the writing task, the client needs sift through all of the visual information and make a plan: What do I see? What do I want to say? What information do I focus on? What information do I leave out? What can I say in one sentence? How do I find and organize the words to convey what I want to say? That is wide range of cognitive and language skills at play.

It can be beneficial to give a few example sentences to get started. Some example sentences from our image could be:

• It is springtime and the trees are blooming.

• The trees have pink flowers on them.

• A big red boat is moored at the riverside.

• It is a sunny day in the city.

You can use the examples as a starting point for a collaborative brainstorming session. These are some of the things I see. Are they the same or different things that stand out to you? What would you like to focus on? Some clients can benefit from choosing a sentence from examples you provide to get started. After completing a few tasks like this, they might be ready to come up with a concept and a sentence independently.

The next, step, physically writing a sentence, calls for coordination of several executive processes at once. These include holding the idea in working memory, finding correct content words, planning the sequence of words, monitoring accuracy, and adjusting along the way. What looks like a simple act of “writing a sentence” is, in fact, a rich exercise in goal-directed behavior that draws on planning, organization, self-monitoring, and cognitive flexibility.

Also note that when you bring up the keyboard, it covers most of the picture as you see here.

That means the client needs to keep the image in mind while writing. This adds a small but important challenge of encaging visual memory and mental representation.

Adjusting the Difficulty

You can easily tailor this task to different goals:

– Support the planning process. Ask your client to talk about the picture first and jot down notes. Use these notes to guide the idea selection word finding. For example: Which aspect you would like to focus on: the weather, the trees or the boat? Then prompt for detail: What would you like to say about the boat? Is it big or small? What color is it?

- Set restrictions. For example, limit the sentence length: Your sentence can’t have more than four words.

– Prompt specific vocabulary. For example: Can you include the word spring?

There are 140 images in this exercise. When you open the task, 15 are randomly selected for you to choose from by swiping back and forth. No restictions of forced task sequence or rigid right answers, but space and flexibility to engage in meaningful, reciprocal work.