Teaching Past Tense with a Dynamic app: Tense Builder

Teaching past tense verbs is crucial for children’s language development as it enhances their ability to express events that have already happened. Mastering past tense forms allows children to convey stories and experiences more accurately, improving both their narrative skills and overall communication. The Tense Builder app by the Mobile Education Store offers an engaging platform to practice these skills with its interactive features and customizable settings. By incorporating such tools into therapy sessions, speech-language pathologists can effectively reinforce past tense concepts in a dynamic and enjoyable way, ensuring lasting language proficiency.

With two levels of play, short video clips, and a variety of settings, this app will surely please any crowd. This app has been on my iPad since its release in 2012 and I still use it for teaching verb tenses twelve years later! For those who have not seen it before, let me show you the settings and two levels of play.

Settings Screen

The following features can be switched on or off:

• Audio Instructions: select to play the same direction on each screen.
• Answer Reinforcement: a naturally sounding voice repeats the correct sentence.
• Record Correct Answer: clients work on their own expressive skills and gain auditory feedback by recording their voice reading the accurate sentence. Also a great option to work on articulation of sounds at the sentence level. My young examiners LOVED this feature!

Teaching Past Tense with Varying Play Levels

Level 1: clients match a sentence to the correct picture in a field of three. First, you hit the “Play Video” button and then watch a short clip. The clips are really fun and they contain sound effects that delighted my clients! Next, you will see one of the scenes from the movie. Last, you tap the correct picture answer.

Level 2: clients must drag the correct verb tense to complete the sentence. You can select future, present, past, or all verb tenses for either level. Again, you must first watch an animated video. While the videos only use sound effects, you may see some word bubbles above characters.

In this level, the word choice you select is said aloud as you begin to drag the word or word phrase to the top of the page to complete the sentence. I especially like this feature because it allows clients self correct errors. You can also set how many choices you want to display. This way, you can start at an easy level with three choices and increase the challenge gradually to as many as seven choices.

Tense: select future/ present/ past/ all

Regular/ Irregular Verbs/ All: select one or both for a mixed play

Lesson Style: chose between a “long” or “short” lesson. Should you hit the “Play lesson” on a picture screen, you will get a lesson about the verb target. Regardless of which type of lesson you chose, short or long, you will see a visual demonstration with verbal instructions. Yet another, great feature!

Enhancing Language Skills: Teaching Past Tense with Interactive Tools

Mastering past tense verbs is a crucial milestone in language development, and tools like the Tense Builder app can make learning engaging and effective. By incorporating interactive features and customizable settings, this app not only enhances understanding but also keeps children motivated to practice and succeed. Whether used at home or in therapy sessions, the Tense Builder app remains a valuable resource for teaching verb tenses, ensuring that children can confidently express themselves in both spoken and written language

I hope that you get a chance to try this app at home!  At $9.99, it’s an affordable and interactive option for teaching verb tenses. This gem made it to my top 10 list of favorite apps.