Percentally

SLPs and teachers of all sorts are increasingly using data-driven interventions and formative assessments that help us figure out what to do next.  Also, whether in public school or private settings, we are addressing specific goals and reporting progress though data collected during sessions.  I must confess this has never been a particular strength of mine, and I work toward new organizational systems all the time--the problem being that this piece of paper or that post-it on which I took a cue tally might have just disappeared into some netherworld.  Percentally is an iPhone/iPod Touch app that provides a great solution to these challenges by allowing you to store all this data electronically, without being tied to a cumbersome laptop (or desktop!) during your sessions.  Percentally was designed by Jason Rinn and SLP (and SpeechTechie reader) Eric Sailers, and is available on the iTunes store at the extreme bargain price of $2.99!  Here are some screenshots that show how it works.

The opening screen of the app allows you to add folders for groups, activities, or whatever works for you.  I created some mock folders for a 5th grade group and a client with whom I use Lindamood-Bell's Talkies program.

I am really big on "level of cues" type of goals- it's often pretty impossible to work in a larger context or functional academic task and use percentages (but Percentally obviously does that too- see below).  Once you set up your tallies, all you need to do is tap the space you are tracking during the task, and a cue is tallied.  How cool is that??

Here you can see how this would work in a percent-accurate kind of tally.  But, wait, we're not done...what good is all this data as stored in your iPhone?  Well, you can export by sending it to email or your Google Docs (brilliantbrilliantbrilliant).

Take a look at two exported spreadsheets I created here and here.

I highly recommend you try Percentally on your iPhone or iPod.  And if you don't have one, get one!!  Don't miss that Apple sells a refurbished iPod Touch for cheap, and that if you do any private work, it's likely that you could write such equipment off...