Why did we make React 2?

Above (left to right): Patricia Mitchell (lead clinician), Louise Runciman , Debbie Allcock - NHS Borders speech and langauge therapy team.

Having successfully written the content for the first version of React back in 1997-8, we never thought we would do it all over again 9 years later! In many ways we were surprised, but pleased, that therapists and patients were still using the original version, as technology has moved on at quite a pace since React 1.

Those of us who wrote the original therapy program were well aware that we would have done things differently, had we been starting all over again. Although people were finding the program useful and enjoyable, we knew it could be better!

We had received good feedback from all over the world, particularly from therapists who were using React with users in several patient/client groups. As a result of this feedback and discussion between the SLT department of NHS Borders and Propeller Multimedia, we decided to do a little ‘tweaking’ of the original programme – for 2 main reasons:

We wanted to make sure that the level of complexity within a task did not change half way through an exercise!

Although React 1 was originally intended for adults with aphasia, it had quickly become clear that therapists were using it successfully with children and also adults with learning disabilities. So we decided to change all the vocabulary and images to cater for these other client groups in the early levels of each exercise!

To make both these changes ended up as more than “a little tweak”! It resulted in many hours of re-writing the entire program, incorporating many more tasks and exercises, then re-grouping them into slightly different sections from React 1.

We have included all the tasks that were in React 1 in sections 1-4. But some – such as ‘money’ and ‘time’ – have been moved into a new section called “life skills”. Most of the content for this section has now been written by the SLTs but it will now be released as a separate module at a later date. This particular section will be very suitable for people on the autistic spectrum as we will be including a large number of exercises on pragmatics while the tasks for functional reading will be of particular interest to therapists working with adults with learning disabilities – so watch this space for news of the release of ‘life skills’. It is possible that, even after it is released, this section will grow as therapists provide us with suggestions for new tasks and ideas.

We are pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Propeller once again, especially as the new IT technology has made it the end result a much more exciting program!

We hope you enjoy using React 2, and would welcome any feedback on the program!

Sincerely, Patricia Mitchell . SLT. Lead Clinician , NHS Borders

LIKE A 30 DAY TRIAL OF REACT2? Click here