Articulation Test Center App Review

 

Discovering new, effective, and efficient ways to administer articulation assessments and screeners is something I'm always interested in.  So I was excited when given the opportunity to review Little Bee Speech: Articulation Test Center.

Little Bee Speech provided me with a free copy of the app; however, all opinions expressed in this review are mine. 

Here is the home screen of the app.  On the home screen, you have the option to chose the Screener test or the Full Test.

Let's look at the Screener option first.  When you choose Screener, you next select the age of the student being screened.  When you click on the age, a tab appears that shows the shows tested in this Screener test.

Next, you will put in the information for the student.  When done inputting student information, you student will be listed in Students Being Tested.  Select the student to test and Begin Test.

Bright, realistic pictures present each word being screened.  Tap on the picture for a sentence included a model of the word.  Target sounds are illustrated with a green square.  If the student correct articulates the target sound, swipe right to the next stimulus.  If the student incorrectly articulates the target sound, simply tap on the green square once, and it will turn red.  Tap again and the square will turn yellow indicating a close approximation of the sound.  There is also a drag down box allowing for recording of sound substitutions.  Another great feature is that you can record the student's product of the word in order to review production and allow for more accurate scoring.  My students found the recording option to be distracting, but it is a great idea and definitely worth a try.

The SUCCESS visual will appear when the screener is complete!  My students loved this did a little celebration dance :)

Once finished administering the screener, you have the opportunity to evaluate the student's intelligibility.

Then, click on the student's name to review results.  In the results section, you can review words tested, errors marked and the position in the words, sample report, and recommendations for sounds to target for therapy.

Now let's look at the Full Test!  Once you choose Full Test, you will be given the option to assess initial sounds, medial sounds, final sounds, initial blends, vowels, r sounds, speech sample, and full test.  This is great to give options to more specifically target areas of concerns or to gain more overall information from the full test.

The format and function of the Full Test works the same as the screener (mentioned above).  With the Full Test, you have the option to add a speech sample which is amazing!  I love speech samples!

With the Speech Sample option, the student is given three different picture scenes to engage with.  The picture scene has background sounds that can be turned on or off, interactive pictures with questions.  The best part of this feature is that the speech sample can be recorded right there in the app!   When you review the Speech Sample in the results section, you can play back the recording and adjust intelligibility rating and you can transcribe the speech sample.  ALL within the app!

Overall thoughts with Articulation Test Center

I am really excited to add this app to my assessment repertoire!  One question I had was if this was a standardized assessment?  After reviewing the product information on their Apple App Store Page  , I found my question answered.  This is not a standardized assessment.  It has been designed to be used as a supplemental assessment in conjunction with standardized assessments.  While I would love to have found that the Full Test was standardized, there are many positives to using this app as a supplemental assessment.  From my experience, this will be most beneficial for:

-Completing articulation screenings

-Completing screenings and assessments on students who require instant feedback
-Looking further into articulation errors

-Adding speech and language samples to assessments!!

I most appreciate:
-The realistic pictures
-The speech sample section
-The analysis of sound errors and pattern errors
-Suggestion sounds to focus therapy on
-Sample report to use as a template
-The SUCCESS picture...my students really loved that!

Articulation Test Center currently sells for $49.99 and can be purchased through the App Store https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/articulation-test-center/id700440156?mt=8

Interested in adding Articulation Test Center to your assessment repertoire?  Do you love Articulation State Pro, but have been waiting for a sale??  Wait no longer, Articulation Test Center and Articulation Station Pro are on sale August 12-14.  These two apps will be 30% off as part of Little Bee Speech's back to school sale!!

For more information and helpful hints on the products, check out these tutorials.  I reviewed them and found them very user friendly and informative.

Articulation Test Center Tutorial videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9pVP35u9FQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiezkVEmdak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOYAJRY7KXU

Keeping Up With The Kimochis...training opportunities

Some of you have who been following my blog know that I incorporate a social emotional language development program called Kimochis into my social language interventions.  (Kimochi-what? Have no idea what I am talking about?! Check out my previous posts: Keeping Up With The Kimochis and Keeping Up With The Kimochis and Valentine's Day...a perfect match)

After my previous posts, I received many questions about training opportunities and fees.  I asked the wonderful ladies of Kimochis and they shared their summer training opportunities.  If you have any questions or would like to register, please contact:

megan@kimochis.com

* I am not paid by Kimochis.  I see the benefit in their products and endorse them freely and honestly from my personal/professional experience.

Two materials...11 speech groups

Sometimes I make weird challenges for myself.  This weird challenge turned into an enlightening experiment.  With this being my first year in an elementary setting, I do not have many materials to work with for therapy.  I have slowly accumulated, made, borrowed, etc., but like any SLP, I'm always looking for more :)

One of my professors in grad school used to say that we should be skilled enough SLPs that we could hold a meaningful speech and language therapy session with a shoe as our only therapy material (shout out Dr. Ritzman).  That has stuck with me, and I take that as a challenge.  While all the materials, games, books, cards are fun, they are not necessary.  So...I challenged myself to use one deck of articulation cards with pictures and the Monkeying Around game with 11 of my speech groups.  It was a blast!  Let me share my experience:

1.  I picked a deck of articulation cards...no specific articulation sounds or language skills in mind.  I did this to encourage my students to think a bit harder and work a bit harder to use their speech sounds with the deck I picked.  For example, a student working on /r/ given the picture of "glue" needed to think of descriptive qualities of glue in order to use their target sound of /r/..."really sticky".  For my students working on language goals, they used the picture to shape their sentences or descriptions, etc.

2.  I picked a game that does not require a lot of time or directions.  Monkeying Around is easy because students are given a monkey for responding to the target question.  Students LOVE this game.

3.  Once the student got into the groove of the game, I challenged them to work even more efficiently and produce quicker sentences while still maintaining good quality.  I also remind them, "Make sure to do your work with intention"

Conversation Jenga

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