APPy Wednesday! I hope you all are having a great day! I am so sad that the birthday celebration is over. I hope you all enjoyed the giveaways.... especially those of you that won!! One of the apps I had up for grabs was Articulation Test Center by Little Bee Speech. If you were not my winner, I still have good news for you! This app and Articulation Station Pro is 30% off right now because LBS is throwing a Back-2-School sale!! You can get these apps for only $35 right now! Woo hoo! This is an amazing app. As I was reviewing this app, one word continuously went through my head. Thorough! Check out some more info about the app below!
Little Bee Speech did provide me with a copy of this app, however, all opinions expressed are mine.
When you open up the app, you are brought to the main page where you can choose to access the screener or the full test.
If you click on screener, you are then prompted to choose the age of the child you are assessing. The child's age will determine the sound targets and how many stimulus cards will be presented .
If you go into the full test, you are able to choose exactly what you want to assess. The entire test includes: initial sounds, medial sounds, final sounds, initial blends, vowels, /r/ sounds, and a speech sample.
After you choose what you are going to assess, you are prompted to create a profile for the child being tested.
When the test begins, the child is prompted with a picture and sound tiles at the top. If you do not want the child to see a picture, you can change that in the settings. There is also an option to record the child's response.
The letter tiles at the top identify what sounds are being targeted in each word. If a child produces a sound wrong, tap on it once. The letter tile will become red meaning the sound was in error. If you tap it twice, the tile becomes yellow, meaning the sound was approximated. If you swipe the tile up, it the sound disappears meaning it was omitted. Now I said before that this app is incredibly thorough. Check this out... if you tap the downward arrow on the right side of the word, a box will drop down. This will allow you to specify what sound was substituted and/or what phonological process was exhibited. I. LOVE. THIS!
At the end, the adorable little bee pops up to show your student he/she has completed the test! (My students know that they are not finished until they see the bee when we are using Articulation Station!)
Another amazing feature of this app is that it gives you the option to record a speech sample. I know we have all experienced the chatter bugs that just can't tell us enough about their favorite episode of The Fresh Beat Band. Those are dreams come true for speech samples. But I know that we have also experienced those kiddos that wont give us much more than a yes/no or shrug of the shoulders when we are trying our hardest to elicit language. This app has a great aid for getting speech samples!
Before the speech sample portion of the test begins, you are prompted to choose a scene: Mountain Adventure, Beach Day, or Fun at the Park! These colorful, action packed pictures give you and the child you are testing something to talk about. Even more, if you click on part of the picture, you are prompted with questions to ask the child. I LOVE THIS!
When you are finished, you are able to rate the child's intelligibility. Last but not least, you are given a student score sheet once the test or screener is completed. The score sheet is divided into categories: words tested, errors marked, speech sample, report (yes it writes up a report!), and recommendations based on testing information. Have I said the word thorough yet?
Seriously, this is an amazing app. The only recommendation I have for app is to make it standardized. Now I am sure that is not an easy thing to do, but in my school district here in Florida (as well as the insurance companies we bill) standard scores have to be reported to qualify students for services. I would love to use this app to qualify students for services. Other than that, I really cannot complain about this app. In fact, I can only rave about this app and all it has to offer. I love the fact that it is an easy to carry app, not a bulky bag of testing materials. You can learn so much information about a child's speech from this testing center.
To watch a video tutorial, learn more, or download a copy of this app click here!
Don't forget that this app and Articulation Station is on sale August 12-14!
