About this
time each year, I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out some new and
exciting way to work my student’s artic goals.
I mean…. I love my articulation
decks as much as the next SLP, but there are only so many ways to use them
without guaranteed boredom ensuing. This
is especially true for my older artic kids!
Specifically, those kiddos who are working on generalizing their speech
sound productions into their connected speech.
….enter Multiple
Choice Articulation, by Erik X. Raj.
This is a fun, easy to use app that had my kids and I laughing while
still targeting those sometimes elusive /s, z, r, l, sh, ch, and th/
phonemes. For each of these phonemes,
you get to choose their word position:
initial, final, medial and blends.
Over 500 multiple choice questions in all!
Once you choose
your sound and word position, you are lead immediately into the question and
“answer” format of the app. There are a
multitude of questions ranging anywhere from guitar players to scuba divers to
crying bear cubs to ear wax. Yup! He covered all the bases. My students loved the silly questions, of
course! I really never thought I’d be
discussing eating ear wax during a therapy session, but my kids were waaaay
into it!
The general
layout for each question page remains the same.
There are 2 buttons, back and next, at the top of the screen to navigate
through the questions easily (perhaps you don’t want to talk about having green
pimples today). At the bottom of the
screen, there are 2 options: “Hear the
Question” and “Hear an Answer.” “Hear
the question,” simply reads the question out loud for your students. While the “Hear the answer” button has Erik
explaining why he chose a particular answer to the question. Bonus!
His pronunciation is very clear and precise, emphasizing the target
sound carefully - just the way a good SLP would. Beyond that, his answers are expressive and
funny. My kids got a kick out of that!
Here's the bottom line...
Pro’s:
- Engaging
and fun for everyone! My kids loved
hearing the silly questions, and coming up with even more crazy
explanations for their choices.
- Speaking
of crazy explanations – hello, expressive language! Yup, my kiddos were all too eager to
give reasons and details in their answers.
Some kids were even trying to persuade other kids into choosing
their answer. I had some very
talkative sessions…. J
- Simple
layout and app design makes it a cinch to use! Just download and go. Who doesn’t love that!
- I
loved the option of listening to the questions read out loud. Sometimes my student’s like to hear
someone other than me, I think.
Great for non readers as well, as we preferred to pass around the
iPad to each group member for their turn.
Idea’s for future app updates:
·
I would love for students to have the option of
recording their own responses and being able to play them back to rate their
success with their sounds.
·
Some pictures to accompany the questions might
be fun and add visual interest to the app.
·
Data tracking is always useful.
Thank you very much to Erik X. Raj, SLP for letting me
review this fun app. I sincerely
apologize to him for the extended amount of time it took to actually get a
review posted, but alas, IEP season is in full swing here in my district. L
Additional thanks to Carrie, who is, as usual, a generous
and creative co-worker!
While the app was provided to me in exchange for my review,
the thoughts and ideas expressed are my own.
~Stephanie
