Category: I love technology

A few months ago,  I began following Heidi Hanks’ blog, Mommy Speech Therapy.  Heidi is a Speech Language Pathologist and mom of four (including her own five-year-old Sophie! We have so much in common:) ).  Last year she started slowing down on blogging to start her own company, Little Bee Speech, and work on developing a speech therapy app for the iPad, Articulation Station.  I eagerly awaited the debut of this app because I knew it was going to be great.  I downloaded it right away, but since Sophie was only going to need to work on one or two sounds, I contacted Heidi about doing a review of the full version to share with you, so I could check out how all the sounds and blends worked within the app.

And. It is. AMAZING.  If your child has any articulation issues at all, you need to get this!!  The app is free to download, then you can purchase what sounds your child needs to work on, for $2.99-$5.99 depending on the sound.  And this month, until March 31st, all the sounds are 40% off!  SUCH A GREAT DEAL!  I cannot even tell you how worth every penny these sounds are.  Sophie and I have been working on the “L” and the “Th” sounds.  Because her delays were mostly language rather than speech (i.e. she was easy to understand, articulation was pretty good, but she had trouble conversing, and answering questions), articulation was the very last thing she worked on before getting discharged from speech.  We use Articulation Station at home because it is FUN and it’s keeping her polished, and helps her remember the good new speech habits she has formed.

Here’s what’s great about Articulation Station:

• A fun variety of activities: beautiful picture flashcards, great matching game, fun sentences and stories
• Very interactive- the child can operate the activities
• SO many options – for each sound you can choose whether to work on the sounds at the beginning, end, or middle of the word
• Easy to track and save results
• The child can record and play back his or her voice to hear how they are pronouncing sounds
• This app works in groups of up to six, so it’s awesome for use in schools

I feel like my description is not doing this app justice; it really could not be any more brilliant.  It’s BRILLIANT!  And fun, easy-to-use, and gets results.  Sophie and I love it.  With all the flashcards, matching games, sound options, and stories and sentences, there is always something new to play and learn every time we open the app. She will even open it up and play on her own.  It’s awesome!

Here’s a short video of Sophie demonstrating one of my favorite features of this app, the “rotating sentences” – with a touch of a button the child can change one of the key words in a sentence.  It’s such a fun feature!  Here, Sophie is working on the “th” sound in the middle of the keywords, i.e. “author”.  Enjoy!

Again, I HIGHLY recommend this app! Any of the sounds you buy will be worth every penny and then some!

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Little Bee Speech allowed me to try the full version of Articulation Station for free.  All opinions about the app are my own.  

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I absolutely love all the speech therapy apps I’ve used by Mobile Education Store, and their newest one, Rainbow Sentences,  is no less impressive.  This iPad app is great for speech therapy, but I’d say it’s really a grammar app – great for any student who is just having trouble in English class with the who, what, when, where, and why of sentences.

Rainbow Sentences has 165 fun photos to create sentences from.  The words of a corresponding sentence are below the photo.  The words are color-coded b those that go together; the blanks that the words go in are color-coded as well, but you can turn these color hints on and off to change the level of complexity and make the activity easier or harder for your kiddo.  As a matter of fact, there are six different levels you can work on or progress to.n I adore the fact that it is so customizable for use with lots of different students, and easy to change when a child is ready to move up a level of difficulty. As just a parent, not a teacher or therapist, this app is very easy to use and facilitate, which I love!  The tutorials are quick & helpful.

Another fun thing I love about this app is that after you get so many correct responses, you get to unlock a puzzle piece on a picture – great motivation to get lots of answers right so you can figure out what the mystery picture is!

I have Sophie look at the picture and tell me what’ s happening in the picture before she starts putting the words in the correct order to form a sentence.  Then, she goes for it.  After she’s done, she can record the sentence and play it back to hear herself. I love this feature!  Helps work on her articulation, and she’s hearing herself say a sentence the way it was meant to be said.

Here’s a short video of Sophie playing on her own:

I highly recommend this app for speech, grammar help, or homeschool! I bet it’s helpful for learning English as a second language, too, although since I have no experience with that, that’s just an “educated guess”.

Go buy it on iTunes or the app store! It’s well worth the $7.99.

Thanks, Mobile Education Store, for letting Sophie and I review this app. Great work once again!