This app does so much regarding speech therapy that it should probably be a certified speech pathologist itself. It takes the load off the therapist (or parent) and does everything for you.
Bring the Kids!
Add children to Articulation Station. It’s quick and easy, and it’s a must if you want to track data. You can add children after a session if you wish, but sooner or later you’ll need to do it. And when you do, you can add their name, gender, birth date, picture and more. But only their first names are required.
From what I can see this app includes all consonant sounds in the English language and that includes many blends. No vowel sounds are included.
Pick which phoneme (sound) you want to work on. Next choose words, sentences or stories. If you choose words you further choose either flashcards or matching. If you choose sentences you further choose rotating or unique. And if you choose stories you pick between levels 1 and 2. After you make those decisions you pick where you want the sound to appear – initial, medial or final. You can mix and match if you want. You can also edit the words list if you want to drill down and only work on specific words.
Stories mode pulls double duty by asking questions. Comprehension, baby!
The artwork used throughout this app is professional. Shoot, the whole app is professionally done top to bottom!
Screenshots
Articulation Station gives you lots of options. It’s like picking toppings for a pizza! You can toggle on/off scoring buttons, scoring sounds, scoring approximation, record button, voice audio, matching delay, sort by syllables and passing at 90%. And, of course, you can add your own images along with the correct recording, number of syllables, and put your new word/picture card into the appropriate sound category.
This app’s data tracking interface is quite sophisticated. It tracks everything you could want to track and it even allows you to arrange the data however you want. You can easily figure out which date what sounds in what positions were worked on and which mode of play was used. What was the score? 8 out of 10. Percentage? 80%. A check mark is present if that score was considered passing. And you can decide whether you want 80% or 90% to be called passing. Touch that line of data and it takes you deeper yet, even tracking specifically which words were worked on and saving any recordings and notes you may have taken. Articulation Station is big on data.
It Doesn’t Take a Village… Anymore
It even includes built-in instructions and built-in full-screen video tutorials, all of which are professionally done.
In rotating sentences mode Articulation Station can come up with some pretty ridiculous sentences. The dog dug up the deer? The cheetah chased the chalk? David took the river in the elevator? What?!?! I guess it’s sort of funny, so maybe these weird sentences don’t have to make sense.
The only things that keep Articulation Station from getting a perfect 10 across the boards is the fact that it inexplicably crashed once during my testing, and it could be priced a little more reasonably, thus proving how hard it is to be perfect.
There are two versions of this app – the free version and the Pro version. The Pro version gives you all the sounds. The free version lets you buy the individual sounds with in-app purchases. If you’re a parent with a child who only has trouble with one or two sounds, the free version is probably your best bet. But if your child has bigger speech challenges, or if you’re a certified SLP you’ll want the whole kit ‘n caboodle.
I must admit, I’m not a Speech Language Pathologist. But Articulation Station makes me feel like I could almost open up my own practice anyhow. As long as I kept this app nearby I may be able to fool people into thinking I’m a SLP. Be on the lookout for Shane L. Nurnberg Speech Pathology Services to open near you.
Oh, and if you’re a real bonafide SLP who uses an iPad in your practice Articulation Station is a must-have app.
$49.99 at time of review.