I was so excited when I was contacted by Virtual Speech Center. They created a brand new app to address articulation. I was so excited when they asked if I would review it! I jumped at the offer!! Thanks Virtual Speech Center for the opportunity. Reminder, all thoughts and opinions are mine!
Here is a view of the settings options that you can alter from the main first page when you open up the app:
I like that you can determine whether or not the score is shown (great if students are too competitive and lose track of the goal). You can turn on or off the game music. You can decide whether or not to save session audio and how often rewards are provided.
Best part…you can backup data, restore data, and add custom words!! Backup is great….take it from someone who has had computers randomly FAIL and have to frantically try to get data. I always back up my data and it is great that an app allows you to!!
Adding custom words:
- You can easily select which sound target.
- Then you can select the position of words.
- Finally, you can add a new image and write the word.
- This is GREAT if you wanted to include curriculum vocabulary that has the articulation target!!
Just like all of Virtual Speech Center's apps, just click “start” to begin. It will bring you to the “select students” page. You can add students and they will be stored in this list. You just have to then tap the names to add them to the activity.
Then you get to select phoneme(s) for each student. I love how you can select a different phoneme target for each student. Great for differentiation. I don't know about you but when I do this, my students don't even realize they have a different activity/words from their peers! As you can see below, under each target “button” the button for “edit” is available. This will allow you to edit which words from the list will be presented. Did your student master some target words, you can eliminate it. Do you only want a certain number presented, make it happen here!
Once you are ready, hit “next.” The activity will begin! You can decide for each student which position of the word will be presented as well as the level (word, phrase, or sentence). Students can express the label for the picture provided using their target. You can record their responses, play it back, and then rate their responses “check” “X” and then the “=” looking button for “almost.”
I like that the app has a blue “play” button on the bottom. This is if your student needs a model (or you aren't exactly sure which word is being represented by the picture!).
Just slide the picture to the left to move to the next one! You can click the “paper” looking button on the top right to add notes. This is great if you want to document the error made, how many prompts were required, or if a specific strategy was required to get your student produce the target.
Students are rewarded with “balloons” for each “check” mark. This is a great way for you to easily see how many times they got the production correct. (other than looking at the percentage on the top).
I had selected that after 5 correct responses, students are rewarded with the game. I like the #5 since it isn't too frequent but keeps students engaged and motivated. Students are brought to the game page where they can select 4 games to play. They are just like carnival games!!
Spray Ducks: Students must touch the “launcher” to spray the ducks going by! So fun!! It wasn't too difficult to figure out and play.
Basketball: Students have to shoot the basketball into the hoop in the time provided! I know I was terrible at this game but it was still fun!
Balloon Darts: Balloons go around a dart board and you are given darts to “throw” at it by just swiping with your finger. Students are rewarded with prizes for hitting the balloons. So fun!
Strength Hammer: By swiping the finger to move the hammer, students must hit the target and see how hard they hit it. They are rewarded with metals for hitting it hard.
You can go through the entire roll of pictures or click “finish” when you want to end the activity. Once you hit “finish” you will be brought to the session report. Here you can see the student, phoneme target, level, position, score, %, the list of words, you can access the audio of their productions, and your notes that you provided throughout the session. You can also email report from this page. You can always access reports from the main page. This is great if you wanted to remind yourself on how your student performed on the previous session before you worked again. You can easily access old reports archived by date or goal as well as by student.
You can also access all of the games from the main page. This could be fun if you wanted to teach students how to play each game before working on the articulation targets. You can also just use the games as a reinforcer for hard work (especially if they didn't earn it from the app activity).
Overall..this app is a great way to work on articulation targets!! It makes drilling fun!! I love that you can add custom words, add notes, and record productions and save them for later!!
Want to learn more about this app?!
Visit Virtual Speech Center's website by clicking HERE!
