My husband thought the kids had gone crazy on Candy Crush when he saw £40 AppStore transaction hit the account. But – after eighteen months of regular use – the developers really earned their upgrade fee. Click here to see the free trial version of Articulation Station .
Articulation station is a systematic bank of flashcards targeting a range of common sound errors. Entry level is free giving a handful of sounds – and then you can add sounds for a few pounds each. A companion free app lets you systematically screen your child to identify which sounds they are having trouble with.
The flash cards are bright and engaging and clearly spoken. Some of the Americanisms are baffling – but that’s forgivable.
You can choose to practice the target sound at the beginning, middle or end of a word. There are also more challenging options to pronounce the sound as part of a phrase or sentence. It is a nice interface with good pictures and great sound quality. There is a feature to record your child. It’s targeted at professionals – but it’s actually a precious thing for parents to be able to listen back to old recordings and reassure yourself that your baby is progressing! It also logs your sessions – which again is nice to have as a record.
This is an app where you have to sit with your child while you’re doing it. The learning aspect is fundamentally a jazzed up flashcards interface. You also need to come in with a plan for which sounds you need to target. The developers seemed to have intended for the app to be used by a SaLT and then reinforced at home. However, I found my child enjoyed the app more than flashcard and the variety of activities helped motivation.
A companion app helps you screen your child’s speech at home to decide which are the most important sounds to focus on. Articulation Test Center
SALT for my Squid 