We're thrilled to announce our newest member of the Little Bee Speech app family...

Articulation Test Center!

Articulation Test Center is an articulation and phonology test for your iPad and was designed for speech-language pathologists to assess the articulation and speech production of their students.

Articulation Test Center allows the user to customize the test to test only age appropriate sounds or to test specific areas of speech while still delivering comprehensive test results. Speech sound norms, intelligibility measures and the age at which phonological processes are eliminated are reported in the results and are based on normative data available in the research. All research considered is cited in the app in the results section and in the generated email report.

Articulation Test Center is divided into 2 different tests, a Screener and a Full Test.

Screener

The Screener was designed to quickly determine whether a chid's speech sound errors are considered delayed or age appropriate. Simply select the screener based on the age of the child being screened and with a simple tap mark sounds as correct, incorrect or approximate. At the completion of the screener you can view a full report including sound errors marked and recommendations for practice.

Full Test

The Full Test has more testing options which allows the test administrator to customize the test to meet the needs of the student being tested. With the Full Test you can mark sound errors as incorrect or approximate. In addition you can mark sound omissions, substitutions, distortions and phonological processes present. The option of recording a speech sample is also available with three beautifully illustrated scenes to explore.

Speech professionals will greatly appreciate the detailed results including speech norms next to errors marked and phonological processes marked, a record of substitutions made, a place to transcribe speech samples, a written report (automatically generated!) and recommendations for practice.

We'll outline the Full Test in this post so that you can see how the app works.

How it Works:

Select the test based on the needs of the student you are working with. Select “Full Test” to quickly select everything or simply tap on the options you wish to test then tap Begin Test.

How to Score Correct, Incorrect or Approximate:

Each stimulus card in the app shows a clear, easy to interpret image with the name of the image spelled with square tiles at the top of the card. The green tiles are the sounds that are being tested. The sound being tested is also displayed phonetically below each green scoring tile. In the case of "piano", we see the initial /p/, medial /n/, and final /o/ sounds are being tested.

Marking Sounds as Correct:

By default, the scoring tiles are green, marking the sounds tested as correct. If no speech errors are made on the sounds tested simply proceed to the next card by swiping to the left.

Marking Sounds as Incorrect:

If a sound being tested is said incorrectly tap the tile once and it will turn red marking the sound as incorrect.

Marking Sounds as Approximate:

Another tap will turn it from red to yellow marking it as “approximate.”

To mark a sound tile as correct again one more tap will turn the tile from yellow to green.

Marking Omissions, Substitutions, Distortions and Phonological Processes:

Marking Sound Omissions

To mark a sound as omitted simply swipe the sound tile up and off the screen. If you delete a sound tile by mistake, simply tap the deleted symbol and the scoring tile will reappear.

To mark a substitution, distortion and/or phonological process tap the down arrow to the right of the scoring tiles to open the substitutions menu.

To mark a substitution drag the sound tile of the sound that was said and drop it on top of the tile of the sound being substituted.

To mark a phonological process tap the phonological process tab at the bottom of the substitution menus, then select the phonological process type: substitution, assimilation or syllable structure. Then drag and drop the process name over the scoring tile where a phonological process has been used.

When a phonological process is tapped, reference information will come in from the right with a quick definition of the process, an example of what it may look like in the speech of a child and an approximate age of elimination.

Just like deleting a sound tile, to remove a phonological process marked or substitution marked simply drag it up and off the screen.

Recording:

Tap the red record button in the lower left hand corner of the screen to record the student’s speech. Press stop when the recording is complete. Press play to play back the student’s production.

Each recording will be saved and associated with the word being tested. At any time during the test you may go back to previous testing cards and play back the recording associated with that card.

Taking Notes:

If there is something unique about the student’s speech production and you’d like to make a note of it, tap the notes icon located in the bottom right corner of the screen. Then type your note. When finished, tap the “X” to close the notes and the note will be saved and associated with that particular stimulus card. Once a test is saved you can review your notes in the report screen.

Adjusting the Settings:

To adjust the settings tap on the settings button in the lower right corner of the screen. Here you have several options to modify the test.

Settings Options

- Voice Prompt:

Turning off the “voice prompt” will eliminate the voice recording that describes the card when the card is tapped.

- Stimulus Word:

Turning off the “stimulus word” will remove the written word from the bottom of the testing card.

- Stimulus Image:

Turning off the “stimulus image” will remove the picture from the testing card and replace it with large written text.

- Record Button:

Turning off the “record button” will remove the record button from the screen.

- Sound Effects:

Turning off the “sound effects” will eliminate sound effects associated with the buttons.

Completing the Test:

When all the testing cards have been scored and you have reached the “Success!” card tap the “Done” button. If you tap “Done” before you have gone through all the cards in the test, the test will be considered incomplete. You may quit without saving or pause and save the test to complete at a later time.

When you have completed the testing cards you will have the option to add a speech sample if you did not already choose to.

Speech Sample:

The speech sample portion of the test can be used to assess the following:

- intelligibility

- articulation skills in conversation

- language skills including syntax, semantics, morphology, and pragmatics

- a child’s Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)

- fluency sample

To Begin the Speech Sample:

Start by selecting the speech scene you want to explore from the three speech scenes provided:

- Mountain Adventure

- Beach Day

- Fun at the Park... then tap “Next”.

When the speech scene comes in you will hear environmental sounds playing in the background to enhance the experience. These sounds may be turned off/on at any time while exploring the scene by tapping the audio button in the upper right corner of the screen.

To record a speech sample tap the microphone in the lower left corner of the screen, then tap record. Once the recording is started an indicator below the microphone will keep track of the length of the recording.

To explore the full scene swipe the screen from right to left. Tap on the images in the scene to enlarge the images and view a language prompt to help keep your students talking.

Rating Intelligibility:

Rating the intelligibility is a useful way to compare the child’s speech comprehensibility over time. It can also be used to help determine the presence and severity of a speech delay.

Using your best judgement determine how intelligible the student’s speech is.

Mark “Good” if more than 90% of their words can be clearly understood.

Mark “Fair” if 60- 90% of their words can be clearly understood.

Mark “Poor” if less than 60% of their words can be clearly understood.

Results

Main Data Screen:

The main data screen will display a summary of all tests given to that child. It will include the test date, age of the child on the test date, the name of the test given, the overall score, the intelligibility rating, and whether the test is complete or incomplete.

Test Details:

From the main data screen tap the test you wish to view for more test details.

Words Tested:

The first screen that you will see will display all the words tested and how the words were marked. It will also allow you to listen to recordings made and view any notes taken. If you feel you have scored something incorrectly you can tap the "Edit Results" button in the top right corner of the screen. This will take you back into the test and allow you to make any changes necessary. Once you have made your changes and you are satisfied that everything is scored correctly tap "done" and your changes will be saved.

The "Edit Results" button can also be a huge time saver. For example, if you are short on time when giving a test or you have a student with a short attention span you can administer the test and record the student's responses on each stimulus card by using the audio recording feature of the app (no need to score anything at this time). When finished, you can save the test and when you have the time later, go back to the test, tap the Edit Results button and you can now review each recording and score the student's responses accordingly.

Errors Marked:

The next tab is a representation of the errors marked in the test. There are three sub tabs in this section, sound errors, substitutions and processes/ distortions.

Sound Errors:

The “Sound Errors” will display all the sounds that were marked as “incorrect” and “approximate” during the test. You will also see the age at which those sounds should be mastered.

Substitutions:

The “Substitutions” will display all the substitutions made for sounds tested.

Processes/ Distortions:

The “Processes/ Distortions” will display all the phonological processes and distortions marked in the test.

Speech Sample:

The “Speech Sample” tab is where the audio recording sample taken from the speech scene activity will be saved and available to play back. When the recording is played back the test administrator can transcribe the speech sample to obtain a more accurate intelligibility rating as well as determine MLU and assess language skills if desired.

Intelligibility Rating:

You can leave the intelligibility as Good, Fair or Poor or, if a speech sample was done you can update the intelligibility to a more accurate measure by tapping on the intelligibility/ transcription buttons in the speech sample section. Then tap the "+" button for every word you understand and the "-"button for every word you don’t understand. When you finish you will have the option to update the intelligibility score to reflect a percentage in the report.

Report:

If you tap the “Report,” tab you will be able to view a full, detailed written report summarizing the results of the test. This report is automatically generated by the app. We spent a lot of time developing and adding all the essential details to this report. The data you collect is very important and we believe a report should reflect this and be easy to read and understand. It's also a HUGE time saver!

Recommendation:

If you tap the tab, “Recommendation,” you will see a quick summary of any sounds recommended for practice and any sounds that should be monitored for appropriate development.

You will also see a link to our app Articulation Station (available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch) which offers 6 engaging activities for targeted articulation practice using words, sentences and stories.

Articulation Test Center is not only a full-featured assessment app that will help you get the results you need in a quick and efficient way, but the user friendly design, clear images and beautiful illustrations make this app a joy to use that will make your test days brighter!

Watch the video tutorials below to see Articulation Test Center in action: