Articulation Arcade

Articulation Arcade is a comprehensive app designed to support children from 3.5/4+ years and beyond who have speech sound delay, speech sound disorder and apraxia by offering games that allow for speech sound practice at word, phrase, and sentence levels, facilitating targeted speech practice. Articulation Arcade is compatible with iOS 11.0 or later, Mac 11.0 and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.

To access all features of the app there is a one-off payment of £49.99/$49.99. There is also a Lite version which allows users to trial the features of the app before committing to the full version.

What is Articulation Arcade app?

Articulation Arcade app is specifically designed to support speech therapy with a particular focus on children who have a speech sound delay, speech sound disorder and apraxia to improve their skills at word, phase and sentence level facilitating targeted speech practise. This review of Articulation Arcade used the full version.

Articulation Arcade has so many layers to it, it really is a great app to support children with varying levels of challenge with many opportunities for practise. It has a vast number of target words, phrases and sentences related to targets sounds.

There are five games for children to choose from as well as a flash card activity all with different levels of challenge. The first game to play is Four in a Row which is like an interactive Connect 4 game with pictures. The user picks a picture and then this takes them to the learning section to complete, once completed they return to the Connect 4 game to place their counter. This continues until the game is complete.

The second game to play is Matching. This requires the user to choose the target sound and which position in the word to focus on, once selected users play a pairs matching game with the target sound in a word, once matched it takes the user to the word, phase and sentence level practise and then returns to the matching screen afterwards to continue play. The third game is Bingo. Here the user listens to the word given with a picture and the user selects the right match, this then goes through to the practising section as the other games do. The fourth game is Spin The Wheel, the user chooses the target sound and which position in the word to focus on, once selected users are given a spinning board with pictures to choose from, the user

spins the wheel where a picture is chosen to then provide the practise activities. The fifth game is called Scratchcards, the users swipers their finger over the card to reveal an image underneath, this is where the target speech sound practise begins. 

Lastly, the flashcards allow for the target sound and position to be chosen and then direct practise on this is given.

What we love about Articulation Arcade app.

Articulation Arcade is brilliantly presented, very appealing to children and is fully interactive. Children can listen to the target words, phrases and sentences but can also record themselves saying it and hear it back. It also has a marking ability to say yes it was achieved or not. This is then sent to your email helping you track progress which is really helpful to parents, teachers and the speech therapists working with children. It offers games that allow for speech sound practice at word, phrase, and sentence levels, facilitating targeted speech practice. The main purpose of the phrase and sentence levels is to provide children with additional opportunities to practice target sounds once they have mastered them at word level.

What skills does it teach?

Articulation Arcade teaches children to say a wide range of words, phrases and sentences which provides ample practice opportunities for specific target sounds. It has five interactive games and a flash card activity which supports the learning of these. It allows for precise modelling so children have a good example to learn from and gives them the opportunity to try it out themselves by using the record and play back feature. The results from the games, which the user logs, can be emailed to you, allowing you to see progress and know which areas are causing particular difficulty and needs more practise. This is ideal for parents and teachers to use.

What age is it appropriate for?

Articulation Arcade is suitable from 3.5/4+ years and beyond, it is fully interactive and can be taken at its simplest form of listening to the words, phrases or sentences to extending it to recording and listening back to what was said by the user. .

Is Articulation Arcade app easy to use?

Articulation Arcade is very easy to use and is presented very well to appeal to children. The games are easy to access and once a child has learnt how to access the learning materials they should be able to navigate the app. The app is designed to be used alongside speech therapy and with parents to support the self-marking and listening to the answers making it a fully collaborative experience. It has a clear interface and the purpose of Articulation Arcade is very obvious throughout the app.

How will students benefit?

Articulation Arcade is very appealing to children as it is bright has catchy music and the games are fully interactive. Articulation Arcade allows free choice of what to work on and is designed to be used collaboratively with a parent, speech-language therapist, or teacher. There is an option to choose either the initial, medial or final sounds in words which can really pin-point learning. As mentioned in detail earlier in the review, the games the app have are: four in a row, matching, bingo, spin the wheel, scratch cards and offers a flash card activity.

How will parents benefit?

Articulation Arcade is useful to parents because it allows children to have extensive practise of target words, phrases and sentences. The idea of the app is to be used alongside speech therapy. Later in the review you can find out how safe Articulation Arcade is to use for children. Once the one-off payment has been purchased parents have full access to all the features for as long as they need them. Articulation Arcade is designed so parents can work with their child together, making it a fun interactive learning experience for both.

How will teachers benefit?

Teachers would be able to use this Articulation Arcade in the classroom, it could be used on a whiteboard with the whole class or small group as well as individually on tablets. As the app is fully interactive it means the children will be engaged for longer, working on the target words, phrases and sentences. The ability to email results to yourself is a great and useful feature for teachers as they can see where children are working and possible areas of challenge which they can then plan to work on next. This would also be a helpful app to support speech therapy in or out of school.

Good to know

Articulation Arcade requires the full support of an adult to fully gain from the purpose of the app. It requires self-marking which will be led by the adults working with the child while playing on the app. Lastly, it doesn't include an option to listen to specific sounds in isolation.

How much does Articulation Arcade app cost?

Articulation Arcade requires a one-off payment of £49.99/$49.99. This gives the user full access to all the features. There is an Articulation Lite version which allows users to try out some of the features before committing to the full version. This version has five articulation games and a flash card activity with a focus on 60 words, phrases and sentences for the sound B (initial, medial or final position in words). It allows users to have the full experience of the different levels of challenge as well as the recording and playback option. 

Is Articulation Arcade app safe to use?

Articulation Arcade is very safe to use. It does not ask for any personal information if you do not wish to share. There is an option to create your own profile name and email results to users. The developer has a clear privacy policy and can be found on their website. There are no advertisements or social media links when using the app.

What can Articulation Arcade app improve on?

Articulation Arcade is a comprehensive app which has many options and levels to support speech practise. It has five interactive games to play to aid practise and a flashcard activity to use as well. Adding further interactive games would be an added bonus to keep children motivated to work on the core areas they need to.

Overall rating of the app.

Articulation Arcade gets an Educational App Store rating of 5 as it has so many options to choose from and a good selection of games to keep children entertained and engaged when using the app.