Thank Goodness for Erik Raj and Multiple Choice Articulation App

First of all, I would like to thank Erik Raj for allowing me to be able to do my FIRST app giveaway opportunity! He did give me the code for the app, but the opinions are only mine =) As you'll soon see I just flat out LOVED the app and that's all there is to it. His website is here: http://www.erikxraj.com/ I will tell you more about it later on in the post.

Today, I am writing about how I used the Multiple Choice Articulation app in various clinical settings. This post is quite lengthy, but I wanted to share how I used this particular app in many of the settings I work in! This is the kind of app that can help save you time and save your arms. What do I mean by that? I mean this: I travel between two schools during the week and at the hospital, whatever you can carry is what you have with you to treat patients. Thus, my Ipad has come in handy for being able to transport all my "articulation and speech intelligibility" materials from place to place or in the hospital's case room to room. This app would be great for the outpatient rehabilitation setting as well for children and/or adults if you use the Ipad app for stimulus information like I do!

So for working in the schools, obviously this Multiple Choice Articulation App is really beneficial. It is a motivating and engaging activity to where students can work on their sound development and experience learning as fun! The nice thing is all the sounds are at my fingertips to be able to retrieve at a moment's notice. "Brad" is doing well on /ch/ today- lets move to /sh/ and boom- a set a words within seconds! This is a time saver because I do not have to interrupt my session to get up and go looking for a card deck. Card decks do have their place in my therapy room, so I by no means am saying that the articulation app is better than the card decks. I am saying that this articulation app is a great item to have in addition or as a stand alone item (if you are short on funds like my school district) to enable you as a clinician to have access to many sounds and stimulus questions within seconds! I think the app is very good for other goals as well. I used it for thought organization and topic maintenance EVEN just answering questions. Some of my students have trouble hearing a question and giving a relevant answer. BOOM- it works for that too! I even used it as a comprehension task- "Why would Erik prefer to flip into a pool full of cheese"? If they were able to tell me what Erik said the student would get a point! Last but not least, you could even target reasoning. "Why would it be a bad idea to choose flipping into a pool full of chopsticks versus a pool full of cheese?" OK enough about how it can be used in the school- lets go onto the medical settings of speech pathology! I bet I came up with ideas you never thought of!

For all you outpatient medical speech pathologists, this app would be very beneficial to your setting as well! Again everything I said above applies here too! All the sounds are at the tip of your fingers, so if you don't have very much time between sessions then boom you have one less therapy material to go retrieve! Your children will appreciate the fun activity and you can focus on their sound production instead of trying to keep them from throwing the cards on the floor. The same thing would apply if you are an early intervention child developmental therapist and travel to children's home to provide early intervention therapy.

For all of my followers that are medical speech pathologists in the acute care childrens setting (those that work with kids in Children's Hospitals, child based rehabalititation etc). This is a must have item! I know swallowing and feeding disorders are usually priority in this environment, but I also know that we treat developmental speech/language/cognitive goals too. We can use this app to work on children's speech intelligibility while using the Ipad in their hospital rooms. Ipads easily fit in your clipboard and therefore if you have the Multiple Choice Articulation App that means you have access to 500 multiple choice questions and 7 phonemes and MOST importantly no more bulky treatment books to haul around! The silly answers Erik has just make children gigle and bring a smile to their face in what might not be the most fun place to be! I see it as a no-brainer! If you read the next paragraph, you can see how I used the app to target other goal areas- these suggestions could be easily adapted to fit children's language goals in the medical setting.  SLP role at University of Oklahom Children's Hospital

Believe it or not, I have even used this app with my adults in acute care hospitals and the rehab hospital that I work at. I know, right? I bet you didn't see that coming! The adults laughed and laughed at some of the silly questions asked. One lady stated "I haven't laughed this hard since I was a child and it feels good to laugh again". The same lady asked me multiple times in the session "What is Erik's answer?" because for each of the questions Erik has a "hear an answer" option at the bottom of the screen (see screens below). She would laugh and laugh at his answers and his reasonings! They appreciated the fun questions and adults like to have fun too while recovering from a stroke or "anesthesia brain" as I call it after they get out from a hip surgery. I've had adults practice reading on this app. I have had them practice paying attention by navigating the app instead of me doing all of the clicking. I especially used it for speech intelligibility. I would read the sentence or sentences from the app and the patient would need to repeat me in a slow, over-articulating fashion! The adult doesn't even have to look at the app if you are afraid the patient might think it is "too young" for them! Just read it yourself (or have the app read it for you) and have the patient repeat you! Use the app as stimulus items to prevent yourself from going blank and use it to address memory. I had the patient listen to the question and the answer given by Erik then ask comprehension questions! "Why did Erik prefer to sit with a porcupine instead of a skunk on the ferris wheel?" Word finding can be addressed as the patients answer the questions (example question: Would you rather be an award winning soccer player or an award winning hockey player- Why?) SEE! As the patient tells you all about his/her dreams of being an award winning soccer player, you as the clinician are helping with thought organization, topic maintenance and word finding!

I am ALL about using an app for multiple settings and multiple uses- it gives me MULTIPLE CHOICES (play on words haha). That is kind of my self-proclaimed specialty- taking an item and adapting it to fit other areas of my caseload or other settings! I save money (by using one material many ways), time planning (by using one material to fit multiple goals on a caseload) and I keep my creative wheels turning to make therapy more enjoyable for my students/patients.

Erik has a FREE online workshop as well that has handouts and specifics on articulation strategies. You can view that on this link here: Articulation Workshop There are some neat ideas, so I encourage you all to go over there and check them out!

He also has a very fun and engaging blog that can be viewed here: Erik Raj Blog
I find him very funny and his ideas for speech activities are beyond fun! My students loved the games from this post: Wacky Zombies! Who said you can't be loud in speech?

Here are a few screenshots from Multiple Choice Articulation app! I wish this review could have audio- it would make the review SO much better!

                       <-------These are all the sounds available in the app as well as blends in the s, l, and r areas.

 Each of the articulation targets are in a question format. You can have the voice of Erik ask the question by pressing "Hear the Question" and you can hear what Erik's answer is by pressing the "Hear an answer" button.

Enter the giveaway below or on my facebook page and I hope the lucky winner finds the app as interesting and fun as I did!  There will be TWO winners! First Prize will be the Multiple Choice Articulation App and Second Prize will be an item of your choice from my store!

Thanks for reading!

Amy @ Major Speech Pathology Fun by a Minor Girl

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The opinions expressed in this post are my opinions only- not the voice of any of my employers or app provider, Erik Raj. No payment was provided for completing this review of Multiple Choice Articulation.