Boo Articulation Helper

Boo Articulation is a fantastic app that aims to improve the articulation of phonemes and sound blends. This app is particularly useful for Speech & Language Therapists, Educators and parents to support children with speech disorders and complex communication needs. Speech sound disorders include problems with articulation (making sounds) and phonological processes (sound patterns). Speech & Language Therapists can treat articulation difficulties by demonstrating/modelling how to produce the sound correctly, learning to recognize which sounds are correct and incorrect, and practicing sounds in different words. Boo Articulation is a fun and engaging application that certainly supports this process.

Upon opening the app you are presented the main screen containing a frog and areas containing consonant sounds in one section and monophthong (Vowel sounds that only have one sound in a syllable). Through simple drag and drop movements, the aim is to pull the sounds into two slots above the frog. Pressing a play button initiates the frog to make the sound contained in the slot or slots. The frog animation is engaging and children enjoy watching the frog articulate each sound. The frog’s tongue and lips move to support articulation, you can also slow the animation down which aids the child’s understanding. Further settings allow you to repeat the send when pressing the play button 3/5 times. All of this aims to encourage children to imitate how the sounds are being produced. You can also turn the sound off to focus on how the Frog is articulating. The app contains the following consonants; P B T D K G S Z SH CH F V M N L W and vowels EE AH and OO which enable the practice of so many sound combinations. The interface is not too busy and functionally easy to use. No sign up is required and there is a useful parental lock feature in place and both English and American English are available to use within the settings.

We have been using Boo articulation in our Autism Specific School for a while now and it has been a ‘go to’ application for both our Teachers and Speech Therapists when working on articulation with the children. We always see children as the best judge of any app and Boo Articulation is one that they most definitely enjoy and are engaged to use. We as a school find it important that the app is used in brief short sessions over a period of time to ensure the child continues to be motivated.

The app also contains useful advice for education staff in guiding them to use the application. In our setting we use ‘Cued Articulation’ throughout the day with all children. One suggestion for the developer, is to possibly add videos of people modelling cued articulation as an aid for parents and educators who are not versed in this. This would support understanding with the adult modelling whilst using Boo Articulation alongside the child. This is only a minor consideration which does not take away from what is a wonderful app.

I can’t speak highly enough about Boo Articulation and the benefits it has for supporting children with speech disorders. We trial and use many apps at the school with this being one that has had little or no negative feedback. Boo Articulation has been one of the most popular apps we have come across and a definite hit with our speech therapists. In the design of this app, it is clear to see that the developer is a speech and language therapist with a deep understanding in this area. Well done!

You can download Boo Articulation Helper on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.