Speech Buddies- Where have you been all my speech life??

After you read this review, be sure to enter the raffle for a $124.00 speech buddy tool of your choice!  All entries automatically qualify for a free shipping code when the raffle ends!

If you are a Speech Therapist and work with clients targeting any of the following articulation of sounds: s, sh, ch, l, r, then you will be amazed by the Speech Buddy tools!  Each tool targets one of the above mentioned sound targets by helping the client identify correct placement of teeth, tongue and lips to accurately produce a sound.  I have been fortunate enough to use the s, sh, ch, and r tools with four different clients over the last few months.  Each child used the buddy once weekly for at least 20 minutes.  In a few weeks, a new student will be trialing the L speech buddy.  Besides making it easy for clients to produce these challenging targets, Speech Buddies makes data collection simple for Speech Therapists with their handy, data collection link!   Before I report my findings, I will review the data collection process.

First, you must create a profile by entering the client's name and age, and then you can select an avatar to visual represent the profile.  Note the cute picture in the upper right-hand corner in the image below.  My students LOVED choosing the avatar and operating the data collection system online!  The website does a fantastic job of introducing each sound target at increasingly difficult levels.  The beginning level includes syllable targets, intermediate levels are divided into target sounds in the beginning, middle, or final position of words, and the advanced level uses the sound target in a sentence.  In addition to choosing the level, you can also identify if the client will be using the speech buddy to produce targets.  Now, onto my data collections and results!

EXERCISE HISTORY GRAPH

RECENT HISTORY GRAPH

MT is an 11 year old 6th grader who is in his second year of speech.  When I first met MT in August of 2012, he demonstrated little success with the /sh/ target.  We worked on this weekly with minimal progress until I introduced the Speech Buddy. MT recently identified an error he made with his mouth opening that altered his target sound.  Basically, he connected that the Speech Buddy has taught him how wide to open his mouth.  MT is well on his way to independence with his target!   His baseline data collected on 10/23/2012  was as follows:

Beginning level- 70%
Intermediate Beginning- 100%; Middle- 50%; Final-30%
Advanced level-60%

By 11/13/2012, MT had already achieved these percentages:
Beginning level-100%
Intermediate Beginning-100%; Middle-90%; Final-100%
Advanced level-90%

CC is a 7 year old 2nd grader who prematurely lost THREE of his front teeth over the last year, making it VERY difficult for him to find a placement for his tongue to produce the /s/ sound!  His baseline data collected on 11/1/2012 revealed significantly low performance for multiple levels.

Beginning level-40%
Intermediate Beginning-20%; Middle-10%; Final-0
Advanced level-20%

Without the Speech Buddy, I would not have been able to help CC find a placement for his tongue to accurately produce his target.  Given that his teeth won't be coming in anytime soon, he could have easily seen a few years of speech therapy!  Here are CC's recent results from 1/10/2013:

Beginning level-100%
Intermediate Beginning-95%; Middle-95%; Final-95%
Advanced level-85%

BEGINNER LEVEL TARGET FOR CC

AK is an 8 year old 2nd grader who reportedly has shown exaggerated right sided lip retraction since birth.  Her mother was told that AK would "Grow out of it;" however, AK continues to demonstrate this retraction on /ch/ and /s/ targets.  These are AK's baseline results from 11/1/2012:

Beginning level-90%
Intermediate Beginning- 90%; Middle-  Did not collect; Final-50%
Advanced level-30%

AK no longer deviates her lips to produce the /ch/ target!  On 1/10/2013, she achieved 100% accuracy at all levels for /ch/ and is now addressing /s/ targets!

BEGINNING WORD LEVEL TARGET FOR AK

ADVANCED LEVEL SENTENCE FOR AK

EK is a 10 year old 4th grader who was just made eligible to speech services this school year.  She has been making good gains with a multi-sensory approach to remediate vocalic /r/, but required the speech buddy to produce the typical /r./  This January, she trialed the /r/ speech buddy and immediately noticed success!  Prior to the speech buddy, I could not help her successfully produce the /r/ even in isolation.  Now, we are working at the word level with the speech buddy and I anticipate that she will demonstrate similar success rates as my other clients!

I carefully selected clients for this trial by identifying individuals who were having the most difficulty maintaining proper placement for sound targets.  Traditional therapy had not made much difference for any of my subjects, but the minute they put the speech buddy in their mouths, they felt success!  I watched each week as clients eagerly grabbed their tools to get to work and I was amazed to see children practicing with the tool while others took turns for data collection!  After just a couple sessions, one boy commented that, "Everyone should have a speech buddy!"  Given the horrendous flu season, I opted to only use one Speech Buddy per client and I cleaned each thoroughly after the sessions too!! 

For more information on this product, visit their website at http://www.speechbuddy.com/slps

Please note that all opinions and information presented in this review are solely mine.  The generous people at Speech Buddy provided me with a complete set to trial.  In addition, they have offered me one tool of the winner's choice for the raffle below!!  This tool retails at $124.00!  Please take a moment to enter the Rafflecopter below.  If you win, then you get to pick which of the five speech buddies (s, sh, ch, l, r) you would like to own!  All entries are eligible for a free shipping code when this raffle ends!



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