ARtIC Lab is a bilingual Response to Intervention (RtI) program for Articulation. The ARtIC LAB is developed for elementary aged students who are demonstrating mild articulation deficits.
The program is meant to be used for sound placement instruction, intensive drill work, and sound generalization before referral for speech and language services. That's an ideal situation.. the 'before referral'. In my school program I used it after referral and screening completed by the SLP for student who demonstrated a mild deficit, where I did not suspect a disability requiring a full evaluation. Over this year I had about 10 different kids in a tier 2, pull out group for RtI instruction. The ARtIC Lab was perfect for this group of kids. It would also work well for SLPs with enough room to run 'stations' in your room.
The contents:
- 5 Echo Microphones
- 5 Webber Phones
- 10 Homework Folders
- 10 Practice Pages Folders
- Electronic Spinner
- 5 Tally Counters
- Chart
- CD with form and probes
- Resource guide with forms and probes
- English stimulus easel
- Spanish stimulus easel
The program targets Errors on R, L, S, SH, CH. In Spanish it targets R, S, CH. The program is developed to be 20 hours long. It was field tested in Texas. During the testing most of the children made enough progress that they did not require referrals to intervention. In years past I have completed RtI intervention with children each year. During my experience usually on a couple of those student go on to require continued services. I used the activities in the ARtIC Lab to support that intervention strategy used in my building. All activities were age appropriate and supported by intervention strategies.
Why on earth do the kids go NUTS for this electronic spinner?!
We sat on the floor and the table to break into two groups during most of our time together. The variety of activities helped. The activities provide up to 5 learning stations depending on the number of students (3 kids, 3 stations). Since my groups were big and my room was small I had two stations each day and the kids worked in pairs. One student completed their work while the other student monitored their productions. The different stations include: listening, gross motor, emotion, building, game, writing, and SLP monitoring station.
The kit contains test probes for each targeted sound, creating easy to track baseline data.
Pros: The program is great for those SLPs who are new and don't have closets full of echo mic's, whisper phones and tons of worksheets for each sound. It's great for any SLP who wants to open the box and get going with the RtI! My friend and I always say we will pay for convenience! This program does that! The bilingual option is helpful for many I'm sure, just not me particularly!
Cons: The program doesn't have too many 'new' materials that most seasoned SLPs don't already have in their closets! With the price near $200 seasoned SLPs might find it frustrating to open a box to have similar items already found in their rooms. Most of my students still need direct intervention weekly on production and placement. I felt the program assumed that children are able to generalize and acquire sounds on their own. In actuality, I parked myself at one of the stations to work on accuracy EVERY session instead of just at the monitoring station
Have you tried this product? DO you use a center approach to therapy?
