Throughout the years we all have gotten the routine of speech articulation screener testing down: Look for clean protocols, or buy them if we run out, find the test and dig out the scoring book. During the test we rush to transcribe what we have heard and then we spend double the time we spent with the child scoring and writing the report for that assessment. Yes! It was painful. Lucky someone said, “There has to be a better way!”.

Technology and brilliant minds have made the process of speech assessment so different. Back in 2010, a screener for articulation was released called Sunny Articulation and Phonology Test. It could be used as a screener or as supplemental data from your traditional paper and pencil test that we have all used for way too long. The Sunny has been sold around the world and it has conquered the hearts of thousands of speech paths around the world. It was way ahead of the curve as best articulation app and it still is the best speech articulation screener available with the iPad testing.

The reality was that many school districts and governmental agencies still rely and demand the use of standardized assessments. That’s when Smarty Ears partnered with a company in Texas to create and standardize an assessment tool that would be universally used for bilingual students as well as monolingual Spanish or English speakers. That’s how the Bilingual Articulation and Phonology Test was conceived. BAPA uses the technology behind Sunny to become a stand alone fully standardized articulation and phonology assessment tool. It was released in 2013 and it has quickly become the preferred choice among bilingual clinicians in the assessment of articulation and phonology skills.

In 2015, Smarty Ears listening to the feedback from clinicians, decided to create an English only version of BAPA, with a lower price point for clinicians that are only performing English assessments. Using the data collected for the creation of BAPA, Smarty Ears separated the English only portion of BAPA and created iTAP, the Test of Articulation and Phonology.

The bottom line: When it comes to English and Spanish Articulation screeners/ Articulation tests there are really only 3 standardized articulation screener apps worth your consideration: Sunny Articulation & Phonology Test, iTap, and BAPA and all of these are available on smarty ears learning platform. Which one you pick will depend solely on your needs as a clinician.

All three app are wonderfully designed to make your life as a Speech Therapist as easy as possible. They all feature:

a. Ability to enter student’s name and track progress over time;

b. Tests all phonemes of the English language including clusters;

c. Offers two options: Screening & Full Assessment

d. Ability to record student’s production with the same tool you are using to administer test;

e. E-mail test results immediately after administration;

f. Provides immediate positive feedback to students throughout the test administration;

g. Sample recording of target word is available as you touch each image;

h. Ability to add notes on the app during the assessment.

Which one to pick really depends on your needs.

Here are the real key differences that set them apart:

iTap

1. It is Standardized
2. English Only

BAPA

1. It is Standardized
2. for English monolinguals, Spanish monolinguals, and English / Spanish Bilinguals

Learn more about BAPA here.

Sunny

1. is NOT standardized (a qualitative assessment only)
2. English Only
3. includes vowels screener
4. includes sentence screener
5. includes an “R screener”

Learn more about Sunny here.