Hi Peeps!
I hope your week is off to a great start! I’m here today with a new product review: Speech Buddies!
Speech Buddies:
Over the past few years, the Speech Buddies company has made quite a splash into the World of Speech Pathology. Though I had heard many different thoughts and opinions, I had not tried the product out for myself. I’m currently working at an inpatient/outpatient hospital. I had several kiddos on my caseload who were real zingers in artic therapy. It seemed I had tried just about everything, so I was willing to give just about anything a go! One of the kiddos, a 3rd grade “r” student, had been in speech at school and had been coming to the clinic for quite some time. He had made very little progress. His mom had heard about Speech Buddies and asked my opinion. I don’t like to give an opinion on something I haven’t experienced for myself, so I told her I’d give them a try.
Disclaimer: Speech Buddies provided me with a Speech Buddies toolkit; however, no other compensation was provided. The following opinions are all mine.
The Whole Package:
When my Speech Buddies kit came in the mail, I have to admit, I liked the way they were packaged. I spend a large portion of my day traveling around to different daycares. This means I have to take what I need with me, and hauling things that are big and bulky is just not my style. I really appreciated the small, sturdy case the Speech Buddies are housed in and the box they are packaged in. Definitely a plus for me.
Field Work:
When I agreed to review the product, I mentioned that I needed time to do my research. I didn’t want to rush a review, but rather wanted to take my time to try them on a variety of students. For the past 5 months, I’ve been using the Speech Buddies on 6 different patients. One patient for /sh/, one for /s/, one for /ch/, one for /l/, and two patients for /r/ (disinfected in between, of course!)
This is what I’ve found:
Patients & Progress:
Patient #1:
A 7 y/o male working on /s/. Initial examination revealed patient had a frontal lisp on /s/ in all positions, including blends. After 9 weeks of using the /s/ Speech Buddy for placement practice, the patient had corrected all /s/ errors at the connected speech level, and he was discharged from speech therapy.
Patient #2:
A 8 y/o male working on /sh/. Initial examination revealed patient produced /s/ for /sh/ and was at the time, not stimulable for correct /sh/ production in isolation. After 12 weeks of using the /sh/ Speech Buddy for placement practice, the patient had corrected all /sh/ errors at the sentence level. The patient is now working on carrying over correct placement into conversation (with minimal errors at this time).
Patient #3:
A 6 y/o male working on /ch/. Initial examination revealed patient had a lateralized /ch/ sound, which sounded extremely “slushy.” Parent reported patient lateralized /sh/ and /s/ previously, but had corrected those sounds in a previous speech therapy environment. After 10 weeks of using the /ch/ Speech Buddy for placement practice, the patient is able to correctly produce /ch/ at the word level with 70% accuracy.
Patient #4:
A 5 y/o female working on /l/. Initial examination revealed patient produced /w/ for /l/ and was not stimulable for /l/ in isolation. After 3 weeks of using the /l/ Speech Buddy for placement practice, the patient was able to produce /l/ in all positions of words. She is currently working on /l/ at the sentence level with 75% accuracy.
Patient #5:
A 9 y/o male working on /r/. Initial evaluation revealed patient was not stimulable for a correct production of /r/ in any position, including vocalic /r/ sounds. This patient had previously been taught the retroflexed /r/ approach in speech therapy in school, although it did not sound or look “natural.” After 12 weeks of using the /r/ Speech Buddy for placement, the patient continues to have “groping” tongue movements that do not look or sound natural for /r/. This is the case with or without the Speech Buddy. I am currently now teaching the Bunched /r/ production. This is also proving to be difficult with this tricky little guy!
Patient #6:
A 7 y/o female working on /r/. Initial evaluation revealed incorrect production in all positions. Patient was stimulable for correct production with vocalic /er/ and /ar/. After 16 weeks using the /r/ Speech Buddy for placement practice, the patient is now producing /r/ correctly in all positions of words, including r-blends and all vocalic /r/ sounds, at the phrase and short sentence level with 75% accuracy.
Overall Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- The Speech Buddies are well-packaged and easy to tote along wherever you go.
- Many kiddos respond well to a tactile cue for artic placement.
- The Speech Buddies are perceived as “cool” to kids, and seemed to make them more interested in placement practice of their sounds.
- The instruction guide has good directions and pictures to show how to position the speech buddies.
- The online videos are helpful for making sure you get the correct placement.
- Speech Buddies can be used along with the iPad apps I use regularly for artic drills, such as Articulation Station Pro, from Little Bee Speech. (This means there is very little to carry around to different clients).
- Speech Buddies are expensive, especially when you’re living on an SLP budget. Most SLPs don’t get money from their schools or job sites, and if they do, it’s minimal. Also, many of the parents of my clients just simply would not be able to afford them.
- Speech Buddies must be thoroughly cleaned in between each client. Although having a Speech Buddy for each client would be ideal, this is simply not possible due to the cost.
- Speech Buddies are not an instant, “quick fix” for most clients.
Some final notes:
My experience with Speech Buddies is just that: my experience. Based on everything I’ve read and others I’ve talked to, there are a lot of different experiences and opinions out there. They work great for some clients and not so great for others. Where I found them most helpful was in teaching the proper placement for clients who were not already stimulable for the sound in isolation. They served as a tactile cue and provided a little more detail than a simple tongue depressor.
I was very careful to use them and remove them often so my clients did not become too reliant on them for correct production. (We practiced 10 words with them, and then 10 words without them).
Not a Replacement for an SLP
Finally, Speech Buddies are NOT a replacement for traditional speech therapy with a certified SLP, and should never be considered as such. As a trained SLP, I sat with my clients to ensure the correct placement and monitored their productions. I would not feel comfortable with any of my patients using Speech Buddies at home for the first time without the help on an SLP. Having said that, I am always looking for ways to encourage parent involvement and practice at home. So if a client is interested in purchasing Speech Buddies for home, they are willing to let me (or another certified SLP) assist in getting started, and they are continuing to consult with an SLP for guidance, I’m all for it!
If you’re interested in purchasing your own Speech Buddy tools or learning more about their products, you can check out their website HERE.
Do you have any experience with Speech Buddies? What has your experience been?
NO TRICKS, JUST TREATS! 
Thanks for your report – to give a broader over-view would it not have been better to use the tool with a number of children working on a given sound? Surely basing a report on the reaction of just one individual can hardly provide a balanced insight? Am not being criticial just wondered why this approach was adopted? (Am not a language therapist – am looking for help in correcting my 5 year-old's pronunciation of the letter S)
Hi. Thank you for your comments! As noted in my post, Speech Buddies are very expensive. It is recommended to have a different speech buddy for each child. Since I do not have it in my work budget (or personal budget) to provide a Speech Buddy for each child, this simply isn't possible. Not having one for each child would make it difficult to use them on multiple patients working on the same sound. In addition, I can only work with the current clients on my caseload at any given time. At the time of this review, I only had one patient working on the /s/ sound that I could appropriately use the Speech Buddies product with. I was asked to try Speech Buddies out with my current clients in order to complete a review. Many other Speech Therapists have tried Speech Buddies with their patients, and I read many blog reviews, as well as reviews on the Speech Buddies website while completing my review. From what I read at the time, their data closely resembled my data for their patients working on each sound. For some patients, Speech Buddies works great. For other patients, it was not a "cure" all. At the end of the day, Speech Buddies is a tool that can aid in the development of proper placement for speech sounds, but it should never take the place of a certified Speech Pathologist. Speech Buddies should always be used under the supervision of a Speech therapist to ensure they are being properly used and that they are being phased in and out appropriately so that a child does not become too reliant on them for correct production. The /s/ sound in particular can be correctly produced in more than one way. For your child, I would recommend a speech evaluation be completed by a certified speech pathologist in order to accurately assess how his /s/ is being produced incorrectly, and thus which technique would be best for correcting his sound error. Thanks again!
Would this tool help someone who has a hearing aid and is not able to correctly enunciate and pronounce the "sh" sound. according to my therapist, my tongue is flat and it should be curled like a U in order for the sound to be correct. Is there a tool that can do that or would the "Speech Buddy" do the trick? Feel free to reach me
Hi,
I had success with some patients using the Speech Buddies tools and little success with others. Without seeing you in person and hearing your productions as well as seeing how you articulate the sounds, it would be difficult for me to predict whether or not this may help your specific case. I'm so glad to hear you're working with a speech therapist, and hope you will continue to work with them as you improve! Thanks so much for reading