Tag Archive: Apps

Advocate in Your Pocket: Free App to Support Inclusive Education

February 17, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Advocate in Your Pocket: Free App to Support Inclusive Education

The thought of an IEP meeting fills many parents we know with dread and anxiety, particularly if they are in a district where inclusive education is not running very smoothly. Jillian, a very passionate and competent mom of a youngster who uses high tech AAC, was pretty blunt about it. “I’d rather have root canal,” she said, and the parents within earshot gave her a round of applause. — So when we came across an app that provides support to families in this process, we had to check it. Developed at the Syracuse University School of Education, iAdvocate is an app designed to share information that parents can use to support their request for inclusive education. It lists some of the common roadblocks that families sometimes encounter, such as: “Your child needs small group instruction with few distractions and that can only be provided in a separate classroom.” “Meeting your chid’s needs is... [Read More...]

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Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Stop and Go App

February 17, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Stop and Go app

We’re always looking for engaging ways to give our preschool children practice with their core word vocabulary. Stop and Go by ShortStack is an app that will get your little friends using core language without even realizing how much practice they are getting. — We love the simple structure of the app, which shows vehicles stopped at a traffic light. We see and hear the name of the vehicle and then press the green light for the vehicle to go. It has an English or a Spanish option and lots of interactive elements to try and then talk about. — Magic Moments with Stop and Go 1. Core Word Practice: As expected, there are tons of opportunities for the child to move the vehicles in this app. Using the strategy of controlled access, we can elicit ‘stop’ and ‘go’ multiple times in this game. 2. More Core Word Practice –... [Read More...]

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Feeling the Love

February 12, 2012 by - 4 Comments

Feeling the Love

Some people thrive on conflict. Not us. We’re happiest when things are running smoothly and everyone is getting along. Nonetheless, we’re secretly thrilled by the conflict that has erupted between apps and traditional SGDs.  — Here’s what we love about this conflict. 1. We LOVE that the technology that launched this controversy has raised the public’s awareness of AAC as an option. AAC in the local papers and New York Times. AAC on 60 minutes and segments of the nightly news. No matter how you feel about apps versus traditional SGDs, you gotta love the fact that more people now know that there are tools out there for people with little or no functional speech. – 2. We LOVE that AAC technology has progressed to a point where there is something to argue about. When I started my AAC career, the Express 3 (PRC),  Zygo 100 (Zygo), and the HandiVoice... [Read More...]

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5 Quick Wishes for SGDs & Apps

February 9, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

5 Quick Wishes for SGDs & Apps

With apologies to the SGD and app designers for making things more complicated for you  we offer up these wishes for the next generation of AAC devices and apps. Everything should have a readily accessible ‘un-do’ button. Seriously, folks. Are we the only ones who make mistakes? AAC devices/apps that let you pick the symbol set/system and organize the vocabulary accordingly. Variety is still the spice of life. A universal standard or convention across SGDs/apps for button shapes and color-coding, with option to customize, of course. (Isn’t it great to have your cake and be able to eat it, too?!) Built in core word libraries that make it easy to populate screens with the words we use most often ‘Smart’ templates that suggest vocabulary and organization options as you build the display. – How about you? What do you dream of in the next generation of AAC technology?

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Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Apps You Love – Disneyland Explorer

February 5, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Apps You Love - Disneyland Explorer

Disney’s free app, Disneyland Explorer, is literally a walk in the park.  We love the quality of the graphics, which are incredibly vivid and reminiscent of the old ViewMaster toy. The app is simple-just some views of Disneyland but because many of our kids have such intense memories of the Florida version of this theme park, it’s a natural for language therapy. Not everyone is lucky enough to live near a Disney park, but even so, there  are lots of fun things to explore on this app.Take a peek at a video of the app here and you’ll see what we mean.There are lots of clinical/educational uses for this app, particularly for those kids we know whose lives are punctuated by trips to the Magic Kingdom. Here are some suggestions for AAC users of various ability levels. = Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Disneyland Explorer 1. Multiple opportunities for using AAC... [Read More...]

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We're Learning: Speak for Yourself App

January 17, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

We're Learning: Speak for Yourself App

We’re super excited to see more and more AAC apps give real attention to core language. There are plenty of AAC tools and apps that allow for choicemaking, requesting, and other types of functional communication. Not all of them, however, have the key ingredients for the development of linguistic competence. We’ll be talking more about that in future posts, but for now, let’s just celebrate the fact that more AAC apps have what it takes for us to teach morphology and syntax.Speak for Yourself is one of the newest kids on the block and it looks like this one was worth waiting for. Developed by two SLPs, Heidi LoStracco and Renee Collender, Speak for Yourself piqued my interest when I saw it at the ASHA convention in San Diego. We’re having fun exploring what it can do and looking forward to using Speak for Yourself with some of our AAC... [Read More...]

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Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Apps You Love – Painting with Time

January 15, 2012 by - Leave your thoughts

Magic Moments: AAC Intervention with Apps You Love - Painting with Time

Sean Sweeney, from Speech Techies, always has great ideas for free or low cost apps or web-based materials that have wonderful therapeutic potential. Recently, he posted about Painting with Time, a free app that you can read about here. It’s such a cool app that we decided to use it to launch our Magic Moments series. – Magic Moments is an occasional series that gives PrAACtical suggestions for therapy materials, apps, software, and websites that are easy for SLPs to access and use in their clinical work. We’ll focus on materials that many of us already own and use, as well as on free or nearly free materials. Sometimes the materials will be electronic, like iPad apps or software. Other times, we’ll go ‘old school’ and bring out some of our favorite therapy materials, like toys, games, photo albums, and more. The focus will be on using those materials to teach language... [Read More...]

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5 Things To Do Before You Choose an AAC App: Take A GULP

January 11, 2012 by - 1 Comment

5 Things To Do Before You Choose an AAC App: Take A GULP

Thinking about getting an AAC app for someone you know with significant communication difficulties? There are some exciting options out there and more AAC apps are being released all the time. It’s easy to get caught up in the possibilities and click on the harmless little ‘buy’ button. We know. We’ve done it, too. And learned from it. So, next time you are thinking about buying an AAC app, stop for a second and take A GULP: Ask: What do I want the person to be able to do with this app? An app for generative language has very different specs than and app for choice-making. Get a comprehensive list of AAC apps, like this one from Spectronics, or consider a product like AAC Apps Assistant . Explore the product videos on iTunes, YouTube or at the vendor’s website. Use a feature match approach to assessment to ensure a good... [Read More...]

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