We’re so envious of London’s City University event, Therapy Ideas Live, that we read about on the Therapy Ideas blog.Their lightning talks on various SLPs, like this one on AAC and the iPad by Rebecca Bright of Therapy Box, are limited to 5 minutes. Based on the Ignite model, (‘Enlighten us, but make it quick!’) they are a perfect fit for our waning attention spans. What can you learn in 5 minutes? A lot! Enjoy! –
Filed under: Video of the Week
Tagged With: iPad
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...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, intervention, iPad, Magic Moments
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...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, intervention, iPad, Magic Moments
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...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking
Tagged With: Apps, assessment, iPad
A colleague and I taught a workshop awhile back where there was an interesting sidebar conversation. A special educator was trying to convince an administrator that even though her student used a high tech speech generating device (SGD), she still needed the software to create other communication tools, like language boards and visual schedules. Having spent a great deal of money on AAC technology, the administrator was reluctant to commit additional funds for that authoring software. “She has a $5,000 device,” Sally Supervisor said. “Now you’re telling me you need special software to make things you can print out on paper?”The teacher’s point, of course, was a valid one. Children with AAC needs, like the rest of us, communicate in a variety of ways. In most cases, they need access to a variety of tools and the training to use them effectively. Just like we do.We gesture. We write with... [Read More...]
Filed under: PrAACtical Thinking, Strategy of the Month
Tagged With: access, apraxia, iPad, modes of communication, tech, visual schedule