Snow day = Webinar day!

 

Today I viewed 3 webinar’s in lieu of attending class this Saturday. I watched Top Apps in Special Education, Apps for Fine Motor Skills and Apps in Action for Communication. To focus myself (and this blog post) I selected two of my students to keep in mind as I viewed. I’ve selected apps from these webinar’s that I think would be useful to them.

 

Meet T

 

T is 15 years old. She has a chromosomal imbalance which is believed to relate to a cognitive delay, she has OCD, fine motor problems and suffers from anxiety. While T is not diagnosed as autistic it is the belief of her family and educators that she is on the spectrum and we are waiting on a diagnosis to access further support for her. At this point in T’s school career communication is her biggest issue. Not only does she struggle with communicating her ideas and feelings, English is also her second language with adds to the problems that she is currently experiencing.

Frustration  and Social Communication
T often feels frustrated when she can’t express herself to others. Recently we have seen an increase in her responding physically when she is frustrated (throwing things for example). We are working hard at having her use her “words” rather than “body” to express herself. The following apps would help with getting her to become a bit calmer and able to focus on a better solution to her frustrations.
Pocket Pond – free. This app could be used to provide T with a relaxing outlet so that she can calm down and focus on how to best express what she is feeling.  It could also help develop language by providing a discussion topic re: the pond.

DustyD Dawg has Feelings Too –Free.  In this app students can empathise with dog and ask themselves how they would behave if they were experiencing the same feelings.  This would be perfect for T as she loves dogs.
Howcast – Free “How to” videos on a variety of subjects. She could watch videos and focus on sequencing of events while learning some social rules. Great for rehearsal with concepts which she needs such as how to meet people and talk to people.  However, she couldn’t be left alone with it as she does fixate on “relationships” and further research showed that there are a number of sex and dating advice topics that would in inappropriate for her, yet she would be drawn to it!

Language
In terms of written and spoken language T struggles with sequencing, phonics, sentence building and generating focused ideas. Apps that would best support her in this area would be:

Sentence Magic series – T struggles with sentence formation this would help.
ArtikPix – Free to $29.99. This app would help with her articulation, sentence building and consonant blends.
Let’s Name Things – Free. This app would help T learn to categorize knowledge and build vocabulary.
Pictello –$1.99. This app will help T sequence her ideas with pictures (which will in turn help her sequence in words).
Communication Skills - $1.99 for iPad HD. I think this app would be perfect for T. It provides mini lessons for all types of communication skills such as listening, waiting your turn, eye contact, etc.  

Fine Motor Skills
We are working on T’s fine motor skills in terms of her formation of letters, use of scissors, etc. However, I learned in the webinar that by age 10-11 grip and letter formation are ingrained and very difficult to change, therefore remediation will likely not work. I didn’t know this before. There has been much difficulty in this area as T’s anxiety and OCD often present themselves with her fixation on rubbing, washing and wringing her hands. I believe this has interfered with her motor skill development. Apps that T could use to practice, while not entirely remediate, in this area include:

Dexteria. $4.99 – writing readiness, develop pre-writing skills – so good for remediation and not for older kids. Isolates finger control. Pinch, tap and write options. Various stylus’, good for different age levels.

Injini. $29.99 or FREE for the lite version. 9 levels to enhance writing skills – also includes following direction/attention and so forth in addition to fine motor. Visually it’s less child-like (more middle elementary less primary). Can use your finger or a stylus to develop both skills.
Pirate Scribblebeard. $0.99. Very engaging – use for fine motor development (stylus). Animates what you draw! Definitely engaging! Great for upper elementary and even junior high.
WritePad for iPad. $9.99. Great for older students (junior high). At this age kids feel disengaged and frustrated at writing process. This app will help! Students can use finger or a stylus to write, it then converts immediately to text. Students can then send their work to themselves, parent or teacher. It also has a keyboard option if it’s not recognizing handwriting. Option for word prediction as well which would alleviate frustration for kids. It also supports different languages (great for my school!).

Meet N

N is 14 years old and has cerebral palsy. He is mostly non verbal and has a visual impairment. N uses “yes” and “no” to communicate and is currently learning how to use a head switch for AAC. His biggest need is to be able to communicate. In the past N has been very reluctant to use technology, however he has become more receptive to it this year.
One of N’s individual outcomes is to design a personal yearbook of his school and life experiences. I think using Photo Booth on the iPad to take pictures of himself/his day to create personal journal is an excellent use of this feature.  Combining photos from Photo Booth with apps like PicCollage and Strip Designer would provide opportunity for this project.
Proloquo2go - $189. This app appears to be the best design in terms of create communication boards for individual kids. I’ve written about it in a previous post so I won’t go into it much further here. My only concern would be designing it as simplistically as possible as N is new to AAC. From what I have read he should be able to use his head switch to select.

Sounding Board - $49.99 is switch accessible. Can personalize similar to Proloquo2go and the pictures seem clear and interesting. Navigating back to menu a bit difficult as you have to select from upper left corner. Can select an image and record a phrase to personalize it that way the user only has to make one choice for a full phrase. Perfect for N who uses a head switch

Expressive -  $49.99 seems like a starter version of Proloquo2go…this would be ideal to find out if N would like to use this type of AAC as he has been resistant in the past to various technologies. Can he use switch with this one?

In addition to purchased apps N’s iPad should be set up specifically for him by personalizing it through the Settings app.  He would benefit from zoom magnification, text to speech options, white/black for high contrast, personal gesture swipes.

 

Mom's with Apps is a great resource for further information on apps for kids with special needs. I've linked it to my useful links bar.