Low Tech - Low Cost dollar store items

After the morning demonstration of low-tech items for AT applications, the class took the afternoon to shop for similiar items that could be useful for classrooom (potentially home as well) applications. The Dollar store had many great items to choose from - 5 such items are below:

*	Rubber Ball with moving soccer ball and glitter inside. This ball responds to movement similar to an old-style snow globe and easily fits into one’s hand. This ball would make a great fidget toy for a student - such as one diagnosed with ADHD - who could benefit with an item that assists with self-regulation. It also can assist with focus and attention to task, calming, and active listening. Additionally it would not break easily and it would be quiet if dropped.
*	Tug Toy for a Dog. This study rope double looped item has its intended use for a game of tug with one’s dog, however, this 9” item with a tennis ball inside would be beneficial for an OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) student who has an aversion to touching other people’s hands but needs to be led by another person. As this item is very stiff and doesn’t lose its shape, it would be easy to grasp one end of the loop.
*	Stretch Cord with Carabiners. This multi-purpose “bungee” cord with attached carabiners at either end can serve so many useful purposes for students with exceptionalities with motor skills. It can be used to secure items such as books to an extension table for example, for students who are diagnosed with Spastic Diplegia (Paraplegia) Cerebral Palsy - the most common form of CP. This item could also be useful for attaching items at one end, such as a key, and securing the other end to a person or wheelchair for example. Since the cord stretches, it would allow for movement while staying with the intended person or object.
*	Bathtime Foam Shapes These lightweight foam shaped pieces are waterproof, small hand-sized, and colourful with high interest pictures. One possible use for the pieces is to assist a visually impaired student. The ability to ‘feel the shape’ of the pieces would assist in learning shapes like star, circle, square etc., as they could feel the shape and add tactile sensory information in addition to auditory.
	Create Your Own Photo Magnets This item is basically one magnet sheet with a peel and stick surface. It can have a paper picture attached and then can be cut to any shape. This item would be great for an ASD student who depends on visual cues for prompting and assistance. The ability to be moved from one magnetic surface to another makes this item flexible and portable.

June 9

Morning Activities

 

The morning started out with several presentations of group stories from the Book Creator app:

·        Raise your hand

·        Personal space

      ·        Waiting my turn at the water fountain
      ·        Using my hook

 

There were very good examples for social stories for a variety of situations in a school or in the community. As mentioned in the last post, the stories were easy to create and I enjoyed watching the other 'books' created by class groups. I especially liked the book on personal space - I find that this can be an issue with students as I have witnessed students who didn't know this aspect of interacting with others. As a child becomes older, this is especially important as inappropriate behaviors by peers can be initiated by invasion into their personal space.

 Especially intriguing was the demonstration of low cost items that could be purchased at a dollar store and used for 'low tech' AT applications. These items were not modified in any way and were ready to go after purchase.

 Some examples were:

• Plastic salad tongs which could be used to help pick things up for those with grasping difficulties.
• Egg carton which separates items in its sections which also help develop a pincher grasp.
• Foam curler that could assist as a pencil grip for those who need extra assistance with grip
• Car wash brush which is soft to the touch and could be used for assisting a student with spacial orientation, such as an ASD student.

Examples were also shown of low-cost items that were modified/adapted to suit a specific task and purpose. As well, there were great examples.

• Story book with stiff cardboard type pages suitable for a child but with the modification of placing and gluing 'toe-separators' to the backs of every page and 'fanning open'so that the page could be much more easily opened thus de-emphasizing fine motor skills and enabling those with these motor challenges to have access to reading a book by themselves.
• Paper cup with adaptation which was my favorite item. I could not figure out what the missing piece in the cup was for until demonstrated. The item was for someone who could not fully tilt their head back to drink liquid contents so the missing 'half moon' portion on one side of the cup was for the cup to tilt to make full contact with the fact - in effect, a noise opening.
• 4 inch ring binder that, when placed on its side became an excellent slant board for those individuals who need materials placed on an angle. With the addition of grippy shelf style foam (which I have used in the past for camper cupboards with dishes), the binder will not slip from its location.

 I cannot believe that the actual price of a purchased slant board from educational sales places are $300.00. I find that anything to do with education needs are excessively inflated in price. No wonder individuals need to be creative when looking at needs and solutions.

 

http://ableplay.org/ was a website that was explored this morning as well. It actually is a non-profit charity that highlights appropriate AT for persons with exceptionalities. Ratings and opinions and an evaluation of an item are a feature of this site. The seach button enables a person to search according to a specific disability category. A list of toys is shown that could provide assistance for the disability.

June 2nd

     Great demonstration this morning of the usage of Apple TV and airplay - students can take over the presentation of the app from their desk which is beneficial for students who don't like to come up to the front of the classroom to speak or use a whiteboard.

Some of the interactive apps for classroom applications that I really liked:

Frogdisection  - shows the stages of egg, tadpole to full grown frog. Shows and describes internal organs in 360 degress for example. Pretty amazing. Human vs frog comparison table.
Many books are being digitized by book publishers now so that learning can occur digitally rather and be more interactive.

BareFootWorld Atlas - spinning globe. Can go around the world and many different applications - not just geography but can be used for other subjects, politics for example.

Back in Time - time line of evolution - a very beautiful presentation with this app. Beautiful videos.I just LOVED this app. I would have spent hours and hours with this as a kid.

BritannicaKids - $1.99 per each subject with speech selection. Say goodbye to Encyclopedia book sales which cannot be updated as with this type of product.

Simplephysics - interactive activities: ladder to tree example. Great for physics teachers, parents and students alike.

Essential hardware adaptors for expanded iPad usage:

Apple brand VGA to iPad connector enables the iPad to be able to connect to the classroom projector.








Generic brand adaptor for iPad for other applications.
BuyNCell
www.buyncell.ca


During the morning portion, we viewed webinars related to apps for various applications and student needs.

Our group task was to view an assigned webinar.  Our group looked at the "Top free apps in Special Education".  This webinar featured 30 apps -  there were so many apps to choose from for our presentation of 3 apps. We finally narrowed it down to:

Science360 - a free app by the American Science Foundation for the iPad only that features beautiful and informative science and engineering videos and pictures. This is delivered in streaming video or still picture format. This app allows sharing to twitter, Facebook or email. Great for visual learners and all students to engage for interest and learning activities.

Pocket Pond - another free app that is very beautiful as it shows a koi pond that is very interactive; touch the water and it makes a water sound, add more fish, lillypads or dragonflies as you wish. Sounds like outdoors. A great app to calm and sooth, great for transitions with students who need a break in routine and good for controlling emotions. I am going to download this myself as it is so relaxing and everyperson can appreciate a mental break, not just special needs students.

TourWrist - 2012 people's choice award winner, MacWorld 2012 best of show winner. Panoramic views from around the world where anyone can upload videos. An amazing app.

Other groups presented on their selections:

1st group :Physical Access to mobile devices

WritePad: draw on iPad - converts handwriting to text

Touch trainer - trains student with fine motor issues to practice toucing the screen, reward is moving target which gets smaller, moves and music plays - the target selection and cause and effect

Dragon speaking free: speech to text program

2nd group: Executive Functions

Sock puppets: good for students who are afraid to make eye contact. Hears a sound and moves the mouth. Can record, good for speech delays.

Shredder: type word and pull negative thought by finger into the picture of a paper shredder. Frontal lobe - let go and move on.

LetPanicGo: no sound and need to read, no settings, scripted. Focuses thought on fallling leaves or a feather - "keep breathing and touch the screen in the box shown. Good for students with anxiety and OCD issues.

3rd group: Early Learners

Prior to usage for early learners, it is important to address the "Rules of engagement" - rules for using the iPad to prevent damage and encourage proper usage.

Kiddie questions: asks 5 Wh questions. Example: "What flies in the sky?" Click for answer, will speak the answer as well. Interaction with child or independent.

Bugs and Buttons: flying bees - many activities. Pinch and grap - pinch spiders and put into jar with sounds. Have to touch. Addresses lots of skills. Address finger strength and prewriting skills for holding a pencil. Reward, collect bugs to scrapbook. Engaging and inexpensive.

JibJab: import photo and put into person template. Example: student makes a pizza. Lots of fun for sure.

4th group: Communication Disorders

Sign4ME: Type in message and onscreen person signs message. Can move around all dimentions and perspectives, 11,500 words can be signed. $9.99 cost

Speech Tutor: Video modelling. Shows how to form letters by showing an upclose picture of a sideways or front facing face. Palette diagram shows where tongue hits mouth. Can record own pronouciation. Speaks pronounciation. Great app instead of using a mirror.

5th group: Math

Money Count CAD: can set time to count money. Screenshot shows are variety of coins that a student counts.Has issues since game needs to finish before can return to the main screen. Can't move coins either. Can scale to number of coins.

Symmetry Shuffle: slide, flip or turn a picture (a cup for example). Counts time or number of moves - can be challenging and fun.

Number Line: positive and negative

Barb as well highlighted a couple more math apps:

math dictionary - visually looks like cognitive credit cards - speaks as well

math glossary, math terms, Kahn academy

Second Group Task - afternoon

     My parter Alana and I created a social story book based on the principles of video modelling to encourage positive behaviors and outcomes. We used an app, Book creator, which produces a print based story that allows text, picures and sound  to be entered. This app is great for ASD students as it can be very personalized. It was extremely easy to use the interface in this app to create a book. Aditionally, I can see this app being useful not only for students with exceptionalities but with all students to create personalized books on any topic. This book can then be 'published' to the iBooks app in the iPad (iPhone/iPod) where it can be viewed as a book, like any other purchased or created book that is placed in the app.

Book creator app. $ 4.99

     As the new owner of an iPad since March of this year, and as an owner of an iPhone since 2008, I am enjoying the various apps that are available on the iPad 2. I actually purchased this Book Creator app about a month ago but didn't get around to using it to create any type of book. After this exercise on Saturday, I thought I would try the app and create my own social story.

  

     Since social stories can be used to assist with the understanding of  a specific social situation  and provide a positive example to replace a problem or unappropriate behavior with an appropriate one,  I chose to create a social story for a student who is perhaps impulsive, OCD or ASD. This student is having problems waiting her/his turn on the playground at recess time which is having a  negative impact on fellow classmates. Sharing the Playground with Others is the name of the book.

The link for the presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kGEjdfh8glTyTFfKinyH7y-BYMBhCBpMHKe5DWwvaDM/edit

Below is the book in the Book Creator app before it is put into iBooks. The top toolbar is shown however in iBooks the top bar will not be event.There is a sound icon on each page where the text is read out loud when touched on the iPad.

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Augmentative and Alternative Communication – AAC apps

After spending time in the iTunes store and reviewing the many apps that are available in the Education category and other categories as well, I selected the following 5 apps below which can address Augmentative and Alternative Communication needs of persons who are non-verbal or need assistance with verbal communication.

	Speech Button iPhone, iPod & iPad	Free Version and Paid $3.99	Designed by an SLP and school psychologist as an ACC AT to assist those with speech difficulties and non-verbal persons. The free version has 4 words that are spoken with the touch of an onscreen button -y es, no, more please, all done - while the paid version has 25 words. Very simplified compared to Proloquo2Go but can be used as a springboard to a more complex picture/text to speech App. web page describing app
	Discover MyVoice for iOS iPhone, iPod & iPad & Android	$49.99	An ACC app that is for persons who are non-verbal and of low cognitive ability. It is easy to set up, lets one record a voice or the device can read the message and personal pictures can be added to comprise a virtual picture board. Similiar to Proloquo2Go categories are added and the device will say a phrase or the item’s name. This app is promoting itself as being better than a paper picture board, and indeed it is. For the price, I believe it is a very beneficial ACC app. tutorial for app
	AAC Speech Buddy iPhone, iPod & iPad & Android	$39.99	This AAC app is designed to create customized, personalized speech communication sets; can add own pictures or use one of 2000 built -in images, 12 text to speech voices or use one of 12 built-in voices. Screen looks very similar to Proloquo2Go but again, the price is lower therefore a good value for the price. web page for SpeechBuddy
	Assistive Chat iPhone, iPod & iPad	$24.99	Assistive Chat is a predictive speech to voice typing app. The typed letter opens up a list of words to choose from or the words can be displayed prior to typing a keystroke.The typed sentences are then remembered in a list so that when touched they are voiced out loud by a selection of built-in voices. There are free software programs for the computer, such as MyStudyBar that have predictive text to speech but this app is portable on a device and a fairly good value for the cost. httpweb page for Assistive Chat
	I Click I Talk Compact iPad	$ .99	A very inexpensive AAC app that was created by an SLP and a computer scientist. The app comes with 70 images and preloaded audio files with the ability to record one’s own voice and add personal pictures or use the app’s ability to download free (1000) cartoon-like images. Text can be inserted below any image with the ability to create a maximum of 4 categories and 8 images for each category. Certainly a great price for AT persons who are non-verbal and need a visual portable layout on a device such as an iPad. web page review for I Click I Talk

Setting up the selection set for Proloque2Go – In Class group task

     Our 2nd double class on Saturday, May 26th expanded on our introduction to Proloquo2Go from our last class. Programming and customization – the designing of a selection set – was our focus for an assigned case study which involved a grade 3 female student. In setting out with the iPad to perform this task, it became apparent to our group of 3 that there was much more thought required than initially expected as there were many considerations: the environment (milieu), cognitive and physical abilities and communication needs of the student. Collaboratively, we decided on 3 buttons (dynamic folders) for the 1st screen appearance: Me, Home and School. To reach this stage we sat down and mapped out – Inspiration style – what we wanted to cover for all 3 main categories. For example, under “Me” we focused on her everyday dealings with others and considered that “…she enjoys friends but has minimal opportunities to play with them because they don't know how to respond to the (previous) AAC”; therefore we spent some time thinking about what she wanted to say to her friends. However, in doing this, we realized that we didn’t have enough time to fully set up this aspect as there were so many thoughts, statements and questions she could potentially convey through the interface. We included a picture of her horse, for example, and a picture of a horse jumping which related to her love of horses that could potentially open up a conversation with her peers about their pets. With more time we could have programmed in questions that involved a give and take of information related to hobbies, likes and dislikes.

     With the other buttons, Home and School, we thought about how ‘deep to branch out’ within each subcategory (sets) and decided our student had the cognitive abilities to handle several layers. We realized that, even after mapping out on paper our ideas in relation to what we thought she would need, there was the time constraint of actually doing it – setting the appearance, selecting symbols (pictures – built-in or added), searching for vocabulary – most of it accomplished by going in and out of edit mode: typing in text to make a sentence and associating it with a symbol for text to speech was a major focus of setting up the category. We visually selected 4 buttons per page but there were many other settings to choose from - one gigantic button to a grid of very small buttons. We found setting up Proloquo2Go is relatively easy once the basics are understood, but indeed time consuming. I can see how the initial set-up could be a challenge – time wise- for teachers, assistants, paraprofessionals, professionals in addition to parents and other significant people involved with a student or person who will use this AT. However, once the basics of setup is grasped, I found it to be user-friendly; for those first starting out with Proloquo2Go, they will find on the web many videos that show the setup of a Proloquo2Go and usage with nonverbal students and adults -the AssistiveWare web site has many downloadable files for a “how to” ease of set-up and usage.
 
http://download.assistiveware.com/proloquo2go/files/Proloquo2GoVisualQuickStart9PerPage.pdf

     I believe that Proloquo2Go on the iPad or iTouch/iPhone is a great AT app for persons who are non-verbal. It provides a voice for communication that allows for positive interactions with others. It surpasses by leaps and bounds other older AT, such as the PEC (Picture exchange program) through its dynamic interface. Additionally, with this AT, I like the fact that real pictures with the camera can be added as well as any other pictures -from a file or the web. Additionally I like that there are several voices to choose from in the set-up. Proloquo2Go can be truly personalized.

     A final thought on setting up Proloquo2Go is that, if I have the opportunity to work with this AT again, I would create a category (button) that would focus on building relationship skills with others and be more situation-specific. Hopefully I will have that opportunity in the near future.

Assistive App

TS (Tap Speak)Button App

The Tap Speak button is a replacement for old AT that was mechanical in nature. In the iTunes app store for $14.99 for the iPod/iPhone and iPad, it is used for communication tasks. Reviews of this app indicate it is a useful tool for communicating single messages. AutismEpicenter.com states that it is good for ASD: “Great for the more severe population!”

Blog posting for class May 5

     The first day of class was very informative as it covered quite a bit of information involving Assistive Technology and its practical use in the classroom and beyond. The Past, Present and Future of AT Power Point demonstrated that the use of AT has been growing and progressing in the classrooms of today’s schools. For example, in the area of writing, there is a changing focus from the actual physical task of writing to a focus on giving students an access to information.  It is being realized by some educators that the  effort spent on reading remediation for students with dysgraphia is  better spent on assistive technology tools and training. Yesterday’s paper, pencils and graphic organizers have progressed to AT such as Kurzweil, PRISMO, scanning software, and iPads. The straightforward definition below sums up the role of AT for persons with a disability:

     Assistive Technology defined: providing access to a task and improving performance of an individual with a disability.

The videos shown of students in the ppt. showed how AT improved their access and performance. Of the students who were benefiting from the use of AT, I was most affected by the cerebral palsy boy who was able to join in with a music class through using his iPad and tongue to keep beat with his classmates. When I was his age in school, he would not have been part of my school; he would have been placed elsewhere in some sort of ‘handicapped facility’ away from the general population. He would also be thought of as intellectually inferior, probably in a major way. The iPad has given this boy a life he would not have had otherwise. This Assistive Technology provides a great benefit to nonverbal persons as it allows the nonverbal to demonstrate their intelligence – an intelligence that would be overlooked or undervalued without such AT.

     The future of AT is exciting, especially when software is constantly being improved and written for assistive devices such as the iPad. In class, I enjoyed using the iPad and the apps that were installed on the device. In class we spent some time on the app, Proloque2 Go which is a pretty amazing app that is especially useful for nonverbal students such as some autistic students. The company’s website describes this AT:

Proloquo2Go™ is an award-winning Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) solution for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch for people who have difficulty speaking or cannot speak at all.

This app was very user friendly and we spent some time navigating the setup and functionality while composing ideas to communicate to another person. The exposure to this app certainly emphasizes that it’s a huge improvement over the older method of physically creating icons, images and pictures by hand and physically moving them around to communicate an idea.

The video from YouTube below shows Nick. His situation, as described on the AssistiveWare website, is as follows: Nick is ten years old and was diagnosed with autism. His progress in speech has been extremely slow. Picture symbols, picture exchange communication techniques and photos were tried but did not work out for him, as Nick was not really interested. When Nick started using an iPad, he immediately understood how it worked and really wanted to use it. The device was reinforcing and he sensed it was a powerful tool for him. Now that Nick is using an iPad with Proloquo2Go he no longer has to try to be what other people want him to be, because he can now initiate communication and say what he wants and needs. Nick lives in New Jersey, USA

The term AAC devices (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) was used in class when describing the iPad and its AT qualities. This term was not one that I was especially familiar with so I want to make note of it on this blog. I like Wikipedia’s definition best which is: “AAC is an umbrella term that encompasses the communication methods used to supplement or replace speech or writing for those with impairments in the production or comprehension of spoken or written language. AAC is used by those with a wide range of speech and language impairments, including congenital impairments such as cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment and autism, and acquired conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. AAC can be a permanent addition to a person's communication or a temporary aid.”

I look forward in the coming classes to learning more about AAC devices and other AT modifications.