swipe! jan/feb 2015

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Swipe! Issue 2 January/February 2015

Core Vocabulary: How Important Is It?

represents 80% of

what we say

consists of 200 - 300

words

is consistent across place,

topic and cognitive

needs to be accessed

quickly & easily

Core Vocab is VERY important. You could say it’s the window to effective communication.

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Visual Scene Displays: another option for AAC users

What is a Visual Scene Display

(VSD)?

It is a picture, photograph or virtual environment that

represents a situation, place or experience. It shows people,

actions and objects in a visually integrated image. Messages are accessed through the

picture.

We are all familiar with communication boards and the use of both single meaning pictures and words to help students communicate. However, another option to consider is a VSD. A VSD is very useful with children or adults with cognitive deficits. The advantage of a VSDs is that they provide a high level of contextual support and reduce the cognitive demands of learning symbol meanings and navigating through pages to find symbols. They capture events in a person’s life and allow the communication partner to participate more actively in the interaction (Blackstone, 2004) and they are an easy alternative to some of the more cumbersome AAC alternatives.

Interactive VSDs can be created with actual pictures of the child’s environment or with cartoon pictures. The beauty of these displays is that they are highly contextual, allow for asking questions in a variety of ways and can be quickly and easily created with free apps that may already be on your iPad. On the next page we’ll explore how to create a VSD with the Tiny Tap app.

To read more about VSDs check out this article by Dr. Sara Blackstone: http://tinyurl.com/6abll5a

My “take away” (as Dr. Phil would say) from the Blackstone article: One approach researchers are currently investigating—-visual scene displays (VSDs)—may be particularly helpful to beginning communicators and individuals with cognitive and linguistic limitations. VSDs offer a way to (1) capture events in the individual’s life, (2) offer people a greater degree of contextual information to support interaction and (3) enables communication partners to participate more actively in the communication process.

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I’m always looking for new ways to use apps I already love and the free app Tiny Tap lends itself well to creating VSDs. Tiny Tap allows you to take a picture of an environment or use a picture off the internet to create “hot spots” with an auditory message which the student can tap on to communicate a question, request or statement.

How Create a VSD with the Tiny Tap App 1. Tap on the + sign to create a new game. 2. Tap on the smile face icon, then “background” and choose a color. 3. Tap on the camera icon and choose a picture you’ve saved in your camera roll. Size and position it. Or tap on the little magnifying glass to grab an image from the web. 4. Tap on the “Add Activity” button then “next”. 5. Tap on “Create a Sound Board”. 6. Draw a circle on the object you want to talk about the touch the + sign on it. 7. Tap “Start Recording” and add your request, question or comment. 8. Do this for each area you want to add a voice to. 9. Remember you can always go back at any time and edit the comments or add to them.

Below is the image I used and targeted the areas of the freezer, refrigerator, cupboard, oven and pantry to produce comments or requests. To get it to use or edit it, go to the Tiny Tap App and search “Kitchen Request VSD”. Remember, you can also take a picture of a room such as a kitchen, classroom, bathroom or workplace to help with communication of activities of daily living.

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2 Other Ways to Create a VSD:

Scene Speak - $9.99 This app is versatile and customizable and provides a framework on the iPad to create interactive visual scene displays and social stories. Scene Speak allows an image to be edited with active “hotspots”. A hotspot is an area of the screen that can “sound areas” that can be selected and used as a means of communication. An image can

have multiple “hotspots” that can be edited to add sound, text labels or link to another visual scene. In addition, Images with text can be then can be added into “books” by theme or area of interest. I purchased this app and just started to use it with a few students as a beginning point for requesting objects along with using pictures. It is easy to figure out how to use. So for me, “the verdict is still out”, however it has received very good reviews and has 4.5 out of 5 stars.

ThingLink – Free

This app allows you to create interactive images by upload your own image or an image from the web and then you can create imbedded links, text, audio and videos into the image, which are displayed as tiny icons. When the icons are touched the audio is played or a video plays or text appears to give further information. Created ThingLinks can be made public or private. It’s free for 100 uploads, but there are also paid plans. Here is a quick video on how to create a ThingLink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2jJiao1LVk

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For Our OT Friends……..

Cause and Effect Apps

iLoveFireworks: $0.99 (with a free Lite version) This app makes big sounds and big visual displays with a simple tap of the finger. It’s also great for teaching cause and effect as well as increasing visual attention.

Doodle Kids: Free This bright doodle and drawing app is good for teaching cause and effect and visual attention. There is no audio but the colors are very grabbing and high contrast.

Infant Zoo Lite: Free Simple high-contrast illustrations encourage visual attention and help to develop an understanding of cause and effect.

Fluidity HD – free Very responsive screen encourages simple motor movements with bold visual displays. Great for teaching cause and effect and increasing visual attention (no audio).

Art of Glow: Free Simple drawing app with very responsive screen. Helps to build visual attention and cause and effect (no audio).

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Tap-N-See Zoo: $2.99 (with a lite version) The developer of this app calls it "the first app for iPad and iPhone created specifically for children with cortical visual impairment." Additional in-app purchases available according to theme - .99 per pack.

Baby Finger HD: Free The tap of a finger causes movements and sounds on the screen. Very easy to use and geared toward younger children. Good for motor cause and effect.

Cause & Effect Sensory Light Box: $2.99 This is a really well made cause-and-effect app that creates sounds and lights when your finger is on the screen, then stops when you remove your finger. Perfect for children with low vision or CVI.

Button Board – free This a fun and educational game for preschoolers that introduces colors through creative play.

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Visual Attention Therapy Lite for free; paid for $9.99 – Cognitive Training Designed to strengthen attention span & visual scaning . Students can practice scanning from left to right across a page which helps retrain the brain to move the eyes correctly. Strengthening this essential skill can improve reading, concentration, memory, attention to detail, and speed of processing. Using two targets at once can help users with working memory and alternating attention. Visual Attention Therapy was developed by a certified Speech-Language Pathologist to help stroke and brain injury survivors. People of all ages enjoy racing against the clock to challenge themselves to improve on their scores while improving their cognitive and reading skills.

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P.O.V: Spatial Reasoning Skills Development - $3.99 from Binary Labs P.O.V. stands for “Point of View” and is a set of 3 activities designed to teach spatial reasoning skills through fun, challenging, interactive activities. 1) Intro & Explore- Learn about the game mechanics and 4 different points of view. 2) Vantage Point - See a top view and side view of objects and choose the matching side view. 3) Make a Scene - Move the top view objects to match the side view. Players must think their way through the activities, which get increasingly difficult as each level is mastered. Players are timed and are challenged to continually improve on their best times. P.O.V. is designed for ages 6 and up. But can easily be used with adults because of straight forward graphics. For best results the exercises should be done on a regular basis. The activities are designed to be repeatable and engaging. The automatic tracking and reporting feature makes it easy for parents, teachers and therapists to identify time on task and progress. You can email the progress reports right from the app itself.

This is a very cool app and Iʼve had a lot of fun playing around with it. The other day I used it with 2 CD students to teach “right/left” concepts as well as “nearer/farther” concepts. Itʼs also good for hold problem solving and immediate/short term visual memory recall.

Watch this video to see how P.O.V works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCq7MKiC5VY

Bring in language skills and have the student verbalize what they are seeing using direction words: Left/right, above/below, closer/farther, etc…

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LetterReflex - $3.99 Does your child get his b’s and d’s mixed up? How about her p’s and q’s? LetterReflex provides a fun way to help overcome common letter reversals.

The first activity, Tilt It, uses kinesthetic learning to teach left from right.

The second activity, Flip It, allows them to practice what they learned while honing their letter discrimination skills.

Tilt It: Teach Left from Right using Kinesthetic Learning According to research, a key reason for letter reversals is not knowing left from right, and as a result kids get confused when trying to discriminate between a “b” and a ‘d” or a “p” and a “q”. They’re not quite sure which side the letter loop should go on. The Tilt It activity uses kinesthetic learning techniques to help kids map their left side/right side to correct letter formation. They will learn the correct position of letter loops by being challenged to tilt the device in the correct direction to form letters.

Buy the bundle of both LetterReflex and P.O.V in the iTunes store for a discount of only $4.99.

Check out the video for LetterReflex here:

http://www.dexteria.net/#prettyPhoto/2/

"The difference between the right

word and the almost right word is the difference

between lightning and a lightning

bug."

- Mark Twain

"Communication

leads to community, that is, to

understanding, intimacy and

mutual valuing."

- Rollo May

“Kind words can be short

and easy to speak, but their echoes

are truly endlessly.”

- Mother Theresa


well as each entry (picture) within an album. Photos or symbols may be uploaded from your camera, taken with your iPad/iTouch or iPhone or downloaded from a large number of free clip art/photo art web sites. Each photo appears in a 2x2 inch representation with unlimited albums and pages. Editing allows you to move, rotate, scale and re-sequence photos. Users create grids of three pictures horizontally and unlimited choices vertically. For example, an album cover may consist of an empty plate and verbal cue such as “I’m hungry”. Once activated, album contents could include photos of favorite food items. Customized recordings allow the user to record single words or entire phrases to communicate the desired message. Simple navigation once inside the album consists of an arrow leading back to the initial album covers. This feature allows for easy navigation and prevents the user from becoming lost or confused by multiple interconnecting pages. Editing may be locked in order to prevent unwanted changes to programming. Your password, should you set one, will be emailed to the address of your choice.

Here is a quick video that tell you about this app:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6byiyLc4S8

Economical App Alternatives for

Communication Boards

Have you ever heard the saying, “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”? This saying can be applied to many different situations including the use of communication apps. While there are expensive and powerful communication apps that have all the bells and whistles, they are not always the best option for the student. Often times students have a difficult time using the more involved apps. If this is the case, then that particular apps is probably not a good fit and just because it’s out there, it doesn’t mean it’s the right app for that student. Finding the right communication app involves a lot of trial and error and time but the results can be rewarding to the student, the student’s family and the therapist. In the next few pages we are going to explore a few lower priced apps which can used as a “gateway” to the more powerful apps.

The first app is Talk’n Photos and it’s $2.99. Talk'n Photos is a simple to navigate talking photo album. Completely customizable, this app allows you to add text and voice recording to album covers as


This app is inspired by true story of a child with a learning disability. He had motor planning issues to communicate with those around him and had a hard time speaking words. It took him a couple of seconds to say what he needed i.e water, food. The developers of this app were inspired by this story and created this simple communication app. This is a universal app, meaning you download it once and and you can use it on multiple devices.

You can create your own custom buttons and record your voice for the button. This app allows you to create unlimited buttons and unlimited pages. Navigation is a simple swipe of left or right to move between pages. Jt comes with 4 pre-built YES/NO buttons with sound. You can use your own pictures from your photo album or take pictures with your device’s camera and add it to your button. Arrange buttons in two pairs or show one button per page. You can also set custom backgrounds . Check out this video to learn how to use it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_wTWtd9DGQ

Talk + Touch App

$1.99

"Of all of our inventions for mass

communication, pictures still speak the

most universally understood

language." - Walt Disney


Tiny Alien Maker - $1.99 Last week I had this little guy in therapy and he absolutely loves Toca Monster Kitchen, in fact I would say that he is a tiny bit obsessed with it. Every time I brought him to speech we’d have to play it, which was fine because one of his goals is requesting using color and number attributes in a sentence, however I thought we needed to try another app which would be similar but different. Enter “Tiny Alien Maker”. This is a really fun app that’s easy to use, allows creativity and opportunities for building language skills. I’m in deep like with this app right now!

Here is a short video about it: http://tinyurl.com/n826asp

How Does It Work? Kids start by selecting any of the four included templates: alien, rocket, alien pet, and spaceship. They will then be taken to the workspace where they can piece together their creature. On the left side of the screen are buttons for choosing heads, arms, legs, facial features, and spaceship parts. Each body part comes in a variety of colors and shapes. The facial features cover various emotions including happy, sad, and angry. Kids simply choose the one they want from the drawer on the bottom, then drag it onto the template. Once they have assembled their creature, they can save it to the Space Gallery by tapping on the checkmark on the top of the screen. Here’s the extending part…. you can print out their creation in a line drawing (coloring page). To print your student’s creations, first access the Space Gallery menu from the main screen. Select the alien or space scene you want then tap on the green icon in the upper right corner and chose the color image or the line drawing image.

Next choose the full page, full color art, birthday cards, birthday invitations or a coloring page card option and it will

automatically export to your camera roll.

Afterwards, simply find the exported image in your camera roll and email it to a computer

that’s connected to a printer, and print it out. Tiny Alien Maker does not

have ads or in-app purchases. All external links are placed in a protected section for parents.

More Language Please….. I’m a firm believer in using pictures or manipulatives to slow down the “tapping and swiping” on the iPad in order to increase the “requesting and describing”. I like to control the iPad during therapy sessions because again I can control the tempo of the session as well as increase the amount of language being used. Just like with any other app that allows you to create through choices, separate menus of these choices need to be produced. How do you do this? Easy, think “screenshot”. I did this with the “Cookie Doodle App” and the “Bamba Ice Cream App” to create tiny choice menus from which the student has to request objects from in order to get a chance to access them on the iPad to make their creation.

Continued on next page……….


How To Make Your Own Mini Menus:

1. Open the Tiny Alien Maker App

2. Choose the Alien, choose the “body” icon and take a screen shot. Do this for each of the body parts. (Some of them you will have to swipe over and take another screen shot in order to get pictures of one kind of body part).

3. Go to your Camera Roll on your iPad and email yourself the pictures.

4. Open your email and download the photos to a folder on your desktop.

5. Open a new Word document and insert one of the screen shot pictures in it, crop so you just get a group of body parts.

6. Do this for each body part. (See example to the right)

7. Print out, cut, laminate, hole punch, stick on a ring.

THE BEST PART! You don’t have to make the mini menu

cards for the Tiny Alien

Maker App. My wonderful

student intern has created a set for you as well

as 7 premade Aliens. Thanks Alicia!

You can grab them here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_7HLVQM-

7EubHZMNUJDSDZldk0&authuser=0

These are very large files so it will take a little time for them to load.

Once loaded just download them to your desktop and then print them out

and laminate.


That’s All

Folks!

Comments or questions can be emailed to:

[email protected]

swipe! jan/feb 2015

Documents

tiny tap app

free app tiny tap

visual scene displays

visual scene display

picture youve

communication boards

effective communication

communication partners