Multi-tasking iPad - Two apps at the same time!

If you are like me, you love using your ipad for therapy.  However, there are times when one app just doesn't do it for a group with a variety of goals.  One of the great things about the new iOS 7 update is the improved multi-tasking feature that includes the open app preview.  All I have to do is open the apps I would like to work with during the session. Then you just double bump the home button to activate the multi-tasking feature and switch between the apps for each student's turn.  The previews make it easy for the students to see their app and make the switch themselves as the iPad is passed around the table.  I am embedding a little video of me demonstrating this feature so you can see how easy this is to do!  I hope you find it useful! Remember to access your multi-tasking feature press your home button twice quickly.  

The apps I am using in this video are Super Duper's  Name that Category Fun Deck and Little Bee Speech's Articulation Station Pro

Not too familiar with the multi-tasking feature? Learn more about the features here.

Bloglovin!

Have you checked out  Bloglovin' yet?  I came across this last week, (I know I am probably way slow on this due to "summer brain") and it is a great replacement for Google Reader.  I loved my Google Reader as it was an easy way to follow all my favorite blogs and I was at a loss when they announced its discontinuation. I had yet to figure out how I could follow all the best blogs in one central location.  Enter Bloglovin'!  I have added a Bloglovin' gadget at the top of my page and I encourage you all to check it out.  You can find gadgets on your other favorite blogs or just search for the name of the blog.  I also found a lot of blogs just using the search term "speech therapy".  Once you have created an account and followed some blogs you will get a daily update of all the blogs you follow that posted that day.  Bloglovin' makes it so easy to keep up on all the best blogs!  Now that fall is almost here hopefully I will get back into the swing of blogging myself so you can follow me on Bloglovin!  

Speech with Milo Articulation Game Review

I snagged an app deal this morning thanks to my Facebook feed and AppyMall.  I saw in their feed that Speech with Milo Articulation Game Pro was on sale from $24.99 to $3.99 so I took the plunge and grabbed it.  It only had one review and it wasn't favorable, but I watched the video demo on YouTube and thought it looked like it was worth the money to me.  I used it today with 2 groups and I found a lot of positive things to say about it.  I have a few suggestions for improvement as well. 





Pros

• Easy to add student and select sounds to target
• Can target multiple sounds and positions for each student
• Ability to add up to 5 students per game
• Scoring/Data Collection for correct, incorrect and cued
• Ability to mark multiple productions for the same target word.
• The game shows the student where to move their game piece
• Nice pictures
• Ability to turn off sounds, cues and printed words

Suggestions for improvement

• Target sound cards only speak the word when it is first presented. I would like the option to tap the card again to get the target spoken.
• The pop up box that tells you if you lost a turn or get to move ahead is small. It would be great if it had the option to speak the direction aloud.
• Data doesn't store in the app. You can see your data at any time during the game and at the end but if you don't copy it or email it, you lose it.
• Data only gives you a percentage of correct, incorrect or cued and not the number of words attempted and correct.

Overall this was a nice change of pace for the kids. They liked the game and the target words seemed appropriate for all age levels. I should say that I used it with two 5th grade girls with cognitive impairments as well as two 3rd grade regular education students. If you are looking for an easy way to get a game in with articulation practice this is a great option. Unfortunately, it looks like the price has gone back up as I finish this post. :(


iTunes Description: Entertain your kids with this fantastic PRO version of the Board Game by Speech with Milo. About 1,400 sounds in this app! Data is tracked and can be emailed. Sounds in this app are /r/, /r/ blends, /l/, /l/ blends, /th/, /f/, /v/, /k/, /g/, /s/, /z/, /ch/, /sh/,/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /m/, /n/, /h/, /w/, /y/,/ng/. We offer initial, medial and final options for all applicable sounds.

Old is new again!

Ever pull something out that you haven't used in a while and then think "why the heck haven't I used that more?"  That was me yesterday!  It is the end of the school year and I am trying to get in several more data points for my kids's goals. I have so many groups that are a blend of articulation kids with language kids and I feel like we often don't get enough practice.  So yesterday I pulled out my pocket chart game from a closet  and made up my own game.  I needed /th/ target words for one kid and then practice with attributes, categories, functions and associations for another.  Here is what I came up with.

The original pocket chart game is called Language Adventures Game Show and was from Lakeshore Learning from several years back.  It has language cards that go with it but for today I just stuck my trusty old Webber Artic cards behind the numbers.  I used Post-It labels (see my earlier post about them) to make my own category headings.   The game was simple but provided my two kiddos lot of opportunity to use the /th/ sound and practice the much needed language goals as well.  Have you pulled out any old materials lately and revamped them with success?

Sock Puppets do speech therapy!

I had a great time this morning with one of my students with Autism who loves toys and puppets.  She is always requesting to play with something so I got creative with letting her play with another "non-speech therapy" app.  Using the free app Sock Puppets (by Smith Micro Software Inc.) and some of my traditional SuperDuper Inc. "Who" Cards we created a short dialog where one puppet would ask the question and the other puppet would answer.  She thought this was great.  I got to work on the concept I wanted and she got to play with the puppets.  Replaying the video just added to the reinforcement of the correct answers.  We created several videos, this one is our last one and we are re-practicing the cards we already did to make it perfect practice!  I hope you enjoy watching as much as we enjoyed playing!

Lots of characters to choose from

fun props and backgrounds too!

Toca Tailor - learning and fun!

Check out this cute girl who visited my speech class today! A couple of my girls have been bugging me to use the Toca Tailor app but I wasn't sure how I could make it work for their therapy goals.  Well today we gave it a shot and it was great!  We were able to bring in a lot of the describing skills we have been targeting.  The girls were able to describe the type of clothing they were putting on the character.  We were able to talk about concepts like longer, shorter, long sleeved, short sleeved, and sleeveless.  Choosing the patterns of the fabric gave us lots of opportunities to talk about solids, prints, stripes, polka dots and so on.  We talked about colors that matched and ones that clashed.  The girls had a BLAST! When they were all finished they had to give me the full description of what the character was wearing as well.  Then we had fun taking her picture around the room. First here in front of the bookshelf, then between my two students and so on. How about that for making language fun?  If you don't have any of the Toca Boca apps, check them out soon!  If you use AppShopper to track your wishlist you can get an email or notification when the apps go on sale.  That is how I got all my Toca Boca apps for free or $.99!

Talking about patterns and describing fabrics

Talking about styles of pants and lengths

Talking about patters and what matches, coordinates or clashes

A concept for concepts

If you are like me you are always trying to find a way to target all those pesky basic concept words that so many of our kiddos struggle to understand.  I have been going really low tech over the last week and it has been such a big hit with the kids that I had to share.

Quantity concepts are really hard to understand for so many kids. I use manipulatives frequently but this week I decided to see if using dry erase markers on my table could add a little bit of variety.  The kids love writing on the table and it is easy to bring in math along with  language concepts.  Don't worry clean up was easy with my microfiber cloths!  Here are my photos from a few groups over the past week.  

Even, equal and more than concepts

equal, more than

ordinals

ordinals, most, fewest

more than, more, equal

Guided Access

I wanted to share a little gem of wisdom with you all today.  Maybe you all are way ahead of me but I just realized this AMAZING feature of the updated iOS6 on my ipad.  Did you know you could use a new feature called Guided Access to lock client into an app?  You can even "lock" parts of the screen from being activated!  Do you have any kiddos who just love to press that home button and get out of whatever app they are working in? What about a that kid that continues to hit the settings or home button just to see what it  does?  Well then this setting is for you! I was going to make a video tutorial to show you how to set it up and use it, but then I realized there are tons of how to videos out there already.  So I watched a few and picked this one byAndreas Johansson  from EdTech.  Check it out and see if this is a feature you use!

  Video Tutorial

Huge Teachers Pay Teachers Sale today!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday People!
What is the best way to celebrate this wonderful day of food and football?  Why with a frenzy of awesome downloads on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Today they are having a sale with the code SUPER for an additional 28% off items.  Many of the sellers are running additional sales.  I just spent $17 myself and I am looking forward to the mad printing and laminating I will be doing this week.   Now I am off to fix some yummy appetizers for Superbowl.  I hope you have time to check out TPT today and take advantage of the great sale.

/TH/ and Attributes Superheros  and Vocalic R and Attributes Superheros By Kristine Lamb

Irregular Plural Nouns & Irregular Past Tense Bundle Pack- Monkey Theme!

By Rae's Speech Spot 

Synonym Sandwiches: A Common Core Aligned Activity

By The Speech Bubble 

Multiple ways to practice Multiple Meaning Words

By Emily Richardson 

Multiple Meaning Words: Assessments, Games, and Worksheets

By Mercedes Hutchens  

Vocabulary Monsters {Vocabulary Graphic Organizers}

By Primary Polka Dots 

Multiple Meaning Words- Scoot!

By {heart}2Reed 

 Ahoy, Articulation!

By SLP Gone Wild

Taking Santa to the Salon

Have you seen the the free Christmas themed app from Toca Boca?  What a fun way to get into the spirit of the season and work on language skills at the same time. Don't have the app yet?  Check it out here!
Here are some of my ideas for using the app in therapy.

Describing:
- have the student make up a sentence describing each thing they do to Santa.
- have the student use concept cards (free download) to help describe what is being done to Santa for those kids who need a little extra help generating a sentence.
-Have the student describe how Santa is feeling at each stage of the makeover (emotion cards included in the download) 

Following Directions
- Give the student specific directions as to what they should do to Santa. The student has to follow your directions precisely.
 *****If you are crazy lucky to have two iPads you could even have the students use the app for a barrier activity.  
- Have the student give you directions as to what you should do to Santa.

 Sequencing
-Give the student single or multiple step directions and have them carry them out.
- Have the the student do 2 or 3 things to Santa and then tell you what they did in order.

Choose from two characters

Get to work on Santa's makeover

Check out my TPT site for the full 7 page download

Free download here

My favorite Speecher Teachers Pay Teacher pages (so far)

 So my last post talked a little about my new love, Teachers Pay Teachers.  I have downloaded an insane amount of new materials this week!  Some that I cut up and used within the hour!  Too bad my school is out of laminator film and can't afford more till next month. :(  

Anyway, I thought I would share a few of my favorites that I have found so far.  Some of them I heard of from other bloggers, others I found on my own.  I'm sure there are lots of other great ones that I haven't found yet so if you know of more, leave them in the comments below.  

So here are the ones I like so far, in no particular order.  Check them out and follow them if you like their stuff.
Dean Trout
Whitneyslp
SLPinGA
Dawn Belacic
Lisa Goodell
Heather Bates
PrAACtical AAC
Activity Tailor
SLP Gone Wild
Jenna Rayburn
Kristine Lamb
and of course.... don't' forget me, Heather Strebel!

Let's talk turkey Freebie

I created this activity called Let's Talk Turkey to work on describing with attributes and comparing/contrasting.  I have posted the whole download(17 full color pages) on my Teachers Pay Teachers page.  If you aren't familiar with TPT yet, you are missing out!   There are a ton of really great products created by teachers, speech therapists and special educators just like us!  There are lots of free downloads as well as affordable items to purchase. Plus you can download and use them immediately!

Click on the widget below to go directly to my TPT store and get this download!

Toca Hair Salon and Story Pals | The Spectronics Blog

I had to share this awesome blog post from Amanda Hartmann at Spectronics.  She features one of my favorite apps, Toca Hair Salon along with the an app I was not familiar with,  Story Pals.   I guess I will be making an app request for Story Pals soon!   I love her idea of using the two apps together and I had tons of ideas of how to make these two apps work well with my students. Take a look and see what inspires you!

Practical App Ideas – Featuring: Toca Hair Salon and Story Pals | The Spectronics Blog


Don't forget the subscriber giveaway runs until the 14th!  Sign up to receive post updates by email and enter in the rafflecopter drawing for a chance to win a free app from SuperDuper.

The "I need SUBSCRIBERS" Giveaway!

I am really thrilled that my blog has had over 400 hits in the past month!  However, I still only have two email subscribers.  

So, in an effort to increase my email subscribers and blog followers I have decided to have a app giveaway.  You earn entries for a free $1.99 app from SuperDuper. There will be three winners.  Check out my Rafflecopter giveaway below.   You must subscribe by email to get entered in the drawing.  Just by subscribing you get 10 entries in to the contest!  First enter your email address on the right side of the blog where it says 

look over here ---------------------------->

  

 Then go the the Rafflecopter window below and click on the DO IT button.  You can either sign in to rafflecopter with Facebook or your email.

Then if you choose, you can earn additional entries for sharing on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and more.  You can use the share buttons at the bottom of this post to share on Facebook and Twitter.  Go to my Teachers Pay Teachers and Twitter buttons on the right side of the blog to follow me there.  Then you can click on the rafflecopter "DO IT" entries.

One last thing....don't forget to verify your email address by clicking the link in the subscriber confirmation email you should get after you subscribe!  That will make sure you actually get the blog updates.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Multiple Meaning Bingo

One of my favorite things to work on in speech therapy is multiple meaning words.  I created this bingo game and multiple meaning cards with Boardmaker and  I want to share it with all of you.  You can download the entire pdf file from my Teachers Pay Teachers page with the link below.  There are four different boards and two pages of the teaching cards (also can be used for "calling" in the bingo game) I hope you enjoy it.

Download this file at my TPT site!

STICK to simple

So this is a silly little post about a common product that works great for me in therapy. You know how you have some of those cards that are multiple choice and you really want the kids to be able to generate their own answer? Well I used to use regular post-it's to try and cover up the answer but found that the kids can see through them and they don't stay stuck to well. This year I bought some post-it labels at my local discount store. These ate a thicker colored paper and the entire back of the post it is sticky. One post-it label will make it through a whole session of repositioning it on each card. I know it is a silly thing to post about but I was so giddy about how well this worked for me, I thought I would share.

post-it labels work great!

Giveaway for iPad Mini from Smart Apps

Who couldn't use another iPad or better yet, an iPad Mini?  

Check out this great giveaway from Smart Apps for Kids! 

You can find Smart Apps for Kids on Facebook and Twitter as well!

Click here to get in on the iPad Mini GIVEAWAY!

Sort it out!

Sort It Out App

There are two "Sort It Out" apps that are available through My First App. The apps both come with 2 free modules and then you can purchase the other modules though an in app purchase.  Sort It Out 1 comes with transportation and toys.  Sort It Out 2 comes with animals and instruments.  I have found that the free modules are great for categorizing as well as addressing positional concepts, comparing and contrasting, following directions and describing.  I love a free app with lots of possibilities!  Check out my short video of a session below. 

Home screens for both apps

Sort it out 2 animal board start screen

Completed Sort It Out 2 Animals

Here is a short video of how I used the app in therapy today with two students with Autism.  

Never buy flashcards again!

I came across a great free app while searching for the top free apps the other day.  I like to look at the top free apps every once in a while to see what is trending.  It worked out well for me as I found this great app that was just created by Grasshopper Apps.  The app is called Bitsboard and is a free app with over 10,000 beautiful color photographs separated into categories.  

On the initial download you get the emotions, exotic animals, landmarks, first sentences, learn English, learn German and learn Spanish boards.  Then you can go to the catalog and download any other boards that interest you.  You can also change the settings of the app to best suit your needs.  You can have just the word, just the photo and you can also turn the audio on or off. You can also change how the flashcards advance.

The above picture shows how my catalog looks now that I have gone through and downloaded many more of the boards. You can search by category or just page through all of the boards.  This app is ABSOLUTELY FREE!  No in app purchases whatsoever!  How cool is that?

One more thing about this fabulous app, are you ready?  You can create your own boards for free with your own photos and images!  You can't get any more customized than that!  Thanks to http://www.grasshopperapps.com/

P.S.  According to their app page on iTunes, more exciting FREE content and games are in the works for this app!  Gotta love that!

   

Halloween Pocket Charts (FREE)

Here is another great FREE Halloween app that is great for speech therapy.  This app is called Pocket Charts! Halloween Matching Game. This app is great for similarities and differences.  The student needs to discriminate between two possible pictures that match the picture in the pocket.  Some of the pictures are easier than others but they are all a great way to work on noticing similarities and differences and talking about them as well.  I also think this is a great activity for teaching the motor skill of "dragging" an object to another place on the screen.  I had my student locate the picture and then tell me why it was the correct choice before they moved the picture to the pocket line.  If you are able to project you iPad onto a screen or whiteboard, this would also be a fun larger group activity.