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

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

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.  

More Halloween app activities

More Monster Mash Up Fun!
I posted last week about the free Monster Mash Up and using it for a barrier type of activity working on describing or similarities or differences.  Using screen shots I created some cards to accompany the app. You can preview and download the activity below.  This could work with a group of two or more.  Give one student the iPad and have them create a monster.  Then they describe their monster to the other students.  The other students then use the cards to create a monster that looks like the one on the iPad.  You can address attributes, sentence structure, listening skills, memory and so much more with this one activity.  You could also just make multiple sets of the cards and just use them if you don 't have an iPad.  Let me know what you think of this activity in the comments!

Sample Monster page 1

Download the pdf document here.  Then you can just print, laminate, cut and enjoy!  I hope you have fun finding great ways to use these cards and the free app in your speech room!

 Here is how I set up the activity for 2 students in my room.