Communication Disorders

I agree with Karen, Barb has opened all of our eyes to the world of Apple and all of its possibilities within our homes, schools and classrooms. One this I really liked about this webinar was the ability to hear the presentation from the point of view of both a speech language pathologist as well as a technology specialist. It gave the presentation an interesting depth. 

ArtikPix: ($29.99) Available for both the iPhone and iPad. To some it could be considered an expensive app, although some critics do refer to the app as high quality. It could also be used as an addition or for a home support program. We all know that the circuits of SLP allow them very little time with students, and much of the responsability does fall back on the family to maintain the support. You can't put a price tag on quality speech support! Artikpix is an articulation app for children with speech sound delays. Although I  did read on co-creator Eric Sailers', SLP website that there is a lite version available for free. The lite version has individual decks of cards available for purchase. ArtikPix has options to enable varying levels of support for children depending on the need. There are audio and visual options to facilitate speech practice. ArtikPix has sound options in the flashcard, matching activities, and visual options in matching only.Options can be turned off one at a time, and later turned on again. Users can experiment with the various options to determine which ones are necessary for the student.

*Eric Sailers and his buisiness partner Jason Rinn created Artikpix and PhonoPix to support students with speech sound difficulties. 



Proloquo2go: Non-verbal AAC ($189.99) can be adapted to suit the needs of a wide range of users with varying literacy levels. What I especially like about this app, from the few hours of experience is the endless possibilities of the app. You have so much choice. Choice in the levels of boards, how simple or complex to make the boards, the variety of colors, sizes, voices and accessibility and customization features seem endless. It allows the user to communicate at home, in school, in their community all via an iPod touch, iPad, or iPhone.     






Speech Tutor($4.99) - I have heard SLPs at my school talking about one of the major difficulties they encounter when working with students and their families is how to get them to "see" how the different sounds are being made within the mouth. I remember one noontime conversation asking where someone could get wide-mouth straws. Our SLP needed them for a therapy session the next day. It was determined that Burger King was her best option! I know as a parent, "teaching" my own daughters to properly pronounce certain sounds was a challenge for me and for them. I was somewhat fascinated with this app. Just watching the 3-D pictures move to make the sounds, made me pay closer attention to my own mouth as I made the sounds. We don't often think of all the muscles that work together to produce what we consider to be simple sounds. Depending on the sound you choose to be demonstrated, the speech tutor may also include air flow through the mouth for the different sounds. A really interesting and useful app!

Fine Motor Webinar

As a primary French Immersion Teacher, I continue to see such a varying degree of skills entering primary I am continuously looking for OT recommended tricks and Apps to meet the needs of those students in my class who seem to struggle with their fine motor skills.As I've mentioned before I have previously attended a Handwriting Without Tears presentation and learned about pencil grip and their program. When shopping for school supplies in August I changed things up and purchased a box of "golf" pencils to begin the year with. It was a "daring" move, but one I don't regret. We went through almost the whole box this fall, but they seemed to do better with the smaller pencils, especially when teaching them the tripod grip. I still have one little guy who I just can't seem to get his pinch.grip and the arches in his palm to work together to have a proper tripod grip. He looks so awkward when he prints, but gets the job done. I do see that when I ask him about his grip, or try to help him achieve a proper tripod grip, he clams up. He's shy, but he really just gives me the look of "please just go away." It was just after Christmas before I gave them a longer pencil. Although I'm still not sure if giving them the red thick Primary Pencils has been the right choice.

I was aware that fine motor skills are precise coordinated movements using joints and muscles of the body to manipulate pencils, crayons etc., I thought it had more to do with the arms down to the finger tips, I didn't realize before this webinar was how much of the rest of the body is involved. Fine motor skills do not just involve using the muscles in your hand and arm; it involves shoulder muscles and having good trunk control, from the inside out. 

OT Referrals do go through our SPT and are made by our Vice Principal and Resource Teacher. As a team member I do hear of the referrals being made and the deadlines being referenced. Interestingly enough, there doesn't seem to be high hopes of ever seeing an OT visit our building for fine motor skills of students who are not already involved in the Learning Centre. I wonder how many are in our board and how many schools are under each umbrella. 

 Here are a few I can see using in my classroom(if I had a class iPad):

Dexteria ($4.99 - Universal app)

Designed in consultation with OTs, this App provides therapeutic hand exercises for students, including dexterity, finger sequencing and individual finger isolation, and control. Tap it, pinch it, write it. I was pleased to note that it supported the Handwriting Without Tears program.  Using a stylus makes it more motivating.

When I looked into Injini, my investigation lead me to My First AAC ($24.99) by Injini. According to my research it is an affordable AAC App. for the iPad that is specifically designed for toddlers and preschoolers with delayed speech or severe speech disorders. My First AAC helps young children to communicate with family, caregivers, teachers and more. 
It was developed in collaboration with SLPs. My First AAC offers icons organized by categories that reflect children’s natural speech development. It kind of reminded me of Proloqui2go. I'd be interested in hearing feedback of anyone with experience with it and how it compared.   The touch screen and large icons make interaction much easier for kids with motor skills deficiencies.You also have the ability to add customized icons, using your own images and I like the idea that you can change the voice settings and corresponding gender of child in icons. There are animated icons with concepts borrowed from sign language. We have a family member with a 2 year old who has some significant developmental delays in his hearing and speech. I an always wondering if any of these programs will ever make it his way and improve his communication skills as he grows. 

A youtube demo:

Juno's Piano ($0.99 - iPad only)

A virtual piano app, it allows students to practice finger control through music. Easy to use. Bilateral hand development. Teaches child to play control finger isolation. 

The Day the Blizzard Cancelled Class

Well that was an interesting class. I could certainly handle an online class if they were all similar and as interactive as the one we completed on Saturday during the blizzard.
Last May, many of us were enrolled in the required course of Assessment. My goodness I struggled through that course. It was tough and one sided. You read and responded to articles on a given subject, wrote a short paper, a letter to the Minister of Education and prepared a fake PLC PowerPoint without interacting with a single person. Saturday gave us the opportunity to still come together as a class and interact. INTERACT. Yes, Spencer was sitting on my lap watching what was happening some of the time, but I was still present. I watched and learned about sign language from Tarah and Nancy showed us, yet again, how investing in an iPad is the way to go for students. I really enjoyed the simple way in which Mandy presented her information too. Thanks for heading to the conference for us!

Proloquo2go!

What  an interesting day today. Most of our time was exploring the program and working oon our case study. In my opinion, Proloquo2go is a very phenomenal program allowing users the opportunity to have a voice when they may not normally have one in many situations.  Users are given the opportunity to clearly describe their wants, needs, emotions, tasks and . They can engage in joint communication and develop relationships with others. 

Some things to be considered when planning for the students with Proloquo2go are not only the needs and wants of the students, but also the visual and motor access/ability of the student. 

    In my school students use static communication boards. Brittany has Downs Syndrome and uses a vertical strip of Velcro for his boards. Both Danielle and Garrett use a former CD case holder for all their communication needs. It is time consuming to create all the boards in Boardmaker. Then they have to be cut, mounted, laminated, cut again and Velcroed. 

Where to begin in communication? Positive reinforcement. I see our EPAs carrying around small ziplocs with treats. Kind of reminds me of the parrots in a zoo. When they say what their trainer wants them to say, they get a seed. Same idea here. If you do this when I show you this board, then you  get a cracker, chocolate chip, gold fish. Apparently the Healthy Food Policy doesn't apply, and rightfully so. 

I found the most challenging part of the case study to be building in choices and depth. We had details about our grade 3 girl, but the biggest challenge, for me was asking myself (and Emily) about going too deep or not deep enough into the boards. I liked having the perspective of having Lacey, Stephanie and Gerri present their interpretation in class. It was similar to what we will present, yet different. They put real emphasis of her social development and having boards that will say complete sentences to build relationships with her peers. We focused on basics but constantly questioned the depth of our folders, was this necessary, was it too much  or should we go deeper. It is an immense amount of work and decision making. It is a "living" document in some sense and nothing is final. 
I wanted to find a video that showed that Proloquo2go wasn't just for students in school. That adults of all ages could use it and for various reasons. You don't just have to be a student in the school system to have AAC devices!

Twas a Merry Christmas

Since this summer many things have changed, advanced and improved in our (my family's) life since the past summer's course in Assistive Technology I. We are now the proud owners of not only an iPad 3, but a Blackberry Playbook too.  We held off until early November to purchase, but agreed that it would be a Christmas present.  It was only a matter of hours before we broke that deal.  I like being able to watch the iPad through our Apple TV. Uncle Andy has been generous enough to buy the girls iPad minis for Christmas.  They, the iPad minis are a really nice device. It is truly amazing to watch the girls work them. Spencer is now bringing her mini to us with the app already to go. She just needs the password. I'm sure it won't take them both ling to figure out the password. Then we'll be in trouble! I enjoy looking at the apps on the  iPads you bring to class. They gove me ideas of how I can further support my own children as well as the students in my class. Pity we still don't have any iPads in our school for use beyond the one in the Learning Centre, through the Assistive Tech Dept @ the HRSB.