While I was sick though, my friend Cindy Meester from a wonderful Speech-Language Sharing Blog at http://meesterc.wordpress.com/, sent me a promo code on behalf of Smarty Ears, for a wonderful articulation app called, “Articulate It!”.  Smarty Ears was founded in 2009 by Speech-Language Pathologist, Barbara Fernandes (also know as blogger, GeekSLP) and they have about 30 educational apps now available for mobile devices.

This articulation app is a great supplement for speech therapy and price ($38.99) is about what a clinician would spend on a box of articulation stimulus picture cards.  The app has over 1200 stimulus cards, which a great value when one considered how much they have spent over the years on boxes of cards, or making their own stimulus cards with clip art, etc.

The app has a short, user-friendly tutorial which I recommend taking a few moments to watch – you will pick up on all kind of tips for customization and data collection.  A clinician can set up separate accounts for students/clients, and track progress easily.   The app offers work for all phonemes, and even phonological processes as well.  You can have individualized programs (called “sessions” in this app) for multiple students running simultaneously.  So, if you are working with a speech group with three students working on different phonemes, you can have the app programmed to show individualized stimulus pictures at the same time while working with the group.

One of the best part of this apps is a Phrase/Sentence level offered as well.  Some of the other articulation apps I have explored just have stimulus items at the word level.   The voice recording mechanism is very good quality and is useful for student self-monitoring.    On future app updates, I would love to see some more features to increase the app’s entertainment value for kids – perhaps fun reinforcement sounds or simple games.  But,  I can see the value in this app for the 1200 stimulus cards it offers – you could use the app for stimulus cards, and pair it with other games or activities you might do in your speech room.

Check out Articulate It! at the AppStore.  This is a universal app compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPads.

And GUESS WHAT???!!!!!  My blogger friend, Cindy Meester and Smarty Ears have given me 2 more promo codes to give away for this app!  Here’s how you can win a code:  Become an email follower on my blog by noon central-standard time on Monday January 16th, 2012 and I will randomly draw 2 folks from the pool of the current and new followers to win the promo codes.  I will email the winners privately first, and then I will publicly post the winners on the site next week!  THANK you so much to SLP blogger, Cindy Meester and Smarty Ears for providing this opportunity!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/articulate-it/id391296844?mt=8

Here’s an excerpt:

London Olympic Stadium holds 80,000 people. This blog was viewed about 360,000 times in 2011. If it were competing at London Olympic Stadium, it would take about 5 sold-out events for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2011/12/popular-ios-apps-and-games-on-sale-for-a-limited-time-over-180-to-choose-from

I took this opportunity to get some classic games that were deeply discounted, such as:

Trivial Pursuit - Master Edition is on sale right now for .99, from the original price of 4.99

Scrabble is on sale for .99 from the orginal price of 9.99!

Yahtzee is on sale for .99 from the orginal price of 4.99

Classic game show, the Price is Right – Decades is on sale for 1.99, from the original price of 4.99

No whammies!  Remember this game show?  Press your Luck is on sale for 1.99 from the orginal price of 4.99

I’m not sure how long these prices last – so check out this link as soon as you can!  All the discounts are listed on the link.  Enjoy!  – Jill

I have been having fun checking all kinds of holiday apps and I love the free app – Jingle All the Way.  So, I put together language activities in case you  need some last minute ideas to get through the next couple of days:

Jingle All The Way, is an Interactive Storybook in the   Interactive Storybook & Story Buddy line from Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Jingle All The Way is a tale of a loveable, obedient pup who wants nothing more than a place to call home for the holidays.

You can download the app for free at: 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jingle-all-the-way/id400534148?mt=8

I have attached a PDF document here with some activities to go along with this app.  In the packet there are activities for:

• Comprehension Questions (10 of them – a mix of literal and inferential)
• Oral Narrative skills – (10 screenshot pictures you can cut out for sequencing and re-telling)
• Prepositions (very basic prepositions – behind, above,  in, under, between, on, away, beneath, upside down, next to).  You can print two copies of these cards – cut them out and  play a memory game with the kids saying, “Jingle is___(preposition word).  
• Question Asking/Reversibility of Thought – there is a mini-version of the classic game of “Guess Who” with Jingle.  Directions are in the document.  

Download the packet here:  Jingle All the Way App Unit

Have a great winter break everyone!  – Jill

http://www.148apps.com - This site launched shortly after the iTunes App store launched in 2008.  They review apps, search for free and discounted app sales, and share news about iOS applications for the iPad and iPhone.

http://appadvice.com  – another great site that shares information about new apps – including sales and “temporarily free or discounted” apps. Currently, they are celebrating the 12th day of the “21 Day Festivus” AppAdvice give-aways and sharing.

http://www.smartappsforkids.com - a blog/website that will let you know about free/sale apps – on their website they have a great page listing FREE apps and you can do an app search for particular age ranges.

HERE are the FREE apps I got today:

Christmas Eve SO

     A great little Christmas e-book.  This is the story of a little girl named Nina who overhears her Mom say, “It’s been a long time since I believed in Santa Claus” and sets out to prove to her disbelieving mother that Santa really does exist

   http://itunes.apple.com/app/christmas-eve-so/id404150889

KidsMag Issue #2

      This is an interactive kids magazine for kids ages 3+.  This issue is free (as of 12/14/2011 anyway), and highlights activities with 2 characters, Teo and Bianca. as they explore outer space, the circus, learn alphabet letters, learn about the human body and more.  Over 30 pages of interactive activities.

 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kidsmag-issue-2/id449983731?mt=8

Age of Pinballs

     A pinball game that includes seven different tables and spans two separate eras – the ’80s and ’90s!. You can choose to play the classic game of pinball or go with one of the other four challenging modes. The game also includes simple tap, swipe, and shake controls, eight camera views, realistic physics, and Game Center integration.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id445487562

Microsoft OneNote for iPad

     This is an app where you can create searchable notes with text, pictures and bullets. Make and manage to-do lists with checkboxes. Then keep your notes in sync using free Microsoft SkyDrive® online storage to access, edit and manage them from almost anywhere, from your PC or almost any web browser. Access your notes online at http://skydrive.com.  With the free version of OneNote for iPad you can access, create and edit up to 500 notes. Once you reach this limit you can still view, delete, and sync your notes. To continue taking and editing notes, you can upgrade OneNote for iPad to unlimited use through an in-app purchase.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onenote/id478105721?mt=8

Whizzers

     A fun arcade game where you discover the magical world of deadly traps, hungry monsters and bubbling lava. Find lost followers to gain companions which will give you dozens of special powers and catch kidnappers to rescue other Whizzers

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id448174232

FreeFall Time

     An educational game that’s meant to help kids learn how to tell time. The game includes four different time-telling modes that has kids dragging clocks, times, and clock hands around the screen. You can also choose from five different minute increments to change the difficulty level. 

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id482769793

Toca Hair Salon – Christmas Gift

     One of my favorite Christmas apps right now!  Cut, color and style Santa Claus beard and hair! In this Christmas edition of the smash hit Toca Hair Salon, you can choose between styling Santa Claus or a funny Christmas tree!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/toca-hair-salon-christmas/id481623941?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

Be sure to check out these apps quick!  I’m not sure how long they will stay FREE!  – Enjoy, Jill

Back to the Teachers-Pay-Teachers site – this site has WONDERFUL resources – and many of them are FREE!  In fact there are more than 16,000 free downloads right now!  You can search for resources by grade level and content area to narrow your search.  Sign up for an account so you can track the items you want to use someday. I haven’t actually “purchased” anything on this site yet – I am finding so many great free resources to begin with!  I use the “Wish List” option as a way to kind of “bookmark” the materials I would like to use at some point.  The web address for this site is:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/

I wanted to share a couple of items I came across on my web hunting that I used last week in sessions with some of my elementary aged social language kids.  I found 2 resources from this awesome website that I joined to make a fun Christmas-themed conversation starter game.

The first item is a game board I found as  Free digital download on the Teachers-Pay-Teachers site, developed by the fabulous bloggers, First Grade Fanatics!  (http://firstgradefanatics.blogspot.com) This is an open-ended game board with yummy looking holiday cookies – players need to move pawns from the cookie sheet to the plate of cookies.  There are task cards provided in the download – you just provide some pawns to move!  Here is the link for this download and a picture of the game board:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Baking-Cookies-Game-FREE

Then, I used some Christmas-themed Conversation Starters I also found as a free download from the Teachers-Pay-Teachers site.   These conversation starters are in the form of the question, “Would you Rather____ or _____?”  These cards were designed by  Rachel Lynette who has several blogs, most notably a blog called, Minds in Bloom - a blog with ideas for facilitating creativity and critical thinking skills.  (http://www.minds-in-bloom.com/)  Rachel has several years of experience as an elementary age teacher, most notably in technology and gifted/talented arenas.  She has a great blog and wonderful resources at her Teachers-Pay-Teachers “store”.

Here is the link and a photo of the questions:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Christmas-Would-You-Rather-Questions

To play, I cut part the question strips and put them in a Christmas stocking I brought from home.  The student would draw a question from stocking and ask the question to the other players, allowing time for each person to respond.  Then, they would draw a task card from the Baking Cookies game, and move their game piece as directed. 

The kids loved this activity!  I hope you have fun with them too!  Jill

I have a wonderful app developer that every elementary SLP and teacher should know about!  Mobile-Education Store (http://mobile-educationstore.com) was the first app developer I discovered last year when I began my journey into the tech realm of education.  Every single app from this developer is STELLAR!  And….they are very, very reasonably priced!  Founder, Kyle Tomson, has designed several apps to build language and narrative skills for elementary aged children. The apps are very well designed with options of tracking data, recording of student responses, use for multiple students, and they contain a variety of fun reinforcement sounds and graphics to engage learners.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Preposition Builder™ is designed to help students learn receptive and expressive use of prepositions.  There are 9 story preposition modules teaching 28 common prepositions that gradually unlock elements to an ongoing story.  I have used this with several of my kindergarten and 1^st grade high functioning autism spectrum learners as well as language delayed students.  All of my students are crazy about this app! They love the drag and drop element, and I love the auditory feedback, visual cues provided by the well designed pictures and the written word to support early reading development.  At $7.99 (as of this blog date), this app is a MUST-have for any SLP, primary special education teacher, early childhood program, or preschool.

View in the iTunes store at:  itunes.apple.com/us/app/prepositionbuilder/id413939528?mt=8

Story Builder™ is probably one of my top five favorite apps of all!  I use this app every single day with my students.  There are 3 levels of play where a student records his/her own voice to describe a picture or answer a question given a prompt.  The student’s responses are chained together to develop a complete narrative.  There are over 50 story lines and over 500 audio clips of questions to guide the narrative development.  I have personally found this app helpful for students who struggle with written language, as well as a venue to provide continuity of service between myself and a special education teacher who may be supporting written language learning goals.  During the learner’s speech-language session, he/she would plan, create and record an oral narrative of a story with the Story Builder app.  Then, we create a story map outlining the characters, setting, and plot elements (beginning, middle, end).  The student can then take the storymap, or even the iPad with the recorded story to his/her other teacher to produce the written narrative.  This is an excellent app with immense value at $5.99.

View on the iTunes store at:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storybuilder-for-ipad/id377631532?mt=8

Conversation Builder™ is a conversation simulator designed to help elementary aged children develop conversational turn-taking, topic maintenance, and question-asking skills.    As an SLP who focuses a large portion of time supporting social/emotional skills for elementary-aged learners, I can tell you – there is no other app like Conversation Builder.  This app is truly in a class of its own!  I have spent hours and hours searching apps and websites for tools to support conversation skills.  I have not found ANYTHING even close to the quality that this app has.  Students can participate by recording their voice in the conversation exchanges in one-on-one or group scenarios.  Users can choose between a 4 exchange conversation or an 8 exchange conversation.  This app also has components to customize information about the student’s name, age, where they live, and interests.   The app features over 160 conversations with the ability to save conversation recordings.  I have been using this app most frequently with a 4^th grade young man on the “higher functioning end” of the autism spectrum.  I really appreciate how this app includes subtle conversational cues such as tone of voice, and even formal versus informal manners of speaking which can greatly impact conversations.  There are multiple levels of prompting  – I find my 2^nd and 3^rd graders typically use the multiple choice options of Level One, and my older students and learners with Asperger who are working on more complex conversation skills use the open ended response and the student-initiated settings.  $7.99 at the iTunes store.  Option for in-app purchases of various themes/topics.

View in the iTunes store at:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/conversationbuilder/id413939366?mt=8

Language Builder™ is yet another invaluable app for any SLP or elementary teacher!  This is a wonderful app to support expressive language development for students working on pronouns, verb tenses, auxiliary/copular verbs, etc.  Students create sentences with varying levels of prompts and they are recorded by the app.  The recording quality on my iPad2 is so crystal clear that I have also used this app with articulation students who are working on application of their speech sounds in sentence contexts.  The recording feature lends itself well to these students listening to their own speech or language structures to self-monitor.   This app is more than worth the reasonable price of $5.99.

View at the iTunes store at:   http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/languagebuilder-for-ipad/id405801365?mt=8

I hope everyone can check out these apps – they are available for the iPhone or the iPad.  Check out three more apps:  Sentence Builder™, Question Builder™ and Speech Journal™ from Mobile Education Store.  I own all of these apps, and use them daily.  If you are an SLP or teacher embarking on the world of educational apps, these apps should be a top priority!

http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/fun-with-english/haunted-houseThis game is a haunted house “I Spy” type of game.  You are given clue to locate a specific item in various rooms of a haunted house. It might be a fun game to work on cause-effect or prediction with very young children – as you click on various objects around the room, they each do something like spin, show a little Halloween creature behind it, etc.  Note:  some of the vocabulary is very “British” in nature, and may not be familiar to American children,

http://freebies.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=freebies&cdn=hobbies&tm=28&f=00&tt=3&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.hauntedhouse.com/halloween_kids/halloween_games/Boo.html
Boo! is fun online game that can be a fun reward for kids who are targeting working memory skills. It’s patterned after the old Simon game where you have to follow a pattern to win.  It starts out very easy, but then quickly will move to 5+ part sequences to process.

http://freebies.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=freebies&cdn=hobbies&tm=44&f=00&tt=3&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/halloween/games/game_frankenbrain.html
This is a fun game to work on visual tracking and memory.  It is kind of like the old game where a ball is hidden under 1 of 3 cups that are rapidly mixed up.  Kids need to watch the moving Frankenstein heads closely because one of them has a brain under it!This fun Halloween game for kids will challenge your mind while you have fun playing it.

http://freebies.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=freebies&cdn=hobbies&tm=115&f=00&tt=3&bt=1&bts=0&zu=http%3A//funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/halloween/games/game_spooky_differences.html
Compare the two spooky pictures and point out the differences in this g Halloween game for kids.

http://www.halloweenmagazine.com/safety-game/
An interactive quiz in a multiple-choice format to teach kids about trick or treating safety.  My students remember this quiz every year and ask to watch it every October.  But, beware, when you choose the wrong answer, the skeleton face that comes up make a louder noise and can be a bit scary for younger kids.  I usually tell kids about it first, and then show it to them several times until they get used to it an actually think it is funny.

This site is created by two SLPs and an OT (Meghan Graham, Jill Perry and Karen Head) who work collaboratively in Massachusetts in private practice, and focus specifically on using technology in work with kids and will soon be developing their own apps for the iPad,  – the first one called, “Social Adventures” - to be released this month. 

BUT, one of my favorite aspects of their site is on a tab called, books4all .   The bloggers highlight a children’s book and offer a detailed description of therapeutic activities that can support a variety of language skills such as vocabulary, grammar, narrative skills, sequencing, concept development and even articulation.  Currently they have about 25 children’s books highlighted with great teaching ideas!

Check out this site!  The web address is:  http://all4mychild.com    If you want to view the children’s literature part, click on the 2nd tab in the bar labeled, BOOKS4ALL 

Have a wonderful week everyone!  Best wishes…Jill

This curriculum weaves principals from the field of sensory integration, use of the 5 Point Scale (Dunn-Buron & Curtis, www.5pointscale.com) and the principles of social cognition as described by the great Michelle Garcia Winner, (www.socialthinking.com).  I had the opportunity to work with Leah for a few years when she was in Minnesota, and have been able to use portions of her curriculum as it was in the development stages.  I can attest that this has been invaluable for me with my Asperger kids, students with Emotional/Behavioral needs, and kids with ADD/ADHD.  Leah has developed a curriculum that is very easy to follow, provides everything you need to implement, and has a unique componant for data collection and student self-monitoring.

Check out the website at:  www.zonesofregulation.com   – you can purchase the curriculum for $42 right on the website.  You can also purchase this through Michelle Garcia Winner’s site at:  http://www.socialthinking.com/books-products/social-thinking-products?page=shop.product_details&category_id=14&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=314

You cannot  miss this!  Enjoy!