Cursive Writing Wizard App – Gone Free!

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS
Cursive writing Wizard icon

Cursive Writing Wizard App

Familiar with the popular Writing Wizard app? It’s cursive counterpart – Cursive Writing Wizard app has just gone Free (for how long – it’s always a mystery)!

Cursive writing Wizard pic 1

Cursive Writing Wizard app (typically 3.99) for iPhone and iPad provides the same fun multimedia effects that can motivate students to practice letter formation. Customization options are available for the type of font, size, speed and amount of modeled instruction provided for the user.

Cursive writing wizard pic2

Multiple users and  progress reports are available within the app.

Cursive Writing Wizard pic3

Here is a quick video on some of the great features within the Cursive Writing Wizard app:

OS requirements: iOS 5.1 (this will work on an iPad 1)

Not teaching cursive handwriting or not a high priority for intervention with your students? Consider downloading this free app for the pre-writing or number activities provided. Assessment information (replay information providing accuracy and stroke patterns) for each user is available for all activities, including pre-writing and number formation allowing an easy way to gather and review student progress.

Cursive writing wizard pic5

Although you might not be teaching cursive handwriting to your students, this app might be an adjunct for pre-writing or number formation development for your students. Using it as pre and post assessment information for letter formation or pre-writing goals for your students.

Would you use this type of information for data gathering for a student learning objective if required to participate in teacher effectiveness?

Carol

 

Posted in App Reviews, Apps for OT's, AT for Handwriting, Handwriting, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Letter Formation, Occupational Therapy, Primary Grades, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mazes Activities – Magnetic Maze Boards or an App?

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS
Maze vs

Magnetic Hands on Mazes versus Mazes on the iPad

Maze activities have been a fun visual motor, fine motor coordination and spatial reasoning task for students. I especially enjoyed (and so did the kids!) the magnetic maze activities we used with students on 1:1 or as provided in play centers in early childhood, Pre-K or kindergarten as a visual motor activity.

Maze magnet circle pic

Anatex Magnetic Maze – Circle Express

Maze magnet farm pic

Melissa & Doug Magnetic Number Maze

Maze magnet rectangle pic

Anatex Magnet Express

Add a grasp to the magnetic pencil and some positioning for students and reinforcement of OT goals could be accomplished.  They are also contained providing easy management in the classroom.

Using them as a labyrinth without a pencil or stylus (holding and moving the ball to the designated goal) also adds a motor planning and bilateral coordination demand to the task, more appropriate for primary aged students. One draw back however is having a variety of levels available, however, the task can certainly be graded with postural control demands with positions, eg. sitting at a table,  sitting on a ball without support, standing, kneeling, etc.

What about similar activities on the iPad?

There appears to be (or maybe I am just becoming aware of them…) more apps that use the accelerometer and gyroscope capabilities which allows the iPad to sense speed and movement. These features can allow the sensing of movements made with the iPad and provide the tools needed for labyrinth activities. Here is one of a number of iPad apps that uses those features and might provide a motor planning and bilateral demand as appropriate for your students:

Mazes Touch iconMazes Touch app for iPad /iPhone (free with ads; OS requirements: OS 4.2 or later.) allows users to either tilt the iPad or use a finger or stylus to move the target to the maze exit. This app uses the gyroscope and accelerometer features of the iPad, different from other typical visual motor, follow-in-the-lines kinda app or task.

Maze Touch pic1

Example of small mazes

Mazes Touch app provides a timer that times how long it takes you, not a count down timer that can cause anxiety about finishing the task.

Three levels of mazes (Small, Medium and Large) are available in the app, with small mazes being the easiest.

Maze Touch pic2

Examples of medium and large mazes .

This free app provides 61 small mazes, 20 medium mazes and 20 large mazes with initial download. Selecting the “Download More Mazes” link, provided another 30 mazes, 10 more of each level – plenty of mazes to keep the user practicing with increasing levels of challenge.

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Touch Maze app provides a labyrinth type of challenge for primary aged students with intermediate visual motor skills.

Pros and Cons of hands on board magnet mazes versus iPad Maze Activites:

Board magnet mazes

Pros:

  • Contained, easy to administer to students
  • Students can use at any time
  • Students can practice repeatedly
  • Visual motor activity
  • Motor planning activity

Cons:

  • One level of activity
  • Table top activity
  • No assessment data or information supplied

iPad Maze App

Pros:

  • Modify levels of use with 1:1 administration/supervision
  • Visual motor activity
  • Motor planning activity
  • Bilateral motor control activity
  • Assessment data can be collected using completion time
  • Easy to access with iPad

Cons:

  • Only used with administration/supervision or 1:1
  • Safety of use
  • Requires student to stay within app to complete (or use Guided Access)

What other pros or cons do you see? What has been your experience?

An additional thought. This type of app would be great with academic activities embedded as a goal to identify numbers, letters, math problems, phonics or other common core tasks while working on visual motor or bilateral skills. Perhaps there is an app out there like that ? Any one familiar with one?

More for your OT mTool Kit.

Carol

 

 

Posted in Apps for OT's, Bilateral Control, Early Childhood, Elementary School, Free apps, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Occupational Therapy, Primary Grades, Visual Motor | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

My Story Book Maker App – Gone Free

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS
My Story Book Maker for Kids icon

My Story Book Maker App

For a limited time, My Story Book Maker  app for iPad (normally 3.99) is free. You may have an abundance of storytelling apps already, however, this free app provides book making for 6-8 year olds with great drawing tools, stamps, voice recording, text,  sharing capabilites and the ability to create multiple users who have their own “book collection”.

My Story - Book Maker pic2

My Story Book Maker pic3

 

 

 

My Story Book Maker   drawing tools allow different painting and drawing tools with different line sizes (marker, paint brush and pencil) and stamps. Photos can be taken within the app or imported from from your Photo Library. A text tool and and sound recorded is available.

My Story Book Maker pic 1

 

 

And sharing tools: Link, email, Twitter, Facebook and iBook .

My Story Book Maker pic 4

Here is a quick video of its features:

My Story Book Maker app looks like a great tool for social stories, sensory stories, book making, language development, adapting books, or, just for fun. The app seems even more fun when its free!

More for your teaching or OT mTool Kit.

Carol

Posted in App Reviews, eBook Creating, Elementary School, Emergent Literacy, Free apps, iPad, Pre-writing, Primary Grades, Story Telling | Leave a comment

Spell Better – A Free Word Prediction App

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS
Spell Better icon

Spell Better App (free version)

Spell Better app is a free iPad app (upgrade for 9.99) that provides word prediction capabilities with read back /text to speech capabilities. The upgrade provides export options and additional notes. As the function of writing is to publish or share information, the lack of export (locked) in the free version limits use, however, it does have some good qualities:

  • Phonetic word prediction
  • Text to speech capabilities
  • Dictionaries available to look up predicted words (however the definitions can not be read aloud.
  • Three prediction vocabularies sizes (3,000, 12,000 or 33,000+)
  • Other options:
    • Text size, font types
    • Prediction and speech options
    • Two background colors (Pale yellow or light gray)
  • Ability to trial the app for free.

Spell Better pic1

The Open Dyslexic font is also an option in this app which is a benefit for some student reading needs.

Here is a quick video review of Spell Better (free) app, created by the folks at iCATER:

Check it out to determine if this is helpful for your students.

Carol

Posted in App Reviews, Dyslexia, Free apps, iPad, Word Prediction, Writing | 1 Comment

iPads help older people get more out of life. My Ageing Parent

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

iPads combat elderly loneliness and isolation. Top tips on how to get your older parent using an iPad from UK leading elderly care advice website for carers

Source: http://www.myageingparent.com/how-ipads-can-help-your-ageing-parent-get-more-out-of-life/

Do you have an aging parent or work in geriatrics? Here are some suggestions for using iPad with the aging population. It also includes some research about the ease of reading on an iPad.

Worth the visit if this population is part of your personal or professional life. My personal experience with my mother found the iPad to be an easy to access tool. We also had fun playing some basic visual memory games, reading tongue twisters, puzzles and looking at topics of interest on demand (with Wi-Fi) together. Sharing recent photos of family and taking pictures and videos of her during visits to share with distant family was also a boon! Certainly using an Android device will work for the same purposes with similar type apps.

What did we ever do before mobile devices (practiced the virtue of patience and additional to do lists that now can be at our finger tips?)?

Carol

See on Scoop.it – OT mTool Kit

Posted in Adults, Geriatrics, iPad | Leave a comment

Brain Book and My Bionic Brain

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

As scooped from  AT Daily

The Brain Book ® System and now My Bionic Brain® a customized life manager/day planner specially designed to meet the complex needs of persons with brain injury – both at home and at work.

Scooped Source: http://attraining.org/atdaily/2014/08/19/brain-book/

Check out this app and book for individuals with brain injury.

Looks well worth checking out!

HT to AT Daily for finding new AT resources!

Carol

As scooped using Scoop.it – OT mTool Kit

Posted in Adults, Assistive Technology, Traumatic Brain Injury | Leave a comment

Kidori Pen Easy App

Posted on August 31, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Kidori pic 3

Kidori Easy Mazes iconLooking for a fresh visual motor app? Kidori produces maze, letter and number apps for iPad , that are graded as easy, intermediate and advanced. Only the Easy Mazes App (works on iPad OS 4.0 – iPad 1 and up)  is free, but worth the download.  All other levels of apps are 1.99 and may be somewhat pricy given the availability of other similar apps for free, or other apps that provide options and assessment information (Ready to Print, Shelby’s Quest apps) .

The Kidori Free Easy Maze app is clean, simple and appealing for kids who may need some practice with emerging visual motor skills. It offers 24 different mazes within the app. Options available are the width and color of the drawn lines and clear, undo or redo your lines.  Mazes are easy to navigate to using the next button and are sequentially graded by difficulty within the app. Completed mazes can be saved to a library within the app which may allow comparison of quality over time for assessment purposes. Single user is the only option.

Kidori easy Mazes pic 1

Here’s a quick video on the app with its features:

Kidori apps promote a Kidori stylus. I was hopeful that this stylus had a solid tip and would be less expensive replacement for the Cosmonaut Stylus , one of my favorite stylus for kids. Unfortunately I found it not be be, with a very flexible tip and appears to be suited to be manipulated (pulling, fun to squish and moving around). I was quite disappointed with the stylus given the 9.99 cost (I wish I could get my $$ reimbursed). Despite the stylus, the free Kidori Free Easy Maze is worth the download if you work with students who are working on early visual motor development. Although there is advertisement for free apps with purchase of the stylus, I have not found that opportunity yet.

Summary:

The free Kidori Easy Maze app for all versions of iPads (iOS 4 and up) provides clean and visually appealing maze activities for students with emergent visual motor skills (preschool level). Additional apps for intermediate and advanced levels are available for 1.99 each. No assessment or multiple user options are available. This is a worth while app for visual motor practice for young learners.

More for your teaching or OT mTool Kit.

Carol

Posted in App Reviews, Apps for OT's, Early Childhood, Free apps, iPad, Pre-writing, Visual Motor | Leave a comment

Back to School – Producing & Sharing Your Schedules

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Back to School Time!

Schedule pic created w canva

Creating and Sharing Schedules 

After you have gathered schedules, one of the next important tasks is crafting your schedule and sharing it with the dozens of teachers, administrative staff for accountability. You will need to manage it for your own access which can be by printing, memorizing it, or sending it to an electronic device for reference if you carry one with you for frequent access.

How will you use and share it?

  • Use a hard copy
  • Create it for use on a mobile device
  • Create, share and maintain on your computer?

There are many ways to create, share and maintain your schedule. You most likely have your tried and true schedule templates and methods you’ve used for years to create your schedule. Certainly creating a schedule in electronic format is not a new idea but is the most flexible method to share, edit and revise, a continual process in my experience. Using a Word document (or some other word processing or spreadsheet application) has been standard. In the era of Google accounts in schools, Google may offer a few other options that can be a more efficient method of sharing, revising and accessing therapy schedules using your Google account and apps.

So here are a few options for creating a schedule…

Certainly you can use your same Word schedule template that is familiar, or use the power of Google Doc or Spreadsheets and their apps given that you are a Google for Education School District. Here’s some standard resources and directions for creating a schedule and if unfamiliar with the power of Google, and mobile device management:

A. Use a Word document/Excel template to create a daily schedule.

Schedule pic = excel

  • The easiest way might be to use your own Word document template you’ve used for years. Call it done.
  • Don’t want to recreate the wheel? Here are free templates found online at  Win Calendar for existing Daily Schedule Templates :  Schedules Calendar Templates (free, no sign in required)
  • Here is a simple, free, OT Daily Schedule Word Template : OT Daily Schedule Word Template shared
  • When it done email it to respective personnel.
  • Copy it and hand it out.
  • If you have your email on your iPad, after sending, open the document on your iPad and save it in Notes or another document management app for referencing through the day.
  • Another option is to take a photo or screen shot of the schedule and store it in our photo album for reference.

You are done until your schedule changes… tomorrow, then revise in Word, send, print and share again.

B. Google Drive provides a few more options for sharing and creating. Here are a few thoughts that might reduce some steps and allow you to edit your schedule on the fly using your iPad.

Google drive app

  • Create a schedule in Google Docs (insert a table in a Doc) or Google Spreadsheet.
  • Don’t want to mess with creating a new daily schedule? Use an existing template with the new Add-ons tool and adding in the Gallery Templates add-on in Google Docs and Presentation. It makes for easy work with the existing templates.
  • How to get the Gallery Templates Add-ons for Google Docs:
    • When in Google Docs there is a new menu item, Add – ons. Click on the Add-ons menu. Click on Get Add-ons.
    • Google add on pic2
    • You will be taken to a listing of  Add-ons choices. Locate the Gallery Templates Add-on.
    • Google Template Gallery
    • Select and Accept the Gallery Template to add this tool to your Google Docs.
    • The Gallery Templates add-on will be available for your use from the Add-ons menu. Browse the choices of calendars and forms available in the Gallery.
    • The Gallery’s Planners and Schedules category has weekly schedule and biweekly schedule templates available. Select the template and download a copy to your drive.
    • Google Template Gallery Schedules pic
    • Find the template (look for Copy of… documents in your drive. Rename and  it is ready to use. You can edit the document or use it as is!
  • Create your schedule using the schedule template in Google Docs. You now can share it, print it, email it from your Drive.
  • You can also open it in the Google Doc app on your iPad. It can also be designated as used Offline if Wi-Fi is limited on your device.
  • The Google Doc can be edited on the fly on your iPad.
  • Don’t have the iOS Google app? It is free and compatible with iPhone and iPad. A Google Sheets app is also available for free.
  • Google Doc iconAnother benefit of using Google Docs is the ability to copy the URL of the document and create a Home Screen icon on your iPad for easy access to your schedule.
  • OT Schedule home screenYet another benefit is when you edit the same schedule document/spreadsheet in your Google Drive (not rename it.), the updated versions will still be at this Home Screen icon, on your iPad Google Doc app if it has been sync’d with Wi-Fi or as shared with others.

Don’t want to download or create your own Google Doc OT Schedule right now?

Here is a link to a shared OT Daily Schedule Google Sheet:

If you have tips or tricks about managing schedules, please share. There certainly are many ways to “skin the cat”!

Have a great start of the school year!

Carol

Posted in Administrative Apps, Apps for OT's, Google, Google Chrome, Google Docs, iOS, iPad, iPad Management, Occupational Therapy, School Based Interventions, Therapist/Teacher Tools | Leave a comment

Back to School for Therapists: Managing Paper Schedules – Tips and Tricks

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Back to School Tips and Tricks –  Managing Paper Schedules

Paper overload 2

It’s back to school time for students as well as teachers and specialists. As I think about those days and what it takes to get the school year and schedules started, I am reminded of teacher schedules, specialist schedules, building schedules, gym schedules early release day schedules – all needed to create your own  OT or teacher schedule! It can be a maze of schedules which you are dependent on to craft your own.

Here are just a few suggestions for mobile device users that can help simplify the paper schedule chase at the beginning or during the school year:

1. Digitize it! –

iPhone taking picture

a. Collect those hard copy teacher, building or related studies schedules on your mobile device by taking a picture with your iPad or Android mobile device. The pictures will be stored in your Photo Album (iPad) or Gallery (Android) for easy access and organization.

b. If it already is digital, have the electronic schedule sent to you.  If it is posted out  in cyberspace somewhere, navigate to that site and take a screen shot – (that handy trick every OT or teacher should know how to do):

iOS image iOS –Press Home +  Power Button simultaneously (you will hear a snap shot taken) – a picture of the screen will be sent to your Photo Library.

Android image Android devices (most of them, some differ a bit) Press Power + Down Volume Button (you will hear a snap shot taken)

2. Where did the photos or screen shots go?

iOS Photo library iconiOS photos and screenshots go to your Photo Library.

Android Gallery iconAndroid Screenshots go to your Gallery.

3. Organize them! Create an Photo Album of just schedules for easy access in one place on your iPad. Here’s how:

iOS image iOS –  Go to Photo Library  > Albums > “+” creates a new Album call it “Schedules” > Save > Add/Select photos to “Schedules” > Done). All those schedules will be store in one location to refer to when you need to craft yours.

iOS photo album schedule example

Android image Android – Screenshots images on my Dell Venue (Jelly Bean OS) are collected in the (photo) Gallery and automatically organized in a Screenshot folder (bonus!).  If you do a lot of screen shots and need further organization of them there is another way to organize photos by tags using Picasa but is a bit more complicated.

Android Gallery screen shots

Now you have all of those schedules view-able on your device, on demand and organized. Once they are organized you will be able to find them with a few taps on your device and you are ready to create your own schedule!

More for your teaching or OT mTool Kit!

Carol

Posted in Android, Android Management, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Occupational Therapy, Organization, Photo | Leave a comment

Six Apps Every OTA Student Should Have

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Six Apps Every OTA Student Should Have

As scooped from: http://otaonline.stkate.edu/blog/six-apps-every-ota-student/

Here is a back to school resource for OTA students from St. Catherine’s University in Virgina. The OTA Blogger shares “Six Apps Every OTA Student Should Have“, providing apps on assessment, intervention, study aids and equipment resources.

If you are an OTA student, are these in your OT mTool Kit?

Check them out!

As Scooped from Scoop.it – OT mTool Kit

Carol

Posted in Continuing Education, iOS, Occupational Therapy | Leave a comment