Shelby’s Quest App for the iPad ($4.99), designed by an occupational therapist, is a therapy tool specially made for OT’s, teachers and parents that gives the child a fun way to practice fine motor and visual perceptual skills.
Shelby’s Quest guides the child along a journey assisting Shelby the Dog as she helps her forest animal friends overcome their challenges. Set in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, students will guide Skip the Salmon upstream to help him find his family, assist Samantha the Squirrel as she collects acorns and help Maurice the Moose find his way home. Each of those activities provides visual motor, visual matching, fine motor and visual motor integration at three levels of skill.
Skip the fish is animated as he swims up the stream. Samantha the squirrel needs help sorting the acorns requiring two fingered pinch to drop them in the correct basket.
Maurice the moose follow pathway of shapes in the woods.
User information is collected for assessment purposes and can be shared by email.
Shelby’s Quest is a fun app with three levels of skill within the three activities. The animation of Skip the fish as he swims up the stream is an interesting part of the app. A auditory alert is provided when drawing outside of a shape or pathway in the activities to assist the user to stay in the lines.
Shelby’s Quest app was easy to use due to the clear, written instructions are provided on initial screens of the app. The app is easy to navigate and guides the user through the activities. Depending on the age and skill of the user it would be great to have another level of skill available for each of the activities to challenge the skill of users. The data collection feature is a great method of measuring progress for students/users and easily shared via email.
Congratulations to Doodle Therapy Apps for their successful development of Shelby’s Quest app, providing additional tools for OT’s using mobile devices in therapy. For more information on Shelby’s Quest visit Doodle Therapy Apps.
Shelby’s Quest is an app created by a OT from Doodle Therapy Apps. Described as “therapeutic tools for fine motor and visual perceptual development”, its first debut will be on September 6, 2012 in the App Store. Here is a preview of the app:
Doodlecast Pro , gone free for a limited time. Developed for the iPad, Doodlecast Pro app provides tools to record audio, draw, import images from the Doodlecast library or your photo album to create multi-media activities. Doodlecast Pro allows creation of single page or multiple pages which can be exported to iMovie, Keynote, iBooks or shared via Dropbox or email.
Here are some images of the Doodlecast tools and applications:
Other backgrounds available include lined paper, grids, graph plots, Venn diagram, comic sequence or story boards and sporting field layouts to create lessons for teachers or students. You can also create your own backgrounds saved as an image and layer other images in your activity allow use for many educational activities.
Here is a link to a video of Doodlecast Pro showing more of its features:
Doodlecast Pro app provides tools to create individualized practice lessons and provide tools for students to demonstrate their knowledge of a subject.
Here is one example of how it could be used:
Adapt a science or social studies activity for a one of your students. Take pictures or find images of the steps or components on your iPad in your Photos. Create an Album of images to select one of a few or many choices of images as an answer (frog or butterfly life cycle, pictures of a concept). Use a suitable background such as a 4 part storyboard or create your own board to show the answers or sequence and save it in your photos. Record directions to the task. Have the student select the answers to your question by finding the correct answers in the photo album. Send the answer to your email as an assessment or demonstration of their skill level.
Notability, Doodle Buddy among other apps allow you to create your own backgrounds by drawing shapes, taking screen shots and storing them in your photos app. This could be a differentiated activity for students who have a difficulty time with paper and pencil answers but could show what they know using multimedia and recording their answer. Other uses might include having a student order the steps to a problem or task, choose items needed for project or life skill task.
Although there are many presentation apps available, Doodlecast Pro provides a few more possibilities readily available in the library of images. I would like the ability to type words rather than handwrite within the app not currently available.
How might you use this presentation apps for your students?
Sarah DeBellis’ of On Sarah’s iPad , provides a great review of Ghost Type app, a typing tutor app for the iPad. Sarah, in her “Points of interest”, provides thoughts on the apps use with special needs, customization and with an external keyboard that helps hone in application for special education or OT use.
If considering typing practice specifically on the iPad, consider keyboards such as the Touchfire Keyboard, specifically designed for use on the iPad (see Touchfire Keyboard review on OT’s with Apps). Touchfire keyboard was found to provide additional sensory feedback when compared to the iPad on-screen keyboard.
Traditional typing tutors might be a great thing for traditional keyboards, but for the iPad you need something completely different. iPad keyboards do not have physical “home keys,” the tactile and audible feedback of keys being pressed, and are smaller than most physical keyboards, making it awkward for large hands to do two-handed touch-typing. Ghost Type by Demografix is designed to help people of all ages to type on the iPad with two hands, and you’ll also find it might help single-handed typists also, such as those with a physical impairment. I often find myself typing with a single hand (either left or right) due to the other being occupied by small people, and I’ve found Ghost Type has helped me with speed and accuracy.
The Touchfire Keyboard (49.99) screen top keyboard is made of high-performance silicone rubber (latex allergy, this may not be for you) and is extremely thin, lightweight and portable. Magnets hold the keyboard in place on your iPad similar to how the Smart cover stays in place.
Transparent, the keyboard allows you to see the iPad keyboard, but provides you the physical feel of keys with a raised membrane. When you don’t want to use the keyboard it can easily be rolled back or removed to access the entire iPad screen.
It can be cleaned by simply running tap water over it and towel dry.
Here is a video of the Touchfire Keyboard to understand just how it works as a keyboard and on your iPad:
Trial
I did some timed, touch typing with and without the Touchfire Keyboard. I found little change with the rate of my keying, but I did feel more secure with the use of the Touchfire Keyboard due to the sensory motor feedback of physically touching the membrane keys when typing. Without use of the keyboard, I had no physical reference or sensory feedback to where I was typing causing me to have to concentrate very hard to use my motor memory of the keyboard layout, much less that it was different from the standard Qwerty keyboard. Another aspect of touch typing on the iPad keyboard, nothing to do with the Touchfire Keyboard, is the different layout of the iPad keyboard requiring a whole new motor memory from the standard Qwerty keyboard.
I also realized that the capacitive screen was very sensitive to my bioelectrical “charge”, resulting in more mistakes when typing without the membrane keyboard. This may differ from person to person pending how much of a “charge” each person produces (see related articles below, “How iPod Touch Works“¹). Since a capacitive touch screen responds to the bioelectric “charge” from your fingers, personal charge differences, whether typical or challenged (by such conditions as Raynauds Disease² or possibly peripheral neuropathies) may result in different responses to touch.
I enlisted a young, technically savvy 16-year-old millennial student to trial the Touchfire Keyboard and give me some feedback on what he thought of it. After trialing the Touchfire, he reported that he liked the keyboard’s feel and its feedback when typing on the iPad as opposed to typing without it. As a non-touch typist who used a modified typing approach to keying, he reported that the keyboard aided his typing on the iPad and gave it a “thumbs up” vote.
Final Thoughts
The Touchfire Keyboard is a lightweight and portable option for keyboarding on your device. A bit pricey, however appears to provide a better feel when typing with the on-screen iPad keyboard.
Choices of the use of the iPad keyboard versus standard QWERTY keyboard appears dependent on your familiarity to key accurately and quickly. With practice anyone can acquire a new motor plan for keyboarding on a new layout such as the iPad keyboard and if that is an interest or need, in time I believe you’ll become proficient with its use. For those of us who are die hard QWERTY keyboard users who may still gravitate to using laptops for their bulk of typing, using on screen keyboards as the Touchfire Keyboard may not be our first choice, not because of the design of the Touchfire Keyboard, but established habits and accuracy using a conventional keyboard. If you standardly use the keyboard in split mode this obviously won’t work.
Use of the Touchfire may certainly be a good choice for typing on the fly without having to tote a blue tooth keyboard along. Ergonomics also it a huge consideration when typing on the iPad for prolonged periods and for that reason Touchfire Keyboard would be best used for short periods of typing on the iPad.
Thoughts about its use for students or individuals with special needs…
For students who are acquiring touch typing skills, use of a blue tooth keyboard would be best to reinforce learning one keyboard for accuracy and speed. It is all about establishing habits and motor memory when learning keyboarding, so using the keyboard layout used in instruction would be important.
If students or users were going to be using the iPad exclusively for written composition, learning the iPad layout by using the Touchfire Keyboard could help with providing sensory-motor feedback of the keyboard layout. It also may provide fewer mistakes as the Touchfire Keyboard seemed to reduce the sensitivity and errors when typing. The Touchfire Keyboard could also be visually adapted with color coding, dots or other markings providing a “skin” for keyboarding practice or keyboard awareness.
The ergonomics of the use of the on screen keyboard should be considered if typing for extended periods due to the poor ergonomics associated with using the one screen keyboard on the iPad. Bluetooth keyboards and use of a stand with the iPad provide the best ergonomics when typing for extended periods on a tablet.
For individuals with mobility impairments who have difficulty with the sensitivity of the keyboard, the Touchfire might provide greater room for error due to slight decrease in sensitivity. Use of a keyboard guard or a stylus may be best suited when accuracy, fine motor control for targeting keys is an issue.
For individuals with circulatory challenges (e.g. Raynaud’s Disease, Diabetes) use of a highly sensitive stylus or capacitive glove might work better than the tip of a finger due to calluses or reduced bioelectic “charge”. Holding a capacitive stylus or using a capacitive glove that gathers a charge from a whole hand might have more “charge” ( might that make a difference ?). If responsiveness to capacitive screens is generally poor, using a resistive touch screen might need to be considered. (See articles below. There is little information on this subject out there. Anyone have any sources of info on this?)
For individuals with visual impairment, use of the Touchfire keyboard provides the tactile markings on f and j keys like the standard Qwerty keyboard for orientation to the keyboard layout.
Have a latex allergy? This may not be for you.
Have you or would you consider using the Touchfire Keyboard yourself or with your students/clients? Do you have experience with capacitive styluses, capacitive gloves and conditions of diabetes or other circulatory challenges with the iPad?
Are you familiar with the LifeProof iPhone case that withstands water, dirt or physical abuse. It is now available for the iPad…
What’s the big deal? Well, look at where you can use it…
Fully encased to protect it from spills, bathtubs, bounces and really grimy hands, the LifeProof case is pricey but reportedly extremely durable. The case comes in a bundle with the case, cover and stand sells for $159.99 from LifeProof.
I do not have experience with this case, but the iPhone case has been very popular and withstands extreme abuse. Hmm? Know anyone that needs their iPad protected from frequent mishandling?
It is back to school time! You probably have apps for skill development, sensory needs, handwriting or curriculum support for your students, but what productivity or utility apps do you have for your professional use?
Productivity or utility apps support tasks such as documentation, presentation, entering data or charts, scheduling, note taking, time keeping/alerting, emailing information with others or needed later. There is a plethora of such apps available dependent on task, workflow methods or personal preferences. Here are a few good free and paid for apps that can help therapists, teachers or parents with productivity of organization:
Awesome Note HD– I have been using Awesome Note for several years now and continue to use it due to familiarity and for the features provided which offer me a means to enter OT and AT caseload, admin tasks, schedules and certain meeting notes. Being a visual person, I prefer creating a binder – like existence to organize my notes and artifacts I collect on my students. Available in a version for the iPod and a HD version for the iPad, Awesome Note provides a calendar, sticky notes, to do list, folders that can be color coded and named and the ability to import or take pictures within the notes for archiving samples of student work or other artifacts needed. Here is a sample of what it can look like:
This is how I start my year with my e-docs, agendas, schedule, meeting information and student info for the year. Folders contain separate notes for all of the students that I work with or topics. The student files can archive anecdotal notes, IEP goals, student specific schedules, or import pictures taken of student work samples using the iPad camera for paperless archiving and retrieval. I have taken pre and post sample pictures of students handwriting readily, logged student sensory levels, behavior or other OT IEP information gathering here for IEP meetings. Not a perfect nor only type of note taking or data gathering system available, but it provides a paperless method of annotation, scheduling and archiving information on my iPad. The notes can be synced to my Google Drive for secure archiving and also provides a method of workflow with the use of my school iPad.
Servicing three different building and many classrooms requires knowing the class schedules of each building. Access to paperless, daily schedules of each building schedule and in service dates in Awesome Note has helped immensely with organization and scheduling which for me can change from day to day pending student schedules and the need to support AT needs across buildings.
Awesome Note app supports my note taking, scheduling and reminders organized in one app and supports the workflow available within our school district.
Notability app – Compatible with iPad, (.99) Notability is an advanced note taking and organizational app and a bargain at $.99. I use this app when going to workshops, general class or meeting notes not directly connected to my professional caseload.
Here are some of Notability’s features :
Full-featured Handwriting – Notability’s zoom window helps you quickly and clearly draw, let you copy, move and even re-style the color and width of any ink. Organizing notes is easy you can add or remove pages as needed.
PDF Annotation – Provides features to annotate PDFs: record, type or handwrite on anything. Share your annotations with anyone using email or Dropbox and more.
Advanced Word-Processing – Features styling, outlining, text boxes, and spell check. Other tools like bullets, bold, italic, underline, font presets, cursor controls, and more, help you create and organize your notes.
Linked Audio Recording – Audio recordings can be automatically link to your notes. Use the recording feature to capture your own voice for memos, presentations, or speech practice.
Auto-sync – Notes are always backed up in the cloud. Easily collaborate at work or school sharing ideas and notes on the fly.
Media Insertion – Enhance your notes by adding pictures from your photo library or from the iPad camera. Insert web clips, figures, and drawings to compliment your notes. The ability to crop, resize, and draw on images is available.
Library Organization – Organize, protect and share information. Drag and drop notes into a subject and use a password to keep notes secure. Auto-sync makes backing up simple: your notes are automatically uploaded to Dropbox, Box, iDisk or WebDAV. Import notes, PDFs, and RTFs from the cloud or web. And share notes via Email, Dropbox, Box, Twitter, iTunes File Sharing, and AirPrint.
Dropbox app – (free) available as an app for iPhone/iPad and Android, provides cloud storage of documents, audio and video. Dropbox app and web-based service is an easy method of storing and transferring documents and media from device to device whether mobile device or to your computer.
Dropbox provides methods of organization and file sharing with privacy features to allow access to specific files to users given access. Here is a video on Dropbox features made for Android:
Dropbox is an invaluable workflow service supporting file and media sharing between devices however dependent on Wi-Fi connectivity.
Classic Clock app – (free) Provides a clock, stopwatch and count down timer to for timed tasks as standardized testing, writing, keyboarding, balance, coordination tests, activity tolerance, attention or countdown to forewarn changes in activities or therapy activities.
The free Classic Clock app timer does not alert when used in the background. Purchasing the full Classic Clock HD version (1.99) will allow alerting when running in the background.
Visual timer apps – there are many visual timer apps that provide visual communication to students to begin and end tasks. Here are a few free and paid visual timers:
Time Timer app – (3.99) For iPhone/iPad provides visual timer like the portable Time Timers standardly used for visual communications.
Kiddie Countdown Timer – (free) visual timer providing count down visual of stop sign. Great for young children.
VisTimer app – (free/1.99) – The free version provides limited timer with paid version providing extended time options. Appropriate for older students
Email apps – Email services can be synchronized on your iDevice. Follow these steps to set up the first email account on your iOS device.
Tap Mail on the Home screen of your iOS device.
Select your email provider. If you don’t see your email provider listed, tap Other > Add Mail Account.
Follow the steps and provide the required information to configure your account.
If you already have an email account set up and you want to modify its settings, tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, tap the name of your account, and then your email address. Then tap any information you want to adjust.
If you want to add another account, tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account… and follow the onscreen instructions.
If you are synchronizing a work based email, contact your IT department for the information to connect your account. Synchronizing your email has many benefits however consideration of whether you want email readily available on your device if you allow students or others to use your device should be considered for confidentiality.
Calendar apps – iCal on the iPhone/iPad, Google Calendar or Outlook among many other calendars can be synchronized. Options in Settings you can establish a default calendar to synchronize other calendars to provide a mobile method of organization, scheduling and alerts for work related events and meetings. Alarms can be set 5 minutes to hours ahead to help remind you of tasks.
Photo app – Original app installed on the iPhone/iPad, provides not only the ability to take and store photos but also the ability to create “Albums” to organize photos by subject, student or event for slide shows or stories.
Taking pictures or student work, schedules, notes, worksheets or screen shots of documents and pictures on the web provides endless opportunities to organize, save import or exporting images to share, produce or create!
What productivity apps are in your teacher, therapist or OT iTool Kit?
“The KinderTown app helps busy parents find the best educational apps for kids ages 3-6 years old. Download it on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and teach your little one something new today.”
Caroline Nugent, Education Director at Kindertown, provides great app reviews as well as suggestions for integration of apps into daily instruction of early childhood classrooms. She has real life experience on what it takes to balance hands on activities, technology and learning in the lives of young learners in the classroom. Here reviews and educational blog provides a wonderful perspective of early learning for staff and families.
Enjoy her review and suggestions of project based, versatile learning apps for the classroom in her recent education blog post, “Versatile Kids Apps – Perfect for the Classoom”. Her suggested apps will support everyone in and out of the classroom – kids, teachers, therapists, parents and yes your budget too!
Tiny Tap is a free iPad app that makes creating content and “games” an easy task. Not only is it very easy to use, but offers a method of creating a quiz with basic data collection on user responses.
Geared to users who perform best with audio and image support (no text option is currently available) and physically interact with the touch screen, Tiny Tap allows you to create a “game” or questions about a theme or any variety of pictures from your photo album or camera. Steps to creating in Tiny Tap involve choosing an image or pictures of objects or vocabulary that response to questions of “show me”, “where is the ___ ?(object)”, that the user can relate to. As shown below, images can be easily added from the camera or from your iPads Photo Album.
The next step involves recording a question such as “where is” or “touch the”, then select/trace the object in the picture that is the answer to your question. Very fast, simple and easily edited.
After recording your initial question, you have the option of recording a correct response or incorrect response. Responses to correct and incorrect answers can be recorded. Options of types of music chosen with the app and turning the music on and off can be added in the game.
Visual and audio feedback is provided to the user after selection of the answers along with data collection supplied at the end of the game. Game creations can be shared via Email, Facebook or iTunes.
Tiny Tap is an easy method of creating a game or quiz for individuals with emergent learning skills and can provide teachers, parents, students or therapists an easy tool for creating “games”. Editing is also easy for creators to perform during production or at a later time. For users it provides a simple, interactive game for answering questions or a study method for some students. In store app purchases provide some free downloadable “games” such as a Color Game, Dress for Winter and pay for “games” such as Farm Animals, Making Pizza or Music. Check out Dress for Winter free game for a great example of what you could do for basic identification of clothing by seasons. It is a spring-board for ideas of creating functional life skills, vocabulary, sensory or social skills “games” for your child, student or client.
One option I would like to see in this app is the ability to add text to support emergent literacy or students who benefit from presentation of information visually whether image and or text.
On the creative side, Silva Rosenthal Tolisano in her Langwitches Blog (this is one of my favorite educational blogs) provides some great ideas on using this app for student created activities and ESL . You’ll enjoy her outside of the box ideas and instructional uses of this app and much more at her blog post:
Here is a back to school app reviewed by Sarah Bellin. Sarah provides a great review with attention to features useful for special needs students such as speech, text, visual cues, incentives and constructive feedback, all important to support the variety of needs we encounter.
Carol
If your child is learning to tell the time and need, you might like to take a look at Tell Time by StudyPad. Unlike many other Apps that just ask questions, Tell Time has some features that support learners, including students with special needs.
Features
8 modules in the App focus on the following topics:
Parts of the clock. – Identify the minute hand, hour hand, numbers on an analogue clock
Shelby’s Quest App for the iPad ($4.99), designed by an occupational therapist, is a therapy tool specially made for OT’s, teachers and parents that gives the child a fun way to practice fine motor and visual perceptual skills.
Skip the fish is animated as he swims up the stream. 
Samantha the squirrel needs help sorting the acorns requiring two fingered pinch to drop them in the correct basket.
Maurice the moose follow pathway of shapes in the woods.
User information is collected for assessment purposes and can be shared by email.
Traditional typing tutors might be a great thing for traditional keyboards, but for the iPad you need something completely different. iPad keyboards do not have physical “home keys,” the tactile and audible feedback of keys being pressed, and are smaller than most physical keyboards, making it awkward for large hands to do two-handed touch-typing. Ghost Type by Demografix is designed to help people of all ages to type on the iPad with two hands, and you’ll also find it might help single-handed typists also, such as those with a physical impairment. I often find myself typing with a single hand (either left or right) due to the other being occupied by small people, and I’ve found Ghost Type has helped me with speed and accuracy.
If your child is learning to tell the time and need, you might like to take a look at Tell Time by StudyPad. Unlike many other Apps that just ask questions, Tell Time has some features that support learners, including students with special needs.
OT's with Apps & Technology 