Grasshopper Apps has Freed Another App – Little Reader

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Grasshopper apps makes awesome apps that can be customized in a number of ways for students. You can record and import your own pictures, create a favorites list and choose specific content in the settings.  We use the apps at school for a range of students who are emergent learners of different ages. They are offering another new app…

Little Reader is a new app created by Grasshopper apps offering matching of four letter words and pictures. It iscompatible with iPad, iPod, iPhone and currently offered for free.  Here are a few screen shots of the Little Reader app:

Pictures and words are categorized alphabetically and can be customized in the settings by deleting some words and also adding your own. Little Reader offers a clean interface with real pictures that supports the needs of  our special education students. I have a students who are working on functional life skills that this app could easily be used to make an activity featuring environmental signs, household, clothing, hygiene and grooming items geared to the needs of the student. When trialed creating a customized word list, the app accepted three and four letter words within the app.

Add this and other Grasshopper apps as Little Speller, Little Patterns, Kids Puzzles as learning apps for your OT iTool Kit and share it with the teachers and therapists you work with!

Thanks Grasshopper apps!

Carol

Posted in App Reviews, Apps for OT's, Apps for Special Needs, iPad, Occupational Therapy, Pre-writing, Visual Motor | Leave a comment

Cars 2 AppMates App with Manipulatives

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Thanks to my OT and AT colleague Bonnie, I had the opportunity to attend a free in service hosted by Concordia College’s School of Education in Mequon, Wisconsin with presenters Sue Gorman, an Apple  Distinguished Educator and Ann Barry and Kate Sieg experienced AT/ IT educators from Racine Unified School District. It was a great day with reviews of familiar and unfamiliar educational apps and implementation ideas focusing on inclusion, instruction and access for special education. Sue Gorman also reviewed apps and software for iBook creation and apps for higher order thinking skills. This was a great in service for its content much less being free – thanks to Concordia College of Education!

Among the many apps presented, Disney’s  Cars 2 AppMATes   app (free, iPad) was presented and caught my attention as an appropriate fine motor – OT app that combines the use of the iPad as a mat with manipulatives –  cars that interact with the app! I love the iPad and all it can offer, but as a OT, providing manipulative activities to our students is still imperative for development of in hand manipulation, distal control, haptic and visual motor coordination skills for fine motor coordination. This app provides some of both with the user holding and manipulating the car that interacts with the app!

How does that work? Here’s screen shots of the Cars 2 AppMATes app to get a sense of how the app and physical car works. Note that there is an open web space of his thumb and index finger when kids hold the car – something we are always trying to achieve with our students!!

The physical cars are available for purchased separately, however, you can play the app using two fingers to drive “Paper Lightning” car on the app. Instructions of what to do are spoken aloud to the user as well as an animated arrow provides visual directions to where you need to be on the screen to make it work. The app give great verbal as well as visual feedback of how to play in this app.

There are other animated components such as a basic horn, gadgets (missle??- would not allow that choice!), and fuel that is free as well as more for purchase components which are not necessary to play. The app plays a game that you earn coins to purchase other parts for your car and leads you to other destinations in the app. Step by step auditory instructions are provided through out the app for what to do next. Here is a video of the app:

I am not particularly a huge fan of games on the iPad but this app, based on the Cars movie, is well done, easy to get started (even for me) and would be very motivating for students – certainly for boys on your caseload. It can provide a good reward activity with some visual motor and fine motor skill development qualities inherent in the app to motivate your students . I found driving Paper Lightning a definite motor planning challenge but the activity provided enough feedback to help me and was motivating enough for me to catch on and continue. Students may have an easier time that I not being much of a gamer.

Although you can play using Paper Lightning car, physical cars can be purchased online and typically come in packs of two. Here are some of the different cars available and links for purchase if interested:

Mater Finn McMissile

McQueen & Holley

Todoroki & Bernoulli

Do you have this app in your OT iTool Kit already? Are there more like this available?? If you have any experience please share!!

Carol

Posted in App Reviews, Apps for OT's, Fine Motor Development, iPad, Occupational Therapy, Visual Motor | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Awesome Note

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

As an itinerant therapist, traveling from building to building, or room to room it can be difficult  to write notes, have schedules or other information  easily available to you. If you have an iPad, do you carry your iPad along with you during the day?

My iPad goes with me almost where ever I go at school. I am in a number of different buildings and many classrooms whether I am working with students or teachers as a OT or AT Coordinator (I wear two hats at my school).

One of the apps that I have found helpful is Awesome Note (iPad HD 4.99/ Lite- free), which allows me to organize information by categories almost like a binder system on my iPad. I have been using it for a while, but was surprised when their was an inquiry on the QIAT listserv, how frequently it was mentioned by other professionals in education for their preference as an organizer app. Aside from being very visual (color, tabs and easy visual presentation/organization fits my learning style) here are some of the features in Awesome Note:

  • Provides options of colored tabs or categories of information you need to record or access ( OT Elementary Students; Schedules; OT Middle School Students; AT High School Students, OT Admin; AT Admin; e.g.)
  • Allows posting dates and events into the calendar
  • Tools to set alarms by events, or to do list
  • Provides options to enter notes, to do lists into categorized subjects (e.g. student lists)
  • Provides options to insert pictures (saved or camera option) of evidence of student work (pictures of handwriting samples, keyboarding or drawing samples)
  • Create a to do list with suspense date

Here are some screen shots of  Awesome Note features:

(instead of Kung Fu, this might be a student name and a daily note written).

Here is how I organize some of my categories:

 

Each category students has a listing of student names where I write daily treatment notes or can take pictures within the notes of student production ( images of handwriting, drawing samples, word processing samples, etc.). I can use those images/ data collection samples for pre-post information or provide an electronic samples easily to parents during IEP meetings.

I also create a list of to do tasks that can help me prioritize, set alarms and then check off the tasks (my favorite thing is to check those tasks off!) Awesome notes is my agenda and organizer, providing a one stop job shop of administrative information! I do wish that within the notes it would create an automatic date stamp. It does automatically record the last date entered something into the note however. Awesome Note syncs notes to Google Docs, Evernote or via Wi-Fi between iDevices for archiving.

Here is a YouTube video of Awesome Notes:

Check out Awesome Note if you need an electronic organizer for your OT iTool Kit!

Carol

Posted in Apps for OT's, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Note Taking App, Occupational Therapy | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Injini Printables – Activity Worksheets for your iPad

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS
  1. Did you know that Injini has printable Supplement Books available in PDF on their website? Suited to young children, these printable Supplement Books or worksheet provide beginning visual motor tracing activities starting with simple straight lines and another set providing simple curved lines.

Do you know what that means? Yes –  electronic  visual motor activity worksheets for your iPad!!

How do you do that?

  1. On your iPad navigate to the following Injini website’s Printables Page:  http://www.injini.net/?page_id=384
  2. Click on the picture/image under the heading of Injini Frog Game (PDF will load) on the page OR follow this link to the PDF of the Printables:    http://www.injini.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Frog-Supplements.pdf (a PDF will open up).
  3. Click on the picture/image under the heading of Injini Tracing Game (PDF will load) OR follow this link to the PDF: http://www.injini.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Tracing-Supplements-Smaller.pdf
  4. When the PDF opens on your iPad, center the page and take a screenshot of each page (press home and power button at the top simultaneously – you’ll see a flash and if audio is on hear a click).
  5. Navigate to your Photos and you will find a screen shot of each page.
  6. Open those pages in your favorite draw program such as Doodle Buddy (free), or Skitch  app (free) or a note taking app as reuseable tracing activity for young students.
  7. Save the work, email the completed worksheet if you need evidence or a production for the classroom.

Here are some screen shots of the Injini worksheets that are clean and engaging for students.

You may be able to reduce the size of the tracing lines by using the worksheets in an app that you can adjust the size of the image if appropriate.

Thanks Injini for your printables!

More for your OT iTool Kit – and free!!

Carol

Posted in Activity Worksheets on Your iPad, Drawing, Early Childhood, Fine Motor Development, iPad, Occupational Therapy, Special education, Special Needs, Visual Motor | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Writing Apps – Supports for Students with LD #4

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Writing is considered one of the most difficult literacy tasks. Many students with learning disabilities struggle with the process of writing as well as the mechanical componets of the writing task. Technology can provide support to the mechanical demands of the writing process and is often a welcome tool to students.

When asked about AT supports for writing there are many,  however some of the standard AT tools of mechanical writing are voice recognition, use of text to speech, word prediction and adaptive or customized writing environments. Although there are others (especially those with text to speech) here are some apps that show good reviews and provide basic features of the standard AT tools for writing. At the present, phonetic word prediction does not appear to be present in writing apps (may be found in more advanced text-based AAC apps such as Predictably). Note taking, story telling, graphic organizing or concept mapping apps are anticipated to be reviewed in upcoming posts.

Voice Recognition Apps

Dragon Dictation – Created by Nuance, the makers of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, provides this free voice recognition app for iPod/iPhone/iPad. It requires Wi-Fi service for the translation of your voiced file to text. Dragon Dictation is amazingly accurate given the fact that no training is required prior to its use. It uses some of the standard Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice commands for formating and document navigation. Check out the voice command listing in the previous post, Dragon Dictation  to help with voice navigation and  punctuation commands when composing. Options for publishing the text include copying, emailing, cutting or sending it to Facebook or Twitter.

Dragon Dictation minimizes the demands of the mechanical writing demands. I requires a significant  cognitive component to organization thoughts, speak out punctuation and recall commands for document navigation, editing or formating by voice.   Dragon Dictation however is a boon for those who have significant spelling challenges, difficulty getting their ideas down on paper and rely on scribing to others. Good articulation, Wi-Fi service, and the ability to read your translated text is required to use Dragon Dictation app.

PaperPort App – This is Nuances new free digital note taking for your iPad that captures hand written notes, typed text, images, web content and audio. PaperPort Notes even allows you to take advantage of the Dragon Dictates voice recognition software produce your ideas and notes simply by speaking. This is a fabulous app previously reviewed in a previous post PaperPort App  – Dragon Dictation on Steroids.

PaperPort app provides a “scribe-like” tool with additional support of importing pictures into the app. Tools to draw and type are available along with the capabilities of “speak text” tool to be used to list to the transcribed text. Best of both worlds, this app provides voice recognition in a note taking app with many tools including “speak text” capabilities.  Good articulation, written organization, knowledge of conventions for punctuation and capitalization and editing is required to support the writing process. Ability to manually navigate in the app is required to access tools and menus. Great tool for students with learning disabilities to get their thoughts down on paper and review the text using “speak text” tool offered in iOS5.

Text to Speech to Assist with Editing

Write & Say App  – This app provides a word processing environment with text to speech, translation and the ability to convert your text to MP3 format. Many languages and voices are available within the app. Boost high quality voices for its text to speech tool. Compatible with iPhone/iPod and iPad, (9.99). Provides the ability to email your documents.

Word Prediction Apps

Typ-O – A simple word processing note pad with word prediction and text to speech provided to read your text aloud. Provides the ability to email your work or copy to the clipboard to transfer to another word processing or note taking app. Basic setting options of reading sped, pitch and word prediction vocabulary and spelling skill options are provided to support the writer’s skill level.

Typ-O for iPod/iPhone (9.99):

Typ-O for iPad (14.99):

ZenTap – A word processing app featuring advanced word prediction.  Compatible with iPhone/iPod and iPad provides a free and Pro version (2.99), ZenTap provides a word processing environment with word presented above the keyboard for easy presentation and access. Words are predicted using an alphabetic formula, rather than a phonetic or grammatic method of generation.

Spell checking is also provided in the app as well as the ability to translate to other languages. No text to speech is provided in the app, however if voice over capabilities are enabled, cursory text to speech will be available. Word processed text can be saved, emailed or copied for use in other apps. For its cost, ZenTap provides many features along with its word prediction tool.

Intellipad App – This word prediction and customizable keyboard app provides many options for students with special needs. Compatible only with iPad (19.99). Intellipad provides a word processing environment with word prediction presented above the keyboard for easy viewing and selection. Word prediction is generated alphabetically as you type. Text to speech is also provided for easy auditory review of the text. This is a great app for elementary aged students with learning disabilities who have difficulty generating written work. Working with the app to become familiar with it I easily customized a math keyboard with math symbols as a solutions for students having difficulty handwriting simple math problems.

Another outstanding feature of Intellipad is the ability to modify the keyboard and key contents.

Intellipad is a great app providing access and scaffolding of writing supports for special needs students. For more information visit an earlier post dated October, 2011 on Intellipad.

iMean – Another app providing word suggestions with an alternative keyboards available with text to speech capabilities. Compatible with the iPad (4.99), this app provides options of an ABC, QWERTY and number keyboards with word suggestions  and text to speech available when the word enter the typing window. Easy switching from keyboard to keyboard is available directly on the keyboard.

Capabilities to change from keyboard to word processing view as shown above is readily available. Copying capability allows for transferring the written information to a word processing or note taking app.

There are many more mechanical writing apps for students with learning disabilities, however those reviewed provide possibilities for elementary through post secondary aged students with challenges with spelling, writing/typing. Hopefully in the near future phonetic based word prediction with be provided within apps for those students or individuals who have not yet acquired transitional or conventional spelling skills.

Have any mechanical writing apps to share ? Please post a comment with any apps you might suggest.

What’s in your OT iTool Kit for writing?

Carol

Posted in App Reviews, Apps for OT's, Apps for Special Needs, High School, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Language Arts, Learning Disability, Middle School, Occupational Therapy, Post secondary, Special education, Special Needs, Text to Speech, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Happy Valentines Day ….

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

My apologies… I made a change to this Happy Valentines Day post….(the original Valentines Day card app post had more charges to it than I realized – I though it was free but was not really!)… to an option of a sweet, free story appropriate for Valentines Day  or any day from Hallmark!

Did you know Hallmark published free book apps based on their hard copy books? Here is one of their free story apps ….

Cooper’s Big Bear Hug – A free Hallmark interactive Storybook compatible with iPhone/iPod/iPad with a sweet and loving story line. Appropriate for young students and providing read aloud and games.

Here are more free Hallmark interactive story books that read aloud and are appropriate for the emergent reader audience:

  • Watson and the Case of the Sneaky Stealer
  • Bigsby’s Best Friend
  • Abigail and the Balance Beam

Although they might be for younger students, they provide read aloud capabilities, puzzles and are interactive to keep students engaged. Easy navigation with forward and back buttons are presented in a standard manner for ease of access to students.

More free  options for your OT iTool Kit

Happy Valentine’s Day Apping!

Carol

Posted in App Reviews, Apps for OT's, Apps for Special Needs, Book, Early Childhood, iPad, iPhone, iPod | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Draw a Person for Young Children on the iPad

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Julie posted a comment with a question about finding an app for Draw A Person on the iPad. She commented that Doodle Buddy could be used to assist with drawing but she was looking for an app specifically for drawing a person.

After some searching, I unfortunately found no apps that featuring a early or developmental method of drawing people or body schemes for young children.  Most of the apps suited to young children features step by step drawing of shapes or animals as reviewed in the previous post  on January 1, 2012:

  • Drawing app
  • I Luv Drawing Animals
  • I Luv Drawing Santa
  • Learning to Draw is Fun
  • iDoodle app

I was reminded of some of my favorite books about drawing (other than Ed Emberley’s) the Usborne books I Can Draw Series that I have used with school children to work on drawing people or  animals (I Can Draw Animals (Usborne Playtime Series),  What Shall I Draw (What Shall I Do Today). Here is the I Can Draw People (Usborne Playtime)
book for ages 5 +:

I Can Draw People (Usborne Playtime) provides step by step models of how to draw people suited for primary aged students. After purchasing the book you could take a picture of the step by step instructions and import the picture in to Doodle Buddy for student to follow the step by step drawing and draw their own. You could create your drawing in Doodle Buddy with body parts missing to scaffold the activity for the student, then take a screen shot of the partially completed draw a person and import that into Doodle Buddy for the student to draw on.

Here is another clever way Doodle Buddy was used with pictures of the students taken with the camera of an iDevice imported and illustrated on in Doodle Buddy:

The drawing project using Doodle is from Karen Bosch’s  excellent presentation Fostering Creative App-titude using the iPad .  Although her creative idea was with older students, this could be done using pictures of younger students to have them identify body parts or tracing around their body on their pictures in Doodle Buddy. Pictures can then be sent or a screen shot made to transfer or use in another story telling, slide show app or made into a photo album.

Two other slide show apps that allows you to create a slide show importing or taking pictures and record audio within the apps are:

Show Me app – An interactive whiteboard app, allows you to take or choose a picture from the photo album and draw on similar to Doodle Buddy. Show Me app also allow you to audio record on the slides. Options to share the slide show are provided. Available for iPad, Free.

Educreations app – also is a slide show app that you can import a picture from photo library, Dropbox or take a picture from within the app. In this app you also can lock down the picture, a handy option when drawing on top of the picture. Audio recording is an option on the slides. Options to share the lesson or slide show are provided.

More Thoughts – Draw A Person Research

Searching for apps I found a lot of research about the developmental stages of children’s drawing which was a good perspective to be reminded of when working with special needs students that we work with. Here is some that might be of interest:

AAA Lab at Stanford Child Development on the concept of drawing animals versus people which suggests that children initially draw animals better than they draw people.

Susan Donley’s website presents developmental perspective of drawing development in childhood keeping in perspective the typical developmental sequence of draw a person skills as shown below:

If you know of an app or another suggestion of working on draw a person/body scheme with children please share!

Carol

Posted in Activity Worksheets on Your iPad, App Reviews, Apps for OT's, Apps for Special Needs, Drawing, Early Childhood, iPad, Occupational Therapy, Special education, Special Needs, Visual Motor | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pirate Scribblebeard’s Treasure – Gone Free

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Pirate Scribblebeard’s Treasure was mentioned and recommended previously as a worthwhile drawing app – currently gone free!

Available only for iPad and Android, this is a drawing app that provides the tools to draw in characters and objects in a pirate theme.   Fun app, however will require imagination and ability to draw people and objects and enjoy a pirate theme. This app would present a difficult task for younger students and students with visual perceptual or visual motor challenges. A fun theme but requires imagination and a concept of pirates to carry out the thematic activities. Cleverly presented with sounds and some animation, this app would be fun for the right kids or students.

Here is a YouTube review of the app:

Check it out to see if you want to add this to your OT iTool Kit!

Carol

Posted in App Reviews, Apps for OT's, Apps for Special Needs, iPad, Occupational Therapy, Special education, Visual Motor | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Symbaloo App

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

Interested in accumulating all of your web resources in one location – in an app? Check out the app called …

Symbaloo is a free app that compiles web resources into “webmixes” or grids that can be categorized  by subject or topic for easy access on your iPad.  Webmixes can be created or selected from the hundreds of “shared”  webmixes offered in the Symbaloo’s gallery for access to your Symbaloo App. What results is an organized set of icons within the app of your favorite websites or links to documents or presentations on the Internet making them easy to access. Used for personal access or as a place your students can be directed to go via your Symbaloo app on your iPad.

Below is a screen shot of the start of my Symbaloo I created with subject tabs of OT Resources, AT Websites and Sped App Review. I also imported an existing EDU webmix I found that provides many familiar resources (Prezi, LiveBinders, Delicious, TeacherTube, etc.) with a search in their webmix “gallery”.

As a visual learner this is a great way to organize web resources and documents that are web based for easy access from my iPad! Each of these icons link to the website as labeled. Much like LiveBinders, this is a great way to organize resources!

Here is the Symbaloo “webmix” or grid for Sped App resources/reviews as shown above:

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/appresources

Here is the beginning of Symbaloo gride for OT websites :

http://www.symbaloo.com/embed/otresources

Here is the beginning of a Symbaloo gird of some of my favorite AT websites:

http://www.symbaloo.com/embed/atwebsites

Membership for Symbaloo is free. There also is a Symbaloo EDU for educators. Check out the video on Symbaloo EDU:

Symbaloo app is a quick way to access your favorites or frequently used online resources for yourself or your students. Along with establishing single home screen icons, this could be an easy access method for students who physically or cognitively can not enter URL’s into their iPad. I am really excited about using Symbaloo on my iPad!

An organization tool for favorites for your OT iTool Kit…

Carol

Posted in Accessibility, App Reviews, Apps for OT's, iPad, iPhone, Occupational Therapy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Apps Designed with Transition in Mind and Disability in Mind from OCALI

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Carol Leynse Harpold, MS, OTR/L, SCLV, ATP, CATIS

OCALI – the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence is an online resource that offers tremendous resources for individuals with Autism and low incidence populations in areas of transition, UDL, AT, education and information for families and professionals supporting those disabilities.  They provide webinars, presentations and other archived documents related to Autism and low incidence populations. Among their many documents posted are current lists (January 2012) of apps focusing on transition and disabilities for low incidence populations. Follow the links to for their app listings:

Apps Designed with Transition in Mind (PDF)

Apps Designed with Disability in Mind  (PDF)

OCALI is a wealth of information on their focused topics of Autism and low incidence populations. Check out their resource – it is well worth the visit!

Offering resources for your OT iTool Kit…

Carol

Posted in App Reviews, Apps for OT's, Apps for Special Needs, Autism, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mobility Impairment, Occupational Therapy, Social Skills, Special education, Special Needs, Transition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment