Social Skills & Social Thinking

Social Skill Strategies - by Jill Kuzma

http://jillkuzma.wordpress.com/

Social Stories - Collection

http://kidscandream.webs.com/page12.htm

 Anger Management For K-6

http://www.goodcharacter.com/GROARK/Anger.html

Social Thinking - by Michele Garcia Winner

http://www.socialthinking.com

Books by MGW include:

1. Superflex - A Superhero social thinking program

2. Worksheets for Teaching Social Thinking and    

    Related Skills

 

Spread the Word to End the R-Word

PSA on TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T549VoLca_Q

Mermaid Theatre

Mermaid Theatre, Windsor, NS

http://www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/ 

 

'Ableism' Critique by Fiona Campbell

The paradigm of 'ableism' is discussed.  We need to get to the root of the problem rather than merely finding band-aid solutions that inevitably perpetuate unhealthy paradigms.  Watch Fiona Campbell interview from Australia:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJlU5GyiTzs

Media's Representation of People With Disabilities

How do the media portray people with disabilities?  

Media Stereotypes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGrRc-XT17o


Media Awareness Network - Resource
http://mediasmarts.ca/

Ouch Podcasts from UK

Have you ever heard anything like the following? Watch these Ouch podcasts from the U.K.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/podcast/

Future Technology in Education

Here's a progressive video from the New Brunswick Department of Education on the future of education and technology. We can no longer delay the use of AT and technology in general for our students if we are to effectively prepare them for the future.

21st Century Education in New Brunswick

Additional Apps for Learning Disabilities

Here is a link to a website with some additional useful apps for students with learning disabilities:

http://www.smartkidswithld.org/at-bytes/ipad-apps-for-kids-with-ld 

AT Case Studies and Future Recommendations

Future Recommendations

Many useful AT products were highlighted in the various class case studies showing just how helpful AT could be for students with learning disabilities and physical challenges. 

Reluctant Writers:
1. Co-Writer - predictive typing; online; load specific topic dictionaries
2. Word Q - predictive typing; online; load specific topic dictionaries
3. Ginger - predictive typing; sentence prediction
4. Solo - Includes: Co-Writer, Write Outloud, Read Outloud, Draft Builder
5. Fusion - word predictive keyboard device; documents can be saved; not as good as Co-Writer; portable device that students can use at their desk - pc not needed

Co-Writer

 Word Q 

 

Reluctant Readers:
1. Raz-Kids - read-along online books and quizzes; generates useful class progress reports for teachers; free trial subscriptions       
2. TumbleReadables - read-along online book; written book reviews; expensive; free trial subscriptions
3. Starfall - online reading program for young children

Starfall

Low Tech:
1. fidget toy - ex. squeeze ball
2. pen/pencil grips - sponge grips

Headsets/earphones - a useful piece of equipment, not only for audio, but to block out other distracting classroom sounds for students with audio deficits or ADHD.


e-book story: Goodnight iPad
The Good Night Moon bedtime story for the digital age...

Making the AT Match for Reluctant Writers

The following AT programs could support reluctant writers but need to be effectively matched to the student to be optimally effective. It is amazing what technology is out there available to aid students' learning. It's like finding a treasure chest of AT tools!

Reluctant Writers:
1. Draft Builder Solo - good for idea generation
2. Fusion Keyboard - keyboard device; predictive typing; can save documents
3. Kidspiration & Inspiration - for mind mapping, brainstorming and pre-writing
           strategies; HRSB
4. Writing With Symbols - for significant cognitive delays; pictorial symbols; for
           non-readers and writers; not used effectively in schools.
5. Classroom Suite - pictorial symbols and text; text to speech; has a portal
           alpha-smart keyboard; for handwriting difficulties; HRSB
6. Clicker 5 - similar to above
7. *WriteOutLoud - great tool; for lower level mechanics - Recommended
8. *Co-Writer Solo - For students with upper content level skills and upper level
          mechanics skills, good receptive language skills; punctuation and capital
          letters are prompted; topic dictionaries - Recommended        
9. ClozePro - For weak handwriting

ClozePro

Clicker 5

WriteOutLoud

Classroom Suite

Kidspiration/Inspiration

Voice Recognition  - Speech to Text:

1. MyStudyBar - need to be skilled and articulate for optimal use; need to have
          high content and congitive ability to use effectively; saying 'um' and long
          pauses may cause disruptions in text; need to prepare and practice speech
          beforehand
2. Dragon Naturally Speaking - similar to above; can be frustrating for some
          students to use; requires editing, no predictive typing; caution - needs 3 GB
          of RAM to run

Dragon Naturally Speaking

Misunderstood Minds and Learning Disabilities

The following introductory video clip from PBS's Misunderstood Minds documentary effectively showcases various families' experiences dealing with learning disabilities and school. It explores issues of assessment, separate class instruction as well as debunking the myth about the perceived over-medication of children with ADHD. Some very personal family stories that struggled to find the successful path for their child.

http://misunderstoodmindsld.blogspot.com/


Misunderstood Minds and Learning Disabilities
Chapter 1:

 

                                                                           

Keyboarding vs. Handwriting Task Analysis

A task analysis for handwriting compared to keyboarding would involve much of the same skill sets but with some differences involving motor skills and sensory processing. Similar skill sets include attention to task, executive functioning, proprioception, idea formulation, image generation, prior knowledge, phonemic awareness, high level content skills, writing formats, short and long term memory, etc.  

Keyboarding would benefit students with graphomotor,  fine motor skills difficulties, visual-motor, and visual-spatial difficulties. However, keyboard use won't improve the output of those students with phonological awareness difficulties or central auditory processing difficulties involving spelling or sentence formation. 

Intuitive and predictive typing programs and spellcheck can independently support slow typists with fine motor challenges who have some word recognition ability and can formulate sentence structure. ex. Co-Writer, WordQ, Kurzweil, TikiNotes app (free), Typo, etc

Co-Writer - the best word predictive word processor available. Has specific vocabulary dictionaries on various curriculum topics.  Teachers can also create your own subject related vocab banks for students to draw from.

Low Tech Handwriting Tools:

                             

Sharpening Up on Pencil Skills (OT):

Apps For Reluctant Readers and Writers

A Treasure Chest of Apps

Digital apps, avilable from the iTunes store for iPhones, iPads and iPods, can provide the necessary technological support to enhance the performance of students who have reading and written output difficulties due to CAPD (Central Auditory Processing disorders) among other challenges, as reading and writing are highly integrated complex processes involving:  sensory processing, executive functions, prior knowledge, fine motor skills, short and long term memory, proprioception, visualization, auditory processing, sequential processing, etc.

These educational apps support writing by helping to initiate, plan, organize and produce student written output.  While some writing apps support lower level content skills (generating ideas, etc.), others support spelling and grammar among other processes.  The reading apps can read aloud texts and provide phonological practice for students.

To purchase educational apps, go to iTunes store,  search for educational apps, preview and then purchase online. Some apps are free of charge.

Useful Apps for Reading, Writing and Math

Clay-B-Cs Released September 30, 2011 $ 0.99 compatible with iphone, iPod touch & iPad	This colourful app is an interactive picture book which is designed to help children learn the alphabet in a creative manner through the use of colourful clay animation. It involves an interactive touch experience that encourages the user to search for items on a page that begin with a letter of the alphabet. Users open to a screen for a letter of the alphabet: For example - C is for…. with animated objects that begin with C: pictures below show a car, a cow, carrots, circles, a caterpillar, celery & corn. Upon touching the object the word is spelled above the object. There are at least six objects per page and a countdown that shows how many objects are left to find. Voice activation (which can be enabled) will introduce a letter and repeat the name of the object as it is touched. What makes this app unique is that the handmade clay pictures are very attractive and colourful. This relatively new app has been very well received with many five star positive comments in the iTunes store.	This app is suitable for young and old alike. It can assist in developing pre-reading skills: learning the alphabet, development of a rich vocabulary, awareness of print and skills associated with decoding such as creating a mental picture of a word.
R U APT? Parts of speech Released November 10, 2011 $ 0.99 compatible with iphone, iPod touch & iPad	This app is designed to help users learn and reinforce the parts of speech used in spoken and written English such as; nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns prepositions conjunctions and interjections. A game format is used for this app whereby a question is posed and a multiple-choice list of four responses is listed below. Selecting this correct the answer results in moving forward in the game. Three wrong answers ends the game in a high score is recorded as the game is played over time. Students need some prior knowledge of the parts of speech and an ability to read independently.	Very beneficial for a student to learn about writing conventions in the English language. Especially beneficial for Language Arts and English courses for middle school and high school students.
Sight Words Released June 28, 2011 $ Free compatible with iphone, iPod touch & iPad Spelling Notebook Free Released November 4, 2011 $ Free compatible with iphone, iPod touch & iPad	This app is designed to help children learn the most common words used in the English language otherwise known as the Dolch words (sight words). Edward William Dolch PhD compiled this list containing 315 "service words" that he determined to be necessary to know in order to achieve reading fluency in the English language. It is recognized that many of the Dolch words can't be "sounded out" using common sound-to-letter implicit phonics patterns and have to be learned by sight. Although the app is aimed towards pre-primary, primary and upper elementary grades, it would be very suitable for students with exceptionalities and ESL students alike. Features include the ability to add new words and make your own cards using your voice (as opposed to using the programmed voice). A multi-sensory learning app using audio, voice and written words that is designed in a fun, game style manner. Five out of five stars at the iTunes store. A really fun app for all learners. A very helpful app for assisting with spelling skills, this app allows creation of individualized wordlists. Additionally, the app contains a built-in spelling dictionary, a database of over 100,000 words with the option to individualize by adding more words, text to voice as well as the ability to record one’s own voice for practicing words and a feedback system whereby stars are given for correct spellings. Many, many features in this app that would assist in learning to spell the written word. This app was designed to replace the pencil and paper method of learning to spell new words and encourages independent learning. A really great new free app in my opinion.	This app is very useful to prepare children to read; it helps to develop an awareness of print, rich vocabulary, and decoding skills. Also, voice to text helps with auditory learning. This ‘learn how to spell’ app can promote an awareness of print, a rich vocabulary and assist with decoding skills. Also, voice to text helps with phonemic awareness though auditory learning.
Math Bingo Released March 10, 2011 from www.ABCya.com website $0.99 compatible with iPhone, iPod & iPad, a universal app	From the critically acclaimed www.ABCya.com website, Math Bingo offers children math practice in a game format that includes player profiles and rewards. There are four categories: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; three levels of difficulty – easy, medium and hard; choice of eight different avatar cartoons; and a personal scoreboard. The object of Math Bingo is to get a pattern of five Bingo Bugs in a row by correctly answering math problems. The score is determined by the amount of time it takes to calculate a correct answer plus a two second penalty for incorrect answers. Animated, interactive Bingo Bugs are rewarded for achieving a high score. Engaging sounds and animated effects. Math bingo usage	Effective app for practicing basic math functions. Player profiles and timekeeper ability document student progress over time. Three levels of difficulty provide for differentiation of instruction. Lessons not included.
Rocket Math $0.99 and free version Compatible with iPhone , iPod & iPad, a universal app	An educational app that reinforces math functions by building an online rocket with 56 fun math missions that are different every time, 90+ colourful rocket parts, engaging sound effects and music, three levels of difficulty, choice of 15 space-themed avatars; create 5 player profiles; rocket simulator is powered by realistic physics engine. Math functions include: numbers, fractions, decimals, counting, telling time, money (US), shape (2D, 3D), patterns, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square roots, etc). Interactive animations have touchable objects floating in space.	Recommended for all ages. Three levels of difficulty provide for differentiation of instruction; engaging and interactive practice for several math skills. Lessons not included.
Mathemagics – Mental Math Tricks $0.99 (sale price) Compatible with iPhone, iPod & iPad, a universal app	A fun application that teaches and practices mental math tricks. The three components – lessons, practice and play – train your brain to break down math problems into smaller more manageable pieces in order to find solutions. With various levels of proficiency, the numerous mental math calculations include: multiply as high as 20, multiply any number by 25, multiply any number by 99, squares from 41-59, sum of first n even numbers, square number sin the 60’s, evenly divisible by 7, square numbers in the 800’s, check division by casting nines, check subtraction by casting nines, etc. http://youtu.be/c6uV8JRiHeE	An instructional and engaging practice app for all ages and grades. Mental math lessons included. A practical resource and instructional tool.
Story Builder $3.99 Compatible with iPhone, iPod & iPad, a universal app	Designed to help children write/create narrative stories. Supports three writing goals: improves paragraph formation, improves integration of ideas and improves higher level abstractions by reference. Use of audio clips promotes improved auditory processing for special needs children with autism spectrum disorders or sensory processing disorders. Children can record narrative stories using their own voices. Features include: three levels of play, simple intuitive interface, recorded answers are attached together to create a complete narrative, 50 different story lines from which to choose, 500 audio clips to use to create narratives, optional question and answer introduction support, e-mail recorded stories when finished. Colourful cartoon graphic stories.	Recommended for ages 6-10, 10+ special needs. An engaging and helpful instructional support tool for reluctant writers and non-verbal students.
Elmo Loves ABCs $4.99 Compatible with iPad.	Available in a lite version for free. Lite limits you to 3 letters but is a great way to see if the app is right for you. In the full version, (which my 2-year-old is in love with) there are 3 main activities. In one, you choose a letter to trace and 3 objects that begin with that letter appear. You can then watch videos about these objects, colour them or play hide and seek with them. In another activity, you are presented with different letters and Elmo asks you to find a certain one in upper and lower case. Then you have to choose an object that begins with that letter to be rewarded with another short video. The third activity is a variety of videos to accompany a variety of ABC songs. Kids love this app because Elmo chatters away to them throughout their tasks and they get quick glimpses of other Sesame Street characters in the brief videos. I enjoy it because kids have to work for the quick videos and because many of them are “old school” clips from when I watched Sesame Street as a kid.	Recommended for any kid who likes Sesame Street! Younger kids (or those with fine motor issues) may need a bit of assistance to trace letters. Used and loved by our school’s speech-language pathologist.
Super Why $2.99 Version 1.4 compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad $3.99 Version 1.5 Compatible with iPad	As far as I can tell, versions 1.4 and 1.5 are quite similar, if not identical. Both offer 4 different games and the chance to earn reward “stickers.” Kids can use the stickers to decorate different backgrounds on their iDevice. The games correspond with the 4 main characters on the PBS show Super Why, including Alpha Pig’s Lickety Letter Hunt, Wonder Red’s Rhyme Time, Princess Presto’s Wands Up Writing, and Super Why’s Story Saver. The games focus on letter identification, letter sounds, initial sounds, letter formation, comprehension, and word families.	I would recommend this app for pre-school or school aged children. The show itself was very popular with my primary class and I would have loved to have this available for them as well.
Beginning Sounds Interactive Game Free Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.	This app is a fun way to get kids to practice their initial letter sounds. 18 sounds are available and represented by pictures. The user can choose 3 sounds to work with or can have a random selection chosen. Once chosen a device that resembles a slot machine appears with 3 columns, one for each of the sounds. The user is then given 12 samples to sort. The samples appear as little balls that tumble out of the side of the device. The samples are also represented by pictures. You can click on the samples or on the sounds chosen to have the names of the objects said aloud. There is no text shown. If a sample is placed in the wrong slot, it is simply placed back in the sample section so the user can try again.	Although listed as being suitable for ages 4-7 years, this app could be used with a wider age range to help with letter/sound difficulties.
Letter of the Day Interactive Activities Free (until Dec. 31, 2011) Compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.	Great app for letter identification sounds and printing practice. The user can choose any letter of the alphabet to work with. A chant appears and can be read to or by the child. There are then 4 boxes where the user has to choose from 3 options. Incorrect choices disappear while the user is cheerfully told to try again. There is also a space to practice letter formation, with a simple demonstration of proper techniques. It would be nice to see some feedback though, in case students aren't attending to the tutorial.	Recommended for ages 4-6 years.