Guided Access Tutorial

my new favorite iPad feature available with iOS 6

I've heard stories about people who are using the iPad with a kiddo, and the student just wants to play games instead of learning from the amazing app that his teacher/speech therapist/parent has opened. So the student presses the home button and closes out the app. Of course, this absolutely never happens with the students I am working with. No way! We are fully engaged and participating 100% of the time (in my dreams!)

And I've heard of students activating in-app purchases or advertisements while using the iPad. Can you imagine?! In case this has ever happened to you -- and I'm SO GLAD I have not had to deal with any of these issues (can you smell the sarcasm?) -- then Guided Access is the answer to your problems.

THE CONCEPT:
Guided Access allows the user to keep just one app running on the iPad by disabling the home button, and lets you control which features of the app can be used.

HOW TO USE:

*Guided Access can be enabled in Settings. If you are in General, click on Accessibility and Guided Access can be seen towards the bottom. Make sure the toggle switch for Guided Access is turned ON. Now the feature is always enabled and ready to use any time you are using the iPad.

Once you are in the app you want, triple click the home button to enable Guided Access. From there, you can draw circles around the buttons or features of the app you do not want the child to be able to access. You can also turn off screen rotation and turn off the touch screen. Tap Start to begin.

See the shaded area in the upper left corner?
If my student taps there, nothing will happen

Now your student can't exit out of the app or tap any of the features you drew boxes around, and time won't be wasted chasing after a student who got out of his chair and ran away while you tried to exit out of the advertisement he clicked on. To turn Guided Access off, just triple-click the home button again (you'll have to enter your passcode).

GOOD USES:
I think this is such a great feature to have on the iPad, and I use it a lot with my students:
*for students who are very impulsive in tapping all over the screen
*for preschoolers and non-readers who don't always know what they are accessing on the screen
*for use with apps that have easily-accessible ads in one spot the entire time

SUCH A GREAT FEATURE! Hope you have a wonderful and rejuvenating weekend!

Leave a Comment: What do you have going on this weekend?

Good Find: Squishy Ball

one of my favorite toys to use with students of all ages

Target Dollar Aisle: one of the best places for inexpensive activities/games/toys/supplies. Last year I found these squishy balls there for $1 each and I have loved them ever since. I am able to use these with students of all ages, from early intervention to high school. And I have fun with them too! Here are some quick ideas for how to use them in therapy.

Articulation:
*Practice /s/ and /sh/ ('squishy'); /l/ ('ball', 'please'); /k/ and /ch/ ('catch'); /th/ ('throw')...and more!

Language:
*Target increasing utterance length and making requests with little ones
*Compare/contrast the two balls to each other
*I have two preschoolers who are nonverbal and working on total communication/signs. They light up when I pull these out of my bag. We use the squishy balls to work on signs for 'more', 'please', 'ball, and 'thanks'.

Vocabulary:
*describing words: squishy, spiky, green, orange, soft, smooth, up, down, fast, slow, high, low, etc;
*action words: throw, toss, catch, grab, squish, give, take, etc.

Reinforcement:
*Play hot potato with groups - students answer when they catch the ball
*Practice target articulation phonemes while tossing ball back and forth
*Have a competition to see how many consecutive catches can be made. Try to set new records!
*I even have a student who despises these toys. I simply set one next to me on the table if she is having a hard time staying on task and she jumps right back to work!

Bonus: When you squeeze the orange one the eyes pop!

Leave a Comment: What are your go-to quick therapy activities?

Appy Hour: Make Dice

review of one of my favorite apps: Make Dice

I'm starting a new regular feature here on Schoolhouse Talk: Appy Hour. These posts will feature my most favorite apps that get used constantly in therapy. Apps that make my job easier. Apps that are customizable or can be used with a variety of students. Apps that my students also love using. Lots of the apps I use I have discovered through word of mouth, so I hope I can help fellow educators find some useful tools as well. First feature:

I love love love Make Dice! I have been using it for about a year now with students of all ages and all goal areas. There is a free 'Lite' version and a paid full version ($2.99). I have the Lite version.

THE CONCEPT:
*Create custom dice with words/numbers/etc. for use as you see fit.

FEATURES:

At the bottom of the screen are your controls to roll the dice, create or add new dice, and change settings. Shake the dice by pressing the circle arrow or moving the iPad. I prefer the iPad stays flat on the table and students push the button instead of moving the iPad.

Press and hold dice to change to a different one. Press the plus sign to add a new dice. You can use up to six dice on the table at one time.

It's also easy to create new dice. On the edit dice screen you can enter the words or numbers you want on the dice, give the dice a name, and change the color.

Settings Menu

The settings menu allows you to edit the dice list, adjust the table color, and turn on/off sounds. In the full version you can also turn on/off accelerometer, which I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I think it has something to do with how the dice move when you shake.

HOW I USE IT:

the list of dice I have created

*Articulation Goals: I have made a lot of dice for different phonemes my students work on. I color code them by phoneme so I can quickly find the one I am looking for. Select a phoneme die and a number die. The number tells the student how many times to say the word.

say the word "skip" three times with your good snake sound

*Language Goals: Create dice full of categories, antonyms, synonyms, multiple meaning words, etc. A number die tells how many items in a category the student needs to name. It can be challenging to think of six different salty foods, but we like challenges!

name three different sports

*Fluency Goals: roll the number dice; have students to say that many words/sentences using their easy speech strategies.

QUICK TIP:
Enable Guided Access when using this app. There are ads at the top of the screen that often get pushed, but with Guided Access the ads can be blocked (still appear on the screen though). Also, be sure to turn off the screen rotation, otherwise any bumps to table result in dice shaking.

PROS:
*Can be used with a variety of goal.
*It is easy to use and new dice can be made quickly during speech sessions if necessary.
*My students love it. They especially like pushing the button approximately 93 times in a row trying to really get the dice rolling :)
*No more dice rolling off the table onto the floor!
*In full version you can add pictures to dice (I think this could be worth the price of the full app itself as it opens up a whole new world of possible uses, especially for using with non-readers).

CONS:
*The app comes pre-loaded with some couple/personal dice for making decisions, which cannot be deleted (But next time I can't decide if I'm sorry or if my husband is sorry, I know where to turn!)
*Any bumps to the table or iPad cause the dice to roll which can interrupt a student's turn, but this feature can be turned off by enabling Guided Access.
*Ads are on screen constantly and are easily pushed, but can be disabled with Guided Access. (Seriously, Guided Access is such a great feature that comes with the iOS 6 upgrade - if you aren't using it you should be! Tutorial coming SOON.)

Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. I simply love this product. The statements are my own opinion.

 

Leave a Comment: How would you use this app in your own therapy sessions?

*P.S. My husband thought of the Appy Hour name and designed the logo - isn't he so creative?!

Friday Funny

This is totally me!

Enjoy your weekend!

Good Find: Hopping Frogs

inexpensive (and fun!) dollar store reinforcement activity

Happy 2013!

I was at the dollar store a couple weeks ago stocking up my prize bucket and came across this hopping frogs game that I knew would be a perfect reinforcer for my students. It comes with 12 frogs of different colors and a little plastic pond.

The concept is simple: push down on the little frog's tail, aim, and let go, launching it through the air and hopefully into the pond.

My students love it! They like to "earn" their frogs by completing their therapy tasks, then compete against each other or against me to see who can get the most frogs to jump into the pond. Easy, cheap, and fun! My kind of reinforcer.

Leave a Comment: What is your favorite resource for inexpensive therapy activities?
I *heart* the dollar store!

Speech Snowmen

 fun snowman craft that incorporates speech/language practice

Here in Iowa we finally got our first snowfall of the season! Well, it was just a dusting and it was all melted by noon that day, but it was still exciting for me! I love having snow around for Christmas, but it's alright by me if it melts away come January :)

Back home where I grew up in Minnesota they got 15 inches of snow last weekend! I can't wait to go home to MN in a couple weeks and play!

This week, to celebrate the upcoming winter season, in my speech room my students are making Speech Snowmen! I found the idea here, but modified it so it could be a quicker craft with fewer pieces to cut out and assemble.

After the first couple snowman, I ended up making pre-cut scarves, hats, and noses so my students didn't have to spend time figuring out how to cut them. All about efficiency and speed when you only have 15-20 minutes to introduce, assemble, and complete the activity while also working in plenty of speech/language practice.

I love how they turned out! My students were so creative - one of them even decided it was sunny where his snowman was and he made a "melting snowman" :D

Here's how we incorporated our speech goals into this activity:

Language: practice following directions; answering wh-questions about winter; sequencing (how to build a snowman, first/next/last, etc.); address winter vocabulary; name categories and items in categories (winter clothing, seasons, snowy activities, etc.); body parts; concepts big/medium/small/top/middle/bottom; practice answering by forming complete sentences; requesting the parts they need to complete their snowman; etc.

Articulation: earn cotton balls by producing accurate speech sounds; use best speech while discussing snowmen/winter or any of the above language activities

Fluency: use easy speech strategies while requesting/naming parts/talking about winter

AAC: create board naming parts of snowman so student can request what he needs

Leave a Comment: What winter activities do you have planned?

Behavior Management

motivate and reward your students

There are so many different ways to motivate your students and curb defiant behavior before it becomes a problem. Most SLPs I know use some sort of sticker/prize box system. And I am no different :)

First of all, I make my expectations known from the beginning. The first session of the year with my students I go over my "speech room rules". I keep them taped to the table to serve as a reminder throughout the year. My rules are simple: 1) listen with your ears; 2) watch me with your eyes; 3) no interrupting while others are talking. Sometimes I use that last picture to remind them to always be talking with their best speech/language skills.

If my students follow all these rules during their session, then they earn a sticker. I let them choose their own sticker sheets at the beginning of the year. I got most of these from preschoolprintables.com. I keep them in a word document on my computer and can easily print off more as I need them. My students get to put on one or two stickers every time they come to see me, and when the sheet is filled up, they get to pick a prize from my prize box. I keep the box full of pencils, toy cars, plastic bracelets/rings, bubbles, and other small trinkets from the dollar store. I never put in candy - just personal preference.

Another thing I started this year was a bonus prize jar (idea from here). Students who achieve an goal in their session, have an exceptionally great attitude, try their best, or do something kind get their name put in the jar.

Every two-three weeks I pick out a name and that person can choose their prize. They almost always choose to pick a prize out of the prize box. I really need to stock up that box again!

So there it is. Quick and easy - these methods do not take more than a minute at the end of a session to complete.

Leave a Comment: How do you motivate and reward your students?

Good Reads

 A roundup of good articles I have read lately

Through Twitter, Pinterest, and different blogs I read, I have found a lot of good resources and articles related to speech pathology. Here is a quick roundup of some of my favorite articles I have read lately.

Those of us who work in the education setting have been said for a long time that reading to your preschool children (and younger!) is SUCH an important activity for brain development. This article, based on a study done in Pennsylvania, shows that such early reading exposure impacts brain development even into the teenage years. Cool!

Here is a wonderful list of apps for education, organized by subject area and price. There are THOUSANDS of apps on this list!

This article summarizes an intense summer fluency program at my Alma Mater - the University of Iowa! I was a part of this program during my masters program. It really is such a great offering for summer speech practice.

Finally, this short video is a TED Talk by Faith Jegede. In just five-and-a-half minutes she speaks a heartwarming message about her two brothers who have autism and how they have helped her to think about life differently. It is such a great video to watch and I highly recommend it to all.

As Easy as a Bucket

A simple reinforcer for any activity

I wanted to share one of the easiest reinforcers I have found. It works with many ages, and can be used for a large variety of activities. It's a bucket. That's it!

I found this trash can at the dollar store and have been using it for about 4 years now. When I am working with a student using flash cards, articulation cards, or small objects, I simply have them "throw away" the card/object after we are finished using it.  Or they collect the cards they articulate correctly and try to toss them into the bucket (without the lid) and see how far away they can still make tosses.

They love it! I think the swinging top has a lot to do with the "fun factor". It's kind of silly how simple this is, but I feel I got a big bang for my buck with this trash can. I highly recommend it!

Leave a Comment: What quick and easy reinforcement activities do you use?

WH-Question Monsters

A quick and easy card game to target WH-questions

Whew! The past two weeks have been craaaazzyy busy! I had to update/print graphs and complete progress reports, two days of conferences, and wacky sugar-high kids due to Halloween! Things settled down this week a bit so I was able to update a couple more downloads for my students...

The preschool student I made my Yes/No Monsters for has met his goal for yes/no questions and we are moving on to WH-questions! Almost every time he comes to speech he requests the "monster game", so I updated the cards to target WH-questions.

These cards target when, where, and what questions, along with functions of objects, and some basic identifying information (i.e. "What is your name?", "Where do you live?", and "What are your parents' names?"). I believe students should be able to answer basic information early on in case they were to unfortunately find themselves separated from their parents at any time.

These cards are intended to be used with students age 3+. I use them with my 3, 4, and 5 year old preschoolers. If they need additional prompting, it is easy to give them two or three multiple choice options to answer the questions. I will be adding to these questions as I need to, and will update the download as I go, so keep checking back.

Download your free WH-Monsters cards here! Please leave me a comment or become a follower if you do!