My Thoughts

Some Apps I Love!

As many of you know I have become obsessed with finding amazing apps for kids who have Autism. I use my ipad as a teaching tool throughout therapy and as a result I am always trying to find programs to generalize all of my students' skills. Here is a short list of some of my favorites. I have not quite figured out how to link the apps to the app store, so hopefully you can find them by typing them into the search bar.

1. Choiceworks~Great app for picture schedules and First/Then schedules. It has many pictures already, but it will allow you to add your own pictures as well.

2. Signing Time~ This has a great video library of signs as well as 6 Signing Time videos.  The videos include: "Theme Song", Leah's Farm", "Going Outside", "Groove With Me", "Show Me A Sign", and "The Good". I have definitely gotten my money out of this one!

3. Injini (Lite) ~ This is a wonderful app. It is just a sampling of the full version which is $50, but it still has plenty of great things for your kid to do for free.

4. Seek and Find (from wonderkind apps)~ This is a really cute app of a farm scene. When you touch the picture it comes to life. You can also purchase other scenes such as a zoo scene and a forest scene for $.99.

5. Game Factory (from Bacciz Apps)~ This a great app because you can download your own pictures to play with. This is great for generalizing vocabulary.

6. Sounds (from Different Roads to Learning)~ This is a great way to work on sounds objects make with your child.

7. Easy Bake (Ultimate Oven) Cupcakes!~ This is such a fun app! All of my kids love picking out the cupcake they are going to make, mixing it, baking it and then decorating it. The best part is that it is FREE!

8. Shape Puzzle HD (from Newness World)~ This is one of the best puzzle apps I have found. You can download a free version, but for $.99 you will get several additional scenes. This is a great way to generalize vocabulary.

9. Bob Books (BB Magic #1--from Learning Touch)~ This is a wonderful app for teaching CVC words.

10. Zoo and Farm Sounds (from Tantrum Apps)~ These are great apps for learning zoo and farm animals. They also have a feature where you can take your child's picture and make it part of the animal's face. Very cute.

11. Routines (from iTouchiLearn)~ This is a great app about morning routines. It has songs and activities for waking up, washing hands and face, dressing, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, and going to school.

12. JibJab Jr. ~ This has to be my favorite children's book app! You can download a free story and then choose to buy others. One of the things that makes it so charming is you can take a picture of your child and his/her name and picture will appear in the story. I love, love, love it!

I will post more great apps in the future. Also, please let me know if you have found some other great apps! In addition, I have found a couple of blogs that post daily or weekly free apps. iheartthisapp.com/price-drops-for-apps-for-kids is a great place to find daily deals. Also, momswithapps.com will post free apps every Friday.




September 6, 2011

I would like to acknowledge an incredible company who has a history of working with children who have Special Needs, Fotofly. I first went to Fotofly because I saw all of their ads on facebook and when I clicked on the link to their blog I found out that they were doing a month of free pictures for families who have kids with disabilities. The pictures were adorable!

I took Dexter there for his 3 month pictures and LOVED them! When I took Dexter for his 6-month pictures I took Charlie along with me. Charlie is a little boy that I work with who has Autism. Dexter was screaming for most of the session so while we were feeding him a bottle, I asked the photographer to take some shots of Char. This is what they turned out like.





Even though he is not smiling in the pictures, keep in mind that he was completely scared of the camera just 20 minutes before. The photographer took the time to let him push the button on the camera to make the flash. After a few minutes he was loving it :) When I brought the prints to Midge at the end of the day she was thrilled. She loved that they had caught Char's personality.

Please visit their website at fotofly.com!  

Also, here are some pictures of Dex. Even though he was screaming most of the session they got some really great shots!











August 2011

In the future I will use this page to publish my feelings about many things including how I feel about the Special Education program in Utah (disgusted), things that I love (toys, therapy tricks, resources, etc.) and anything else that might be on my mind. I welcome your feedback and suggestions, especially for ideas on how to make a change in the Special Education system.

P.S. Please make yourself aware of your rights as a parent in the school district! Research the EXTREME methods of discipline that they use (Google the LRBI Manual)! Please trust me on this! There are a lot of things that go on in the classrooms that baffle and upset me.

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