A good app to take self-data

Streaks is an award-winning app (Apple Design Awards) that allows you to keep track of up to 12 good habits/intentions and simply mark on the calendar when you have completed the task (e.g. read for 15 min). The app is designed for the "don't break the chain" concept, but you can indicate how often you intend the habit to be completed so that you still construct a streak.

This type of app would be helpful for us as clinicians who need to practice self-care routines in the New Year (decade). It also would be a tool for use with older clients who may need to practice speech exercises or positive social/language activities.

The same principles could be enacted using Google Calendar as a (free) data-taking tool; the benefits here would include the ability to add more text/data for tracking.

Happy New Year!

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My World for iPad

Many of you know I have a thing about maps! Maps are fascinating to examine, but from an SLP perspective can be used to target all kinds of skills: categories (i.e. continents, states, cities, capitals), spatial concepts, and clearly intersection with classroom curriculum.

Technology has made maps more interactive and therefore a more engaging context. My World for iPad ($.99) is a nice little tool to have if you would like to use geography as a way to build language skills. Specifically, you can zoom in to any location by pinching, or use the location functions of the device to identify where you are on the map (doable with many maps apps). The hook of My World is that it allows you to create a line and find out a) the distance of the path between places and b) the amount of time it would take to travel by plane or car. In both cases, students are engaged with a personal connection (their location, as measured in relation to locations relevant to classroom topics) and can be asked to apply language around distance or, more importantly for many of our students, time.

Using My World would benefit from some structure imposed on your part, for example the creation of a scavenger hunt/challenge to find distances and times and record them on a graphic organizer.

CEO2

CEO2 is an interesting and robust simulation from the UK challenging us to successfully run a company while reducing its carbon dioxide emissions.  I wanted to mention it here because of our proximity to Earth Day, and also because this web-based interactive (Flash-based, so iPad-unfriendly) relates to language skills, curriculum and schematic information that would benefit upper elementary, middle or high school students.

CEO2 first has the player choose an industry- insurance, automotive, chemical or utility. The activity provides a short video about each of the industries which could be reviewed for students, with text structures in mind (what are the lists, sequences, descriptions, cause-effect relationships contained in the video about the industry). The interface is fun and real-world, as the player makes decisions while sitting at the CEO's desk:

The desktop portfolio contains the possible options for the CEO in various categories. Dragging any option to the computer gives more information about it. Dragging it to the "Selected Options" means you have chosen it for the game (with the goal of selecting enough options so that you have spent 75% of your budget). Note that the decoration on each CEO desk, when hovered over with the mouse, presents a whole bunch of idioms related to the situation that you can discuss with students.

In perhaps my favorite aspect of this simulation as an SLP, dragging an option to the phone allows you to "call" two contacts and hear their opinion on the matter.  Information is presented auditorily (so, to provide a good context for listening strategies), but a transcript is provided.

Though complex in terms of the information one has to grapple with, the game is pretty simple.  Select a number of options, click Finalize and see results in terms of one's stock price and carbon dioxide emissions, in an easy-to-read chart.  The activity, as well as promoting environmental awareness, relates to science and social studies curriculum, provides a rich source of vocabulary, and asks students' to comprehend multiple perspectives on an issue.  It would be a great activity to make an accompanying tracking sheet, such that students can simply note the options they choose, the results, and infer reasons why it worked out that way. It certainly is an activity in which an SLP can provide a lot of scaffolding to help bridge students' understanding and use of the concepts involved.

School vacation week is next week in MA- see you soon!

CDC Analyze My Plate and Recipe Remix

CDC Analyze My Plate and Recipe Remix are interactive activities from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control aimed at curbing childhood obesity and promoting a healthier diet.  Analyze My Plate allows you to build a meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) and view categories such as total calories and fat.  In Recipe Remix, you can take an unhealthy recipe and change quantity and type of ingredients so that it becomes more healthy.

Language Lens:

• Analyze My Plate is a great way to review food categories, and bombard/elicit causals, conditionals and temporals- What happens when we add an apple?  You can also compare and contrast different plates!
• Recipe Remix would be a great followup in situations when you can cook with kids.  Choose a recipe and follow the site's advice, then use the cooking activity as a context for oral and written language.

Run a Valentine's Day Store!

I found this resource on Karen Ogen's awesome blog, InTec Insights.  Thanks, Karen! Be sure to visit her blog for more Valentine's ideas.

Games such as the classic Lemonade Stand involve a lot of language and executive functioning: planning, ability to modify a plan, etc.  My Money Valentine is a version of this game, but involves running a Valentine-themed store, where you sell candy, cards, teddy bears, etc.  Students will need to purchase inventory and set prices while working according to a budget.  Customers give feedback and you may need to adjust some aspects of the store.

Add individual items to inventory or multiples for speed, by clicking Purchase All

Track Results and Feedback

One warning I would definitely give students is that you should not fire your staff and hire more expensive staff unless you are definitely sure you can afford it!  The game ends instantly if you have a day when you incur debt. There does not appear to be a way to save your game and return, so it's more of a one-offer (and encourage kids to try at home).

Language Lens

This site is a great way to explore categories (brainstorm Valentine's gifts before using the site), cause-effect, and curriculum concepts related to economics.  Even elementary students are supposed to understand concepts such as debt, goods/services, wages, and profit.  The site would also be a good opportunity to use a graphic organizer or table to track profits, etc and develop organizational strategies.

Percentally

SLPs and teachers of all sorts are increasingly using data-driven interventions and formative assessments that help us figure out what to do next.  Also, whether in public school or private settings, we are addressing specific goals and reporting progress though data collected during sessions.  I must confess this has never been a particular strength of mine, and I work toward new organizational systems all the time--the problem being that this piece of paper or that post-it on which I took a cue tally might have just disappeared into some netherworld.  Percentally is an iPhone/iPod Touch app that provides a great solution to these challenges by allowing you to store all this data electronically, without being tied to a cumbersome laptop (or desktop!) during your sessions.  Percentally was designed by Jason Rinn and SLP (and SpeechTechie reader) Eric Sailers, and is available on the iTunes store at the extreme bargain price of $2.99!  Here are some screenshots that show how it works.

The opening screen of the app allows you to add folders for groups, activities, or whatever works for you.  I created some mock folders for a 5th grade group and a client with whom I use Lindamood-Bell's Talkies program.

I am really big on "level of cues" type of goals- it's often pretty impossible to work in a larger context or functional academic task and use percentages (but Percentally obviously does that too- see below).  Once you set up your tallies, all you need to do is tap the space you are tracking during the task, and a cue is tallied.  How cool is that??

Here you can see how this would work in a percent-accurate kind of tally.  But, wait, we're not done...what good is all this data as stored in your iPhone?  Well, you can export by sending it to email or your Google Docs (brilliantbrilliantbrilliant).

Take a look at two exported spreadsheets I created here and here.

I highly recommend you try Percentally on your iPhone or iPod.  And if you don't have one, get one!!  Don't miss that Apple sells a refurbished iPod Touch for cheap, and that if you do any private work, it's likely that you could write such equipment off...