App Spreadsheet

I've been wanting to make a spreadsheet of all the speech-related apps out there.. but I don't have to, because another SLP has already done it! I've seen lots of lists about apps, but this is by far the most comprehensive and combines many of those together. It breaks apps down into detailed subject areas, includes apps for both adults and children, and conveniently links you straight to iTunes. Thank you, Deb!! Check the list out here: Speech Gadget's SLP App List

Newsletter

I wanted to share an article I wrote for my hospital's Children's Services newsletter this month. It aims to provide parents with information about speech and occupational therapy (OT), as well as ideas for carryover at home (no drill work required!) Enjoy - and if you like it, please comment (I'm trying to assess whether anyone actually reads this thing!) Thanks :)

Therapy Corner

by Lacy Wright, MS, OTR/L

and Louise Chamberlin, MS, CCC-SLP

Virtually all children with autism related disorders require therapeutic interventions, whether speech, occupational, physical or otherwise. Life can quickly become chaotic trying to balance the various therapy sessions, much less trying to understandwhat is being done in therapy and completing the homework that therapists suggest you do. You may even wonder, What is my child doing in therapy? How will it help? What can I do? With this in mind, we would like to take a moment to introduce you to speech/language and occupational therapy as it pertains to autism, and suggest some activities that you can work into your daily life at home.

Speech deficits among children with autism can vary widely, but the primary concern is typically language skills. Your child may exhibit echolalia(echoing words he hears), scripting (repetition of memorized scripts), or impaired receptive-expressive language skills such as following directions, answering questions or expressing wants and needs. Speech therapy addresses these deficits by teaching attention, vocabulary, core language skills, and social interaction and conversational skills.

From an occupational therapy perspective, many children with autism have difficulty processing the sensory world around them. Occupational therapy addresses sensory integration needs as well as fine motor skills, self-care skills, motor planning and play. Increasing a child’s exposure to a variety of sensory experiences helps nourish their nervous system. Watch your children to see how they respond. Do they seek out swinging on a swing or avoid it? Do they enjoy getting sand all over themselves in the sand box or get upset when sand gets stuck to their skin? Getting to know the unique pattern of how your child processes sensory information will give you and your occupational therapist clues as to the kind of sensory activities to participate in.

The most beneficial “homework” parents can do for their child with autism is not what most peopleexpect homework to be. Yes, we may give worksheets from time to time, but the best kind of homework is the kind that works into the activities that are already a part of your daily routine at home. While this suggestion can initially seem daunting or time-consuming, activities for speech and occupational therapy are actually easy to work in if you just know how! For example, at the park, have a picnic and enjoy the delicious seasonal summer fruits or try a new food while talking about the way they look and taste. Feel free to get messy! Have a watermelon eating contest and praise both the fastest and messiest eaters. Play games like Duck, Duck, Goose while you sit down and feel the grass on your legs. Play Simon Says or Hokey Pokey to work on auditory processing skills. Find a new park with equipment to challenge your child’s motor planning skills as he or she plays.

The ultimate goal of therapy is for your child to be able to participate in daily activities.With a little creativity, sensory and language activities can be a part of every day.

For more ideas, check out one of our favorite books: “The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun: Activities for Kids with Sensory Processing Disorder” by Carol Stock Kranowitz.

Enjoy your summer and have fun playing and learning!

More pragmatics apps

I always seem to be finding new apps for social skills! Here are some new favorites:

1) Sosh Lite - FREE 7 day trial, $39.99 full
A no-frills app that is appropriate for teens and adults, modeled for self-study of various social skills. Categories of topics include: Relax, Reason, Regulate, Recognize, and Relate. Under each category, there are subtopics (e.g. under Relate: What did that mean?, First impressions, Common ground, Out and About, Talking strategies.) It is interactive and encourages the user to practice skills, whether recording voice and listening for rate of speech, or matching an emotion in a given picture by taking a picture of himself. This one is a bit pricey, but worth it for those who would benefit.


2) Odd Face Out - FREE
Another straightforward app aimed at teens/adults, to work on recognition of facial expressions. Faces are presented in a grid, and the user must identify which is the "odd face out" by a chosen criteria (mood or age) - by the way, even the age mode is beneficial in learning to discriminate between different faces.  Then within each category of mood or age, there are multiple levels of difficulty. The first selection is whether the faces presented are all the same person (easier) or different people (harder), and the second selection is a level of difficulty from 1-6 on how many faces are presented in the grid. Level 6 is hard even for me when I'm racing against the clock (the app times you so you can compare yourself). I like that the mistakes are reviewed at the end of 10 trials, and that the faces presented are not always in obvious opposite pairs e.g. happy vs. sad - they are often difficult such as distinguishing the worried face in a sea of angry ones.


3) Middle School Confidential: Be Confident in Who you Are - FREE (Real Friends edition is $2.99)
This e-book is cool for teens for several reasons: it deals with real issues in a believable way, it has 1-liner lesson summaries after each chapter, it includes self-quizzes (Real Friends only) .. and it's a graphic novel (comic-book style) so it's a super-easy read. This app isn't something I've used in therapy, but I would recommend it for home to learn about social dynamics and those issues every teen has to face at school.

4) DialSafe - FREE
This app to learn about phone skills definitely has a kid-friendly slant, but would be appropriate for some teens/adults as well. It includes introductory lessons (911, stranger skills), memory game for remembering phone numbers, phone simulators for calling 911 or other numbers that you can program in. There are some pre-recorded lessons, e.g. 911 but it would be good to also practice everyday conversations in the context of this app (i.e. practice dialing the number and pretending to carry on a chat).

5) Feel Electric! - FREE
I love this app for emotion skills - it is very teen-friendly and so entertaining that it almost feels like watching a TV show. It is highly interactive, personalized, and has interesting activities that both teach and practice skills. Each activity requires the user to reflect on his/her own feelings, and includes repetitions of the vocabulary (including higher-level: stressed, thrilled, petrified etc) with accompanying faces and definitions. It even has fun extras like a music player.. I could go on and on about this one but it's free so just go check it out!

Free educational apps (for kids)

I had to share this list - I'm working on compiling my own list but these are some great ones! http://www.smartappsforkids.com/top-10-free-apps-1.html

Fun blog

While I always seem to be lagging on my own blog entries (I have 3 in drafts that I just need time to sit down and finish!) there are some other SLPs that are much better disciplined in this area. There are even dogs getting in on the action - take Murphy the dog, for instance! He "writes" a blog (with the help of his SLP owner) that is a lot of fun for kids. Each post consists of a picture and highlights a vocabulary word or asks a language-stimulating question; this is great for kids to work on reading skills, and it's foolproof for parents. It would even be an excellent writing activity to post comments back to Murphy. Check him out at  http://www.murphythedogblog.com/

Everyday Language - Part 2

As a follow-up to my last post, I'd like to talk more about "everyday language". While speech therapists may give out concrete activities like worksheets to complete at home, the best "homework" is the kind that you do anywhere - and everywhere - you are. You should not always feel that you are doing therapy, but being aware of how you use language and engage with your child is important to fostering their language development. I recently came across a wonderful parent-directed document on how you may do this in a variety of everyday activities - thanks to Angela Notari Syverson, and Tatyana Elleseff for sharing. Supporting Early Literacy in Natural Environments


Additionally, I would like to point out that this idea of "everyday language" does not apply only to children. In my work with adults I encourage spouses and other family members not to fill in so much for the patient. For example, with a patient with aphasia, don't jump to give him the word right away; allow him time to think, or give him a cue as your therapist has demonstrated. If he needs help with the foot pedal on his wheelchair, you could say "You need help with your f..." so that he may say "foot". Allowing this time to process not only helps rebuild language skills, but also feelings of independence.

Everyday Language

In the name of more frequent updates, many will likely be short - but hopefully helpful! I always get great ideas from my various SLP blogs, Pinterest subscriptions, etc and many parents probably don't spend as much of their time reading these things as a speech-nerd like me. So to pass some of that on, here is a great article on working language into summer activities (even includes photo icons for those that use AAC):

ASHASphere - Making the Most of Summer Fun