Every month we will be sharing what apps people in the Network are using by publicising an App of the Month.
So far we have:
October 2016: Talking Mats
Talking Mats is an innovative, award-winning communication tool that supports adults and children with communication difficulties to express their views. It helps them understand and consider a range of topics and say what they feel in a visual way that can be easily recorded.
September 2016: Puppet Pals HD
Create your own unique shows with animation and audio in real time! Simply pick out your actors and backdrops, drag them on to the stage, and tap record. Your movements and audio will be recorded in real time for playback later. This app is as fun as your own creativity. Act out a story of Pirates on the high seas, fight as scary monsters, or play the part of a Wild West bandit on the loose. You can even combine any characters however you want! Your creations are only limited by your imagination.
August 2016: Pictello
Everyone loves to tell fun, engaging, and imaginative stories. Go ahead and make a social story or visual schedule for a child with autism or a slide show of holiday pictures for your friends – Pictello makes it a breeze to create and share! Whether you use the included natural-sounding Text to Speech voices, or record your own voice, Pictello is the perfect tool for visual storytelling.
Each page in a Pictello story consists of a photo or video and some text, which can be read aloud by a Text to Speech voice or your own recorded audio.
July 2013: Aura
The Aura App has recently arrived at Derwen College. The App is similar to a QR code, an image which triggers a link to something from an image or object. Using an iPad you record a demonstration video. In our case we recorded a video of how to deal with a paper jam on our large printer. You then create a new ‘Aura’, using the app, by taking a photo of the printer and the App then links the video to the photo!
This means we can make short videos on how to use all of our equipment and demonstrations of how to undertake tasks. Our students can use the iPad to trigger a video by holding it in front of the equipment.
It is great making short videos in our Karten Bureau and watching them automatically play when the student hold the iPad in front of the chosen equipment! What a good idea! I hope to use it more and make a ‘how to’ for each piece of equipment to help the students become more independent in our CTEC centre!
September 2013: Talktablet and Scene and Heard
Penny at Landmarks has been using the Talktablet app with S as an additional way for him to communicate. This app has sets of programmable linked ‘grids’ of symbols with a voice output for saying sentences. He has learned how to use the programme very quickly and has also learned to programme new vocabulary in himself with minimal support. He is using it as a ’therapy aid’ at the moment as he makes a sentence on the tablet, listens to the voice then says the whole sentence himself. He has also used it spontaneously for ‘functional’ communication to tell staff specific information. Her next step is to work with his tutors to develop content which will help him respond to questions in sessions eg for course assessment.
Penny has also used ‘Scene and Heard’. This app allows you to very quickly make a photo story with a spoken voice output commentary and symbols.