Bike more, game less!

Ride Bikes!!

Recently read this quote:

"More young people know how to play a computer game (58%) than can ride a bike unaided (52%)."

I don't know the source, but as a parent, a therapist, an educator, and of course a rabid cyclist, I find this statistic disconcerting!

The Whole Enchilada

So. You have a student who has difficulties with the writing process, and overall organization skills. The IEP team and/or parents are confident that the student needs a laptop to be successful.

As the AT Provider, you agree. But what does the execution of this plan look like? Do you send a laptop to the school and your done? Obviously, no
In my schools I think about a series of steps.

1. Touch base with your Technology Specialist. Let him/her know you are bringing the laptop to "their" school. They hate being asked to help with a random issue for a computer they had no idea was in the school. (This is just professional courtesy).
2. Confirm the printers the student needs to access are working with the laptop. 
3. Confirm the wifi functions on laptop.
4. Schedule time to meet, preferably with the student and a Resource teacher. 
5. Train student/teacher how to use whatever word processor they are using. It may be that the teacher will be providing on-going training. If so, make certain he/she is comfortable with this task.
6. Facilitate the setting up of folders for organization, (eg; Math, Science, Etc...).
7. Train student/teacher on saving/opening to/from specific folders. 
8. Make certain there is a plan in place for when/where the student will use the device.
9. Ascertain whether or not the student will carry the device throughout the day, do they have/need a valise.
10. If the device is staying at school, where will it stay, who will be responsible to keep it locked up?
11. Have a plan in place to follow up with student success/issues.

Happy Therapy!

A little iTip....

Did you know that once you log into iTunes on an iPad, iTouch, or iPhone your password is "good" for up to 15 minutes? 

The ramifications of this are that if you log in and download an app for another user, and then hand them the device, they can begin downloading more apps or in-app content. This is not to say that they would have malicious intentions, they may simply be young and not understand the impact. 

Make certain that sufficient time has passed before you leave an iDevice unsupervised if the password is active, or simply sign out of the App store upon downloading the content. 

Happy Therapy!

Life's Distractions

Hey Tech-Ninjas!

Hope your all well. Obviously I've not written in a while.

A whole lot of good stuff is going on in my life.

Of special significance and exciting is the wrestling team that I help coach is kicking butt.  We only have 10 wrestlers, of a possible 14 starters, and we took second place at our Conference Tournament last weekend. We had 3 first places, 3 second places, and 3 third places. Mere points from over all first place. Now we are working extra hard to get ready for our Regional Tournament where we expect to kick more butt.

In the face of the stupid IOC discontinuing wrestling in the Olympics, my fellow coach DeWitt Driscoll and I are helping these high-school wrestlers develop discipline, perseverance, work-ethic, pride, and sportsmanship.

This means I am running or lifting with my wrestlers every morning before school, and also practicing every day after school for two hours. I'm whipped, and frankly don't have a whole lot extra in the tank to write my blog. I'm not as young as them after all...

Fear not, it's temporary!

So keep doing all your good work in your own communities, schools, and families, and I'll be writing again soon.

Jim

Exercise your Visual Processing Skills!

I have a new favorite app! It's called Fit Brains, and it's made by Vivity Labs. This app really targets so many Visual Processing skills, and should make any Occupational Therapist happy!  It is initially free, and after a set number of uses, you then need to subscribe for 3 months, 6 months, or a year, all at different costs.  There is also a web-based version, but I've not investigated that yet.

The Fit Brains Trainer is a scientifically-designed app that provides a collection of fun brain games, personalized training sessions, and visual tools to help you improve your brain's performance. The Trainer utilizes an innovative adaptive learning system that automatically scales the level of each brain game to your appropriate level.

Subscriptio

Fit Brains Trainer includes more than 360 unique training sessions that are designed to enhance your Memory, Processing Speed, Concentration, Problem Solving and Visual skills. Use the Fit Brains Trainer a few minutes daily to improve the performance of your brain.

Matching

As an OT, I found many of the games familiar... they remind me of some of my Visual Processing assessment tools, and worksheets that I used early on in my therapy. 

When you finish a game, it reports your Average Reaction time, a ratio for your correct answers, and your Accuracy percentage. At the same time the software informs you about the next task you are about to move onto, and what it skill it challenges. 

Your standings

You are also able to look at how you perform next to your peer group. Evidently I have pretty weak Concentration, and my speed is only average. In my defense, ummm, I was tired when I was learning this. I will get faster, I promise!

Overal Performance

The app also tracks your overall performance, and so if you are looking to document a student's performance, you will have true data.  

Games

More Games

And still more Games!

The app is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

I am finding this game/app to be addicting. Granted I like this sort of thing, but that bodes well as a therapeutic intervention, and the fact that it collects performance data makes it all the more useful for therapists. 

One last point is that once you purchase a subscription, the app writers provide a function to move the app onto all your devices, so you don't have to pay for a subscription for each device.  Nice!

Happy Therapy!

Reach All Your Students At Once

Contacts

If you are a Google User why not set up a homework and test calendar? It requires all your students to have an email account, and I find it works best if they have a gmail account. Obviously there may be parent-permission issues here, so navigate those by your school policy





Once they all have accounts the easiest thing to do is make an email group. Open your mail account with your browser. Click on "Mail" in the top left corner and choose "Contacts".

Then click "New Contact, and then click on the "Group" icon. 

Create New Group

Then at the bottom of the pull-down list, choose "Create New". 

Add addresses

The next step is to add your student's email addresses. You may also wish to add their parent's email addresses if you have them. This keeps everyone in the loop.

From now on, you can add homework, test dates, or other important dates for your students. 

Add a date to your calendar, and choose which calendar it will be displayed in. For this picture I've chosen "Assistive Technology", but you may want to make a group just for your class. If you are a middle or high school teacher, make a calendar group for each class you teach.

Now, with the pertinent details for the date, you can add individual names, or the whole group you created out of your students. In this way, they all have the date.

Good luck and Happy Calendaring!

Apple Kool-Aide. Yes, I drank it.

Yes, yes, I know, and I've acknowledged this before, I drank the Apple Kool-aide. I am a huge fan of their products and no I don't get any money from them to say so.

But seriously, check out this page from Apple. The page explains the dozens of assistive technology accessibility features which come pre-installed on Macs.  Many of which you won’t find in other operating systems at any price. There is also a good explanation of the universal access features for iPhone, iPad, and iPod, Apple is taking these technologies to a new level.Mac computers and iDevices include quality text-to-speech, word completion, spelling and grammar check.  The built in voice over is a powerful screen reader which can help folks with visual impairment navigate their computer. Also built into the computers is Refreshable Braille Display Support, and Screen Magnification. 

There is more detailed on the link above. These functions are very powerful, and having them pre-engineerred into the operating system really helps them run seamlessly.