The Return of StorySmart

Back in June of this summer I had the pleasure of stumbling across locally made StorySmart apps.  You may recall my review of the available series of Social Stories.  Jennifer Minnelli, the Speech Therapist, and her husband Pete Minnelli, the designer promised more stories were in the making, and recently they delivered on the newest.  

Storysmart3: Ruby Gets in the Game is available for only $3.99 in the iTunes store.  With lovely illustrations, gentle music, and an interesting story line, the Minnellis latest story helps children learn social language skills while engaged in a sporting event.  

Using the same interface as the prior apps, there is plenty of ways the adult can adapt the app for the end-user, including turning on or off music, changing font size. This is a terrific addition to the Storysmart library, and I look forward to the next chapter!

Android users, don't give up hope yet. I've spoken with Pete Minnelli who indicates that they anticipate making the apps available on the android platform in approximately a year and a half. 

Be sure to take a look at all the SmartStory apps especially if you work with students who struggle with social skills.

Happy therapy!

Catch UP Parents!

 As a parent, do you know which kids your child goes to the mall with? If your child says "I'm going out driving around with my friends", do you say "okay"? Or do you ask "who, what, where, when, and maybe why"?

An engaged parent asks those questions. 

I remember when I was a teenager. There were a few phones in our house. One in the kitchen, and one in my parents room. My last few years at home, I got a phone in my bedroom, but it was the same telephone line, and I was not supposed to stay on the phone during the day, as my father worked from home. Having private, unsupervised phone calls was a challenge.

Many teens today live in two separate worlds, the physical world where we reign as parents, and another, the cyber world where we are often woefully absent. Today's youth have multiple social media venues they participate in.  Many of them have a smart phone and maybe a computer to use as they see fit. At it's best, the cyber world is a tremendous social tool which they navigate with remarkable skill and it enriches their lives. At it's worst, it becomes a Lord of the Flies situtation with cyber bullying, sexting, academic cheating, and super-gossiping.

Either way, this cyber world and it's social tools are here to stay. We can catch up, and be stewards of our children in this complex ever shifting environment, or be left far behind, asking our children to raise themselves to the best of their abilities.

I challenge all of us to ask who, what, where, when, and maybe why regarding our kids social media usage. Know which tools they use. Friend or follow them. Make it mandatory. You wouldn't let them go to the mall with a known drug seller, or a kid known for shop-lifting, right? Hold the same standard to their social media.  My kids have to share their passwords to all their media tools with my wife and I. I go on as them periodically. I don't post as them, and I make a point not to embarrass them, but you will see things as the "user" that you can't from the "following side".

Happy Parenting!

Engineering Students Making a Difference

Joystick Control Jeep

Recently I was asked to sit on a panel at UNC-Chapel Hill with faculty, a hospital based Occupational Therapist, a few parents of children with disability, and an adolescent with disability.  We were speaking with students who were beginning Rehabilitation Engineering Design Projects for their Applied Sciences and Engineering class. The purpose of our panel was to share with the students what they might expect in working with individuals with disabilities, and possibly demystify some of the process.The UNC class is taught by Dr. Rich Goldberg, and is paired with a similar class at Duke University which is taught by Dr. Kevin Caves.

Here is the description of the program from the UNC website:

"In this program, students develop custom assistive technology devices for people with disabilities. Project ideas come from therapists and clinicians in Durham and Chapel Hill, who serve as project advisors throughout the semester. Students spend the entire semester working on the design and development of a device. At the end of the semester, they deliver their device to the therapist and client at no charge. Lectures and discussions in the class focus on engineering design and communications; working with people with disabilities; ethical issues in assistive technology; patents; and other issues."

Also from the website, the program lists several objectives:
This program has several objectives:

• to provide a practical engineering experience as well as a personally rewarding experience to the student; this may also encourage them to use their specialized skills in the future to benefit individuals with disabilities.
• to help individuals with disabilities become more independent by designing and building custom assistive technology devices that address their needs.
• to facilitate learning and reflection about the daily life of an individual who has a disability, as well as the daily lives of the family members, therapists and teachers who are in close contact with them

The variety of projects and clients the engineering students work on is impressive. If you are local, and have a unique need, you may wish to contact Dr. Goldberg or Dr. Caves.

I wonder if other universities offer such classes?

Happy Therapy!

Sōsh: Improving Social Skills Just Got Easier!

Sōsh

Do you work with tweens, teens, or young adults on social skills? If so, Sōsh may be an important app for you to take a look at. It is designed to be used by individuals with Asperger's Syndrome, on an iPhone or iTouch,  but will work on an iPad as well.

Home Screen

Per the designer, Sōsh addresses five essential abilities for social skills development including Relate, Relax, Reason, Regulate, and Recognize. The Home screen is easy and intuitive to use. Sōsh is a strength-based road map for individuals who want to be social, and a guide for the adults who are supporting that individual in achieving their goals.

At $39.99, Sōsh seems relatively pricey, until you consider all that it offers. With over 60 well designed screens of exercises, strategies, and practical information to work through social situations in a step-by-step manner. In addition, Sōsh is available for a free seven day trial at their website here.  There really is so much available in Sōsh that I will focus on only some of the highlights.

Relate

Talking Strategies

The Relate bubble corresponds with connecting with other folks.  Clicking it opens five more bubble links: What Did That Mean, First Impressions, Talking Strategies, Out and About, and Common Ground. Each covering a different issue. What did that mean for example is a massive collection of idioms. This allows a user to look up an idiom to gain a better understanding when they here it. Common ground is a data-base that the user creates listing topics that they are interested in, and another of topics that they hear other folks discussing. Double tapping on a word in the data base opens a google search for that word. First impressions is another data base, where the user creates a rolodex of sorts of everyone they meet. The rolodex can include the person's name, phone, relationship, interests, and things you've discussed with them.  First impressions has the ability to import info from your contacts, or by "Bumping".

Too Loud!

The Regulate bubble corresponds with managing behaviors. Clicking it opens four more bubble links: Voice Meter, Monitor, Interest Log, and Tracking. Voice Meter is a simple volume meter with a visual display with the likert scale Too Soft, Just Right, and Too Loud. This is useful in helping students modulate their voice volume.  Interest Log lets the user enter an activity and how long they engaged in the activity. The Tracking bubble presents a screen with two behaviors and clicker counters to gather data on the occurrence of a given behavior.

Problem Solver

The Reason bubble corresponds with thinking things through. Clicking it opens four more bubbles: Transition Timer, Perspective, Mental Strategies, and Problem Solver.  The Transition Timer is just what it sounds like. A simple time with minutes and seconds, with the option of including a beep or voice warning when there is 5 or 1 minutes left. The Perspective bubble helps to put a stressful situation into perspective for the user. The user is able to type in a situation, and then use a scale to rate how much of an effect a given situation has on their life. The Problem Solver bubble allows the user to enter a problem, and then write out 3 different solutions. They then can check a box by the solution they choose. At the bottom there is a box to rate how well the solution they chose worked.

Journal

In addition to the practical problem solving tools above, Sōsh has a built in journal with ready email capability, a goal page, and a robust online archival system.

I have touched only on a few aspects of this incredibly rich app, and encourage anyone working social skills to take a closer look, as this is a goldmine for therapists, parents, and most importantly, folks struggling to manage social skills.

Here is a video of Sōsh in action with Dr. Mark Bowers, author of Sōsh: Improving Social Skills with Children and Adolescents.

Happy Therapy!

Safer Internet Day 2013

February 5th is the 10th Annual Safer Internet Day. 

The theme is Online rights and responsibilities and the slogan is "Connect with respect".

It's purpose is to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world.  This topic is near and dear to my heart, and of utmost important for our gen-ed and our special populations!

The website offers free downloadable resources for home as well as the classroom.  The video below is informative, and offers some surprising information and statistics, not vilifying technology, but understanding the pros and the cons.

The folks at Safer Internet Day have a presence on Facebook and Twitter campaign pages.

Share this with parents and educators alike!  Happy technology-ing!

Visules: simple, clean To-Do lists

Visules

Visules is an app for iDevices that allows caregivers to quickly and easily create picture schedules on the fly. Visules is very simple, streamlined and effective. Retailing for $4.99 it is a bargain. 

Dean Huff, creator and owner of Visules writes that "as a father of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder, I have learned that communicating visually with my son is often the most effective way.  As a professional application developer and avid iPhone user, I knew we needed to have "an app for that."   The result is Visules, which communicates checklists and individual cues using text, images, and colors.

Visules is very streamlined and has two collections, actions and flows.   

                                   
Actions are individual cues.  You can make your own actions using your camera or images you find online.






Flows are series of actions.  Flows let you create a to-do list for the user. When they've finished a step, touching that word or icon places a check in the right side indicating it's done.

List Mode is the setting to use Visules. Actions and Flows are not editable in this setting.

Edit Mode  is the editable mode. 





For a simple, easy to use scheduler, Visules is hard to beat.

Happy Therapy!

Keeping Tabs: Addendum

Hey folks, so I have had mixed responses to the prior posting about "respecting our children's privacy". I appreciate everyone's feedback, and realize that as parents we have to make difficult decisions about how we monitor our kids.  What works for one family may not work for another. All I can really say is good luck! Parenting can be challenging to say the least.

A parent emailed me and asked what to do if her child's phone number wasn't appearing in the list of options. Follow these steps to address this issue.

Remember from the prior post how to open your Settings, and go to Messages? Refer back to the prior blog if need be. You need to get to "Messages", than "Send & Receive", at the bottom in "Start New Conversation From" (circled in red), check the phone number.










Now on your computer, open up "Messages". 










Next, click on "Messages" in the top left menu, and click on "Preferences".  








When the "Preferences" window opens, click on "Accounts". On the right side of the window, click on "Add Email". Add your child's phone number is the following format: 999-999-9999.

You will then be prompted with a message about a verification email. This email will be sent to the phone 





Email with questions!  Happy Parenting!

      

Reducing Distractions on your Student's iDevice

One concern administrators, teachers, and parents express when our team wants to assign a student an iTouch or an iPad, is how they will manage the built in distractions. Distractions like students surfing the web during class.  

If the iDevice is for a specific function such as tracking homework, following a schedule, or a aug comm device, this is easily fixable. The iDevices have a built in "Restrictions" utility that lets you remove different functions.  Let's get rid of some the unnecessary and distracting apps. 

Begin by clicking on the "Settings" icon. Then click on "General", and then click on "Restrictions".

You will be prompted to create a "Restrictions Passcode". Write it down somewhere if your not confident you will remember this! Otherwise the only way to override this is to restore the iDevice to the factory settings, thereby losing any materials you have on the device.

Also, if you have a tech person managing your iDevices, be so kind as to share that code with them too...

After entering your passcode twice, you will be presented with a page of options. We often turn off Safari, iTunes, as well as the ability to Install or Delete the apps. 

With some students turning off the ability to delete apps is really important! I cannot recount how many times a device has come back to us that has "mysteriously" lost a bunch of apps! 

When you go back to your "Home Page", you notice that the Safari and the iTunes icons are gone. 

Depending on the student goals, we may remove the FaceTime Camera as well. 

So there you go! Pretty easy to reduce unnecessary distractions for our iDevice using students!



Happy Therapy!

Have you met TED?

Educators, parents, therapists, teens, people! Have you met TED yet? TED of TED Talks?
TED is a video library of great thinkers and doers giving a 10-15 minute talk of their lifetime about their passion.

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: TECHNOLOGY, ENTERTAINMENT, and DESIGN.  

TED's mission statement is: "We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other. 

Here are three of my favorite TED Talks:

Sarah Kay: If I should have a daughter...

Tony Porter: A call to men

and of course, Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds

So you see the topics range far. Some are uniquely funny.  Other's inspiring. All though provoking. 

I would love to know what your favorite TED Talks are!

Growing Children's Skills for Life...

The focus of Shinobijimbo: TechNinja is often about how technology helps children access their curriculum. But the necessary underpinnings for my interventions to work are that the child understands how to participate in their many varied communities. If you work with or have children ages 3 to 8, Acorn Dreams is a terrific website with quick and easy concepts for raising children. Their agenda is to be "a resource center and store for practical tips and research-based materials that help foster children’s positive behavior and lay the foundation for success in school and in life."  Sounds good to me!

I really like the section "In a Nutshell: Quick tips to help Grow Children's Skills".  With header tabs such as "Healthy Habits", "Self-Control", and "Social Skills", the reader can get quick tips to facilitate such skill growth.  As an Occupational Therapist, I can definitely see sharing these Quick Tips with teachers and parents of the students I work with!

The other segment of interest is the Acorn Dreams blog which is fairly new, but already filled with some interesting topics.  The first few blogs consider the use of praise and also weight issues. These articles are succinct, and evidence based. I'm looking forward to reading the next blog articles.

Acorn Dreams is really designed with the typically developing youngster in mind. However, so many of the ideas are generalizable for our students with special needs.  Take a look at it!

Happy parenting!

The Good and the Bad of Technology #2 Texting and Driving

Here's an effective video. Share it with your teens, young adults, and if you're like me... with yourself. 

A Case Study #2

Some of this is a rehash of recent blog articles. But this time it's in action. I hope to report any stumbling blocks we encounter as well as our success.


We have an eighth grade student who we will refer to as Joe.  Joe was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, and Autism. Both are relatively mild, but still hinder his ability to write quickly and effectively.  He is a fairly bright young man, and wants to do well.  Joe is mainstreamed throughout his day, and receives some resource services, and Occupational Therapy services.

As a middle schooler he is asked to record his homework from the board, as well as take notes of the board.  His mother has expressed frustration that he often comes home and neither he nor she can read his notes. They are non-functional.  Despite this, (and to her credit) she wants him to be responsible for gathering this information, and not to rely on others to do it for him. 

The plan is to set Joe up with a blog, which will serve as the repository for all his notes.  He will use an iTouch to take pictures of his homework, and any board notes. Joe will publish the snapshots onto the blog.  Refer to this blog for a quick look at the app Blogger. 

Lets break this down. 

Week 1: Joe's Occupational Therapist and I introduced the iTouch to him. We taught him how to take snapshots with his iTouch camera. We specifically taught him how to stabilize his elbows on his desk to keep the camera from shaking.  We have asked his classroom teachers to put up a "tape boarder" on their white boards to give Joe a target to aim around.  We also taught him how to email the photos to his personal email address. Refer to this blog for more on this process.  In addition, we taught Joe how to use Dragon Dictate on his iTouch and email that to himself, incase there are any short notes he wants to record.

None of you will be surprised to hear that a middle-schooler was quite comfortable using an iTouch!  Joe will use the camera and Dragon Dictate in this capacity for a week. He will photograph his homework and notes only. We've discussed privacy issues, and he understand that he should not photograph peers.  

Week 2: Assuming that Joe has had success using the camera and emailing photos and dictation to himself, we will teach him how to use the app Blogger.  This involves opening Blogger, clicking on the camera icon in the bottom, taking a picture, and than clicking the "Publish" icon.  Similiarly, we will have him copy from Dragon Dictate and paste into Blogger any dictated content, and then click "Publish".  

I have already setup a Blogger blog. I used this blog service for a number of reasons. 1. I'm already familiar with it... it's what I use for Shinobijimbo, 2. The Blogger app is really simple and free! 3.  Other blogs undoubtedly offer this, but I can lock down who the blog is available to. We wanted only Joe, his family, and select teachers to be able to access the blog.  You may be more comfortable with another program.

Ideally, Joe will be able to publish all his homework for each class. Each will have a date. If you look at my blog, on the right you see hyperlinks for articles by date and name. If Joe titles each entry it can be really easy to reference. He won't have to store dozens of photos on an iTouch, or emails on his account. He will have a running record for the year.  Joe will be able to access this information from any internet-connected computer.

Things to consider:

1. I made an email account and a blog account for Joe. It felt important to get permission from the family to do this. I gave them the passwords, and encourage them to take ownership of both accounts. They can change passwords if they choose. 
2. Students need to know that they cannot photograph other students without written permission from those student's parents.  Best to just avoid.
3. I locked down the blog account. It does not appear in google searches, and the only way someone can access it is with an email invite. 
4. Teachers need to be onboard with Joe taking his iTouch out in the middle of class, and snapping photos. With the knowledge that this is an academic tool for him, all our teachers were supportive. 
5. It helps to have someone who will work with the student periodically to make sure they are learning the necessary skills to make the whole program work. 
6. Don't just dump the whole idea on him/her at once. Build the component skills one at a time: learn to take the photos. Learn to email them, learn to use the Blogger App. 
7. Tweak as necessary.

When it all comes together, the student should have a really elegant and easy to use plan in place to get his home-works assignments home.  I'll report back after we have some experience.

Happy Therapy!

Guided Access! Apple finally delivers!

If you follow my blog, you may remember an article I wrote called "Disable the Home-Button on your iDevice!" 

I was soooo pleased with that bit of code writing (which I had nothing to do with writing) and that I was able to bring it to users.

Well, with the new OS update that code is no longer necessary!

From the "Disabling the Home-Button" article, I wrote:

"Okay, so if you've worked with students using an iDevice, you've had the experience of them hitting the home button to "explore" before you were done with the lesson. Oftentimes undoing whatever progress they were making. Very frustrating, and thus creating our Love/Hate relationship with the "home" button!"

Apple's latest update OS 6 now offers a feature called "Guided Access".  Guided Access addresses the issue more elegantly than I could have hoped for.

Just click on Settings. Then click on "General" Down towards the bottom click on "Accessibility. Then, under the "Learning" category click on "Guided Access". You will be given clear directions on how to use this function. Follow the prompts and you will be delighted by how easy you can use the function.

In addition, when setting up the Guided Access, you can designate aspects of the app which will not function, allowing you to control your instructional session precisely.  Refer to the video below to see this in action.

Teachers, therapists, and parents have been asking for the ability to disable the home button for some time. Apple heard us, and went above and beyond what we wanted.

If your still using an iPad-1, alas, this OS update is not for you. But, you can still use the code from aforementioned article.  

Once again, Happy Therapy!

Nuance Impresses. Yet again!

Wow! This is a cool app! PaperPort Notes... maybe one of my new favorites!

Early on in the world of iPads, I was a fan of Notarize. It allowed me to capture PDF's and enter text into the form on my iPad. I could even take a picture from the web, or with the introduction of the iPad-2 take a snapshot of a student's test. Using Notarize we could enter text easily.


Unfortunately, the company that made Notarize quit making it. So, while I still have it, I was unable to provide it for students.

Document in Notes

Well, that's no longer an issue! The smart folks at Nuance, makers of Dragon Dictate and Mac-Speech have acquired Notarize, renaming it PaperPort Notes, and making it even better!

Help Box

All the bells and whistles from the original app are present. Now though, they have included a built in web-browser, with the ability to take "web-shots". Even more impressive though is the ability to insert a text box, and instead of typing your answer, dictate it. It works really well!

Free-hand

There is a nicely designed help feature that pops up whenever your doing something for the first time. Or, if you prefer, you can download the user guide, and read it in the app itself.

Web Browser

Notes can be shared in PDF format, and can be password-protected.  There is also the ability to write free-hand, or add drawings as necessary.

Also nice is the price... Free.

Import Capabilities

So once again, kudos to Nuance!


Happy therapy!

What's Your Homework?!?!

Homework

Many of our youngsters with learning disabilities struggle to get their homework for the day copied off the board. This is a regular sore point for parents! Kids come home and they either wrote nothing, copied incompletely, or what they did write is illegible.

One solution we've used when we've exhausted other modalities is to have the student take a snapshot with an iTouch.

I like to make a box for the teacher to write in, using electrical tape on their white-board. This serves two functions: 1. the teachers have an area dedicated for homework (this can help our scribing students as well), and 2. it serves as a visual cue for taking the photograph.

Once the picture is taken, the student can email it using the built-in software to do so. We ask the student to mail it to an email they share with a parent. The other option we've used on occasion is to load the picture up in Dropbox or iCloud. Using Dropbox or iCloud, we want to be certain the accounts are shared with the parents, and that they are emptying the photos at the end of each week.

Whether the student emails the photo or moves it to a "cloud" server, the picture will have a date and time associated with it automatically, which further helps reduce confusion.

I'd love to hear if you are using the iTouch camera in interesting ways.

Happy therapy!

The good, and the bad: technology

Parents, teachers, ministers, coaches, teens, and etc, etc... Read this New York Times article! In the past year I have seen 3 incidents similar to the one in the article, with "good kids" who simply made really poor choices.

Don't assume your good kid could't be involved.

Discuss with them the potential ramifications.

Technology, as you know has both  good, and bad aspects. And like most things, knowledge = power.

From the article: "Lacey students were convicted of dissemination of child pornography, they could be sentenced to up to 36 weeks in a juvenile detention center. They would be registered as sex offenders."

Click here:
A Girl’s Nude Photo, and Altered Lives

A version of this article appeared in print on March 27, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition.

More Birds Out of the Box...

Remember Ruth Morgan of Chapel Hill Snippets? Remember how she finds therapy in the Angry Birds app for her and her fellow Speech Pathologists?

Well recently my Physical Therapist (Chelsea) showed me a pizza she made for a friend... It's an Angry Bird!

Imagine the therapeutic possibilities! Individual pizzas for all the group members. Step-by-step picture instructions. Fine motor, visual processing, motor planning, measuring, and the list of therapeutic goals go on!  And of course, while the pizzas are cooking, let's play Angry Birds!

What you need:

Individual Pizza Crusts
Sauce,
Mozzarella Cheese
American Cheese (for the beak)
Pepperoni
Mushrooms
Olives
Oven
iPads or iTouches to play Angry Birds

I'm seeing great collaboration possibilities between the the Speech Therapist and Occupational Therapist, integrating both Ruth's book and the pizza creation in a small group.

Happy Therapy!

Working "in the box" with apps that are "out of the box"

Dooby is "on" the island. Nooby is "in" the water.

One of my last posts concerned some of my favorite apps which were designed to nurture occupational performance.  I mostly considered apps that were designed with input from therapists, or educators.  They are theoretically "therapeutic" right out of the box.  They are some terrific products, and it seems that more are coming everyday.

Ooga is on the "Left" of Nooby.

Sometimes though, the skills you want to work on aren't supported in the "therapy apps".  In this case, you have to get out of the box and get creative.

I love to see an app that wasn't designed for therapy or education, and a therapist (or educator/parent) is able to apply their clinical (critical) reasoning and utilize the app in a way that elicits a therapeutic response.  This can occur in just the same way a therapist might take a game like Don't Break the Ice, and capitalize on the inherent therapeutic value, even though, the game is just designed to be fun!  This is high level NINJUTSU people!

Nooby is "below" the bad-guys. 

One such example is Pocket God. The opportunity for play is endless! First there is the obvious fine motor/finger isolation required to manipulate the characters. This is true for most apps. I have found therapy using Pocket God with students to act out a scenario. We can then discuss concepts of spatial and temporal concepts such as first-than, top-bottom, left-right, and in front-behind.  I have also used Pocket God, taking screen-shots of specific activities, and then imported those pictures into Comic Life, where students can practice writing out a story line.  Check out this post about using Comic Life in this capacity.

Social Skills practice!

Another mainstream app we've been using is Facetime. Like Skype, but tailored for the iDevices, Facetime makes video communication simple.  This has been a great tool to have our students with Autism, or Traumatic Brain Injury work on social skills with a "pen-pal" from a neighboring school. We have the student write out a script of topics they wish to discuss, questions they wish to ask, and also practice listening and asking "follow-up" questions to be good conversationalists.

So, these are just two ways we've stepped out of the box. But like all good therapy, we addressed pre-established needs. We made certain we were targeting the student's goals, and than we thought about interventions to target those goals.

I'd love to hear from other folks who are finding the therapy in "non-therapuetic" apps!

A Mission Trip: but who for?

Jack is far right

About six months ago my 15 year old son (Jack) came to me and said he'd like to attend a local Methodist Youth Group. He said a lot of his friends attended, and the Youth Minister was really cool. I am a Quaker. So is my wife. My kids have grown up in Quaker Meeting. However, I'm of the mind that if your teenager comes to you expressing interest in a religious youth group, you support them! You know, unless they are worshipping snakes or something. A few months later Jack mentioned that he wanted to go on a Mission Trip with the Youth Group to the Appalachian Service Project. My wife and I supported this idea 100%. I think teenagers greatly benefit from hard work, from service to others, Spiritual exploration, and traveling to see how other folks live.

Then, back in April, the 17th to be exact (and I know only because it was 3 days prior to my ACL surgery) my son's Youth Minister, Rush, contacted me and said, "so your son suggested that you would be a great addition to our leaders on our Mission Trip". Well, hmmm...Again, when your adolescent asks you to participate in something of this nature I think the only answer can ever be a resounding "YES"! I did however have some trepidation about hard labour just 8 weeks post surgery. Rush and I discussed my likely limitations, and he assured me that he'd make certain I was not on a physically intense project.

ASP Staff: Sam, Stephen, Margie, & Chick-Chick

The Appalachia Service Project is a Christian ministry, open to all people, that inspires hope and service through volunteer home repair in Central Appalachia. To learn more about the Washington County center, go to http://tinyurl.com/ASPWashington.

Or visit their Facebook page. 

Team Timberwolf:  Aaaawoooooo! 

Two Sundays ago, Jack and I met with roughly 40 high-schoolers and accompanying adults to load into 5 vans and head to Washington County, VA.  Three hours later we arrived at Rhea Elementary school where we would eat, sleep, organize for work days, and worship for the following week.  Each crew was divided and had five high-schoolers, and two adult staff.  Ours was named Timberwolf, and our projects were pre-selected by the ASP staff.

Tile Installation

Timberwolf, like the other teams had multiple assignments. Our assignments included removing a leaky sunlight in the top floor bedroom and installing a dormer window, installing a floating laminate floor into the living room, as well as adding a stone pad for the wood stove. In addition, we needed to install a tile floor to the bathroom, repair dangerous stairs at the front of the home, and dig a drainage ditch in the back-yard. Some of the tasks we were assigned had been started the prior week by another team, and some would be completed the week following ours.

The changes we were working on will certainly improve the home, and thereby the homeowners lives.  ASP seems to focus on improving Safety, Insulation, and Dryness, all of which are pretty crucial in a home!  ASP encourages the teams to build relationships with the families when possible, and to share lunch if the families are interested.

Sun roof leaks air and water...

With Service work like this there is powerful mojo going on both for the recipients and for the givers. Without a doubt, the work that happens on the homes is crucial. It is a gift to the homeowners, and there are countless anecdotes of emotional appreciation that are very touching.  Recipients are truly grateful. There is also the wonderful chance for our youth to experience giving Service. Sharing of their time, their skills, their humor, and their smiles. 

Hammering like Thor!

As stated above, the outward purpose of such a trip is to provide Service to the recipients. But there is far more going on under the surface. I have watched and participated in the growth of friendships among the youth and staff. I have also watched high school youth a bit anxious about using power tools become adept and gung-ho about the same tools. I have seen them use some of that math which they always said they'd never use! I witnessed teens exhausted and crabby dig deep to finish a project, and stay kind to one-another. Likely they all worked harder than their parents know they can (Jack included).

Building the Dormer

I had the pleasure of working with an incredibly skilled co-leader, Karen Beaton. She is a warm and friendly woman. She has a degree in Engineering, she home schools her three children, and she and her husband built the house they live in. Her knowledge of construction far exceeds mine, and she was a great role model for the young women on our team.

A typical day with ASP includes waking up at 7:00, and meeting for morning Devotionals, and announcements. This is followed by breakfast. Then the ASP staff (who were at Lowes or Berries hardware upon the doors opening) return with hardware and lumber for each group. Teams gather their gear and drive to their worksites.  Work goes on all day, with a lunch break and a  Devotional.  At the end of the work day, we head back to "home" and turn in a new "supplies list". Showers are available. We eat dinner at 6:00, and meet as a collective group at 7:30 for EG (Evening Group) Worship, singing, and any announcements. We were lucky, in that we were sharing the Elementary school, meals, and chores with two other churches, and a family of four who came on their own.  Big group = big fun!  After EG's, most folks made a beeline for ice-cream back in town. Then Quite time by 10:30, Lights-out at 11:00. I had my evening meditation until 11:30, then went to sleep and started it all over the next day.

Gravel up the hill, for the drainage ditch

At the end of the week, I left Washington County fairly exhausted, but very happy. My knee survived, a bit swollen and sore, but still intact.  I felt spiritually fed, and gratitude to have shared this adventure with my son Jack.  I'm pleased to have made so many new friends. In addition I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing what it might have been like to have had daughters, as I have two wonderful sons.  What a treat!

The purpose of this Mission trip is to "inspire hope and service through volunteer home repair", and yet despite the great works we did, I am confident that I got far more out of this trip than I gave, as did all of us.  Jack and I are still talking excitedly about next year, and my wife plans on joining us!

More tech-talk to come!

Favorite Occupational Therapy Apps

Angry Birds as Vehicle for Therapy

There are a number of great apps out there.  There are also a number that aren't great.  Most any app can be used therapeutically, with applied clinical reasoning.  Look to Ruth Morgan of Chapel Hill Snippets blog, using Angry Birds in her speech therapy.  I've referred to this activity of Ruth's before, as it's a great use of a mainstream app being used with great clinical reasoning.  Some apps though are more evidently suited to therapy. This blog will highlight a few of my favorites from an Occupational Therapy perspective.

A favorite, and really a great deal, despite the $29.99 price tag is injini.  Injini offers a collection of learning games which are designed to target cognitive, language, and fine motor delays. The games contain an extraordinary wealth of content: 10 feature games with 90 puzzles, over 100 beautiful illustrations, 8 farm-themed mini-games and more. Injini is ideally suited for early intervention - it brings fun to learning and at the same time practices children’s fine motor and language skills, understanding of cause and effect, spatial awareness, memory and visual processing.
 An Occupational Therapist's buffet!

Pinch the Crabs!

From the same company is the fine app Dexteria. At only 4.99 it's a reasonably priced app.  Dexteria offers three therapeutic hand exercises (not games, according to the company) that improve fine motor skills and handwriting readiness in children and adults. Dexteria’s unique hand and finger activities take full advantage of the multi-touch interface to help build strength, control, and dexterity.  Their three activities include a tapping activity, pinching activity, and letter formation.  I find the tapping activity to be too difficult for many of the students I work with, however I'm a big fan of the pinching and the writing activities. A unique and appealing feature of this app is that it keeps track of data, and so the therapist can use it to document skill acquisition.

Not just Co-Writer...

As an Occupational Therapist, I'm often looking for something like Co-Writer for my iDevice. So far, there's very little out there. The closest thing I've found is called Abilipad for $19.99.  Abilipad does offer word prediction, thereby reducing the number of keystrokes needed and increasing your writing speed! It can even expand your written vocabulary by helping you complete words that you may not have attempted.  What it lacks is phonetic spelling that sets Co-Writer apart from the competition. However, it would be unfair to say Abilipad is an inferior word-prediction app, because that's not really what it is designed for. Abilipad combines the functionality of a notepad with word prediction, text-to-speech and a customizable keyboard.  The Washington Post said Abilipad is one of "the best iPad apps for special needs kids".

Matches

Match-it Trains

There are so many different matching apps, and it's hard to separate one from another. I've used Match-it Trains, and Matches with good success. Kids enjoy it, and we work on a variety of skills (memory, finger isolation, figure-ground discrimination, to name a few). Match-it Trains lite is free, Match-it Trains and Matches are .99 each. Not bad.

Draw and Write!

A favorite for writing is Scribble-Press with the sweet price of FREE.  My colleague Ashley Robinson recently wrote a grant which will allow us to purchase a number of iPads with the app loaded for a number of our schools (see details here).  The program is designed for literacy development.  It reminds me of the Mad Libs from our child-hood, but all techno-tized!  I like to take it a step further and incorporate handwriting instruction into each word chosen.  A more detailed review is can be found here.

A great app for supporting letter and number formation is iWrite Words. I have yet to find a child not engaged by this app. In the settings the adult can predetermine what handwriting program the lessons will most closely mirror (think Zaner-Bloser, HWT, etc.)  I wrote a more comprehensive review of this app here.

Similarly, take a look at the review of Visual Timer, which is a go to app for many therapists (including SLPs, PTs, etc).  It essentially duplicates the large clock with the red display of remaining time.  Check out the review here.






So, these apps were not necessarily created with Occupational Therapy in mind, but they sure fit nicely. Sometimes even right out of the box.  As usual though, it's important to make sure that the app you are using is addressing the goals your working on.  Hope you find these apps useful, and I'd love to hear about other apps that folks are using.

Happy therapy!