Hey Tek-ninjas, the Tobii Dynavox Learning Team is excited to announce a virtual conference that you and your colleagues won't want to miss! They have great new content that takes a deeper dive into implementing AAC.
When: December 6th and 7th, the Learning Team is hosting a two-day learning event where learners can earn up to 10 PDH or 1.0 ASHA CEUs. Also, they are all free of charge.
Tobii Dynavox is not saying this.... Just me.... I've taken all of the ASHA approved courses and received full credit from AOTA. Just say'n.
Where: use this link to view the conference landing page, and explore the courses offered.
Hey Tek-ninjas! Just a quick reminder of all the live webinars available at the Tobii Dynavox Learning Hub. These are zero cost, generally about an hour, and full of terrific content. See a sample of courses, dates, and times below.
One of my graduate professors, way back in the day, was fond of saying; 'twenties-years of experience don't matter if it's the same year over and over'. Her message was advice to be sure to keep learning!
Maybe bookmark the site so you can come back and visit them when you need content. Some of our clinics treat these like book-clubs either watching together to discuss, or independently. Might be a nice continuing professional development for your group?
Hey Tek-ninjas! Recently, a SLP reached out to me asking for recommendations for eye-gaze games for one of her client's that is new to eye-gaze, and very motorically involved. What she and you understand is the inherent value in "games" for skill building. They are NOT just a distraction or entertainment, but crucial for developing cause & effect understanding, accuracy, precision, and ultimately - stamina for our eye-gaze users.
In years past the Tobii Dynavox i12 and i15 came with a 30-day trial of Sensory Guru games, but once expired, they were not inexpensive to purchase. Now, the i13 and the i16 come with pre-loaded games called Magic Eye FX, still made by Sensory Guru. Purchased devices have 8 licensed games that do not expire. Magic Eye FX creator, Lee Blevins has indicated that he hopes to integrate a "store" into the software, where owners of a device will be able to pick and choose further games to buy out of pocket. In general, these games are really excellent, though for some users, may not hold interest indefinitely. Nonetheless, I really appreciate their scaffolded therapeutic value.
On the Tobii Dynavox web-page they’ve done a pretty nice job of collecting several eye gaze games – many, but not all are free. These should be playable by any eye-gaze device that can navigate the web.
Finally, I’ve yet to really dig into this resource yet, but Steam is an online platform that has lots of video games available, with a decent free library, and many with eye gaze…. Not sure how many require other input sources, but many will need multiple switches, so not appropriate for a lot of our clients. If I find more viable here, I’ll blog about it. These should also be playable by any eye-gaze device that can navigate the web.
I'm sure other vendors offer eye-gaze games with therapuetic value, but I'm not aware of them at this point in my career. If anyone knows of some, please add them to the comment section, and add if they are usable by any eye-gaze user, or device specific if you can.
Hey Tek-ninjas! I've blogged a few times about the wonderful Tar Heel Reader site, made at my almamater, the bastion of all that's good, UNC - Chapel Hill.
Tar Heel Gameplay, is an online platform which offers a collection of free, easy-to-play, and accessible games, as well as the platform to create your own games.
Each game is speech enabled and may be played using multiple access modalities, including touch screens, 1 to 3 switches, AND eye gaze.
Games are created using videos from the huge collection at YouTube. Users can play their own games or choose from the vast number of pre-made activities.
In the video below I create a simple activity with a Dead & Friends song, and play it using a Tobii Dynavox PCEye Mini and Gaze Point software for access. The music doesn’t come through, as I was also recording my talking.
According to the developers, Tar Heel Gameplay is being developed and tested in the Google Chrome browser, and they caution that it "may work in other modern browsers but save yourself some confusion and try it with Chrome".
These are simple games, and there-in lies the beauty. It is so easy to create a new activity, and with the endless variety of video available on Youtube, likely you can find something to interest everyone!
Tar Heel Gameplay has tremendous therapeutic value as an engaging way to hone switch or eye gaze access. Also, they are just plain fun.
Happy Therapy!
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Addendum: 02-19-2020: 7:10 pm
Hey Tek-Ninja’s, so this afternoon I received an email regarding the Tar Heel Gameplay site from one of the graduate students working on the site’s development. It read as follows; “I'm a UNC student working on my honors thesis... I'd like people's feedback on the games we developed last semester so I can include it in my paper”. When was the last time anyone in the weber-net had a program developer reach out and ask you what you think about their software? So, if you’ve used Tar Heel Gameplay, here is your chance to offer feedback that can potentially make a significant difference.
I plan on completing the survey, once I’ve had a chance to play these new games.
