Put Your iPhone Camera to Work: Creating Stories for Your iPad

I love to make stories for my students using my iPhone and photo editing apps. It's really easy! Let me show you how I do it.

Every fall, three little gnome brothers turn up in my speech room to play. If you'd like to see the magical gnome home I created last fall, read this post. Each day, the kids arrive to find those industrious gnomes playing with our toys. This is how I made a story to record all the little gnomes' antics. I wrote this story to specifically target the pronoun "he" and regular past tense verbs.

I started by taking pictures every day of the gnomes posing with their toys.  After a week or two, I had enough pictures to make a story.

I load the pictures onto my computer and open the Picasa app.

I select a picture and then click on the "text" icon on the left side of the screen.

I type the text directly onto the picture. You can choose from a variety of fonts, colors and sizes. Then I click "apply" to save the changes to the picture.

I click the little green symbol above the red circle to hold the completed picture in the tray along with the others I want to add to my story. When I have the ones I need, I save them as an album.

Next, you have options of what you want to do with your story. You can save this file to iPhoto and just view the pictures on your phone or iPad, just like you would with any photographs. But I like to save mine to Dropbox so I can open the file and view just the photos in the file and so I can share the Dropbox link with families.  Here's what I do:

First I save the album to my desktop. Next, I choose the file from my desktop, and then click on "Move to Dropbox".

Once the file is in Dropbox, I can open it on my iPad or my iPhone and view the story, swiping the screen to turn the pages.

See? Wasn't that easy? There are probably many other ways to edit your photos to make a story, but this one really works well for me. I love that I can share the links with parents and that they can access them anonymously. The kids really enjoy them, too.  It's a great way for them to share about speech/language therapy with their families at home and practice their speech and language targets while doing so!

Answers: YesNo HD app: Choice Making for Toddlers

The Answers: YesNo HD app has been on my iPad for awhile now, but it was one I rarely used, because it didn't really suit the needs of my caseload.  Suddenly I find myself with two pre-verbal toddlers that need to work on making requests and building vocabulary.  One is learning to use the PECS system, and the other needs some symbol support to make specific requests.  I remembered that the YesNO app could also be used as a two-celled AAC device, so I checked it out.  It worked great!  Let me show you how fast and easy it is to make simple communication boards with photographs of your own materials.

First, you choose the Favorite Button Set Up option.

Touch either button to set it up.

Select a photo to add to the button.  I used photos of the toy choices that I took using my iPad.  You can also add text and a voice recording on this screen.  Press done, and then repeat the steps to add a second choice to your page.  It will look like this when you're finished:

You have the option of creating six different pages that you can access quickly with just the touch of a button.

When you are finished with your pages, you are ready to go.  Just touch the "favorites" button, and select your choice board.

This was a fast, easy and very effective way to create a simple choice board system.  I highly recommend it!

Keep exploring new ways to use your iPad,

Pam

Tapikeo HD App 80% off Today Only!

Check it out!  Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE the Tapikeo HD app!  It is on sale today for 80% off it's usual price of $2.99 at the app store.  You've gotta get this one if you don't have it already. Check out some of my earlier blog posts to see how I've used it and to download some free templates:

Template for In, On and Under

Movement Story Idea

Move and Talk Story Templates

 Have fun!


Pam

App Review: Trucks HD by Duck Duck Moose

 I just downloaded this app today and I can already tell it's going to be a winner!  The name of this app is Trucks by Duck Duck Moose, creators of several of my favorite apps for little ones, and was just released on May 1, 2012.  I am so glad I found it...and so was my three-year-old friend that I used it with this morning! Any truck-loving child is sure to be delighted with the colorful, appealing graphics and the actions the cars and trucks perform.  It is easy to use and is very engaging.

The first thing you do is choose a scene.  You can choose the car wash, the tow truck, the garbage truck, traffic or the construction site.

We chose the car wash, and this is what we saw:

First, you roll your car through the mud until it's nice and dirty.

Next, you take it through the car wash.  Touch the brushes to make them wash the car.

 Then touch the devices above the car to rinse it...

...and blow it dry.  Your car is now clean and ready to roll!  This activity was perfect for working on new words with my little friend with CAS.  Words we practiced include mud, dirt, dirty, wash, water, on, off, brush, blow, clean and go.  It was also great for following directions.

The construction site was next.  The dump truck dumps dirt, rock or sand for the backhoe to scoop and take away.  Watch out for a few sneaky squirrels who visit the site!

The last scene we tried today was the tow truck scene.  We placed sharp objects in the road to pop the tires of unsuspecting cars and then sent a tow truck to help.

The tow truck brings the car to the tire shop, where we get to change the tires.  We raise and lower the car by touching the arrows, and choose new tires by touching the tool.

I haven't tried the other two scenes yet, but I'm sure I'll be just as enchanted!  This app was definitely worth the cost of $1.99.  The activities generated lots of spontaneous language from my little friend who is just building his vocabulary and beginning to combine words.  He was eager to imitate new words and excited to see what would happen next.  We'll definitely be trying this activity again soon!

Ideas for Home Projects Using Tapikeo HD App

I'll admit it...I just can't get enough of my Tapikeo HD app!  I've been using it with my families for "homework" projects.  Let me tell you how.

The first activity is one that I've been doing with my itty-bitties.  It's called "Where's Mommy?" and I use it for working on family member names, vocabulary building, and early concepts.  I also use it for my CAS kids at the VC level in the Kaufman program.  I send them home with the instructions to take pictures of various family members demonstrating the concepts I want to teach, as well as close-up pictures of each family member.  After I receive the photos from the family, I import them into a Tapikeo grid.  I made a grid as a template, which you can download at the end of this post, to help me organize my story.  This is what the grid looks like:

The words and the background color in each cell of the template disappear when a new photograph is added, so you can put a picture of Daddy in a cell that has a different family member's name and no one will ever know!  As I said, the template is just to help me organize my story.  You can add your own words to each cell by typing in the "text" box.  My kids love this story, and it generates a TON of language.

If you would like to use this template, you can download it here:


The next idea I'd like to share is to make stories about individual concepts.  Here is one Charlie and I made together.  I made the orange slide using Microsoft Word and saved it as a PDF.  I imported it to my iPad, and then used it as the first cell of a new story.

Then Charlie and I used objects around my office to demonstrate the concept of "between".  I took photos of him directly from the app (as I've explained in earlier posts) and then recorded Charlie using the word "between" in a sentence.

Press "new" to take a picture, then record voice.

Charlie said, "The bear is between my arms."

We completed seven different examples of demonstrating "between" for this story, and then played it back.  Charlie was so proud and really learned the concept well.   I  exported this story to his iPad at home, and asked him and his mom add to it using items from around his house.  I can't wait to see what they add!

I made a generic "cover page" for this story that you can download here if you want to make one, too: My Story of "Between".


Another great idea:  Charlie's mom purchased this app and promptly put it to use to work on his articulation skills.  She knew we were working on the /l/ sound in the final position of words, so she and Charlie found objects around their house and made a story of Charlie saying words that end in /l/.

I hope you're using this app.  It has so many amazing possibilities!

Nice chatting with you,

Pam

Is There a Doctor in the House?

Feel Better Frog from Manhattan Toy

We're learning all about doctors and nurses here at Small Talk this week, so what better time to bring out another one of my favorites:  Feel Better Frog!  If you're not familiar with this toy, let me fill you in.  This poor little frog is not feeling well, but has all the accessories to help him get better in no time!  He sneezes or blows his nose when you hold the tissue to his face, slurps soup off the spoon, and tells you if he has a fever or not when the thermometer is in his mouth.  He even tells you when he's hungry!  Kids and parents alike find this toy hilarious and engaging. I usually add my Fisher Price Doctor Kit to the mix, and then we can check poor Froggie's ears, give his a shot or two and listen to his heart.  Playing doctor is a great way to introduce new vocabulary and practice lots of language goals!

To go along with this theme, I made a Patient Chart using Boardmaker.  We talk about who the patient is, what happened to him, what we did to make him feel better, and what instructions we gave him to do at home.  I help the child complete the chart by showing him a page of choices for each question on the chart.  We review/name each of the choices and select one to put on the chart.  When the chart is complete, I have the child tell about the patient he treated, using the chart as prompts.


For example, the child might say, "Teddy Bear came to the doctor today.  He fell off his bike and hurt his knee.  I put a bandaid on it.  I told him to go home and rest."

If you'd like to download my charts and choices, you can find them at these links:  Chart Choices, Chart Choices 2 and Patient Chart.  Sorry for the multiple downloading, but I posted these before knowing how to link PDF's together in one file.  Oh well, they're free, right?

Another great way to work on sequencing, vocabulary and language skills is to make an interactive story of the child pretending to be a doctor using your iPad or iPhone.  There are several great apps that allow you to take photographs within the app itself and then use them to create a story, but the one I used today was Stories 2 Learn by MDR.  It's easy to use and a story can be completed quickly.  Check it out in the App Store.

Just take a picture of the child using your iPad or iPhone, or import a photo from another camera.  Add the text by typing in the text box, and audio if you desire.  Save your page, and add another.  Your story can be as long or as short as you want it!  The pages of the story look like this:

Kids just love to be the stars of their own stories, and this is a great way for them to work on their speech/language skills, too!

Nice chatting with you!

Pam

Play Dough Mats and Other Fun Stuff from Pinterest

Are you as addicted to Pinterest as I am???  I just can't get enough!

I thought I'd share a couple of ideas I found there that I used this past week.

The first one came from a pin by Karen at prekinders.com She posted this darling book of play dough mats that I just had to download.  Here is the one I used this week:

I used it with my articulation kids, and my little ones who are building their vocabularies.  After they said a target word correctly, I gave them one play dough "berry", which they promptly squished on the pie.  They loved it!  One little boy was NOT into pie, so I made him a dump truck.

Aren't these fun?  If you want, you can down load them here and here.  Just print and laminate and you're good to go.

Pinterest is also where I found all these wonderful blogs that have inspired me to become more creative.  Jenna Rayburn over at Speech Room News is a prolific Pinterest pinner with endless creative ideas.  She posted a way for us to make all those wonderful photo collections posted by Heidi Kay at PediaStaff on Pinterest easily accessible with your iPad by using an app called Tapikeo HD.  You can check this app out at the App Store.  Basically it enables you to turn photos into audiobooks, flashcards and communication boards.  Jenna does a fabulous job giving us a step-by-step tutorial on how to use it; check it out here.  I bought the app and quickly realized the possibilities are endless!  Another pin caught my eye:  From Head to Toe Game (by Eric Carle) posted by starfishtherapies.wordpress.com.  A reader of this blog described how she made this activity into a "movie", and I decided to borrow her idea, but use the Tapikeo HD app instead.  Here's what I did:

I took screen shots of the animals in the book From Head to Toes by Eric Carle.  I imported them into a Tapikeo grid, and added my own text and recorded myself reading the text.  I left every other cell blank so I could import photos of a child later.  During our treatment session, I took photos of the child performing the actions as we read the book and imported them right into grid.

We edited the pictures by adding his voice.  The text in the book says "I can do it!" after each action, but he was working on the /r/ sound, so he said, "That's really easy!" instead.  After eight actions were photographed and recorded, we were ready to play back our story.  Here's what it looked like:

Voila! An interactive story completed in about 20 minutes.  He was so proud!  Another fun thing about this app is that you can export your stories to other devices if they have Tapikeo too, so you could share it for home use.  As I said before, the possibilities are endless!

Happy Pinning!

Pam

iPad Fun with the Glow Draw App

Have you discovered the Glow Draw! app for your iPad or iPhone?  I've been using it this week with my articulation kids as a fun way to wrap up our treatment sessions.

My lame depiction of Happy New Year!

We play our version of Pictionary by choosing a word off a word list, drawing it with our finger, and letting the other person guess what we draw.  Here's an example of a word list I use:

It's a little hard to see, but this list comes from a book called Artic Tickle Stories by Super Duper Publications, which has words lists for just about every sound and blend in all positions.  My non-reading children play a variation of this game by using picture cards as their inspiration.


Get Creative!

Pam