Exploring Braille App Giveaway!!

Hi Everyone!!  I am so happy to host this AWESOME giveway for Sensory Sun Educational Toy's new app Exploring Braille App.  There will be ONE winner.  You can enter from 5:00 PM CT today until 5:00 PM ET on 6/19. The winner will be announced next week.  Please enter using the Rafflecopter link below.
         CLICK HERE --->   a Rafflecopter 

**SCROLL ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM OF THE RAFFLECOPTER PAGE TO THE FIND THE ENTRY FORM**

*We highlighted Hilary Kleck's story about creating the Exploring Braille App last month on our blog.*

                  CLICK HERE --->   a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saving and Raising Money: {Perkins Smart Brailler and LightAide}

Perkins School for the Blind and WonderBaby.org are promoting some *great* ways to save money on two of their newest products! Click the above link read more from Amber Bobnar on these deals and ways you can raise money to purchase this device for your school district or child with visual impairments in your family.  The Smart Brailler is an electronic Brailler that has been making the experience of writing Braille more of a multi-sensory experience for tactile learners.  Please read more about this device here:  Perkins Smart Brailler

As some of you may remember, I had the opportunity to test out the LightAide with some of my clients with Cortical Visual Impairment and other visual processing issues.  You can read more about Philip's LightAid here and my product review on the device here.

My New Favorites: Apps and Devices

I spend a lot of time curating resources and devices on all things related to Educational and Assistive Technology on Pinterest and Scoop It.  I wanted to share a few of my favorite sem-recent links from the two sites in a blog post.  There are some really innovative approaches being created for kids of all abilities out there.  It is great that we can use social media to share the wealth of knowledge.

LiveScribe Smart Pen

Rocket Key App

The Smart Mount Batten Braller

Exploring Braille App: An Up and Coming App for all Tactile Learners

It is my pleasure to have Hillary Kleck guest posting on this blog today!  Hillary is an app developer and social media advocate for the needs of children with visual impairments on her Facebook Page, Sensory Sun Educational Technologies.  Hillary is also the proud mother of Madilyn, who has inspired the development of the Exploring Braille App.  While the Exploring Braille App is not yet available in the iOS Store, Hillary's story about the inspiration for the need for Exploring Braille is impressive, ambitious and functional for all tactile learners.  Please read her story below:

How many times have you purchased an app hoping it would be something your visually 

impaired child could effectively use? I've spent entirely too much on apps for my daughter that 

didn't pan out to be even remotely accessible with VoiceOver or even something she could just 

play around with for some enjoyment. The abundance of letters and phonics apps with her 

favorite characters were (and still are) so enticing! "Maybe this one will encourage her 

interests," I would say to myself, but none of them ever presented braille- her only method of 

reading independently. I kept telling myself that eventually one of them would be everything I 

wished for in an educational app.

As you may imagine, my dream app was never found. It had to be created! I finally put my mind 

to work and started designing an app my daughter would love, and then maybe other potential 

braille readers would, too. I felt so strongly about how much Madilyn could achieve if only she 

had a product like I envisioned. She needed something that incorporated her senses- touch and 

hearing- and visually appealing for me. It was possible. Too many times I talked myself out of it 

thinking it wouldn't be good enough. There were no more excuses; it had to be done and I 

decided it was up to me. I had experience in programming so all I needed to do was learn a 

similar code and get to work. 

I took the methods I used for teaching Madilyn without much technology and applied them to the 

design of the app. I began with dreaming of the best way she would learn and went from there. 

Simply enough I wanted it to teach her to read and write the braille alphabet. The iPad and 

refreshable braille device would take my place as the teacher so she could learn more 

independently, allowing me to be the guide only when necessary. It needed to be fun and 

interactive, engaging her through sound and touch. I decided she would love it even more if it 

included her as a character and her dog Ruff as the trusty sidekick. Hence, "Exploring Braille 

with Madilyn and Ruff" was created.

I am not satisfied believing that the best way to teach and learn braille has already been 

developed, or even realized already. The current app will be developed into a suite of apps to 

create a full braille curriculum for young braille readers to use, learn and enjoy. New research, 

technology and experiences will definitely shape the apps so the suite will appeal to students 

with varying cognitive, fine motor and vision levels. It is my hope that people will continue to be 

intrigued by the way blind children perceive the world, and do their part in making it more 

accessible. The best is yet to come!

Switch Apps: EIEIO

 

 Above is a video of the EIEIO App in the "Sing" activity section (see below for my perspective and favorite key features)

It has been a real pleasure working the RJ Cooper Super Switch over the last few weeks several of my students.  The iOS Switch Accessibility options really opens the world of communication and play up to students with motor impairments, visual impairments and mild hearing losses.  The accessible apps that I have selected to review were found my perusing Jane Farrell's switch accessible app list from her website.   What I love the most about switch accessibility for iOS is that it gives students with gross motor challenges and additional disabilities options to access apps that are cognitively engaging to them using a variety of a switch setting options that can be found in the Settings options of each app.

The app of the video above presents "Eieio" a switch accessible app for 2-5 year olds that increases the child's understanding of animal sounds. EIEIO is an impressive app because of the variety of activity levels found within the app.  For the child young child who is just learning about cause and effect, I would recommend that the therapist, parent or teacher focus on the "Read" activity first then move to "Explore" or "Sing" activities. After the child has a handle on auditory and/or visual scanning as well as the opportunity to explore the different animals sound independently within this app, I would the recommend that the therapist, teacher or parent move them to the highest developmental level and that is "Learn."

Here is a break down of the switch task and developmental tasks being asked of the user in each level:

Below is also a screen shot of the switch settings options.  I love that you can decipher between direct touch activation and switch activation.  Another key feature that I love is the ability to choose between auditory and visual scanning presentation options (see below):

My FavoriteTobii ATI Products (Eye-gaze hardware and software)

  It has been a professional goal of mine to reach out to more vendors and software developers to learn more about their products and enhance more partnerships between the Assistive Technology Specialists and the people creating and selling the products.  Last week I had a great opportunity to meet up with Mckenzie Sauser, our local Tobii ATI Representative for St. Louis and Kansas City to get an update on the latest on Tobii Products.

 

For those of you new to the Tobii ATI technologies, creates Augmentative Alernative Communication software, apps and devices.  They specifically specialize in eye-gaze tracking enabled communication and computer access for those with extremely limited motor movements.  Below is a list of my favorite Tobii software and eye gaze devices that McKenzie reviewed with me last week. Please click the links below each photo to go explore more about each product on the Tobii website.

The Tobii I-Series

I love the Tobii I-Series because it gives users with high functional cortical visual impairment and very limited motor control another option for possible communication.  I have found that many children with multiple disabilities including those with high functional cortical visual impairment can sometimes be successful with an eye gaze series as their visual processing levels increase.  Since these types of users are fighting their muscle tone on a daily basis, their functional vision can sometimes be the most functional way to access communication.  However, I would recommend that the IFSP/IEP team work with the student on eye gaze training using eye gaze training apps such as Sensory Light room to assess the accuracy of the child's visual targeting skills.

PC Eye Go

The PC Eye Go is mostly for users who mostly work with their laptops.  I love that Tobii has created a customizable piece of hardware that makes any PC or laptop eye gaze accessible with the addition of the PC Eye Go.

Sono Primo Software

Sono Primo is a great software for young users who are learning more abstract graphical images (line drawings) through whole part concepts, social stories, symbols and problems solving games.

Basic Visual Considerations for AAC Devices and Apps

Children with visual processing disorders such as cortical visual impairment tend to need specific visual accommodations than other AAC users.  The following recommendations are based off the CVI Range created by Dr. Christine Roman-Lantzy.  The CVI Range measures a child's visual processing abilities in the following ten areas: color, distance viewing, movement, latency, visual fields, complexity, light gazing, visual reflexive responses, visual novelty and motor.  For the purposes of this blog entry, I focused on the areas of the CVI Range that directly related to creating AAC communication boards.  For today's entry I am focusing on Color Preference, Latency (Delay), Visual Field Preference and Complexity.

For more information on photographing objects for AAC devices, please check out Andrea Schario's tips on photographing objects for children with visual impairments in the presentation from our webinar: Helping Children with Visual Impairments Explore, Learn and Communicate Using the iPad

Color Preference

It is common that children with visual impairments with Cortical Visual Impairment have a preferred color that they can fixate on for longer periods of time (red and yellow are the most common).  When creating a communication board for a child with CVI (or low vision), it is important for the therapist or special education teacher to talk to the Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments to help the student's IFSP/IEP determine what the user's preferred color might be. 

It is common that many dynamic AAC devices and apps give the user the options to choose the color of the border that surrounds the icon on the AAC device. I would recommend that the therapists consider using the child's preferred color as the boarder when creating a board on a dynamic display.

Latency

When considering a child with CVI's visual abilities, it is important for the child's AAC team to choose an app or device that visually isolates the choice the child made for an extended period of time to account for the child's visual processing delay.  For example, on the AnswersHD app, the user has the option to hold the child's choice in isolation for 2-6 seconds after they make their choice.  Since I have so many young kids, I usually error on the side of caution and keep this setting closer to the 6 second time.  

Visual field preference

If the child uses the right visual field over the left visual field or vice versa, it is important for the user to consider the placement of the child's icons on the his communication board. Whether the therapist or parent is creating a board with 2, 4, 6, icons, it is important that the team move the preferred icons to the child's weaker visual side so he or she can improve the visual input of their weaker side and also continue to improve on recognizing the picture on the icon.

Complexity

Since many children with CVI struggle to focus on excess visual information on a page, I advise many AAC teams and therapists that it is better to keep the icons big, simple and bold with less icons present on a communication board.  When it comes to students with CVI and complexity, it is wise to always have less icons with high contrast, large, simple icons.