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Info Exchange Magazine

Apps Alert & Sensory Surprises

No. 60 – January 2016

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Apps are described as Free or Lite indicates that the app is free as of time of locating

it for the newsletter. Some apps may be for Android devices, as well as for iPads.

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Beginning to Play Simple Games

Using the iPad or Tablet

A selection of games aimed at an early level of

thinking and problem solving.

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Which Go Together? ABA

This app introduces association and simple problem solving. It offers

visual discrimination, the understanding of different objects and events

and the experience of beginning to reason. There are 120 concrete,

colourful iphotos which show 4 objects at a time. The learner is asked

to identify the one that does not belong. There is verbal praise(USA)to

reward an appropriate response.

Baby Finger

The Baby Finger app is your fingers best friend. Every tap of a finger

will bring a surprise! Excellent for learning just to tap, tap, tap with

vivid rewards. It progresses on to numbers, shapes, objects and the

alphabet.

Which Do Not Belong? ABA

‘Which Does Not Belong’ teaches the learner to discriminate which

items do not belong in a group. It also introduces the negative form ‘not’

one of the first steps in learning to reason. The learner is shown four

objects at a time and asked to identify the one that does not belong.

Verbal praise (USA) reward the right answer.

My First Words ABA

My First Words App views flash cards of some common first words as

well as a matching game for pictures and words. The flash cards now have

audio(USA).

Kids Mode

This app is all singing and all dancing, covering a wide age range from 2

to 8 years old with fun, educational videos. The app claims to adapt to

the age of the child, so the videos that are just right for what they are

learning in school(USA). The videos have been screened by experts and

selected for their safety and age-appropriateness. There is also access

to the art studio to draw, colour, and be creative.

The videos are classified by the experts:

2 years - learn about colours, shapes, animals, and much more.

3 years - familiarise with letters and numbers, and enjoy countless stories and songs.

4 years - practice counting and sounding out letters with fun sing-a-long videos.

5 year olds-develop early addition, subtraction, and reading comprehension skills.

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6 year olds - enjoy math and grammar videos, explore science ideas like osmosis and

experimentation, be inspired by LEGO videos to build and create.

7 year olds - learn about multiplication and division, endangered species, sneezing baby

pandas, and much more.

8+ year olds - learn about the presidents(USA), the periodic elements, and much more

I Play and Sing

An all-in-one interactive application aimed at early learning skills. The

app uses a bright, colourful learning and activity zone. The game

concentrates on early learning development and ties into early years’

curriculum with touch screen games and voice. The user receives a

happy-face reward for correct answers and a sad-face for wrong

answers. Collect five happy faces and get a star!

Pre-K Letters and Numbers

BrightStartApps is an interactive learning system which ‘teaches children

letters, words, numbers and phonics following government curricula

adopted in UK, US and Canada from pre-K to grade 5.' Cartoon figures

guide through the letters, numbers and phonics experience with clear

instructions, applause for success and "Uh-oh" for mistakes. Key features

include individual user setup (optional) with an online child performance Report Card

(optional). Have a look at the website www.brightstartapps.com.

Clean Up Category Sorting

This app is visually very clear. Three containers appear at the bottom of

the screen and an object is above them. Drag the object to the right

container and you get a star and a female (USA) comment if it is the right

container or not. It is unambiguous as there is no visual clutter.

Arthur and Charles Present Create and Play

A funny, happy app for the whole family! Let your imagination run wild

creating unique cartoon faces from over 400 billion possible

combinations. Use your wild, whacky, beautiful creations in the memory

challenging Card Match, the fast paced Match 3, or test your powers of

observation in the Patterns games. Up to four people can use the game

on each device, and there are 178 individual pieces to choose from in the Face Creator, so

there is always a different character to create.

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Eric Carles My First App

This is a fun educational app with three matching games based on ‘My

Very First Books’ by Eric Carle. He is the writer of ‘The Very Hungry

Caterpillar’ who ate his way through a week of food! The app contains 3

levels of game play: Easy ages 1+ Medium ages 2+ Hard ages 3+

In easy mode the screen is divided in half - just like the original books -

and the learner can swipe the lower and upper halves to find a match (for example, the colour

yellow with a picture of lemons). The medium and hard modes are based on the game of memory.

Players are presented with a set of cards face down and must find a pair by flipping over cards

and identifying their matches or their related concepts.

Baby First Look

Baby First Look was created by a mother after noticing a lack of apps kept

her newborn daughter’s attention. (I wonder why she was using an iPad with

a newly born baby?). It is aimed developmentally at 0-2 years. The app is

composed of black and white picture slideshows and stories accompanied by

specially written songs or mother’s heartbeat.

Toddler Counting

A simple app to encourage the beginner at counting. Each object greys out

on first touch, to teach the learner not to count the same object twice.

Numbers are counted out loud as counting takes place. Digits are displayed

along with the sounds, to also teach reading.

Puzzles n Colouring Sea Life

Jump into the water and explore the world under

the sea. A smiling crab, a wandering fish, a jumping

dolphin and more wait in this puzzle app that

doubles as a colouring book. There are different

levels, easy medium and hard for the puzzle which

has background music. Good bright contrast colours and the image of the

finished puzzle can be seen, helping the beginner. The full version has more puzzles than the

lite version.

Farm Jigsaw Puzzles 123 Free

This is an excellent puzzle app. It was developed to suit the tastes and

learning abilities of young children from ages 1 to 6. It starts with

simple 2-piece puzzles and gradually moves up the levels to master the

9-piece puzzles.

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When one puzzle is completed, the name of the animal is spelled on the screen and read out

loud. Watch the farm come to life with colour when all the puzzles are completed. Animals

and animations keep interest going in completing the puzzle.

Fuzzle Pop

Fuzzle Pop is a colour matching game. Fuzzles keep raining everywhere and

have to be stopped. Match three fuzzles in the same colour and they will

pop and explode. Collect 3 and collect a super star.

Flip Ocean

The player has to find the matching pairs of different fish images before time

runs out. Clear images with sound effects.

My Rag Doll 3D

This 3D game comes recommended by my 11-year-old grandson and his

friends, so it is gruesome! Simply, there is a jointed man who can be

picked up and thrown around various scenes, until bits of him fall off. He

grunts and groans very realistically and I think I have said enough!

Paper Toss - ad Free

Flick the piece of crumpled paper into the waste paper basket. A fan

can be used to make the throw harder to judge. Perfect for eye hand

coordination. Definitely for staff room fun!

Manic Martians

Quickly bop as many Martians as you can, but be careful not to hit any

astronauts by mistake. You need to hit 10 Martians to progress to the

next level.

LEKAR This is an app from IKEA, the Swedish store, which encourages parents

and children to play more together. LEKAR, meaning “games” in Swedish,

provides a variety of games from around the world, designed for parents

to play actively with their children. They encourage active play with a

range of old fashioned games such as charades, musical chairs, follow

the leader and scavenger hunt. Good for group activities.

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Baby Memory

A memory game for early development. Press two doors to reveal two

coloured objects that match each other. The objects are abstract. No

options or complications, just start the game and start playing.

Splode

Ranked number 1 in 12 countries. Very simple level with little fuzzy

glowing splode creatures to track and touch. They go plop when you

touch them. A very first level of gaming. There are levels of complexity

with an electronic noise background producing space-like sounds.

Grave Yard Shift

This is more difficult but lots of fun. Graveyard Shift is a physics puzzler with funny bones

and rag doll skeleton twist. All skeletons have jumped out of their coffins at the ring of

midnight and as the cemetery keeper, the player is asked to get them back in there. Get the

skeletons back into their coffins before the break of dawn using the wacky environments.

Remove various types of blocks by tapping them, triggering chain reactions and hopefully

sending the skeleton into his casket. I am still trying to do this …

Backyard Zoo Dancing Teddy

A selection of little games with teddies as the stars. I like the one called

smash teddy, as a little teddy pops out of the flowers then tap quickly to

gain a point when he explodes!

Abby Robots Maker Free HD Lite

This is a construction app where the player chooses pieces of robot to

design a robot for themselves. A set of drawers appear when you select a

body part such as legs or head. There are many space noises and the

robots also perform a variety of actions. Really addictive and creative too.

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Toca Boo

The simplest of apps - full of boos!

Lots of scary music and quirky family characters belonging

to a character called Bonnie, trying to cause an uproar!

Kido Magic Finger (Free at the moment)

Kido Magic Finger is a creative app that seems unique in the

market. The app focuses on both letters and animals using

little doodle animals that are created from a fingerprint. The

‘tap to play’ format enables easy access to the learner. In

addition to teaching animal names, the app can also reinforce

the habitat animals are from and the initial letter of each of

the animals.

Gameplay is very simple. The user turns the channels on a TV screen to select the habitat they

want to explore. Then it's simply tap to play. Children explore each habitat by tapping on the

screen with one or two fingers.

Different fingerprint animals appear

randomly depending on how many

fingers are used to touch the

screen. Each animal has a little

animation that leads to the first

letter of the name being shown on

screen. Letters and animal names

are reinforced with a childlike

narrator.

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Off the Rails

This app made me feel very queasy and sick as I am not a fan

of roller coaster thrills! So take it from me, it is realistic!

Build your own roller coaster as you fly through the air,

Aargh!

Watch the YouTube short video!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-GbPIn-CdI

Lazoo Squiggles Free

Squiggles! This is from the good developers of apps, Lazoo.

This free app includes an eBook features such as highlighted

words, interactions and a good story to tell. Record yourself

for listeners. There are 14 colourful pages to add “squiggles”

from a well-stocked art tray. Press play in the top corner to

watch the whole picture animate and surprise. Really good and

at a simple level for all.

Have a look at this YouTube clip to

see James in full action (with dad

commenting and wanting to use it as

well!!). Excellent, great for pointy

finger mark making.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh7UPyWm02g

Breathe Think and Do (Free)

This is from Sesame Street and encourages relaxation and

ordering of thoughts. Helpful to busy bees and to staff too!

Use it in conjunction with the belly breathe clip from

Sesame Street, fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mZbzDOpylA

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Autism Discovery Tool

Explore the sensory world of autism and experience first-hand some of

the diversity found on the spectrum. The Autism Discovery Tool is an

immersive, play-based app where you freely explore the seven senses,

each sense showcasing four variations on a "typical" sensory experience.

Hidden tools can be discovered within each of the senses, providing

sensory strategies as you fill each sense's toolbox. Try your hand at mini-putt, make a

smoothie, sit in a classroom, or stand on a balance beam (to name a few) to better understand

some of the strengths and challenges faced by those on the autism spectrum. For example, the

vision tool gives simulations of how the world is seen through the eyes of some people with

autism. The smell shows how overpowering smells can be, ones we are not even aware are in the

room.

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Smart Apps for Kids

‘Smart apps for kids’ has a 10-minute video of the app - in

fact you see the whole app! Well, worth a look and may be

useful for inclusive settings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjpZq_wFFE0

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Info Exchange

Sensory Surprises

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Space Food for Astronauts

This is a nice mucky activity that links

into the theme of 'space' and the food

that the astronauts eat whilst in their

space rockets. Tim will be doing this!

You will need:

Boxes of instant milk pudding such

as angel delight (one between two

astronauts).

Milk-enough for the contents of the

packets (look at the method).

Zipper plastic bags (IKEA do

excellent ones).

Here is the activity:

Smell and taste the milk and pudding

mix.

Pour half the packet of mix into the

zipper bag.

Add half the quantity of milk.

Seal the bag really well.

Now squish and shake the bag until

the pudding thickens.

When it is thick, then carefully snip a

corner of the bag.

Now see who can suck the pudding out just like an astronaut.

Any left? Then squish out onto the table top and use fingers to whiz through the

pudding to make a Space picture!

Have a look at this cool snow dough found on the

imagination tree website at www.theimaginationtree.com.

All you need is:

Cornflour - 2 cups

Vegetable oil or baby oil (for a nice smell) - 1/3 to 1/2

cup

Silver glitter - 3 to 4 tablespoons

Then:

• Mix and play.

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• Pop in the fridge for a while so it is also cold to the touch.

• Add play snow animals

• Make a pile of snowballs

Talking Tom

Just like the app, this Talking Tom will repeat what you say

but can also make other noises by squeezing or petting him.

Activated by touching his head tummy or foot and coming with

a variety of 16 possible unique sounds Tom is the perfect

companion for any young child. His mouth moves whilst he

talks.

Argos

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2791599.htm

Talking Tom app – for iTunes and Android.

Remember you can adjust it to stop the violent bit!

Talking Ginger

Talking Ginger repeats everything you say with a funny voice.

You can pet his body or head to make him purr, poke his head,

tummy or feet and even grab his tail to hear up to 14 actual

sounds from the app.

www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2446758.htm

Talking Ginger App - available on iTunes and Android.

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Resources for Chinese New Year - 8 Feb 2016

The Year of the Monkey

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A Chinese Dragon made from threaded, coloured disposable cups and loads of

ribbons, silks and satin streamers. A rather nice mobile.

The old standby of handprints have been strung together for a long dragon mobile.

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A short film clip from YouTube, with distinct Chinese music and lots of red colours

and movement:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQdRI8pWiw8

A wooden spoon dragon from Activity Village

Full, illustrated details on how to create this dragon can be found at:

www.activityvillage.co.uk/wooden-spoon-chinese-dragon-puppet

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Instant Chinese Food!

Noodles!

Fortune cookies

(put in your own captions)

Chinese gooseberries

Games

Chinese Whispers

Try with a cardboard tube to concentrate

the sounds.

Chinese Chopsticks

Try using chopsticks with rice, noodles,

pom-poms or marbles!

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Beginning to Use Code

Information for more

advanced learners

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Beginning to Use Code

ScratchJr FREE

This is a hands-on learning environment that enables young

children (ages 5 to 7) to learn the basics of programming with a

visual interface. It encourages and builds a host of learning skills,

including problem-solving, organisation, sequencing, and self-

expression, in addition to building creativity. It would be suitable

for special learners who have a grasp of literacy, perhaps using

symbols as well.

Features include:

Interactive, hands-on design.

offers story-telling, game play, and more.

Graphic interface invites experiments and intuitive play.

28 backgrounds, dozens of characters and a large collection of objects.

Dozens of possible actions and interactions to make an endless array of projects.

This is what the impressive designers say (Tufts & MIT universities)

What is ScratchJr?

ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young children (ages 5-7) to

create their own interactive stories and games. Children snap together graphical programming

blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Children can modify characters in the

paint editor, add their own voices and sounds, even insert photos of themselves -- then use the

programming blocks to make their characters come to life.

ScratchJr was inspired by the popular Scratch programming language (http://scratch.mit.edu),

used by millions of young people (ages 8 and up) around the world. In creating ScratchJr, we

redesigned the interface and programming language to make them developmentally appropriate

for younger children, carefully designing features to match young children's cognitive,

personal, social, and emotional development.

Why Did We Create ScratchJr?

Coding (or computer programming) is a new type of literacy. Just as writing helps you organise

your thinking and express your ideas, the same is true for coding. In the past, coding was seen

as too difficult for most people. But we think coding should be for everyone, just like writing.

As young children code with ScratchJr, they learn how to create and express themselves with

the computer, not just to interact with it. In the process, children learn to solve problems and

design projects, and they develop sequencing skills that are foundational for later academic

success. They also use math and language in a meaningful and motivating context, supporting

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the development of early childhood numeracy and literacy. With ScratchJr, children aren't

just learning to code, they are coding to learn.

ScratchJr is available as a free app for both iPad and Android tablets. For more

information about ScratchJr - See http://scratchjr.org.

The app comes with a series of tutorials on YouTube,

all free which is amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciWPaEgscr0

Ice Cube Painting

Materials:

Paper

Ice cubes

Powdered tempera paint

Flat box or large baking pan

How to ice paint:

Place a sheet of paper in the box or baking pan.

Sprinkle a little tempera powder on the paper.

Place the ice cube in the box and rotate the box to create a whirly painting.

If you like, substitute jelly crystals for the powdered tempera paint. There will be

a pleasing smell to the art.

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Found online

A potential framework for measuring the outcomes of intensive

interaction: Sarah’s story

Amandine Mouriere, Associate of the Intensive Interaction

Institute

Amandine did an MA in autism and used it to study the impact of intensive

interaction on a 10-year-old girl diagnosed with autism. She uses the excellent

materials from Sounds of Intent as part of this very interesting project.

Her main difficulty was analysing the data!

She needed a standardised tool,

She referred to Adam Ockelford’s ‘Sound of Intent (SOI)’ - Vicky, our music

teacher at Chailey, uses these.

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Amandine designed a FOCAL (Fundamentals of Communication, Assessment and

Learning)

RATIONALE

Pre-linguistic forms of communication, the non-verbals (eye contact, facial

expressions, gestures, body movements and vocalisations) Seigel-Causey, Guess

et all., 1989

Development is like a ‘web or network of knowledge’ (Neaum, 2010; p.42)

Breaking down the different medium children use can provide the potential to

highlight their strengths and difficulties

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3 modalities: rooted in the parent-infant interaction literature

Main pathways to communication (Hertenstein, 2002)

1. Vocal/Auditory: by 3 months of age infants begin using sounds for social interaction

purposes

2. Tactile/Haptic: major component in infant-caregiver interaction. Haptic perception: the

perception of objects using touch

3. Visual/Gestural: interrelated - the ability to use gaze and gestures tends to develop

side by side as a part of joint attention skills (Mundy, 2007)

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The Focal: Outline

3 dimensions

1. Reactive: correspond to the level of awareness in responding to communication

2. Proactive: causing, creating and controlling communication

3. Interactive: participating actively in communication with others

6 levels of abilities (level descriptors) ‘Ranging from the centre, with its focus on the self,

outwards to increasingly wider communities of others’ (Ockelford, 2013, P.132)

A case study: Sarah

Using II, Armandine collected data over a period of a year to compare changes in Sarah’s

communication.

Daily input, mainly with Armandine for the first 5 months, then with 2 other staff.

4 assessments

1. Baseline

2. +3 months

3. +5 months

4. +12 months

The results were not a teaching tool about what to do next, but rather information re what to

expect at a minute/minimal level.

Conclusion

FOCAL is a useful tool to highlight minute and subtle changes, small but essential developmental

steps

It is user-friendly

It provides a clear profile of an individual’s progress over time

It helps to promote the use of II

References

Hertenstein, M. 2002 Touch: its communicative functions in infancy. Human Development, 45 (1).

P.70-94

Mundy, P. 2007. Individual Differences and the Development of Joint Attention in Infancy. Child

Development, 78 (3). P.938-954

Neaum, S. 2010. Child development for Early Childhood Studies. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd

Ockelford, A. 2013. Music, Language and Autism. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Siegel-Causey, E., Guess, D. Paul H Brookes; Baltimore: 1989. Enhancing nonsymbolic

communication interactions among learners with severe disabilities.

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Environmental Print and Logographic

Reading

Reading Without Words

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Environmental Print and Logographic Reading

One of the key areas of reading for very special learners is their exposure to,

and understanding of, environmental print. Even though they cannot read printed

words, they can begin to understand their world through the media of

environmental print.

What Is Environmental Print?

Environmental print surrounds us in everyday life and offers information without

the need to be able to read in any great depth. It presents a constant barrage

of information that we may need to function in a particular environment. One

does not need to be able to formally read in order to read environmental print.

Case Study

As I sit here, I observe Thomas, six months old, who

is lying on a rug on the floor. Already he is exposed

to environmental print. The print that surrounds him

also gives information to those who interact with

him.

He is wearing a vest with a logo on and his size

range.

He has a bib that says “I love my Dad”.

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His striped sleep suit has Babar the elephant motif.

His disposable nappy has colourful ‘ABC’ motifs and arrows to indicate back

and front.

He reaches towards a Winnie the Pooh mobile, with a logo on.

There are characters, Tigger, Piglet, Winnie the Pooh on it too.

His bottle has raised lines and words on it to feel and explore.

Tom’s visual gaze is already absorbing all this environmental stimulating print as

he gazes around his surroundings.

Do this exercise yourself:

Sit still for 2 minutes.

Gaze around your immediate environment (including on your body).

Make a list of environmental print you are exposed to in that time — which

will probably be quite a lot!

Environmental print provides messages in many different ways, such as brand

names and their associated slogans:

CocaCola

Weetabix

Dyson

Ford

Fiat

Sainsbury's

Lucozade

The Mail

VW

Mars

Tesco

Sunday Times

Environmental print is also evident in

different media, such as:

newspapers

books

neon signs

cars

delivery vans

billboards

TV adverts

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Web

slogans

menus

shop fronts

magazines

beer mats

mugs

pop songs

e-text

computer font

graffiti

This blizzard of environmental print means that very young children still unable

to read in a conventional way, are able to pick out and recognise whole words that

are important to them, for example “Toys-R-Us” and “McDonalds” must be top

of the list for many!

Logograms

This whole word recognition is known as the logographic reading phase. This is a

key phase of emergent reading for very special learners, as it means they can

read their environment without formal reading skills.

Environmental print can be used as a reading activity in the community for life

skill reading and also can be presented in a school setting, provided it is in

context and referred to and explained in this context.

Here are some suggestions for searching for logograms or environmental print

in the community.

Go on a ‘print walk’ seek out print and photograph it.

road signs

Stop! Cross Now!

bus stops, train stops

restaurant names

logos on clothes in a sports shop

billboards

posters for cars (find logo on real

cars)

newspapers and comic names

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Back at school, explore and investigate environment print in the classroom,

office, and corridors.

Generalise environmental print in a library box of collected logograms seen on

real objects, including:

mugs with popular logos or brand names

latest craze, e.g. Pokemon, Frozen

menus from fast food joints

carrier bags with brand names

photos of posters seen in the community

miniature cars and trucks with logos

a box of groceries with brand names

sports programme logos, cartoon logos

videos of captions for soap operas, e.g. “Coronation Street”

and “Eastenders” with sound clues to the logogram

An awareness of conventional print also develops from

Environmental print. The environmental print raises awareness

that print can:

tell a story

give information

give instructions

store a memory

send messages

link to a life style

Knowledge of the use of environmental print can open up a range of reading

targets for understanding conventional print, including the following.

Environmental Print Targets

providing a degree of independence and choice in life,

increasing the ability to explore interesting objects and

artefacts relating to print,

developing interest in print and motivating exploration,

understanding the importance of print in everyday life and living,

becoming aware of print in the environment,

beginning social interactions using print,

making sense of the environment using print.

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For some pupils:

print gives useful information about the environment,

print leads to organic reading through the pupil’s own personal language,

needs, emotions and interests,

print is very meaningful.

For a few pupils:

print can extend to communication,

print can be sought and used in the environment.

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