APP-Y HOUR: The Three Little Pigs

The Three Little Pigs (by the Nosy Crow) $5.99

For all you Harry Potter fans, another great British cast is here! "Three Little Pigs" is a fun and interactive tale.  It allows the user to read it themselves, have it read to them as well as read and play.  Tap the characters to hear what they have to say; all in a British accent.

For you reading up on this with the iPad2 and more current generations of iDevices, you can blow into the speaker to help the wolf huff and puff!

**Be careful; during a rousing reading of this, one of my little friends huffed. puffed. farted.**

This is a fun and timeless story.  Target pre-literacy skills, sequencing, following directions, WH?, pragmatics (feelings/bullies).


Happily ever after. The end.

APP-Y HOUR: Lazoo

LAZOO: let's color (FREE!)
LAZOO: squiggles (FREE!)

That's right folks. Free. This is another triple threat: articulation. language, pragmatics.

Tell your occupational therapist friends! Drawing shapes/lines to create a picture that is put into motion.  Wonderful app to work on a variety of goals.

Articulation: Tons of pictures with many possible words to work on.  At the end of drawing you press the "go" button and your picture is animated!

Language: WH? (What's coming out of the hose? What color? yada yada yada)

Pragmatics: Turn taking, **spoiler alert** there is a picture of a toliet, and you can flush whatever you'd like down.  It tells you to "draw poops".  Personally, I avoid this one picture.  But there are certain situations where this would work (i.e. potty training, fear of pooping).

Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? What about an app!?

APP-Y HOUR: Itsy-Bitsy Spider

Itsy-Bitsy Spider (by Duck Duck Moose) $1.99

Who doesn't love a good nursery rhyme? This interactive tale of the itsy-bitsy spider allows the player to "poke" and "slide" items while listening to the story.

My students request this one often.  I can target some articulation, but use it mostly for language activities.  It provides opportunity to: sequence, re-tell a story, follow directions, count, and develop pronouns (there are various people throughout the app).

In my personal opinion, it is worth the $$$ and provides minutes of fun! (I don't work in hours...30 minute sessions-but I'm pretty sure some of my kids would play for hours).

APP-Y HOUR: Monster at the end of this book & Another monster at the end of this book

Monster at the End of this book $4.99
Another Monster at the End of this book $4.99

Bought the first "Monster at the End of the Book".  HAD TO HAVE the sequel.  My students love this interactive book.  Following Grover and watching him do silly things to stop you from turning pages makes everyone smile.

Help knock down walls. Take off paper clips, remove glue and untie knots to turn the page and forge ahead to the end of the book!

Another triple threat: articulation, language, pragmatics.

Articulation: Various opportunities to work on a variety of sounds.  Some that I target are: anterior linguals, labial-facial control, mandibular control. (knot, no, oh-no, AH!, mommy, go)

Language: WH?, following directions, sequencing

Pragmatics: Users are forced to wait to touch the screen and patience is required (some of the pages are slow to re-load, and slow according to impatient 3 & 4 year olds).  This is a great book to talk about feelings too! Grover is scared to go to the end, and other feelings are mentioned (happy, embarrassed).

So check under your bed, grab your favorite blanket and join Grover and Elmo for a fun adventure!

APPY-Y HOUR: Toca Boca Doctor

Toca Boca Doctor:$1.99

Best part about this app; there is a LITE version.  Try it out and when you love it splurge and buy it!

I use this app with my 3 year olds (mainly boys).  They can't get enough of it.  It's great for speech and occupational therapy.  There are various games that you play and help fix a patient.  Bloody nose. Shots. Cuts/Scrapes. Lice. Indigestion. Broken bones. Splinters.

Yes this game has a gross factor component.  But it makes me laugh (side effect of hanging out with preschoolers all day).  Be prepared to hear some rude body noises (burps & farts) and see some cartoonish blood.

This is a versatile app. It's a triple threat: articulation, language pragmatics.

Articulation/PROMPT lexicon for mandibular control, labial-facial control and anterior lingual control:

boo-boo, oh-no, out, put, on, ow/owie, tap, man, head, eat, feed, need

Language:
WH? (What happened? What do we need to do? What color band-aide? Who do you ask for help when you're hurt?)
Expressive: "I need help" (the mazes are a little tricky for the younger kids, great way to request assistance!)
Receptive: Make matches, find the same shape during puzzle activities

Pragmatics:
"Excuse me" (good for providing a script! Everyone makes silly sounds, just have manners and say "excuse me" when you do)
Social Story pairing for going to the doctor/dentist.

"SOUND OFF"

Our bodies sound off all the time.

What noises we can make!

It happens when we're fast asleep,

or when we're wide awake.

Hands clap and slap, and fingers snap.

We cough and sneeze and snore.

Our hungry stomach growl for food,

then rumble for some more.

Our feet tap and our bones go pop.

Our lips smack and they slurp.

But most unusual of all

is when our bottoms burp!

Susan D. Anderson

(From Miles of Smiles 

edited by Bruce Lansky

illustrated by stephen carpenter)

APP-Y HOUR: Toca Boca Tea Party

Toca Tea Party $1.99

Out of the hundreds of apps I have downloaded, this is my favorite!

Invite 3 people (or stuffed animals) to a lovely tea party.  Set the table with plates and cups, choose snacks and enjoy! During the party you can make spills and clean up the mess.  Everyone at the party can simultaneously play!

I haven't met anyone that does not enjoy this app! All my preschoolers beg for "tea party"! We have so much fun, and I can integrate both language and articulation goals into the game.

Language: Answer "WH" questions (What color plate? What do you want to drink? What do you want to eat?)

                Ask "WH" questions **the dreaded will "comprehend and use "WH" and yes/no questions** The way I have elicited questions from my students is through some tough love.  When they try to give me a dessert I reply "I don't want that" until they finally ask, "What you want?"**

               
Pragmatics/manners (Only eat off your plate, offer tea/food to the other guests/asking questions).

I have recently become PROMPT trained.  I have created a brief lexicon to use for this app:

Mandibular: /a/, /ae/, /u/, /o/
Labial-Facial: /o/, /i/, /u/
Anterior Lingual: /t/, /d/, /n/, /s/

me, tea, two/to/too, need, one, eat, oh-no, oopps, set, put, on

In the wise words of Marier-Antionette, "Let them eat cake!"

Falling in Love: PROMPT

In undergrad I attended a brief presentation on PROMPT (Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets).  "What is this magic?". I thought to myself.  How interesting, how innovative, how invasive to my personal bubble!

2 years wiser, another presenter came to my graduate school and spoke about PROMPT.  She told us how wonderful and great it was.  I agreed.  "When can I start? Who do I call? Where do I sign?!"  After she spoke my classmates and I were deflated and feeling sorry we didn't know this awesome technique.  We still had to resort to our age old methods from oral motor to standing on our heads to get some of our clients to correct their speech sounds.

Fast forward one year to my clinical fellowship.  It's here, it's time!  I'm on my way to certification and loving every minute of it!  Certification for PROMPT is intense and lengthy.  I've been trained, am in the process of my self study project and signed up for the second workshop: bridging.

Seeing the success I've been having with my clients makes getting out of bed on these cold mornings much easier.  I love shopping for hand sanitizer, analyzing new clients to create appropriate goals and practicing on my PROMPT head.

(My family was tired of me asking to practice my new PROMPT skills on them, so we went to the local wig shop and purchased a wig head.  It's styrofoam, so I drew on the target points of contact and used pins for the mylohyoid spots.  It still needs a name!)


Much of the information has been provided from the PROMPT institute website. Please check it out! Who knows you may fall in love too.

Girls go to college to get more knowledge...nah-they go to pinterest!

So you're in the need of an activity? Pronouns? Matching? Articulation? WH questions? THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT!

And where's the best place to find it? Google? maybe. Pinterest? DUH! Pinterest is the place I go when I need something for a client.  Maybe that's how you found my humble blog? I'm happy you made it!

This is a blog dedicated to making people smile.  I plan on reviewing apps, and including possible lessons to go along with them!

Please feel free to request app reviews or leave me a brief message of what you're looking for and I'd be happy to recommend some.

Follow me on pinterest: http://pinterest.com/kianlyons11/ 

**I have no affiliation with above companies and am not receiving compensation for what I say in this blog**

(but if anyone from the aforementioned companies would like to provide me with compensation for mentioning them...or reviewing apps...I'm willing to negotiate)

The Learning Curve

I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm starting my career in speech-language pathology and I enjoy reading various blogs about the profession.  I hope to share my sense of humor and make people smile with the stories! I look forward to learning with you.