Angela Moorad, MS, CCC-SLP. Over 33 years experience in AAC. OMazing Kids AAC and app consulting. Creator of several AAC Feature Matching resources (https://omazingkidsllc.com/omazing-kids-aac-resource-links/). Includes info about unique features to support Gestalt Language Processors
{Book Review} The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo by Laura Murray
About the book: Is there anything more fun than a class trip to the zoo? The Gingerbread Man and his classmates don’t think so, and they get to solve riddles on a WILD scavenger hunt. They meet giraffes, monkeys, and even a fox (especially scary for a Gingerbread Man!). Animals galore and a trail of clues make the Gingerbread Man’s latest adventure his wildest one yet.
What I love about this book:
wonderful rhyming text that is fun to read
funny illustrations (many have speech bubbles)
lots of great verbs & adjectives
simple animal riddles
lots of opportunities for kids yoga activities based on the animals and other elements in the book (frog, owl, wolf, snake, giraffe, monkey, lion, elephant, bear, mole rat (child’s pose), zebra, rhino, seal, crocodile, fox, kangaroo, bus, gyan mudra looking glasses, cross crawl hike)
Important Notice: Sadly I cannot recommend this app anymore. The app developer has chosen to price it at $99.99 to force folks over to their newer Speech Blubs app. They have chosen to go with a subscription-based model, are luring folks in with the promise of a free short trial and then charging a $9.99 per month subscription fee. They are also misusing the names of several SLP blogs including my own to promote that new app. On their website they include quotes from reviews for the original app and number of users from that app and are trying to pass them off as being related to this new app. You can see my full blog post with concerns at:
It took a social media blitz to get them to remove the OMazing Kids name from the description for Speech Blubs on the App Store but I just saw they are still using my name on their website and linking back to this post. I have written this update to this post to hopefully force them to quit using the OMazing Kids name on their website, any social media or any app stores (Apple, Google Play, Amazon or any others that might appear in the future). They have seriously messed with the wrong speechie…. I am very active and vocal on social media, am in almost every SLP Facebook group that they might try to lure SLPs in and am definitely not afraid to call them out every single time I see them post.
Also see this post on my Facebook page and the comments section on that post:
{Free App Alert} Cool! Check out the new First Blubs app to encourage kids to imitate the sounds & mouth movements of 22 different animals. Includes peer video modeling, a mirror for video self modeling, virtual animal props, stickers to encourage participation, virtual candy with hidden video surprises or animal facts, and more! This app would be fun to incorporate with play with animal toys or puppets and the Dr. Seuss book or book app “Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?”.
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Get the FREE app (includes the donkey, fish & duck) and then tap on any of the locked animals to unlock the in-app purchase for all of the animals FREE (see the 4 steps in the screenshot). Grab the IAP quickly since it will only be free this week.
{Tips: Be sure to adjust your settings to allow IAPs on your device before attempting to unlock the IAP in this app. Also make sure you have a strong WiFi connection and be patient as it takes a bit for all the animals to download after you unlock them}
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First Blubs – Speech Delay Therapy with Animal Sounds by Blub Blub https://appsto.re/us/_eOPdb.i, iOS Universal (works on iPad, iPhone or iTouch running iOS 8.0 or later)
Found out about the IAP being free via this post on the app developer’s page and then verified by unlocking the IAP on my iPad:
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App video trailer:
Check out their website for more info, tips and how to get free coloring pages to go with the app.
Their website also has a place to subscribe for a notification when the Android version of the app is released.
. Wishes for a future app update: My wish for a future app update would be for them to add these tips and free coloring pages with the option to print them each individually as a PDF in the settings area on the app rather than having to go to a website or to e-mail to request the coloring sheets. It would also be nice to add the name of the animal on the sticker screen and the practice screen to promote early literacy skills and to aide in the adult knowing what the animal is. Most are obvious but I wasn’t able to guess that the duck was a duck by the illustration. I also wasn’t sure what the two different birds were.
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Excited to see on their website that they have more apps in the works in this series 🙂
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{App Review + Giveaway} Join the Fuzzies Chip the beaver, Hopsy the rabbit, Siena the alpaca, and Wooly the lamb in their Fuzzy House. This gorgeous new app has six interactive areas to explore (entryway, living room, kitchen, upstairs hallway, bedroom, and bathroom). Each area has interactive objects and other hidden features. Love using open exploration apps like this in OMazing Kids speech therapy! So many great opportunities for vocabulary, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, spatial concepts, storytelling, sequencing, turn taking and more. My favorite room in this app is the living room where the animals can dance to music, play an instrument, jump on the couch, build a fire in the fireplace and more.
I have 3 iOS codes to giveaway for the iPad version of this amazing new app. See details below for how to enter to win a code.
OMgoodness! I wish I knew how to knit. Check out the patterns to knit your own characters from the app: http://www.fuzzyhouse.com/knit/. Also check out all the cute items to make for the Fuzzies: http://www.fuzzyhouse.com/create/
Want a chance to win this fun app? Head over and follow the entry instructions on this post the OMazing Kids Facebook page:
Entry Deadline: Tomorrow, 8/21/16 at 6:00pm CST. Depending on the number of entries received, it may take a day or so to verify them and to announce the winners/distribute the codes to the winners.
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“My Spots” is a sweet children’s book about finding our own unique “spots” and being okay with any birthmarks that nature gave us. The author gently guides children through a journey of acceptance and self-love by illustrating beautiful spots and markings found on animals in nature. This is a wonderful new addition to my OMazing Kids collection of children’s picture books on self-esteem! I like that it includes a page for the child to draw their own special birthmark spots & a page for them to answer the question “If you were an animal, what type of spots would you have?” and then draw it.
{Free App Code Tips} So maybe everybody else already knew this but I just found out that there are FREE app promo codes hidden in the messages in the Inbox area in the Starbucks app. Cool! I saw a post over in the On Sarah’s iPad Facebook group about this Sago Mini app being free. Awesomesauce! That is one of the few Sago Mini apps that I didn’t have yet and has been on my “wish list”. So I downloaded the Starbucks app on my iPhone and logged in but there were not any messages. A little bummed but then I checked the messages area on the app that had already been installed on my husband’s phone and BINGO! The message was there, I was able to redeem a code and then install it to my iPad from the cloud since he & I share an iTunes account. I then went back through all the old messages in that app on his phone and scored several other apps whose codes had not expired yet. I’m now leaving the Starbucks app installed on my iPhone so I can get new messages about the free apps from this point forward. Guess my hubbie’s love of Starbucks coffee finally paid off… lol 😉
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P.S. Unless you already love Starbucks and go there frequently, then it wouldn’t be worth your time to try to get free apps via their app. But if you go to Starbucks frequently then be sure to check your messages within the app to see what app freebies may be awaiting you.
{$.99 App Deal} This app is hilarious! Found it last night when I was looking for more ways to target Yes/No questions. Also great for targeting goals on forming questions, inferencing & categories, etc…. Definitely worth $.99 :). Be sure to get the free printable cards to go with the app. Also check out the links that I posted in the comments section on the Facebook post to other apps I love that target Yes/No and some great websites.
{App Update Tips} There are several reasons why I have “automatic downloads” toggled OFF on all my iPads:
Some app updates cause you to lose access to an app. See the “First Nouns” app in this screenshot as an example. The developer has switched to a subscription based model.
If an app is working properly with the version of iOS that I’m running on that device, there is no need to update. Doing so may cause problems. The saying “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” applies. As a side note, I always hold off on updating to the latest iOS operating system to allow time for bugs to be worked out and to allow time for app developers to release updates to make their apps compatible with that iOS and work out bugs there too. I use my iPads everyday in speech therapy and especially depend on AAC apps and therapy apps so I can’t afford to take any risks. I look for comments on an app developer’s page and in a variety of FB groups for signs that it’s safe to update the iOS and/or the app.
Some updates add content that I’m not interested in. An example of this is when many apps add seasonal content for Halloween.
But there are times that I do need to update an app. I often will look to see if an app has been updated if it is acting glitchy or after I have updated to a more current iOS and apps are acting glitchy with that.
Important reminder: It is always wise to back up any programming that you’ve done on an AAC app BEFORE you install an update. It’s also wise to get any info you need from the data collection area of a therapy app before you install an update.
In order to update apps manually, you go to the App Store, tap “Updates” at the bottom of the screen (or search for the app by name) and read the info closely about the update to decide if you want to install it. NEVER click “update all”. Instead click “update” just on the specific app you have decided to update. Some updates are large and will require a strong WiFi connection and may require you to free up space on your iPad before you install them.
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Seriously. If you want to get SLPs in a tizzy just post a question or comment about anything related to oral motor strategies or the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) in certain Facebook groups. Then step back and watch the panties get in a wad. All kinds of spewing about lack of evidence and some very hateful comments. <<side note: does anyone ask about the use of the Pokemon Go app as an evidenced based practice? Nope. Even ASHA jumped on that crazy bandwagon>>. The problem is they are so close minded that they don’t want to stop to consider that ASHA says “evidence” can also include clinical expertise and patient/caregiver perspectives (http://www.asha.org/Research/EBP/).
While I don’t personally don’t use a lot of oral motor strategies, I have worked closely with SLPs who use that extensively as part of their therapy “toolkit” with fabulous results. As grandma used to say “the proof is in the pudding”.
After watching numerous videos, reading several books and chatting with Elizabeth Vosseller, MA, CCC-SLP, a SLP who specializes in RPM at the Growing Kids Therapy Center (see this post: https://growingkidstherapy.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/my-paradigm-shift-from-traditional-speech-therapy-to-rpm/. She blogs and posts frequently about her RPM successes with patients on her FB page: https://www.facebook.com/GrowingKidsTherapyCenter), my mind is open to the possibility that RPM is in fact a valid approach to try with certain patients. Patients for whom other more traditional AAC approaches have not worked. But I guess those with their panties in a wad would rather these individuals not have a “voice” if it requires atypical types of supports.
Just needed to vent. Hey it’s my page and I can share my thoughts freely here. Be forewarned…. if anyone leaves hateful or disparaging comments on any of my social media sites they will be deleted.
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Angela Moorad, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
Founder of OMazing Kids, LLC – inclusive wellness & educational activities for kids of all abilities
{No! No! No! ~ Dealing with Challenging Behaviors: SLP Hacks} I work in a setting where a large percentage of the patients have challenging behaviors. It’s often a huge undertaking just to get them to engage in any meaningful way. I have lots of strategies in my speechie toolbox including visual schedules, various methods of reinforcement, using techniques from the Hanen & DIR Floortime programs, etc.
I currently have one particular kiddo whose favorite word is “no” and is very tough to engage. Seriously…. as in having whole sessions initially where he would hide like a turtle in his hoodie or plop to the ground and refuse to move. Fast forward several months and he’s a little more willing but still very challenging. Elmo is his BFF who comes to every session. We are usually okay long as the primary focus is on helping Elmo learn to say his speech sounds more clearly (not a lie right? Elmo definitely could use some therapy… lol). What’s funny is that this kiddo almost always answers on behalf of Elmo.
Yesterday in a blended Hanen / DIR Floortime focused session I discovered that this patient thought it was hilarious to take turns playing hide and seek with Elmo & me. I usually alternate sessions between his goals targeting play skills and those focusing on articulation. The problem is even with Elmo incorporated into the artic therapy this patient often immediately responds with a very melodramatic “no! no! no”. But I was prepared for that today. I had the Speech Stickers app ready to work on some CV combinations with him. I quickly changed the target to “no”. Every time he said “no” (to refuse to participate) I added a speech sticker to the screen and imitated his melodramatic production. He immediately was caught off guard, started to giggle and we were eventually able to move on to some other CV combinations. He was highly motivated to finish the stickers to get to the reward animation at the end but to keep him producing the sounds to get there I had to convince him that the characters in the iPad had to “hear” him before they would appear on the screen (had to be sneaky in tapping the scoring at the top so he didn’t catch on that I was actually in charge of it). We ended the session with a highly reinforcing game of Elmo hide and seek.
The reason I share this is that they don’t typically teach SLP students hacks/creative strategies like this in grad school. When you get out in the real world and especially if you work in a setting that has kids with challenging behaviors you will need to develop some creative SLP hacks to engage these kiddos in therapy.
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What are some of your most creative hacks / strategies to keep kids engaged? Join the conversation over on the OMazing Kids Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OMazingKidsAAC/). Unfortunately I had to toggle off commenting here on my blog a couple of years ago due to huge amounts of spam.
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