Life Is An Open Book

This is a new addition to the gift guide.  My daughter is now 5 years old and in kindergarten so this is something that has been a major focus at home with her.  Finding fun and motivating ways to teach her how to spell, read and tell stories has been tricky.  However, there are so many great books and writing activities out there that have made such a big difference for

Over the course of the year, I've discovered some pretty great books that would make the perfect gift for those little bookworms in your life.  There is nothing like a good book, especially a good book that teaches important  life lessons to our little ones.  I could list a million books (not even exaggerating) but I am going to stick to ones that have teachable moments built in.  Ones that you can use to help children learn to be more creative are my favorite.

Just as important as the books, are the tools you can use to teach children how to learn the letters of the alphabet and numbers, learn how to read, spell and write.  Over the course of my career, I have tested out more toys than I can remember.  There are a lot to choose from and as parents, it can be very confusing to figure out which ones are the best for your child.

Below, you will find a handful of books that I think should be part of everyone's library.  You will also find different toys, games and activities that have been proven to be successful with the kids that I have worked with.  All of the activities I have mentioned are ones that can be used at home in a fun way.  They aren't workbooks, but real toys and activities that can be fun for children of all abilities.

I Am Books-I was introduced to these amazing children's books by one of the families I work with.  Brad Meltzer has written a series of books about real life heroes.  They are each written from the perspective of these heroes as children and talks about the struggles they had growing up.  He highlights what made them different and how they took those differences and made the world better.  For example, did you know that Albert Einstein was a later talker?  Or that Lucille Ball was encouraged to not be so funny?  My daughter who is 5 1/2 adores these books and I have been so impressed with what she has learned from each of them.  The questions she has asked and what she has taken from each book has been so fun to watch.
I Am Amelia Earhardt
I Am Rosa Parks
I Am Lucille Ball
I Am Helen Keller
I Am Martin Luther King
I Am Albert Einstein
I Am Jackie Robinson
I Am Abraham Lincoln
Disney Pixar Inside Out Box of Mixed Emotions-the success of the movie Inside Out was no surprise to me once I saw it the first time.  The kids I work with loved it and I loved how this movie helped kids feel okay about expressing their feelings and gain a better sense of understanding about their emotions.  When I saw these books, I had to pick them up to bring to work.  I run a social skills group at  The Meeting House for children with a variety of social difficulties.  We have put these books out for the kids during our snack and hangout time and they love them.  This set of 5 books features each emotion.  They are easy to read and even if you have a kid who can't read, they can look at the pictures instead.
In My Heart:  A Book of Feelings-this book by Jo Witeck is a brilliant and beautiful book about feelings.  For many of the kids I work with, understanding your feelings can be quite challenging.  In addition to being an occupational therapist, I work for The Meeting House, a recreational based after school program for awesome kids who have social difficulties.  This book is great for
Little Book of Big Fears-this book is written and illustrated by Monica Arnaldo and talks about all different kinds of things that people may be afraid of.  It introduces you to 16 children (in alphabetical order) who are each afraid of something different.  Drew is scared of raccoons and Quinn is horrified by needles.  Not all letters of the alphabet are in the book, but that is on purpose.  The letters that are missing spell out Gutsy and Brave....two things that will help a child get over their fears. This is a cute little book that helps children understand that it's okay to be scared of things and that there are ways to deal with those fears.

Hope Learning Toys-this brand of nature based learning toys have been created by a mother, teacher and toy lover.  Using a variety of objects found in the beautiful state of Maine, Heather has gathered rocks, shells, branches and wood to come up with an amazing set of learning toys.  My daughter has the Vintage Letter Alphabet Stones and adores them.  As soon as she received them, she started exploring them.  I loved that she wanted to put all the stones in alphabetical order while making their sounds.  We have been using them with her to practice her sight words during homework time and it has made it more interesting and exciting for her.  There are so many products to choose from beyond just the alphabet products.  I, for one, can't wait for the phonics matching game using wood from my favorite tree, the lilac tree.  You need to really spend some time exploring the Hope Learning Toys Etsy shop to find what products are best for your child.
Kids Story Maker-created by Magnetic Poetry, this kid friendly magnet sets encourages kids to build their own crazy stories using over 150 different word magnets.  I love how they have color coded all the words by different parts of language to reinforce nouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives, etc..  For so many of the kids I work with, writing a story can be really challenging for them (decreased writing endurance) but they have lots of ideas.  For those kids who need some creative ways to practice telling stories, this is a great solution.  You can make a long-term project out of it by having them write a few sentences at a time...first they create their story by putting the magnets up and then they can copy them into a book.

Tell Tale-another great storytelling game by Blue Orange.  Tell Tale has three different versions to choose from (original, Fairy Tale and Disney Pixar).  Using the 60 different cards and illustrated rules, kids and families work together to make a story.  It's hard to bore of this game because it's different every time you play.  The best part is that kids are learning the whole entire time but having tons of fun.  If you want to work on handwriting, you can have the kids write their stories out as they are telling it.  It might take more than one session in order to complete it, but I am always happy to find activities that we can do over the course of a few sessions.  Great for working on improving processing speed, verbal abilities, attention and problem solving and reasoning skills.

Alphabet Magnetibook-another great magnet book by Janod.  This is the perfect on the go toy to work on learning how to spell.  The set comes with 26 pictures and over 100 letter tiles. Each picture has the name spelt out so kids can dig through the letters and put them in the correct order.  I love how the magnet board is in a grid (reminds me of graph paper), requiring them to focus on putting the letters in the blocks and staying in order.  For older kids, you could find magnets of pictures without the words written on them in order to practice spelling.  This toy is not only great for working on learning the alphabet and learning how to spell, but great for working on developing fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination and visual motor and perceptual skills.

BabyLit Playsets-I am a HUGE fan of the BabyLit series of board books.  They make such great  presents for all kids, especially kids of parents who love the classics.  When I saw these playsets, I got so excited.  There are four to choose from:   Pride and Prejudice, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick and The Jungle Book.  Each set comes with the original board book and different punch-out cards featuring the different characters from the story. The box it comes in doubles as the scenery/background for the story.  These are great for working on improving focus and attention, language skills and creative skills.  You can also work on improving fine motor skills and visual motor/perceptual by pushing the pieces out of the board and putting them together to play with them.  I can't wait to get a couple of these sets not only for gifts, but to use in my social skills groups to put on little plays with the kids.

When kids learn how to read and write, the world opens up to them in the most exciting of ways.  The tricky part is actually finding ways to encourage kids.  The books and activities I talked about in this post have been proven to teach kids.  The most important thing about each of them is that they are fun and that it ends up giving them confidence.  My rule is to always start out simple and increase the challenges as the kids master them.  Kids are way more likely to keep trying when they are given the time to move at their own pace.

Do you have any great books that you have read that you want to share with my readers?  How about alphabet and handwriting games or activities that your kids love?  I would love to hear from any and all of with your suggestions.  I am always a click away and so appreciate all the suggestions that have been given to me from you all.

Avokiddo Apps=A+ Apps

One of things I love most is finding a good app. Even better is when the design studio who created that app has several wonderful apps to choose from.  Two of my favorites, Toca Boca and Pepi Play, come up with new apps all the time that always blow my mind and I have blogged about several of their games.  Recently, I discovered a new studio and I can't get enough of their apps.  More importantly, the kids I work with are loving all the new apps on my iPad!

Avikiddo is an award-winning creative studio that specializes in creating quality educational apps for children.  They believe that when somebody enjoys something, they will connect with it in a way that learning will take place more naturally.  And I LOVE their philosophy (which I am sharing directly from their website):  Our philosophy is that education should be more than teaching math and literacy.  It should provide a challenging and stimulating environment where children obtain knowledge through active exploration and interaction.  An environment where they can use their imagination to reveal their true inner self; a world infused with purity and creativity.  We design our games with love and affection, truly believing in these principles.

I was originally drawn to the Avokiddo apps because of the awesome graphics.  There was something unique and creative about it that I hand't really seen before and thought I would check it out.  My fiIt's impossible to choose just one favorite of the Avokiddo apps so I have decided to write a little something about each.

Beck and Bo-a delightful and incredibly interactive app that takes two kids, Beck and Bo, on an adventure through 12 different scenes.  I would highly recommend this app for speech therapists and special educators who are working on building vocabulary.  The scenes vary from a day at the beach to building a snowman.  Each scene starts of pretty empty and it is up to the child to grab different objects falling from the sky and place them where they want in the scene.  For example, the winter scene starts off with snowy hill and you have to grab different parts of a snowman and put it together, including a hat and scarf.  From an occupational therapy perspective, this app is great for working on visual motor and visual perceptual skills.  It is also great for working on improving executive functioning skills such as attention, focus and organizational skills.  If you are working on improving grasping skills, you can always use a stylus to encourage a proper grasp on writing instruments.  Want to work on increasing upper body strength?  Have them play this app while lying prone either on a bolster or on the net swing.  They will be having so much fun that they won't realize how much they are "working" on getting stronger!

Avokiddo Emotions-this was my first Avokiddo app.  I was running a social schools group for preschoolers and we were focusing on emotions with the kids.  The iPad always motivates my kiddos and I did a search and found this.  It was a huge hit with the kids.  One of my favorite things about this app is how it allowed the kids to freely interact with different characters and then generate conversation about how they reacted.  It allowed them to really look at the animal's faces and recognize what different emotions looked like.  For example, the characters ears flatten and droop down when they are sad or they would jump up when they were startled by a loud noise.  For generalization purposes, we then would act out different emotions with the kids after we played the app.   This is a great app for working on speech and language skills and making kids more aware of social cues.

Thinkrolls-I just recently discovered this app and am loving both the original and the newest version which was just released on Wednesday!  Great for older preschoolers and school age kids.  It's a highly addictive game that has kids roll a variety of adorable characters through mazes.  While going through the maze, the encounter different challenges that requires them to think about how to use them.  They also unlock new characters which I have found makes for a really excited kid!  For example, as they are rolling through one of the earlier mazes, they run into a blocked path by a cracker that they must eat to keep going through the maze.  As you go through the levels, you may be blocked by a balloon that must be popped by the spikes on the wall or drop ice cubes on a fire so they can pass it.  One thing I really like about this game is that it is great for kids as young as 4 and as old as 9.  It's great for working on visual motor/perceptual skills like tracking and scanning.  Most importantly, I love how it works on problem solving and critical thinking.  It makes kids have to slow down and think about what they are going to do in order to pass the obstacles.  As they move through the mazes, they start to combine the different obstacles so the kids really have to think about what each thing does and make sure they do it in the right order in order to pass the obstacle.  This is a great app to work on improving social skills; you can have kids work together to talk about how to  overcome the challenges and take turns moving through each level.
Thinkrolls 2, the new version of Thinkroll does not disappoint.  It's the same concept of rolling through a series of mazes, but there are new challenges and characters introduced. Like the original Thinkrolls, kids are required to roll their characters through mazes, using problem solving and critical thinking to figure out how to overcome challenges.   Both games offer two levels of play, easy and hard, that makes this great for children of all ages.  Even adults will have fun playing this game and will find themselves stumped at times as they the game becomes increasingly more challenging.

Avokiddo ABC Ride-one of my absolute favorite alphabet apps out there!  Like all the other apps already discussed, it is incredibly interactive and engaging making learning super fun for the kids playing it.  The game starts off by choosing your character, Beck or Bo, and putting them on a bike and have them go on an alphabet adventure (you can go in order or have it be random).  Each letter has a mini-game to get the kids engaged and helps them associate a letter with a word.  For example, water the flowers to find the F or put the robot back together for the letter R.  My favorite is C where you have to cram the candy the hippo is dreaming about into his mouth.  Not only are the kids learning about the letter, they are working on following directions, matching pictures and maintaining their attention/focus.  Once the child has completed each mini-game, a whole word will show up on top, the letters will drop and the child has to match/drag the letters back into place.  This app is great for working on more than just learning letters.  It works on improving visual motor/perceptual skills, eye-hand coordination, following verbal directions and improving focus and attentional skills.  For my older kids who are working on handwriting, I have them write the words before they move onto the next letter for an added step.  

Do you have any other design studios you really love?  Any games that you want to recommend to me or my readers?  I am always on the lookout for good apps, especially ones that will work on a ton of skills, motivate the kids I work with to learn and ones that can encourage social skills at the same time.  I would love to hear from you and am always a click away!  In the meantime, I hope you and your littles enjoy these apps!

App Happy

I have had a really hard time keeping up with my blog these last few months.  Between the holidays and being buried with paperwork and reports, writing has been put on the back burner.  I'm happy to have a little time on this chilly Friday afternoon to write a quick blog about some of the fabulous apps I have been using at work these days.  I'm not sure if its the weather or the time of the year, but I basically got bored of every game, app, etc. that I have been using and if I was feeling bored, I can't imagine how the kids were feeling.  The following apps are ones that the kids love but also work on a ton of great skills.

Metamorphabet-this interactive alphabet app came out a few weeks ago and not only have the kids loved but every grownup I have showed it to as well.  My husband and daughter spent nearly an hour going through each letter one night.  Metamorphabet is a playful and interactive alphabet app appropriate for all ages.  With each letter there are several surprises that unfold as you poke, prod, drag and spin the letters around.  It is a wonderful educational tool, motivating kids to learn their letters in a playful way that makes it seem like more fun and less work for them.  Learning the alphabet has never been so much fun!  There are several ways to make this more therapeutic and educational if you want to use it at work.


Labo Paper Fish-another interactive game that the kids are loving!  Labo Lado has several create and play apps that all look fantastic and that I plan on checking out very soon!  Paper Fish is great because it works on improving visual motor, visual perceptual and organizational skills.  First kids get to choose one of 16 different fish templates that they will need to "cut" out; they need to trace the
lines of all the different parts of the fish in order to do that.  Once they are all cut out, they need to put the fish back together.  I like that if you go too fast while tracing, it stops and makes you go back; this is great for those kids you work with who rush through their work.  They can keep the fish simple or decorate it themselves to make their very own fish.  After they are all done creating the fish, there are 5 different games that can be played.  Each mini-game is fun and I like how they all work on different visual motor and visual perceptual skills.  My favorite is when you have to take pictures of fish while underwater; a picture of a fish will show up in the top right hand corner and you have to scan the sea to find the matching fish, drag the camera over and take a picture of it.

Pepi Ride-there isn't an app by Pepi Play that isn't a big hit with my kids.  Pepi Ride is no exception and is especially popular with the boys on my caseload who have a need for speed.  This app allows children to choose a character and create the car they will ride in.  They can make it as simple or complex as they want.  Once their car is complete, they can take the car out on the road for some adventures.  There are 9 different driving courses and as you go through the map, the difficulty level increases.  While this isn't complicated, it's a great app for helping kids make choices and really think about what they want to do.  So many of the kids I work with have a difficult time with organizing their thoughts/work and I like that this app can help them work on that.  Some of the racing games out there are super fast paced and have a time-limit which tends to be difficult for the kids I work with causing them to get frustrated and upset with themselves.  This is a nice racing game for younger kids because the goal is simple:  finish each course and pick up the 3 presents along the way for extra points.

Shape Arts: Geometry Creations-I can't tell you how hard I have been searching for a great tangram app (I love Osmo but I wanted something else as well).  Lighthouse Learning has a bunch of great math apps for kids of all ages and I am in love with Shape Arts.  Not only are there hundreds of puzzles for the kids to complete, there is also an option to make their own puzzles.  There is a template provided and each one has 7 shapes that must be moved into the puzzle to complete it.  Some fit in perfectly while others may have to be rotated before it fits in.  This app is not only educational, it is also fun while working on improving visual motor, visual perceptual and executive functioning skills.  While it says that this app is for children 7 and older, my almost 5 year old daughter was able to play it with minimal help from me.  

Toco Pet Doctor-this is not a new app but continues to be a big hit with the kids that I work with, especially the younger ones.  And for those of you familiar with Toca Boca, you know that there isn't a single app of theirs that isn't amazing.  There are 15 different pets waiting in the vet's waiting room with a variety of ailments that need to be tended to.  Choose an animal and make them healthy.  You may need to clean and bandage up a cat's ear, pull gum off a bird's foot or brush the messy teeth of a hamster.  Once they are all taken care of, you have to feed them.  None of the activities are overly challenging but require children to maintain their focus and attention on what needs to be done.  Great for working on improving visual tracking, visual perceptual and visual motor skills and can be worked on individually or in a group of two or three kids to work on improving social skills.

I know that there are still many therapists who don't agree with using an iPad in their sessions which I totally respect and appreciate.  I have found that when used in moderation and with other therapeutic interventions, it can be a highly effective and motivating tool.  I have found it to be most helpful with teaching handwriting to my more resistant kids because it is so interactive that they forget that they are actually working.  I never just do the handwriting apps alone but will have them practice the letter on the iPad and then immediately have them do it on the Boogie Board, dry erase board or on a piece of paper to generalize the skill.  There are so many wonderful apps that really address improving visual motor and visual perceptual skills in a fun way.  All of the apps I discussed above work on that skill.  In addition to what I have already mentioned, the iPad can be used to work on the following things:
*work on increasing upper body strength by playing the iPad while lying prone on a net swing or on a bolster
*work on improving grasping skills by requiring a child to use a stylus whenever it is appropriate to. iCreate crayon by Fred & Friends and the Mini Retro stylus by Kikkerland Design
 I will stop kids during play to encourage them to switch their grip.  My favorite stylus' are the
*work on improving bilateral coordination skills by making sure kids hold the iPad with one hand and use their dominant hand to play the game
*work on improving social skills by having kids play appropriate apps together
*work on improving executive functioning skills such as organization, attention/focus, working memory, sequencing, etc.

I love using the iPad at work and especially love when I find new apps to share with my colleagues and the parents I work with.  It's an easy way for parents to be able to work on some of the things that we work on in therapy and get them more involved in their child's therapy in a fun and less stressful manner.

Do you have any new apps that you just can't live without?  I'm always looking for new and interesting ones and would love to hear what's hot with your kids and I am sure many of my readers would love to hear as well!  Please share your favorite apps...I'm just a click away and love hearing from you all!

Spot It and Disney....A True Happily Ever After Ending!

I didn't really need another reason to love the game Spot It by Blue Orange Games but last weekend I discovered a whole new series of Disney Spot It games.  For me, this is a game changer for some of my kids who are much more resistant to learning their numbers and letters...especially a certain 4 year old little girl I know.  I had to hold myself back from buying every single version of the Disney Spot It games.  Instead I decided to try out the Frozen and Doc McStuffins for now with the intention of slowly adding to my collection.   They have already been used a ton of times and it's been a big hit so far!

Each of the new Disney Spot It games has a different educational focus. While there are alphabet and number Spot It games, I haven't found them to be that motivating for the kids I work with.  Just seeing the letters and numbers wasn't exciting enough for them so when I saw these Disney versions of the game, I was pumped.  In addition to a certain educational focus, there are pictures of your favorite characters and objects from the television show/movies.  The best part is that the variety allows for you to find one that will be good for your child.  There are ones that are targeted to the preschool population and others that are targeted to the older kids.
Frozen-alphabet
Doc McStuffins-numbers, shapes and alphabet
Jake and The Neverland Pirates-numbers and shapes
Sofia the First-alphabet
Planes-alphabet
Disney Princesses-words/pre-reading
Pixar-words/pre-reading

I have written about Spot It before here so I won't go on for long.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the game, it is a card game that requires a child to find matches between two cards.  Even when you don't think it is possible, every single card has a match to another card.  There are several ways to play the game but the simplest form is to hand out an equal number of cards to each player; flip one card in the middle and start spotting your matches.  The first person to get rid of all of their cards first is the winner.  For some of my older kids who are working on organization and sequencing skills, I will have them tell me the directions, set up the game and deal the cards.  This can be tricky but since there are not many steps to the game, it is a good game for them to attempt this task.

Spot It is great for a variety of other skills such as:
Improving Visual Perception/Motor Skills-finding and matching your letters, numbers, shapes, pictures, etc. is the point of the game.  Having good perception skills is important for many other things like puzzles, handwriting, cutting, etc..  A child also has to be able to visually track in order to look at both the card in the middle and the card in their hand.
***for some of my older kids who are working on handwriting, I have been making them write the letter or number that they have found when playing the game.  It slows the game down, but it's a fun way to get the kids to work on their graphomotor skills.
Improving Speech and Language Skills-my speech therapy friends can certainly elaborate much more than I can about all the speech and language benefits of this game.  When I play with the kids, they must shout out their match and not just point it out.
**each of these games comes with a guide of what each picture is so you can go over that with the kids prior to playing to make sure they can identify everything before the game begins
Improve Focus and Attention-this game typically lasts about 10-20 minutes depending on the speed of the kids playing.  I like that there is a definitive end to the game and can encourage my kids to stick with it until someone wins.  Often times, the kids I work with struggle with completing a game, especially ones that are more challenging for them.  If you have children who really have a hard time with focus and attention, don't start with a full deck of cards and work towards being able to play the game with the full deck down the line.
Improve Upper Extremity Strength-looking for a way to work on other goals at the same time?  Try putting a child prone on the net swing while playing Spot It to work on increasing upper extremity strength and head/neck control.  This can be difficult for some kids so I like to give them a goal of a certain number of cards need to be put down or a certain amount of time must pass before they can get out.  Sometimes get so into the game, that they forget they are tired and work through it!
Improve Social Skills-Spot It can be played with as few as 2 people and as many as 8 (I like to start small and build up to more kids/stimulation).  Great game to work on developing good social skills such as compromise, being a good winner/good loser and many other skills.  For older kids, let them negotiate how they want to play the game including the rules.

So if you are looking for some new and motivating ways to work on some of these academic skills and work on a variety of occupational therapy goals at the same time, I highly recommend the Disney Spot It games.  I have already introduced them to my daughter and for the first time, she is asking to play a game that she knows will work on something she typically avoids.  And while she still gets frustrated, we work together to help find the numbers or letters of the alphabet and she is quickly picking them up and generalizing that knowledge to other things.

If you have any questions or suggestions on other ways to use these games, please do share with all of us.  I am a click away and love hearing from you all!

Free App Friday...Who Knew?

This will be a short post, but one that I think many will appreciate.  Not sure how I hadn't heart of it before, but there is a great website,  that offers a Free App Friday blog. Smart Apps For Kids is a website dedicated to helping people find the best apps out there.  They will help guide you by age, subject and skill you are interested in working on.  today's list.  While many of them are not ones that I am familiar with, I was excited to see some really good ones on there that are already on my iPad and enjoyed by many of the little ones I work with.

For example, Drawnimal by YAYATOY is on there.  This is a great app that can work on not only introducing children to the letters of the alphabet but encourage drawing skills.  Many of the kids I work with have a desire to learn how to draw and I have struggled with the best way to teach them.  I have this on both my iPad and my iPhone.  I have had better success with it using my iPhone but am looking for the writing surface to use in order to use the iPad as I think it is more interactive and exciting for my younger children.

Another one on today's list is Shiny Bakery.  My daughter loves Shiny Party and the characters in this game are the same.  Alice the Zebra has opened her own bakery and she needs your child's help.  A child has to follow the recipe and then help her bake cookies or cakes and then decorate them.  This app is great for working on developing a sense of numbers, expanding a child's creative juices and improving problem solving skills.

There is an app I have been very excited about that is also mentioned on today's list but is not a free one.  However, I think that the $.99 will be well worth it for Bug Art by one of my favorite app creators out there, Little Bit Studios.  While I have not had a chance to use Bug Art, I continue to use Bugs and Buttons 1 and 2, Bugs and Bubbles and Bugs and Numbers on a daily basis with my kids at work and my own daughter loves them as well.  Bug Art is described as an app that allows your child to free paint whatever they want to create.  They can learn to draw with interactive tracing or design their own bugs.  Using their bug creation, they will then be able to play, explore and challenge themselves in a different games and environments.  Their are 13 other bugs included in the game that your bug can compete against in mini games.  Like I said, I haven't played this game but am sure it won't disappoint.

For those of you who are constantly on the lookout for new and exciting apps, keep the Free App Friday list by Smart Apps For Kids on your radar.  I know that I will be checking in every Friday to see what apps I can find.  I love a bargain and there are lots on here.  Do you have any other app lists that you subscribe to and can recommend to all of us?  Please share if you do.  I am always a click away and love hearing from you all!

What's On Your Pad?

While I know there is still a lot of controversy about using handheld devices/tablets with children, I happen to be one of those therapists that has found an incredible amount of success using the iPad in my private practice.  It is by no means my sole means of therapy but when used in conjunction with other modes of therapy, it can be a very motivating and meaningful tool.  I use the iPad with children of all abilities and ages and always combine it with another occupational therapy goal.  For example, for my children who need to work on increasing upper extremity strength, I will have them play with the iPad while lying on their belly while in a barrel or on the net swing.  Typically, I can get them to remain in these challenging positions for much longer when distracted by a fun app.  Another common skill I address is grasping skills.  For almost all the games that I use in therapy, I try and have the child use a stylus.  Even though I know the iPad is all about the touch screen, I find that if I am going to use it with the kids I work with, I want them to practice holding a writing instrument.  As I have mentioned in several of my posts, I prefer to use the iCreate Crayon Stylus by Fred & Friends.  It is the perfect size for little hands and a fun and distracting way to work on improving a child's grasp on a writing instrument.  It can be found in many local toy stores (I got mine at West Side Kids on the UWS of Manhattan) and on Amazon.com.

I wanted to share some of the top apps that are being played both at home and in therapy these days.  When I purchase an app, I am never sure of how good it is until it has been kid tested and approved.  Here are four of the top hits on my iPad these days by the kids in my life (personal and professional) these days.


Sago Mini Pet Cafe

This app is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers and I have found great success with some of my children with significant language and cognitive delays.  There are three engaging games within the app that helps children learn about colors, shapes and numbers.   There is a matching game that requires a child to drag a piece of food into the right shadow.  My favorite, and the favorite of many of my kids, is the counting and sorting game that requires you to drag 10 pieces of food onto a platter.  Once they are on the platter, you have to feed the correct animal based on the color of the food.


Some of the occupational therapy skills that can be worked on are:
*visual tracking/eye-hand coordination skills-great way to practice these skills is when placing the food on the platter.  Don't just let the kids swipe the food onto the plate; instead, encourage
*color recogntion-make a super colorful drink for your animal to drink; have the child choose the color that you ask them or have them identify the color as they are putting it in the cup
*sequence/patterns-when making the colorful drink, you can up the challenge for certain children by having them follow a color sequence/pattern.  I have used a visual prompt for my kids to refer to so they don't need verbal prompts from me and can be more independent.
*grasping skills-if you are trying to work on improving grasping skills, be sure to use a stylus when playing this game.  Make sure that you tell the child to not push too hard when using the stylus so their hands don't tire (it can be difficult for the kids I work with to use an appropriate amount of pressure on writing instruments.  When using the stylus that I talked about earlier, if you push too hard, it is actually harder to use it.  When they use just a little bit of pressure (like they should when using crayons, markers and pencils) they have greater success.)

Toca Boca Pet Doctor
It's difficult for me to find an app by Toca Boca that I don't love.  My iPad speaks for itself and you will see that I have almost every single one and they are used quite often depending on the interests of certain children.  A couple of days ago, my husband told me I had to look into Toca Boca Pet Doctor.  It has become a fast favorite for my daughter who just turned 4 this week.  All Toca Boca apps are highly engaging for kids of all ages.

While they claim that Toca Boca Pet Doctor is good for children ages 2-6, I would say it is more appropriate and entertaining for the toddler and preschoolers.  The point of the game is to help the 15 different ailing animals.  Each one has something uniquely wrong with it and you have to help them so they can eat a snack and then go to sleep.  My daughter's favorite is the helping remove all the fleas from the dog and then getting to feed him dog treats.

Some of the occupational therapy goals that can be be focused on when using this app are:
*eye-hand coordination skills/visual motor skills-many of the games require good visual motor skills.  For example, you have to pull the hopping fleas off the dog and put them into a jar.  You have to be careful and watch where the fleas go (and they can move pretty fast) so you can grab them and place them in the jar.
*visual perceptual skills-if you want to work on this skill, be sure to choose the bunny.  Somehow the poor bunny got hurt and has booboos all over his face and needs someone to put bandaids on him.  There are four different shaped bandaids and booboos and you have to match them up.
*problem solving skills-for some of the animals, you have to figure out how to move them around in order to feed them.  For example, the turtle is lying on his back and can't eat so you have to figure out how to flip him over in order for him to eat.  It not only takes problem solving, but requires you to be patient and not get frustrated.
*grasping skills-as I have said a million times, you can always work on improving grasping skills when using almost any app.  Use the iCreate Crayon Stylus to encourage a proper grasp on writing instruments.


Writing Wizard

Many of the older children I work with come to me because they need to work on improving their handwriting or drawing skills.  They are often resistant to working on handwriting the traditional way (with paper and pencil) and require a tremendous amount of encouragement.  I have found that by using the iPad in conjunction with paper/pencils, kids are more motivated and willing to work on this challenging task.  A few months ago, a colleague of mine recommended Writing Wizard by L'Escapadou and since she did, it's been my go to handwriting app.  I always use the iCreate Crayon Stylus when using this app in order to work on improving pencil grasping skills at the same time.

Writing Wizard is a handwriting app that offers a lot of fun and keeps kids motivated to keep learning.  They can trace letters, numbers and shapes/pictures using a variety of animated stickers and sound effects.  Once the child has completed tracing, they can then interact with it which gets them excited about doing it the correct way.  There are two different modes of play (free mode and 5-star mode); I tend to use the 5-Star mode because I like that the challenge increases on each star so by the end, your child has to write the letter without tracing but by actually remembering how to write the letter.

I love that you can also create a list of words for children to practice.  For some of the kids I work with, I am asked to work on practicing spelling words and this could be a fun and engaging way to keep them interested.  I would not just let them write them on the iPad; once they write it on the iPad, I would have them write it with a pencil on paper to work on generalizing the skill and further practicing their words.  

I have several writing apps on my iPad but this is my go to one right now.  Some of the occupational therapy skills that can be worked on are:

*letter recognition-you can use this app for the very basic skill of learning, recognizing and identifying letters and numbers and shapes.
*grasping skills-if you are trying to work on improving grasping skills, be sure to use a stylus when playing this game.  Make sure that you tell the child to not push too hard when using the stylus so their hands don't tire (it can be difficult for the kids I work with to use an appropriate amount of pressure on writing instruments.  When using the stylus that I talked about earlier, if you push too hard, it is actually harder to use it.  When they use just a little bit of pressure (like they should when using crayons, markers and pencils) they have greater success.)
*eye-hand coordination/visual motor skills-as with most handwriting apps, this requires you to use good eye-hand coordination when tracing the letters, numbers or shapes.
*focus and attention skills-when using the 5 star mode, it will require a child to focus and attend to a specific letter, shape or word through five turns.  The difficulty increases for each turn and by the final star, a child is required to write the letter without tracing the lines.

Bugs and Numbers

I am a huge fan of Little Bit Studio and their awesome apps.  I have already blogged about Bugs and Buttons and Bugs and Bubbles and continue to use them all the time in therapy.  Bugs and Numbers is equally as awesome as the other Little Bit Studio apps.  It's a great app for beginning to work on math skills, including number recognition, fractions and patterns.  It's perfect for preschoolers and younger school age children.  As with all the other Little Bit Studio apps, there are 18 different games within the app so there is little chance that you can't find something that is appropriate for almost any child.


Some of my favorite games in the app are:

Color By Number-great for working on learning numbers in a fun way.  Children have to color in different parts of the picture based on the number.  

*don't forget to use the  iCreate Crayon Stylus for this game in order to encourage a proper writing grasp

Hotel Matching Shapes-great for working on improving visual tracking and visual perceptual skills.  The level of difficulty increases as they complete each level making it more of a challenge for some of your older preschoolers/early school age children.  You start off by matching numbers and shapes and can move up to having to match/put together different pictures (robots and bugs).  

Left Right-I find it can be quite difficult to teach a child with body awareness difficulties right vs. left.  This game requires that you take a bug through a path without hitting obstacles that might be in his way.  Using left and right arrows, you avoid hitting soda cans and other objects.  I like to ask my kids to show me their left and right hands before we begin in order to organize them for the activity.  

Garden Patterns-children need to get a bug through a maze to a cookie by following a pattern provided.  It starts off with a two shape pattern and then continues to get more difficult.  Great for working on visual perceptual skills and organizational skills.

Each of the apps describe above can also be worked on with friends in order to encourage social skills.  I am a big fan of working on improving social skills at any chance I can.  With all of these apps, you can work on taking turns, being flexible with a choice a friend might make or doing things differently than you might.  These are skills that are hard to teach sometimes and need to be taught in the moment based on what happens when they play together.  Some of the best learning moments in regards to social skills happens when we are least expecting it.

Additionally, all of the apps can work on improving language skills.  If you are working with a child who also receives speech and language therapy, be sure to check in with their therapist and find out how you can support the work they are doing.  I happen to be super lucky and work with a handful of speech therapists who often ask me what they can do to support my work.  I promise you that the speed at which a child acquires and generalizes skills is faster when you work as a team.  

Now that I have shared some of my favorites with you, I would love to hear from all of you about your top apps these days.  So many of the apps that I download are done so because I have read great things about them or they have been suggested by other people.  With the thousands of apps out there to choose from, it is often difficult to pick out which ones are worth the money and space on my pretty full iPad.  If you have a great app that you find works wonders with your kids, please share them with me and my readers.  If you have any questions about the apps that I have suggested, please don't hesitate reaching out to me.  I am always a click away and love hearing from you all.

Learning the ABCs Has Never Been SO Much Fun!

There are few things that make me happier than finding a great app to use at work.  It's such a great feeling to introduce a new game to the kids that will not only be fun for them but will motivate them to learn.  A big bonus....being able to use said apps to encourage my own child to want to learn.  I recently stumbled upon Face iMake ABC and now wonder just how I made it through the last year without it.  This amazing app is just one of many (I can't wait to test out all the others!) by iMagine Machine.  This company is dedicated to making motivating products that will encourage children to learn, imagine and most importantly, have fun while doing all of that.

I am not quite sure where to begin with this app.  Since I work with many preschoolers (and live with one as well), I am always looking for apps that will help work on learning the alphabet....learning, writing it and giving the letter some meaning so the kids will be encouraged to remember the letters.  Face iMake ABC does that and does it really well.  The point of the app is quite simple but crazy motivating.  You are learning your letters with a hands on approach.  For example, the letter E pops up, you touch the letter and a picture comes up.  They introduce the letter and the picture and then all the objects move to the bottom of the screen and you have to put them back in the right place.  It seems simple and possibly boring, but I assure you it is not.  Your kids will be kept entertained for hours on end.

I have already used this with many of my children at the gym I work at and many of them have asked to do it over and over again.  Since so many of my children have decreased upper extremity strength, I like to have them work on this while lying prone on a net swing.  Since this game is so much fun and super motivating, I can get them to lay in this challenging position for much longer periods of time.  For some of my older children, I have them use this app as a part of a multi-sensory approach to learning how to write letters.  I will have them first pick a letter out on this app and complete putting the pieces back together.  After that, I may use the LetterSchool app to practice writing the letters with their fingers.  After they are done with that, I have them practice writing on a piece of paper.  I find that this multi-sensory approach helps some of my kids learn the letters quicker.

In addition to what I have already mentioned above, this app works on so many other skills that are important for the development of the kids I work with.  Here are just a few more of the many skills that can be focused on when using this app:


Improve Visual Motor/Perceptual Skills:  if you have a child who needs to work on learning their letters and their visual motor and perceptual skills, this is a perfect app for you.  You can work on matching skills by dragging the pieces into the correct places.  This is also great for working on spatial skills.

Improve Graphomotor Skills:  if you have a child who needs to work on improving their grasp on a writing instrument, use a stylus when playing this app.  I suggest this one by iCreate.  It looks like a child sized crayon and my kids really love it.

Improve Letter Recognition:  this app is a fun and motivating way to work on learning the letters of the alphabet.  The music is calming and it helps keep the kids focused.  I have noticed that some of the educational apps I have used have loud and fast music which often revs up my easily excitable kids.

Improve Attention/Focus:  even though this is a fun app, it still requires you to have good attention and focusing skills.  This also requires good memory skills because there are times when you drag some of the shapes into place when you can no longer see where other objects go into.  I have found this to be the most challenging aspect of the app and one of the things I really like about it.  It really requires one to focus and pay attention to the details of the pictures.

Improve Social Skills:  you can always do this in pairs or small groups in order to encourage team work and cooperative skills.  The children may have to work together and take turns putting the object back together.  You can also work on having a child ask for help or teach a child how to give a friend advice in a friendly manner.

There are so many wonderful things about the Face iMake ABC app and know that you and your little ones will have a great time playing this together.  One of the things I like most about this app is that I actually enjoy playing it with the kids.  We can have fun together and I think that is a really important part of teaching and learning.  If a child can see that we are having fun as well, they are more motivated to work harder and work through the challenge of it.

I would love to hear from you all about what you think about this app.  What is your favorite letter and image?  What do your kids think about it?  Are there any other OT skills that you can think of that we can focus on when playing this with the kids?  Please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions.  I love hearing from each and everyone of you and have learned so much from you through this blog.  I am just a click away and look forward to hearing from you.

Have fun learning your ABCs!

Endless fun learning your alphabet

Every once in a while I find out about a new app and have to share it with everyone.  Endless Alphabet is one of those apps.  I saw it on Cool Mom Pics about a month ago and immediately downloaded it to my phone.  It was love at first sight and as soon as I got home I put it on my iPad and introduced it to Quinn.  While she is not even 3 years old and doesn't know all her letters (we are working on it...I promise!), she has been hooked on the game ever since.

The reasons to love this game are, well, endless.  And the occupational therapy and speech therapy goals that can be addressed using this game are, again, endless.  Because there are so many great things about Endless Alphabet, I am going to make this easy and make a list for you all.  Before getting to that list, let me tell you about the game.  There is a word or words for each letter of the alphabet.  You choose the word and a bunch of really cute monsters come knock the letters out of their spots.  Your job is to put all the letters back into the correct place.

A.)  Letter Recognition-motivating way to work on introducing letters (and their sounds) to early learners.  Every time you pick a letter, it will tell you the sound it makes.  As you place it into the correct place in the word, it will repeat the name of the letter.
B.)  Matching (Visual Motor and Visual Perceptual skills)-this game is great for working on matching and visual motor skills.
C.)  Visual Tracking-a child has to look at the whole iPad screen and look (track) to find the letters to go in the correct spot.  Once they find them, they have to make sure that they are dragging them into the correct space.
D.)  Grasping-I tend to have my kids at work use a stylus when using this app.  This way we can not only work on the aforementioned goals, we can also work on encouraging a proper grasp.
E.)  Sequencing-for the older children, I not only encourage, I demand that they put the letters back in in the proper order.  That way they can begin to learn how to spell the words they are working on.  This also helps with improving organization skills, which so many of the kids I work with lack.

F.)  Increase attention/focus-if you are working on improving a child's attention and focus, you can set goals like you have to complete 7 words before being able to move onto the next activity.
G.)  Improve graphomotor skills-for my older kids who are also working on handwriting goals, I will have them write the words they have just "fixed".  For those who struggle with handwriting, being able to play a game and possibly learn a new word and then writing that word is much more fun for them.


H.)  Learn phonics-every time you pick up a letter, they make the sound that the letter makes.  Quinn loves this part of the game and has already started pointing to letters and telling us the sound it makes. Proof that if you make something fun your child can learn skills much faster.

I.)  Add new words to your child's vocabulary-while there are many familiar words in the Endless Alphabet library, there are also many new words for your child to learn.  After you complete putting all the letters into the correct spot, there is a short video that defines the word in a very entertaining way.  

J.)  This app is FREE-endless hours of alphabet fun for free.  Endless hours of alphabet learning for free.  Did I mention this app is free?

K.)  New words added weekly-you would think that for that large price-tag you would only get a few words.  Nope.  There is at least one word for each letter and new words and monsters are added weekly.  It is important to agree to the push notifications for this app so you can be alerted of the weekly updates. 

  

After a few minutes of playing this (not my daughter, not the kids I work with, ME!), I reached out to my speech therapy friends with iPads and told them that they had to download this game immediately.  I could see all the benefits for me as an occupational therapist, but knew that my speech friends would be addicted to it.  I was totally right.  Here is what speech therapist and my good friend Jacki Barredo had to say about Endless Alphabet:

Endless Alphabet is a speech therapist's dream! It's a great way for kids to practice listening to and producing individual speech sounds, while increasing their vocabulary skills.  It also incorporates sound-letter recognition skills, matching skills, and spelling skills.  And it really holds the kids' attention!  The videos which depict each word are funny and engaging, too.  Speech therapists will love how easily Endless Alphabet can be modified and navigated through to set up each child for success.

Parents, OTs, and other teaching professionals will love this app, too!
 #brilliant :)

This app has already brought hours of learning and enjoyment to not only the kids I work with, but also to my almost 3 year old daughter.  I know that my 4 1/2 and 7 1/2 year old nieces are loving this game as well which proves that this is a game that can be used for children of all ages.  It's no secret that I am a fan of the iPad in therapy, but if it can be used at home with all children, I love it even more.  I think this game is a brilliantly designed game and motivating for children of all ages and abilities which makes it a complete winner in my book, or really on my iPad.  

I would love to hear what you all think of this app.  Do you have a favorite word (mine are Juggle and Gargantuan)?   Shoot me an email or share your comments with the readers if you have any questions or comments about Endless Alphabet.  As always, I am just a click away and love to hear from my readers.  If you have specific questions for Jacki regarding speech and language skills and/or goals, let me know and I will get your questions to her.  

Hoping you and your lovies have endless fun with Endless Alphabet!