I'm Going to Huff and Puff.....and Calm Myself Down!

This is going to be a quick post, but one that I think will be super valuable.  I am not sure about any of you, but I find May and June to be harder than almost any other time of the school year.  So many of my kids are feeling nervous and worried about all the changes that summer usually brings about.  For some of them, it's ending school and realizing they will be in a new school next year with so many new faces.  Others are worried about camp, taking a bus for the first time.  Whatever the changes are, it often brings about kids with increased energy and more difficulty with being able to modulate/regulate their behaviors.

One of the skills I love to teach children when they present with these types of behaviors is how to take deep breaths.  When a child is feeling anxious or scared, his or her breathing will change and instead of taking normal breaths, they will be observed to take short, quick and shallow breaths.  Deep breathing is
important because it can lower a child's anxiety and give them a sense of control over their body.  Teaching a child how to do calm breathing is a great tool that they can have with them at all times, especially when their grownups aren't there to help guide them through it.  However, teaching children, especially the younger ones, how to properly take deep breaths can be more challenging than one may think.


Ever since discovering Free App Friday by Smart Apps For Kids, I have found a handful of great apps.  Ones that I most definitely wouldn't have discovered without me reading it about on their post.  Last week, one of the apps features was Huff-N-Puff by Duckie Deck.  Their description of the game is:  Huff n' PUff lets children learn about physical effects of wind and air, in a simplified setting.  Now, a youngster can have a more direct interaction with the digital world by using the power of their own breath.  Just blow some air near the iPad's or iPhone's iOS 5 microphone and delight in the realistic effect on-screen.  As an occupational therapist, I read this as follows:  Huff n' Puff lets children learn about how to effectively take deep and controlled breaths in a fun, motivated and simple setting.

There isn't much to the game, but it is fun and so far, my kids are loving it!  There are about 25 different activities that your child can play with.  I
pick and choose which ones are most appropriate and most motivating for the child I am working with.  The only thing the child needs to do is breath into the microphone of the iPad or iPhone and something fun will happen.  So far, my favorites are blowing the seeds off the dandelion, making the pinwheel spin or blowing the whistle.  I like these because they require a child to work on sustaining a long, deep breath.  I sometimes challenge my kids to see how many times they can make the pinwheel spin which they love!

One thing I really love about this game is there are ways to generalize and practice your deep breathing with real life activities.  For example, one of the activities is to blow up a balloon.  Right after you blow the balloon up on the game, you can have a child practice using those deep breaths by blowing up a real balloon.  Who remembers that pipe where you have to keep the ball in the air without having it fly away?  They have that as an activity on this game!  I have a few of the real pipes at work and the kids love it, but they often have trouble with it.  Some of my kids think it is really funny to make it fly away and have to chase it.  I am going to see if I can get them to be more successful by practicing with Huff-N-Puff first.

I hope you all have as much fun with this game as I am having.  Deep breathing is such an important skill and I have struggled with finding the most effective way to help my kids learn this skill.  It is an essential skill for learning how to cope when faced with challenging situations.  I am sure many of you have other ways to work on this without using technology and I would love to hear from with your ideas.  As the end of the year approaches and our kids are faced with an increased number of changes and challenges, I would love to be able to help empower them with a skill that will help them get through these difficult times.  

The Writing is on the pad...the iPad

I am always looking for great handwriting apps.  One of the things I work on with most of my children is handwriting and encouraging them that it can be fun.  With the introduction of the iPad to my professional (and personal) life, I have been able to motivate some of the kids who struggle most with handwriting by using the iPad.  I have a bunch of them on my iPad and iPhone.  Have even begun to use them with my almost 3 year old daughter, Quinn.  She is already eager to learn because of the super cool apps out there.  LetterSchool is definitely one of my go-to apps.  I use this in conjunction with the Handwriting Without Tears program and have found that my kids at work are more motivated and excited about learning how to write their letters and alphabet.

Today, during one of my home sessions, I was talking to an 8 year old who his struggling with handwriting and has recently been introduced to cursive.  She is one of the most awesome and hardest working girls I know and I want to find ways to make her feel better about her handwriting.  As we were practicing writing, I decided to do a search for fun and motivating iPad apps that featured cursive handwriting.  I am so excited about what i stumbled upon.  Fizzbrain Apps has a series of handwriting apps that will be sure to excite and motive your child.  I have already downloaded the Touch and Write and Cursive Touch and Write apps on my iPad.  And I can't wait to start using them at work.

There are a lot of great features of this app and I am still learning them all.  One of the things I really like is that it follows the Handwriting Without Tears way of writing so I will be able to use this in conjunction with the workbooks I use.  One of the things my kids love is that you can choose from over a dozen different materials to write with such as shaving cream, green jello and ketchup!

Another great feature is that you can change the level of difficulty depending on your child's skill level. For beginners, there is are cupcakes throughout the letter you are practicing that you have to drag a monster too.  Once you have mastered that level, you can choose to just drag the monster through the letter without the cupcakes as a visual cue.  If you don't draw the lines in the correct order, you have to keep trying.  The picture below shows the monster being dragged using chocolate frosting and having to follow the cupcakes as a visual cue.  

One of the last features I really love is that you can work on writing words as well.  There is an option so you can add words that you want to work on.  Great for children who need practice with their spelling lists.  Could also add your name (as seen above) and maybe the names of your friends or family members.  I love the idea of being able to personalize the app to your child's needs and/or interests.  

I can't wait to spend more time exploring this app with my children at work.  There is nothing like watching a child begin to master and feel more confident with their handwriting.  Children have so much on their plates in school these days.  So many expectations and they are constantly comparing themselves to other children and recognize their struggles or how things come easily for other children. My goal with finding these apps is to have fun while helping to develop a sense of mastery with skills.  As a therapist, I try and "hide" the work aspect of things and focus on the fun.  Chances are they will master and generalize the skills much easier and faster if i do it that way.  

For those of you with younger children who aren't working on letters yet, they have created a shapes version of this app.  Check out Shapes Touch and Write for you little ones.  It is never too early to start working on developing good graphomotor skills.  I am definitely going to begin using it with my almost 3 year old daughter Quinn.  

Do any of you have any great handwriting apps that you can share with me?  Would love to hear of any others out there or if you too have had success with either of these Fizzbrain writing apps.  As always, I am just a click away and would love to hear from you and answer any questions you might have.

Best App List-iPhone and iPad

Wow!  This is the most comprehensive list of iPhone and iPad apps I have seen.  I found this link on Facebook this morning and knew I had to share it.  While the title implies that it is for children with special needs, I have already found a handful of apps to download for my almost 2 year old daughter.  I have also already downloaded a bunch for my children at work.  I am excited to have new things to play with on my iPad.

This list is broken down into a variety of categories and then talks about what the app targets.  My new favorites are Spot the Dot, Pickin' Stix and Dexteria.  I can't wait to spend some time really looking through this  and finding a bunch more apps.

Take a look at this link and tell me what is your favorite and why?