Digital Problem Solver App

*This is not an official app review. Social Express did not contact me to write about the DPS app, I just like it and wanted to share with you!

I am a big fan of The Social Express! My kids love using their app and it opens up great opportunities to talk about different pragmatic situations. In this app the characters use a DPS (digital problem solver) that helps them identify their feelings and allows them to select a coping strategy. 

This March I attended the SHAA conference and learned that there was a real Digital Problem Solving app you can purchase for .99 cents! I have been using it with a few of my students and it has been great! 

Students choose an emotion.

Then they can scroll through different coping strategies and choose the one they want to use. The Social Express character then demonstrates how to use that coping strategy. 

Mostly I find it effective because it forces my kids to slow down and process through their emotions (how they feel, what triggered that feeling, what to do with the feeling, ect.).

What apps do you like use when teaching your kiddos about feelings?

Movie Making on the IPad

Hello to my favorite speechies! Be sure to stop over at Activity Tailor today to see our guest post on video modeling! It is a wonderful new intervention that we are learning lots about! To go along with our guest post, we are doing a quick tutorial on how to make a movie on your iPad (the EASY way!).

As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. There is also more than one way to make a video on your iPad!

I am sharing the easiest and quickest way I have found. If you have other ways you like to make a movie PLEASE share it in the comments section!

If your iPad has a camera, you should see an app that looks like this. 

Open it and your screen will look like this.

To make a video slide the bottom right button to the video camera symbol. Then touch the red button to record! When you are finished, touch the red button again. 

And there you go! Now you have a movie to play back to your students!

If you would like to edit some of your video touch the top line that shows several pictures in a row. It will turn yellow, and you can move the line to wherever you want the video to begin or end. Then touch trim. You can save this video as a new video, or as the original. 

And there you go! Now you are set to go try video modeling in your classroom!

I Was A Stranger to Beauty

Some of you may remember the guest post from Caroline McGraw, author of the blog A Wish Come Clear. Well we are excited to announce the launch of her new Kindle Single, I Was a Stranger to Beauty: A Story of Special Needs, Simplicity, My Brother Willie, My Friend Miguel and A New Way of Seeing the World.

Right now it is only $1.99 and 5% of the proceeds will go to L’Arche Washington DC, a wonderful organization. 

Caroline has spent so much of her life serving those with special needs, so she is more than qualified to write a book on this topic. We hope that you will all support her! Getting ready to download the book myself! To learn more about it, watch the video below!

The Latest on Asperger's Syndrome

 

Have you read this article, Asperger’s syndrome dropped from American Psychiatric Association Manual, from CBS News? We are curious to know what y’all think about this news and how/if it will affect the world of speech language pathology. Comment with your thoughts and opinions!

A Wish Come Clear

We are so excited to have Caroline McGraw, author of the blog A Wish Come Clear, as a guest blogger! Have you read her blog? If not, you should! As Caroline puts it “A Wish Come Clear is about telling true stories of people with autism, Aspergers, and other developmental, physical, and intellectual disabilities with the purpose of helping you find meaning in your most challenging relationships.” We hope that caregivers find her writing encouraging and that professionals take time to stop and consider this perspective.
 

This is an excerpt from Caroline McGraw's book for caregivers, YourCreed Of Care:  How To Dig For TreasureIn People (Without Getting Buried Alive). To receive your complimentary copy of the book via email, visit Caroline's blog for caregivers, A Wish Come Clear.

Pitfall #7:  Holding On

I’m not a parent, so I can only imagine how difficult it must be:  letting a babysitter watch your kids, letting them go off to school, to college, to the wider world. Add to that a child with a physical or intellectual disability, and the letting-go gets even more difficult. To let go, to trust another person with your child or sibling? It may seem impossible. Yet, it’s also extremely valuable, both for you and the person you love and care for. 

I remember riding with my parents the first time we dropped my brother Willie off for a respite weekend. He’d be spending two days with a group in a local hotel, going to game nights and swimming in the pool. I knew that Willie would have a great time. Even so, I felt a rush of protectiveness and near-panic as he exited the car. I kept feeling a need to check on him, to make sure he was all right. I could tell that my mom felt this need even more than I did. Though she’d met the staff and talked to my brother extensively and prepared long lists of Willie’s routines and double-checked his food, clothes and medication supplies, she still felt anxious. She’d done all she could, but it all felt so insignificant as he disappeared from our sight. We all wanted to hold on to him as we drove away.

After that experience, I understand why one woman I know literally left the country after her brother came to L’Arche [a faith-based non-profit organization that creates homes where people with and without intellectual disabilities share life in community, where I served as a caregiver for five years]. She knew that, if she stayed within driving distance, she’d be sure to meddle with his  care. As my mother did for my brother, this woman made extensive preparations to ensure that her brother would be well cared-for. However, when the moment to let go of her brother’s care came, she felt a strong temptation to hold on.

I’ve met other families who have held on to their children tightly over the years. They continue to treat their adult sons and daughters as children. These parents are holding on to their role as primary caregivers, even as their sons and daughters are trying to make a new home and new life for themselves. It’s always difficult to watch this dynamic, and even more challenging to be a care provider in the middle of it. The adult child in this situation has a choice: they can either rebel against their parents’ holding on, or comply with it...and feel guilty for feeling stifled. Most people choose the latter.

To parents, it can seem as though holding on in this way will keep their child safe. When I watched my brother walk into the hotel, I wanted nothing more than a promise that he would be all right. I

wanted a guarantee, even though I know better. There are no guarantees. We can only know that, by holding on too tightly to those we love, we are not loving them as we should. As Martha Beck writes in Steering By Starlight: “The goal of real love is always to set the beloved free.”

We cannot wait for a time when we feel perfectly safe to open our hands.

 

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Caroline McGraw is a would-be "childhood paleontologist" who digs for treasure in people. She writes about finding meaning in the most challenging relationships at A Wish Come Clear.