New Stand put to the test

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Guest Blogger...Kelly tells us about AnnaKate getting an iPad for Christmas

AnnaKate got an Ipad for Christmas. Sounds a little extravagant for a 4 year old, unless you are a special needs parent and then you understand. The Ipad has become quite the communication tool. I wanted to share how we have been using it with AnnaKate.

First, the case…

I was a little hesitant to get the OtterBox case but after a few negligent tosses by sweet girl…we knew it was the right move. The OtterBox makes the sleek, light Ipad a little heavy and bulky but it is great for protection. It even came with a screen protector that went on perfectly. I highly recommend this case if you have a rowdy child using the Ipad. :)

The purpose…

The purpose of the Ipad is to provide AnnaKate with an alternate way to communicate as she develops her speech.


The apps…

I have spent an extensive amount of time researching communication apps. The gold standard right now is Proloquo2Go - AssistiveWare. It is an amazing communication program. I have not purchased it for 2 reasons:

1. It is $199.99.

2. It is a little more than what we need right now for AnnaKate. I could program it to suit her needs for now but I have decided to try some less expensive and more simplified apps first.



Communication apps we are currently using:

Verbal Victor - Seed Stage Associates, iCommunicate for iPad - Grembe Inc.  and
My Choice Board - Good Karma Applications, Inc


We have set up one entire icon screen with all of AnnaKate’s apps. She knows to swipe to her screen to find her apps.

Here is a screen shot of Verbal Victor - Seed Stage Associates, . Right now it is AnnaKate’s favorite communication tool. It is very basic and only costs $9.99. I like that AnnaKate can easily move through the screens to find the phrase she may want to say. I can see how she could outgrow this app but it is easy to use and great for our needs right now.

This is iCommunicate for iPad - Grembe Inc.. I like this too but we don’t use it nearly as much as Verbal Victor. It is not as easy for AnnaKate to navigate by herself. It costs around $20.00

My Choice Board - Good Karma Applications, Inc is great! This helps us with alleviating some frustrating moments in our house. We have created boards for what she wants to eat for meals, what she wants to watch on television, what she wants to play, etc. She loves touching the picture and hearing the word. This app costs about $9.99. Visually it is the most “cute” of all the apps with the neat little clipboard.

Other uses…

I was very hesitant about AnnaKate using the Ipad for non communication things. I didn’t want it to become a play toy and not be used for the intended purpose. I quickly found out that she needed practice learning to swipe, move through screens, etc. So we downloaded some apps that would help with that as well. So these are fun apps but help with navigation too. They also all expose her to language. It was neat for us to see how fast AnnaKate picked up using the Ipad.


Fun apps..

She loves being able to play her own music with Toddler JukeBox: Twelve Children's Songs (Wheels on the bus and more!) - Tipitap.

Peekaboo Barn - Night & Day Studios, Inc. is a cute app that practices animal names and sounds.

This is a great interactive Sweet Dreams, Maisy by Lucy Cousins - Iceberg Reader book.

Duck Duck Moose has made some great apps. We have most of them. This is Baa Baa Black Sheep - by Duck Duck Moose - Duck Duck Moose. AnnaKate has to find objects, match objects and navigate through the pages.

Babies with Ipads (the blog and Facebook page) has been a great resource for us. It lists great apps and also notifies you when useful apps are on sale or free.


The Ipad has become a great addition to our family. It has helped AnnaKate’s communication immensely and has become a fun thing to do together.

*This is a picture of AnnaKate and Billy listening to music last night. AnnaKate was changing songs with her feet! Silly girl…




Thanks for sharing AnnaKate's experiences with the iPad so far.  Looking forward to reading more by visiting http://theweekesfamily.blogspot.com/.

A Productivity App that I LOVE to keep track of everything

I usually do not review productivity apps but the best .99 cents I ever spent was on a new app called Penultimate - Cocoa Box Design LLC  It is a basic note pad using your finger as a pencil to create notebooks.  I have downloaded numerous apps in the past that were similiar but this is just so much easier.  I have already created 3 different notebooks with my simple things to do lists and I am actually getting them marked off.  The main notebook is all the visits I need to reschedule because of the snow!!!!  Much cheaper than the 30 notebooks I have somewhere with one page used in each with my old lists.   Are there any other productivity apps that you prefer?

Guest Blogger... Angie with Isaac and Speech Therapy with the iPad

Speech Therapy and the Monster at the end of this book


So The Monster at the End of This Book (for iPad) - Sesame Street is a HUGE hit! We've read this book to him since he was little - but there is something about having Grover tell the story makes my kids go nuts! They love this app for ipad. It is adorable. :)



Per Isaac's speech therapist's recommendation (and with her help), I programmed a storyboard on iCommunicate for iPad - Grembe Inc. with words like cow - with two sounds for the word - like moo moo, in order to encourage Isaac to make two syllables at a time. We talked about apraxia a lot and how in order to help with sequencing its good to encourage two of the same sounds at first and that will hopefully lead to two different syllable sounds later on. Wow I'm not very articulate at explaining that. Anyways, I have storyboards now with train - choo choo, clown - ha ha, owl - hoot hoot and so on. I also am making story boards with simple sounding words of the p, b, m variety. So pot, potty, pool, pop etc. just to encourage specifically the p sound. Its just like flashcards with my voice saying "pop pop pop" etc. I'm really excited because it sounds like a great way to encourage speech that we haven't really focused on. I mean we do flashcards all the time but this seems more . . . concentrated? Anyway I'm excited.

Guest Blogger... Stacy with Noah's Top Apps

My son is two, Noah, and suffered a global brain injury at birth as a result he is not yet talking, crawling, walking. His website blog is:


http://www.noahsmiracle.blogspot.com/

Noah is still learning cause and effect so he doesn't really recognize yet that he is influencing the Ipad, but has applications that he truly enjoys and that we feel is helping him learn and grow:


Answers:YesNo HD - SimplifiedTouch

Elmo's Monster Maker HD - Sesame Street

Magic Piano - Smule

iSteelPan - David A. Shamma

Peekaboo Barn - Night & Day Studios, Inc.

Speech with Milo: Verbs - Doonan Speech Therapy

Sparkabilities Babies 2 for iPad - Bottle Rocket

iCrayonMaker HD - Shreta Dupree

Learn to Talk - iLearn2Talk

Parents Magazine Flash Cards - Resolute Digital, LLC

Bubbles - Hog Bay Software

Tozzle - Toddler's favorite puzzle - nodeflexion.com

Kidzongs – Preschool sing-along fun - Stepworks



Many blessings,

Stacy, Noah's mommy

Short Video of how the Cheap Stand from eBay works

Cheap stand

This is a holder to attach to your car windshield to use you iPad as a GPS. It costs $7.98 with free shipping from eBay. I will try it on a few wheelchair trays and let you know. So far I just give it an okay rating. I don't think I would park a kid on concrete and leave them playing with it but I would feel comfortable on a carpeted floor so far.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

A Mom Suggests My Medical App

This is what one of our readers has to say about My Medical for iPad - Steven Chaitoff  "I have tried a few but the My Medical app is the best so far! You can keep a very thorough list of doc, meds, hospitalizations, procedures and more! It does take time to put the info in but worth it! Michael had surgery yesterday and it was awesome just to pull up the app instead of recite a millions meds, doses, times and diagnosis's!"


Has anyone tried this or any other medical organizing apps?

R J Cooper's Slide 2 Unlock (Education)

App Shopper: Slide 2 Unlock (Education) R J Cooper is already designing apps. This one is free. Teaches user how to slide on the iPad to unlock and toward targets.

Junior has an iPad and he knows how to use it.

http://juniorsvoice.blogspot.com/  I posted yesterday about Junior and how his mom is super cool in the adaptions she makes for him.  Well Junior has another blog about how he uses his iPad.  LOVE IT.

Some Changes and Good News

Babies with iPads will be going through some changes in the new few weeks.  You may notice some new colorful ads showing up today and the little ChipIn Box to the right.  In the next few weeks I hope to start raising some money for grant applications to help families to buy iPads and/or apps/accessories for infants and toddlers with multiple medical and/or developmental issues. I also want to start offering iTunes cards to our reader for contributing guest blogs, videos, and stories.  I am reseaching non profit status to accept larger tax deductible donations and other funding but in the mean time I am accepting small donations and profits generated from the ads on this page. (in a short time I have generated almost $100 from the ads on this page)  If you would like to try ads on your page/blog other than Google Ads then click on the Link Share box to the right to get ads for your blog or website to earn your own money.  I am trying to choose appropriate ads for children and families but if you ever see any ad that is inappropriate or offensive please notify me as soon as possible.  Wish me luck so more babies can have access to an iPad to promote their development.

I LOVE this blog even though it has nothing to do with iPads but this mom has great ideas

http://adaptions4kidz.blogspot.com/  Although Junior does use an iPad it is mainly about adapting everyday activities especially arts and crafts so Junior can participate.  Cute ideas.

Site that reviews some of the apps for special needs

http://iautismo.wordpress.com/

For those of you that wanted some more academic apps this is a great blog

http://www.snapps4kids.com/category/meeting-notes/application-lists/

Verbal Victor is now on iTunes

Verbal Victor - Seed Stage Associates

My Favorite AAC apps for infants and toddlers with special needs

I have been asked this question a few times lately so here is my list of what I use consistently.  I am not a SLP (speech/language pathologist) or trained in anything but some basic alternative/augmentative communication (AAC), but with my 20 years experience with infants and toddlers with multiple medical and/or developmental issues I always go back to starting easy for me, the family and the child so we all start out with success.  So far I think the simplest apps that give the most bang for the buck are 1) TapSpeak Button for iPad - Ted Conley  $9.99 works like a Big Mac button to make a simple request, 2) Answers:YesNo HD - SimplifiedTouch  $1.99 works like a twin talk device with two choices but does not offer pictures as the choices but it does offer choice between two words but have found it successful with many repetitions and HOW powerful when a child can answer a yes/no question and finally 3) iCommunicate for iPad - Grembe Inc.  $49.99so far is my favorite app to put in my pictures and voice for choice making in multiple activities.  I am going to try TapSpeak Sequence for iPad - Ted Conley this weekend which is similar to a Big Mack Step by Step and as soon as VerbalVictor comes out this week I plan on buying that too.  I am sure Proloquo2Go - AssistiveWare is wonderful but at this point I cannot afford to purchase that app and I am concerned it may be advanced for little ones but I would love to try it out.

My Top 10 Favorite Apps of 2010 for infants and toddlers with special needs

These are my Top Ten Apps of 2010

TapSpeak Button for iPad - Ted Conley
Virtuoso
Vocal Zoo
Baby Shapes
Sparkabilities Babies 1 HD for iPad - Bottle Rocket
Peekaboo Barn - Night & Day Studios, Inc.
Itsy Bitsy Spider HD - by Duck Duck Moose - Duck Duck Moose
Glow Draw
Talking Tom
Ilovefireworks




Looking forward to Verbal Victor - Seed Stage Associates that is supposed to be released this week and all the new apps of 2011.  What apps are your favorite and why?

Cookie Doodle App for Language Therapy

Grant for Gift a Voice

Gift a Voice : Different Iz Good™

Kid Friendly iPad case

Griffin Technology: LightBoard - The Draw + Write + Play-With-Your-iPad Case