Don't Wait - Buy it now!

If you haven't bought the Rolls-Royce AAC App Proloquo2Go (P2Go) yet, NOW is the time to buy it!

Why?

Because Version 3 has just come out  and it IS a major upgrade,  - switch access at last! DropBox! (and already, Version 2 was INFINITELY better than Version 1)

Because the price has stayed at £129.99 for the past four years or so, but the price is going to go up by c. 15% on 17th May (to something like £150 ? not sure exactly) Read why.

Yes, it's a lot dearer than most AAC apps. But it's good.

It was great to see so many people at the Dyslexia Scotland South East Scotland meeting last night, where I was giving a talk on Low Cost Software and iPad Apps to support people with dyslexia. Unfortunately, I wasn't expecting quite so many people so I ran out of copies of the handout, listing the programs and apps I was (somewhat ambitiously!) trying to show during the evening. If you didn't manage to get a copy (or want another one), here it is.

I was asked about useful sources of information on developments in technology for learners with dyslexia and other support needs, particularly with regard to the iPad. These days, the internet is full of useful resources and it is easy to get bogged down with information, but there are some key resources:

• The CALL Scotland Blog is a very good starting point, though we don't always have time to keep track of every interesting new development.
• I did a handout listing iPad resources for a Parents' information Day back in November, and have been adding to it since. You can download it from here.
• I'm a big fan of the Pinterest resource created by Lauren Enders

I'll try to add to this list next week.

I was also asked about dyslexia-related apps for Android devices. Paul Hamilton has an excellent blog where he talks about apps specifically for Android devices. His wider blog has information on other apps.

I was asked earlier this week for advice on an app that would allow somebody to take a photograph of some text with an iPad and then convert the image into editable text that could be read back. This is equivalent to scanning a paper document and processing the image with an optical character recognition (OCR) program to create a text file, which can then be read back using text-to-speech software on a computer.

Prizmo or TextGrabber + Translator?

Normally I recommend Prizmo (£6.99) for a task like this as it generally produces pretty decent results, provided that the lighting is good and the iPad is kept steady, but I read a recommendation for TextGrabber + Translator (£0.69) a couple of days ago so I decided to compare them.

They were both originally designed for the iPhone, but work perfectly well on the iPad 3. When you search for them in the App Store you have to look among the iPhone, rather than the iPad apps. When you first open either of them, they'll only occupy a small part of the screen (equivalent to an iPhone display), but you can enlarge this by tapping on a small circular button marked 2X at the bottom right of the display.

I used both apps to take a picture of a page featuring an advertisement from today's Times Educational Supplement Scotland. and then used the OCR software within each app to convert the text on the page into editable text on the iPad. Prizmo only attempted to convert the black text, rather than white text on a coloured background. There were a couple of mistakes in the main body of the text, but it did surprisingly well when it attempted the very small Terms and Conditions text at the bottom of the page - there were a few mistakes, but the text was recognisable, which I found astonishing given the size of the original text. TextGrabber managed to cope with white text on a coloured background and was perfect in the main body of the text, but the small Terms and Conditions text was unrecognisable.

Reading Text Out Loud

When it came to speaking the text out, Prizmo uses its own text-to-speech system, allowing the text to be read out by pretty decent voices (for which you have to pay separately, typically £1.99 per voice). TextGrabber uses the built-in Apple Speak Selection system so the voice options are a little more restricted. This has to be turned on in the Accessibility Settings - Tap on the Settings icon, select General and scroll down to Accessibility to make sure that Speak Selection is turned on. You should then be given an option to Speak any text you select.

Translating Text

Prizmo and ScreenGrabber + Translate can translate from English into a wide range of foreign languages, which can then be read back in the appropriate language if you have a  suitable voice installed. The translations are not perfect, but good enough to get an idea of what the text is about.

I think I would now lean towards TextGrabber - it is cheaper, slightly less complicated, and the OCR (conversion from an image into text) seems to be slightly more accurate.

There are, of course, other apps that can be used to do this.

Does your child like music? Do they love wading through your iPad music library to find their favourite tunes, perhaps deleting your favourites on the way?!

Help is at hand, from a cool little app called Kidzik and it only costs £1.49!

The app allows you to create a bespoke music library for your child, by first making a 'Kidzik' playlist in the iTunes Music Player app on your device.

The Kidzik app then 'picks up' the playlist automatically and presents it as a choice of album cover artwork choices.

The user then touches the album to select the single song or songs from that album and that's it!

They can play or pause by touching the selected album in the 'apple.' They can also choose tracks by touching the different colours of the 'worm.' The same colour will always be linked to the same song, so that the user will know that the 'green' song is their favourite, for example.

Really nice simple interface and great how it uses the album artwork for the choices, rather than cartoons, numbers or random shapes like the other music player apps I've come across.

Would be even better if it was switch accessible.....

Recently I met a learner in first year in secondary school with a physical disability . She doesn't have the strength to hold books and turn pages, and she gets very tired handwriting. After due assessment and consideration of various devices we all concluded that an iPad was most suitable device for her physically: it's small and light enough for her to handle, and she rests it on her knees and against a desk, so that her hands are in her lap, which reduces fatigue. The iPad on-screen keyboard is just the right size for her to type on without stretching, and since it's touch-sensitive, it seems to require less effort than a physical keyboard.

Essentially, she wants to use the iPad for everything: reading textbooks and resources; completing homework and assessments; taking notes in class; etc etc

So, next questions are:

• which apps should she use for different tasks and purposes in school?
• where can she get digital textbooks?
• how does she receive and send materials to and from teachers?

These seem to be fairly basic and common questions, so I thought I'd share some of my thoughts and findings.

For general note-taking in class ('digital jotters'), I looked at quite a few note-taking apps including the built-in Notes, Daily Notes, EverNote and Note Taker HD, to name but a few, and I  liked the look of Notability, which lets you:

• Create notes that can contain formatted text, hand writing and drawings (with pencil and pen), sound recordings, photos (either from the camera roll, or taken and inserted directly), clippings from the web, and drawings.
• Organise your notes into categories and subjects. 
• Use different paper backgrounds (different colours, lined, square paper).
• Search your notes.
• Import and annotate PDFs.
• Save your notes in cloud service such as DropBox and Google Drive.
• Send your notes to other apps, and by email, as PDF or RTF. 

It looks ideal for taking notes in class, for gathering and sorting information for topic or research, and for writing short assignments. (In fact, I'm now using it myself for all my note-taking on the iPad.)

There are a few things which could be better with Notability:

• ‘Speak Selection’ does not work and so you can’t read your notes with text-to-speech.
• Text cannot be inserted directly on top of a PDF, so you can’t use it very easily to type answers into PDF exams, assessments or homework.
• It does not have ‘snap to grid’ for easily drawing straight lines. 
• You cannot easily edit your notes on a desktop or laptop computer: you can only save them as PDF, RTF or text. (For me, if it could share and sync notes with Microsoft OneNote, it would be perfect.)

But of the apps I looked at, and read about, it looks ideal for the secondary school context.

For word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, and particularly for importing and exporting Microsoft Office files, we suggested Apple's own Pages, Numbers and Keynote.

For reading textbooks in PDF (e.g. Hodder Gibson books from us, or scanned books from the Books for All Database), we went for PDF Expert, which has good study and search facilities, and lots of tools for annotation and commenting. It's also good for completing assessments such as the SQA Digital Question Papers. (Why PDF Expert in particular rather than others? While you can read PDFs with iBooks on the iPad, you can't annotate them; the free Adobe Reader app does let you annotate, but PDF Expert has better file management; and I liked PDF Expert's text annotate tool better than iAnnotate's, because you can type directly on the PDF rather than into a separate text field. (iAnnotate has features that PDF Expert doesn't, though, such as voice comments so pupils and staff can record audio notes into the PDF.)

For sharing work with staff, the only practical method in the school at this time is use of email, which is better than nothing but not as good as a file transfer/sharing method such as Edmodo, Dropbox or Google Drive. (The school doesn't use Glow.)

Feedback from the learner about these apps is so far very positive, so we'll see how they work out over time.

How about you? Which apps and techniques have you found helpful in a mainstream secondary context?

Carol Paige from the South Carolina Assistive Technology Programme has compiled a pretty comprehensive chart comparing various apps that can be used for augmentative and alternative communication. It will be very useful, but you might need a magnifying glass to read a printed copy!The same site has a number of other useful lists of apps, including:

• Apps that make life easier
• Concept Mapping Apps
• Note Taking Apps
• Reading / Writing Apps
• Voice to Text Apps
• Web Browser Apps
• Word Prediction Apps
• ... and lots more!

Smiling mind (iPhone)  -  free App designed to support mental health and well-being. Or use web based version

Designed by psychologists for relaxation and 'mindfulness'. Aim is to "help you feel more clear, calm and content". You get a trial session then need to log in with an email address.For different age groups: 7-11; 12-15; 16-22; or adult. Material is presented orally - Very basic relaxation and 'meditation' sessions (lying on floor or seated) last about 7 minutes. Could be delivered to individual or to a small group or class. Requires the ability to stay still, quietly, and listen.

Another list of 'best Apps - this time from a US parents website, targeting Apps for language and literacy.

Crick have just released 2 Clicker Apps – they had said the official launch would be at BETT so they have actually got this out earlier than expected! I’ve just installed them and these are my first thoughts.

In the Clicker Docs App (£17.99) there are some grids/WordBanks available from Learning Grids which is just a couple of taps away in the app itself. It then automatically saves the grid so it is available whenever you want to use it. Or you can create your own wordbanks. The speech option allows you to have it set letter by letter, word by word or full sentence. You can also use the ‘Shift Speech’ button to have individual words/cells read out from the grid, predictor or document. There is a choice of 3 voices (Rachel, UK; Heather, US; Tyler, ANZ). Prediction is available and SoundsLike Predictor is an option. There is a choice of number of words from 250 to 60000 but you don’t seem to be able to add new ones. It did seem very slow as I typed in or used the word grid.

Clicker Sentences app (£14.99) is for writing sentences using whole words. You can add pictures to the grid from the iPad photos library (or take a photo).

To get to the next screen you have to swipe so you can build up the piece of writing. You can choose to have a ‘model sentence’ or a ‘model sentence pop’ for pupils needing a bit more support. Using the speech is the same as in the Clicker docs.

If you are interested in using the iPad to support your pupils then you will probably be familiar with the large number of websites that have appeared over the past year offering ‘lists of Apps’ to support a range of difficulties including communication, literacy, numeracy etc. Some examples include Apps to support AAC, Apps to support literacy as well as Apps to support magnification and vision. 

While these are useful resources, particularly if you’re new to the iPad and unsure which Apps to download (and feeling a bit overwhelmed with so many Apps to choose from), lists of endless Apps have their limitations. 

As Apps become increasingly more sophisticated and offer improved features and options, I think there is much to be gained from using the built-in sharing and export features to create ‘integrative workflows’ for pupils. Using integrative workflows is about exploiting what an App has to offer or making the most of its main features. For example, there are a number of ‘literacy support’ Apps which have a ‘Send to App’ option, allowing learners to plan an essay using a mind map, export the mind map to a text-to-speech App for proof reading and finally sending the text to a word processor for formatting, final spell checking and submission. 

This is a similar approach for pupils with dyslexia when writing an essay or project – use a visual mind map to get down the main points, use nodes and notes to expand on ideas and finally export the mind map to a word processing program such as Word. Additional support in the form of word prediction or text-to-speech, is often provided via programs such as TextHelp Read&Gold, Co:Writer or even Penfriend. 

If you would like to find out more I’ve written a short article which explains this process in 4 simple steps. You can download the article by selecting this link. 

CALL is not endorsing this particular App over and above other similar Apps, but just to alert you to a price change - 

Version 3.1.1 of AbleNet's simple photo-based communication App Sounding Board, which used to cost £35, is now available as a free download  on the iTunes App Store (possibly for a limited time only). You can then make your own communication boards and/or purchase pre-made boards, in-App

For a review see here

For a video introduction / tutorial, see here

Switch access , with auditory scanning, using the RJ Cooper Blue2 switch (from Therapy Box) , or the APPlicator /Switch4Apps switch interface (from Inclusive Technology or Therapy Box) is available for more details of switch/scanning,, see here

Reduced price and free Apps to mark World Autism Awareness Day

World Autism Awareness Day took place on April 2nd and to mark the event a number of App developers such as Good Karma Applications offered over 60 discounted Apps (including many free Apps) to download from the App Store. The Apps are predominantly for the iOS, ie, iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad with only one App available for the Android platform.

Don’t worry if you missed the offer as many of the Apps are still available at the same discounted price. 

The list of Apps is divided into 10 categories such as Social Behaviour, Social Stories and Communication with Images. Each App has a short descriptive overview of its functionality as well as a list of languages supported by the Apps.

There’s even a link directly to the App Store so you don’t have to spend hours of searching through thousands of Apps to find the right one.

The Apps list is hosted on the iAutism site which also offers a wide-range of useful resources including Autism related Apps Reviews, Technology and Tutorials.

Visit the iAutism site to find out more.

Over the past few months there have been more and more 'apps' available to buy, which could be useful tools for communication for some children and adults. These apps are available for iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad and vary in their features, possible uses and cost.

Some of these apps have synthesised voice output (text to speech) as well as symbols and can be used as comprehensive AAC solutions (e.g. Touchchat AAC); some allow you to record speech along with symbols and photos to create a system similar to a 'communication book' or medium tech AAC device like a Go Talk (e.g. Tap Speak Choice); and some can be used very effectively for 'photo stories' or 'talking books' using photos, symbols and video to create personalised resources like social stories, communication passports, visual scene prompts and interactive photo albums of special events (e.g. Scene & Heard).

CALL has been keeping a keen eye on these developments and has started to compile a database of the apps we have found most useful or show most potential in the field of AAC.

We will be updating the database as new AAC apps come out and are tested out by CALL and will also be including apps for reading, writing and literacy in the coming weeks.

Check out the apps we have included so far on the CALL App Database

Hacking Autism is a web site which brings together a volunteer group of software developers and specialists in autism with the intention of creating apps for iPads and other touch-enabled devices that can be used by people with an autism spectrum disorder.

The site currently contains suggested apps to which children with ASD have responded well. These include Proloquo2go, Pictello, Soundtastic and iReward, along with many more. Parents of children with ASD are invited to suggest features they would like to see in future apps. You can also look at some of the ideas that have already been suggested and comment upon them.

This could be your opportunity to have an influence on the development of forthcoming apps for the iPad and other devices!

Aha!  Mayer Johnson are publishing an app for iPad and iPod / iPhone,  iOS 3.1.3 and above

It's coming 'soon'. It will be free.

It sounds like it will be especially useful for learning new symbols, and for practising, familiarising and and consolidating knowledge of symbols and their meanings.  May be especially popular as 'homework' with parents and also sounds like some quite fun games (bingo matching etc.),  Could also be valuable as a trainer for working on mastery of that 'iPad flick'.