Presented by: B.E.S.T.
Behavioural Evaluation, Supervision & Training
Sandee-lee Parker, M.A., Psych. B.C.B.A.
BEST.Sandeelee@gmail.com
www.BEST4Autism
905-706-0152
 If you have technical difficulties, I am not the one to
assist you.
 tgougeon@clhmidland.on.ca
 Please keep your microphones on mute unless
speaking to us here in Aurora
 We will break for ten minutes this morning, for an
hour at lunch and again for 10 minutes in the
afternoon.
 Sandee-lee: a BCBA, not a computer tech
 Aurora group
 Satellite locations
 Pros and Cons of Technology
 Parent Training
 iPad cases and other accessories
 iPad funding
 Various Applications
 Communication, Vocabulary Development,
Syntax/Grammar, Fine Motor, Vocational/Self-help,
Social Skills, Academics, Apps to find Apps
 Easy to use and to program
 Easy to purchase applications
 Inexpensive compared to computers and speech
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generating devices
Portable
Socially Acceptable and interesting to peers
Can be highly personalized (e.g. photos vs board
maker symbols)
Children with Autism are attracted to it
Children with autism can often learn how to use it
with minimal instruction
 When children are using technology they are not
interacting in the same way as through speech or sign
language
 May have to deal with some repetitive behaviours
 Applications are not always malleable (programmable,
adjustable, or contain enough exemplars)
 Not always practical in certain environments such as
the pool or park.
 Establish rules for the modification and use of specific
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programs, especially Proloquo2Go, Go Talk Now, and
other communication apps
Teach and support parents in following through with
contingencies
Like all program, progress should be monitored (e.g.
data collected)
Doing regular back ups!
Agreeing to content
 Some can be expenses but may save money in the long
run when the iPad is not broken
 Cracked screens are the most common problem (Apple
charges $250.00 to replace the iPad, so we hope you
backed it recently)
 For participants in Durham Region, contact: Rob
Lomas at RILTECHNOLOGIES@yahoo.ca. He can
replace the cracked screen for $100.00.
 Visit http://blog.friendshipcircle.org (iPad cases for
your child with special needs)
 Has been used for many years and includes low tech to
high materials and devices
 Skills that can be addressed using technology include
 Communication
 Writing
 Reading
 Following transitions and routines
 Preventing challenging behaviours
 Social Skills
 If the child needs the device to communicate, it needs
to move between environments
 Some school take issue with respect to responsibility
when the device is family owned.
 Sending a child to school without their
communication device is like sending a child to school
without their wheelchair. Families may need to
challenge the school’s policies on devices going to
school as well as advocate for getting a device
purchased by the school.
 My two favourites are:
 Prologuo2Go (189.00 USD)
 Go Talk Now (79.00 USD)
 Similar in their page set up.
 Go Talk Now is more difficult to program
 Go Talk Now has screen shots which are very useful for
less able communiators.
 Go Talk Now can support video segments
 Expressionist
 iConverse
 iCommunicate
 Look to Learn
 My Talk
 Grace
 Tap to Talk
 Comes pre-loaded with a home page which you will
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want to change right away.
For most children photos are better than icons and less
is more.
Huge vocabulary
Add your own photos or google images (google images
must be saved to your photo directory first)
Easy, on-the-spot changes or additions to a page
Can display one or many icons per page
Great on-line support
 Many of the symbols are arbitrary and would actually
require reading skills to understand what they
represent.
 Others require some prior knowledge (understanding
arrows, sign language, symbols) that may not exist yet.
 Photos are more clear and personalized (actual people,
child’s actual school, google images for McDonalds,
etc).
 My Day
 Each icon represents each activity of the day
 Breakfast
 Greeting teachers
 Prayer
 O Canada
 Morning Circle
 Break time
 Seat work…
 Touching each activity icon opens to the specifics of
the activity
 E.g. Breakfast opens to a choice of foods and drinks as
well as social comments
 Break time at school opens to a choice of preferred
break activities
 Other than the overall layout of the day, I do not
recommend using the iPad for task analysis (e.g. all
the steps to dressing or undressing or toileting).
 The child cannot hold the device while engaged in
these activities which mean the parent or teacher must
hold it and this is not conducive to eventual
independence.
 Low tech picture strips placed strategically are better
in these situations.
 I want  linked to preferred food vs activity
 The food icon opens to food choices while the activity
icon opens to activity choices
 The activity page may have another link level. E.g. the
child chooses movie and this opens to all the possible
movies s/he could request.
 Toilet: Always on the home page but may be included
on all pages during toilet training
 Model, prompt, model, prompt, model, prompt!
 There are no special strategies to teaching the child to
find what s/he wants.
 Model how to get there. Return to the home page.
Prompt, starting with hand over hand, and decreasing
prompts gradually.
 When the child comes into contact with the reinforcer
s/he will become independent in making one word
requests very quickly.
 Context shots are not available on the Prologquo2Go.
 Children who cannot scan the cells or discriminate
between icons, after a reasonable effort by all, should be
introduced to the Go Talk Now such that they can acquire
contextualized communication skills.
 Contextualized communication via the Go Talk Now
involves taking a photo of the context (e.g. the child’s
prepared snack table) and prompting him/her to choice an
item.
 Each item has been programmed as a hotspot and will
speak a phrase that you enter, such as “I would like an apple
please.”
 Research shows that we all use the form of
communication that is the least effortful (e.g.
acronyms), and results in reinforcement the quickest.
 Some children begin to talk after several opportunities
to request using a voice output device. Do not then
make the child use the device after having made a
verbal request.
 A feature that allows a message to be typed and then
spoken in its entirety.
 Very valuable to children who can read and write.
 A useful tool for sharing information across
environments such as home to school and school to
home.
 Allows the child to share at school such as in circle
time.
Type a message
Sentence is
spoken when
a period is
pressed or
the “speak”
button is
pressed.
 Preferred play-based apps may need to be removed
from the iPad such that it is used as a communication
device and not a toy.
 The device needs to be available at all times or
spontaneous requests cannot emerge. (Siblings
cannot play with it and parents cannot use it for
email.)
 Communication is sending and receiving messages
 Vocabulary are the words that are used in
Communication
 Language is the complex process of rules like
pragmatics (social communication rules), syntax (how
to make a sentence) and morphology (how letters go
together to make words.
 Many children outgrow the Proloquo2go and other
communication apps as their ability to form sentences
grows.
 Best taught in a discrete trial format as much
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repetition may be required.
Kindergarten.com is a great resource
Tact training is an important part of communication
(can’t use an icon to make a request if we don’t know
what the icon represents.)
Start with those words that are the most meaningful to
the child (his/her reinforcers)
Expand out to teaching by class (learns animal words,
people, verbs, etc.)
 Kindergarten.com
 Speech with Milo
 An early English Words Game
 Mayer Johnson
 Learn to Talk
 Taught through modeling and likely some physical
prompts
 Should only be introduced after one word requests are
firmly established.
 Child must have a reasonable number of nouns and
verbs in order to create sentences.
 Phrases can be chunked or individual words each
represented in the sentence.
 Learn to talk
 Zombie Grammar Force
 Tap to Learn
 SAT Grammar
 Not easy to use in all environments.
 Helpful if a task requiring many steps is done in one
location (cooking, academic work)
 iPrompts is picture based prompting app and can
create a schedule or a sequence of tasks.
 Includes a count down timer (helpful if the schedule
includes a reinforcing activity)
 Model me Kids: Going Places
 www.modelmekids.com also has DVD’s of a social
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skills training series.
Quick Cue
Stories2learn
What are they thinking
Hidden Curriculum for Kids
 Letter recognition
 Letter-sound correspondence (more important than
letter recognition) BB Magic; Bob books
 Reading Comprehension
 There is no app available yet that teaches reading as
well as Reading Mastery or Teach your Child to Read in
100 Easy Lessons.
 Abitalk Inc. focuses on reading and math apps
 Also, many apps are found on kindergarten.com
 Teach me: Toddler, Kindergarten, Gr 1
 Super Why
 ABA Match ups
 Intro to Letters (by Montessorium)
 Grasshooperapps.com
 May need to start at the word level with word to object
matching.
 Simple sentences such as Reading Comprehension
Grades k to 1
 Kids Reading Comprehension
 Bob Books
 Number recognition
 Counting
 1:1 Correspondence
 Addition
 Subtraction
 Math facts (fluency)
 Grasshopperapps.com
 Bert’s Bag (counting skills)
 Ace Math Flash Cards (fluency)
 Big Number flashcards (number recognition)
 Number Fiesta (mixed skills)
 Autism Apps
 Autism IHelp
 Continue to check for new and exciting training events
at:
www.kerrysplace.org
&
BEST4Autism.ca