Exceptional apps for exceptional people
  • Home
  • Our Apps
    • FTVSHD: First Then HD
    • Scene Speak
    • Visual Schedule Planner
    • First Then Visual Schedule
  • FAQ
    • Video Tutorials
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

More Than A Feeling: Increasing Verbal Reporting and Receptive Recognition of Emotions Using My Choice Board

8/14/2013

1 Comment

 
If you're working on self-awareness and emotional recognition/regulation, try using our My Choice Board app to allow the individual to express how they are feeling. This is beneficial in two ways - it helps increase the individual's ability to self-report feelings and moods while also giving you much-needed insight as to how they are feeling. 

Implementation is simple - You can either use images of the individual or find generic images (if the individual is good at generalizing) online to use. Once you have your choice board created with all of your desired images, allow the individual to choose from the field (which can be as large or small as you'd like). 

This can be incredibly effective for grumpy morning risers, individuals who have medical/pain issues, and pinpointing environmental triggers/stressors.
Picture
Create a choice board with a title that reflects its purpose. Make sure to be as clear as possible, as the board itself will need to be slightly modified to suit this type of use.
Picture
If you are working with an individual that has a tough time generalizing, try using your finger or a small piece of paper to cover the "I Want" graphic. Then, prompt the individual to choose from the field by asking "How do you feel?" Tailor the emotional complexity to the individual's level of understanding.
1 Comment

Levels of Friendship & Bullying

7/22/2013

1 Comment

 
Discussing Levels of Friendship and Bullying:

Scene Speak can be used to create social stories and other exercises that address the issue of bullying. This is an important issue for many of our younger individuals (and adults too, in some situations). 

The concept of "levels of friendship" is hard for many individuals to understand. Sometimes the most damaging bullying occurs in less obvious scenarios. Teaching these individuals how to advocate for themselves, when to report a situation to adults/higher authorities, and the difference between "acquaintance," "friend," and "toxic person" can help protect the individual from emotional and/or physical harm in the future.

Picture
Use caps to create emphasis on the concept being taught/expressed.
Picture
Use images that clearly convey the desired target emotion.
Picture
Focus on real-life scenarios that the individual may face.
Picture
Use a variety of images to accentuate the theme being discussed.
1 Comment

Surviving Vacation Transitions

7/20/2013

3 Comments

 
Summer Trip Survivial Tip:

If you're taking a big trip to a theme park or other large area requiring many transitions this summer, try using our apps to alleviate some of the stress involved in changing activities. 

Scene Speak can be used to give your loved one complete visual access to the entire facility/area, and hotspots can be created to allow them to have input over where you go next and what comes next. Simply label the desired area with a hotspot, make several "places" available, and allow the user to touch the space they wish to visit next. This will foster an excitement and involvement in the chosen activity, and give them the power of choice during an activity.

Picture
Easily upload a map into the app, add hotspots, even link to another VSD of individual places within the theme park.

You can also simplify it for an individual who may already be familiar with the vacation spot by using My Choice Board to offer them a choice between activities, rides, etc. To avoid indecision, it may be helpful to offer one preferred and non-preferred place. That way, the individual still feels they are having a "say" in the day's activities, and pictures can be taken and used quickly.

Picture
Create an individual choice board with rides, restaurants, etc.
Picture
Give the individual as many or as few choices as they are able to use.

For lunchtime, toileting, and any other shorter activity, First Then Visual Schedule can be used to create a step by step guide for your loved one to know exactly what is coming next within a specific activity. For users who are good at generalizing, you can also use the app to plan out each activity beforehand, and offer choices (or even a video of a rollercoaster or other applicable activity) to further enhance the experience/choice making. 

Picture
FTVS HD can be used to compliment the other two apps by providing an outline for the day's events & activities.
Picture
Try to create a schedule that is clear, contains all possible events in the day (including toileting and meals), and has an ending/departure time.
3 Comments

Potty Training/Prompting Using FTVS HD

7/17/2013

1 Comment

 
Potty Training/Prompting Tip:

Make toilet training/toilet reminders fun by using our First Then Visual Schedule app as a reinforcement tool. Take a picture of a toilet or other symbol and another of a highly preferred object (food, fidget, activity, etc.) Use the split screen mode to display them, and turn the labels on in the Settings menu (remember, these label names can be customized in FTVS HD). This will show the user that they must first use the toilet before they can have/do the preferred photo, working toward future toileting independence! Since it's fully portable, you can take it with you on public outings and long trips, making generalization to public toileting facilities much easier.
Picture
Create a two-step schedule for your toileting reinforcement First/Then chart.
Picture
In User Mode, view the chart in Split Screen View.
Picture
Add a choice board to the reward/reinforcement step with a variety of preferred/highly motivating choices.
Picture
When the choice is made, the chosen reinforcer will flip around and become the second step in the schedule.
Picture
You can change the "First" and "Then" labels to reflect your preferred wording/language. You can access this feature in the Settings Menu.
1 Comment

Doctor's Visits - Tell Me Where it Hurts

7/10/2013

0 Comments

 
Taking your loved one to the doctor can be especially difficult when he/she is unable to let the doctor know how they are feeling. 

Scene Speak can be an excellent tool to use in order to afford your loved one the ability to express what is happening within their body, and to let the doctor know "where it hurts." 

There are a couple of ways that you can accomplish this. The first would be to use one of the preloaded templates within the app itself to create hotspots that label individual body parts. You can also add a picture of your own as its own VSD, and label your loved one's actual body parts to make it even more personalized for them (this works especially well when you're working with someone who may have a hard time generalizing). 

Scene Speak is one of many ways that Good Karma Apps has available to help you give your loved one back their voice. =)

Picture
Use one or many VSDs in order to create a visual for body parts identification/pain reporting.
Picture
Scene Speak comes preloaded with templates for a boy, girl, man, and woman.
Picture
Other templates can easily be found by using the Internet Search feature when choosing an image.
Picture
A full picture of the individual can be used as well, with multiple hotspots added to identify body parts when touched.
Picture
When the app is set to Playing Mode, hotspots will activate as sound, popup text, or both when the hotspot is touched.
0 Comments

Timed Prompt Steps as "Place Holders"

7/8/2013

0 Comments

 
Do you need to add in a timed prompt/break between steps in your schedule using First Then Visual Schedule HD? 

Try adding a "holding step" between regular steps in your existing schedule, then attaching a timer for the length of time that you desire for the prompting step. You can add in an audio prompt of your choice (voice, etc.) to "alert" the user and remind them to stay on task.

When your schedule plays out, they will have an extra "step" in between regular schedule items to bring them back to the task at hand. This is effective for those individuals may need a small break between steps to redirect them to their schedule.

Picture
Choose an existing schedule to add place holder steps, when extra prompting to complete tasks is desired.
Picture
Place holder steps can have any title or image you desire. Whatever works to motivate the individual to move to the next step in the schedule.
Picture
Once your place holder image and sound have been saved, switch to User Mode and enable timers using the Options Tray.
Picture
Place holder steps only need to be long enough to prompt the individual to move to the next step. Make sure to consider this when recording your audio.
0 Comments

Teaching Appropriate Dress For Weather

7/7/2013

1 Comment

 
Teaching Appropriate Dress For Weather:

There are many reasons an individual may not be able to dress themselves appropriately for the weather. Sensory aversion to certain fabrics, lack of body awareness, etc. can all contribute to an individual's inability to properly dress according to the weather outside. Here are a few suggestions that may help - while also teaching the individual how to dress comfortably for hot, cold, and/or inclement weather.

Scene Speak can be used to create social stories about different types of weather. Hotspots can be added with text or speech that further enhance the story. Read along text can also be added to each VSD in order to make the story even more dynamic.

Picture
Create a book of clothing descriptors, or build your own social story.
Picture
Add details about the types of clothing available during certain weather, and the function of accessories.

Our My Choice Board app can be used to quickly get images and display them efficiently for the app user to choose their own initial outfit. 
Picture
Create a choice board with a variety of different clothing types, or multiple choices within the same category, depending on the ability of the individual.
Picture
Make sure all choices within the choice board are available and appropriate.

For those individuals who already use First Then Visual Schedule (HD) for dressing schedules, adding in a choice board - for example, "Put on shirt" could flip to a field of several choices, long and short sleeved...or "Put on pants" could flip to a choice board containing both shorts and long pants - can afford the individual the opportunity to learn how to gauge what should be worn according to the weather outside. Further prompting can be used to promote the environmental awareness necessary to gauge for themselves what articles of clothing should be worn in different types of weather.
Picture
If the individual cannot offer input on their entire outfit, try targeting one specific clothing item.
Picture
Include up to eight different choices within the category per choice board. You can choose to include options for the clothing item itself, or weather-based choices.



We strive to provide apps that are as multi-dimensional as our hopes and dreams for our loved ones. =)

1 Comment

    Good Karma Apps

    "We create ecxeptional mobile technology to empower individuals leading exceptional lives."

    Archives

    May 2020
    November 2018
    October 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    May 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    February 2014
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Categories

    All
    4th Of July
    Academics
    Anniversary
    App Uses
    Autism
    Bills
    Birthday
    Body Parts
    Bullying
    Camping
    Campus
    Chart
    Choices
    Chores
    Clothing
    Communication
    Cooking
    Doctors
    Dressing
    Emotions
    Executive Functioning
    Family
    Finances
    First Then Visual Schedule Hd
    Free Time
    Friends
    Friendship
    Ftvs Hd
    Greetings
    Health
    Holidays
    Home
    Hotspots
    Hygiene
    Identifiers
    Independence
    Labels
    Lanuage Arts Concepts
    Maps
    Math Concepts
    Meals
    Money
    My Choice Board
    Outings
    Pain
    Personal Safety
    Prompting
    Reading
    Recall
    Recreation
    Repetitive Behaviors
    Road Trips
    Safety
    Scene Speak
    School
    Scrapbook
    Self Awareness
    Self Help
    Shopping
    Social Skills
    Special Events
    Stimming
    Stories
    Stranger Danger
    Study
    Teachers
    Theme Parks
    Therapy
    Toileting
    Touching
    Transitions
    Travel
    Update
    Vacation
    Video Modeling
    Visual Schedule Planner
    Vocation
    Weather
    Work Ethic

    RSS Feed

Our Apps

FTVS HD: First Then Visual Schedule
First Then Visual Schedule 
Visual Schedule Planner
Scene Speak


Contact Us

Questions or Issues? - Uservoice Tutorials

About Us

Our Story
  • Home
  • Our Apps
    • FTVSHD: First Then HD
    • Scene Speak
    • Visual Schedule Planner
    • First Then Visual Schedule
  • FAQ
    • Video Tutorials
  • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog
  • Contact Us