Princess+Technology

Technology

Fidget toy site. Groups by categories such as alerting, calming, silent, and touchy. http://www.therapyshoppe.com/therapy/fidget-toys-8/

Blog about assistive technology: "Learn about assistive technology for people with reading disabilities, low vision, blindness and other disabilities that make reading, writing and other tasks difficult. Written by someone who uses assistive technology to read and write." http://bdmtech.blogspot.com/2011/12/ios-5-tip-look-up-any-word.html?m=1

Here is a link for parents on pencil grips. This video is presented as if it is for teachers, but parents should know that these are available for their child. This can be useful when working on writing at home with your child. Pencil Grips are a simple type of assistive technology that can help your child write, and the more they are able to practice the stronger they can become. http://youtu.be/9RQBAn-bhOU Here is some information on speech to text and text to speech. This will give you some insight on literacy help that can be useful to your child. Sometimes it is hard to now all the things available for your child. This tells you a little bit about different software, and what you should ask professionals for help. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/education/09tech-t.html

A fabulous not for profit company that produces open software and hardware tools that facilitate switch access to electronic device for people with mobility impairments.
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Review of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Apps from the Apple iTunes app store.

Five communication apps Proloquo2go, OneVoice AAC, My First AAC, Sonoflex, and See.Touch.Learn.

Proloquo2go [] OneVoice AAC [] My First AAC [] Sono Flex [] See.Touch.Learn. []
 * Comes with 3 different English voices (American, British, and Indian)
 * Comes for iPhone, iPod, and iPad
 * 7,000 items
 * Does not use Wi-Fi or 3G
 * Recommended for children and adults
 * Cost $189.99
 * 22 languages
 * iPad and iPhone
 * 100 custom made icons
 * Vocabulary focused on children
 * Choose your own photos
 * Rated +17 because of the cost
 * Cost $199.99
 * Child voices
 * For the iPad
 * 250 words and phrases
 * Designed for toddlers and for preschoolers
 * Create custom icons
 * Larger icons for children with motor skill deficits
 * Animated icons that are based on sign language
 * Cost $24.99
 * 5 English voices
 * iPhone, iPod, and iPad
 * With 1 download it will run on any of the devices above
 * 11,000 symbols
 * 50 premade context vocabularies
 * Create your own symbols from photos
 * Cost $99.99
 * iPad
 * Thousands of picture cards
 * 60 exercises
 * Create custom lessons
 * Build custom picture cards
 * Designed for students with special needs
 * Cost Free

Teaching PECs Another alternative communication device is the PECs system. These YouTube videos explain how to teach students to use PECs in the classroom. PECs are a lot cheaper to use and also easier to replace than an iPad and the apps that go with it. But the draw back of PECs is they take up a lot more space.

Phase 1 of teaching students to use PECs []

Phase 2 of teaching students to use PECs []

I Am going to show you snap shots on how to change your speech options from a Mac: Open your system preferences: http://screencast.com/t/skRnFJ7TZFNM Click on the microphone icon that says speech: http://screencast.com/t/mSbnz1LYQbu The click the Speech recognition: http://screencast.com/t/glNbDr3r25 Change and test any preferences to suite your child. Then go back to the text to speech and change the setting you want there. Like the voice type and what keys to press to start the text to speech. http://screencast.com/t/AFXdQ7OU6 Hopefully this will help you and your child to change speech preferences on a Mac.
 * MAC USERS:**

PC Users (WINDOWS 7) How to step up text to speech for Windows 7 PCs. []