App Review: Basic Concepts Skills Screener

Today is the first day of school for preschool and kindergarten in my district (the older grades start a week earlier than the little ones).  I'm excited to see the little faces!  If you don't know, I work primarily with the little guys - preschool and kindergarten.  At that age, so much of what is worked on in early childhood classrooms is also targeted in speech and language therapy.  I so frequently work on comprehension and use of basic concepts.  Because of that, I was so excited to check out Basic Concepts Skills Screener (BCSS) by Smarty Ears Apps!

This app is designed for single player assessment and has two options - the Full Screening or the Quick Screening. The full screening consists of 79 questions and according to the Smarty Ears website, takes 10-15 minutes to administer. The quick screening has 30 questions and is estimated to take approximately 5 minutes.  I'm planning on use the quick screening as part of my baseline data collection for this year.

As with the other Smarty Ears apps, this one is really easy to navigate! When you first open the app, you need to choose a language.  You can use BCSS in English and Portuguese.  (FUN FACT:  My little corner of the world has a very large Portuguese community and many of the students in my district speak both English and Portuguese!).

Under the "Info" tab, you can view a 20-page manual for the BCSS, watch a Video Tutorial, and learn more about the app and Smarty Ears.

Tap the "Add Student" button and enter the child's Name and Date of Birth:

I administered the Screener to my son (don't judge, you know you've tested/screened your own children before!)  Next you choose the full screening or the quick screening.  In the app description, it's estimated that the full screening takes 10-15 minutes and the quick screening takes about 5 minutes.  I opted to go for the full screening.  My son has good attention, is generally cooperative, and has no speech or language delays.  It did take us closer to 20 minutes and he did need encouragement to keep going.  I wanted to tell you this because, if it took him extra time to finish and he needed breaks/encouragement, your language delayed preschoolers might need the same (or even additional) modifications.

During the screening, the student is shown four pictures and asked to touch one based on a description (e.g., "Touch the balloon that is ABOVE the house"):

Here are a few other examples:

In the upper left hand corner of the screen is a "Notes" tab.  You can click this at any point and add notes for your session:

When you are finished, you can see a list of screens that have been created by student:

You can quickly determine progress by looking at the Raw Scores reported, or you can view a full report of your session.  The report includes a description of the BCSS, the child's number of correct responses, number of items attempted, and overall accuracy level:

 It goes on to list the concepts that were answered correctly and incorrectly as well as those that were skipped.  Next is a breakdown of the student's performance by concept type (e.g., comparative, spatial, temporal, etc.):

There is also a table that depicts the student's mastery of concepts by age level:

And a color coded visual of concepts depicting types that are achieved, emerging, not achieved, and not tested:

And there you have BCSS!  I love screening apps because they're a great way to collect data on your students!  Data is one of the least fun, yet most necessary aspects of our profession.  Many times, the iPad is just motivating enough to get kids to participate in baseline data collection and data collection for progress monitoring.  Working in preschool, I often get students with objectives for following directions and comprehending concepts.  This will be a great way for me to track progress this year!

BCSS can be found in the App Store.  It sells for $14.99.

Do you target basic concepts in your therapy sessions?

Disclaimer:  Smarty Ears provided a copy of BCSS for the purposes of this review. The opinions expressed are mine alone.

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New School Year, New Planner!

Disclaimer:  This post contains an affiliate link to Amazon.com for your convenience.

A little while ago on the blog's Facebook page, I mentioned that I was in the market for a new plan book and asked your suggestions.  I was a little amazed at how different we all are in our wants/needs with respect to a planner!  A few of you told me that you make your own planners.  Hmmm....Since I've never found a planner that I love, and since I'm fairly comfortable with creating things...I decided to go ahead and make one!

I started by figuring out which aspects of a standard planner I use and thinking about how I modified my planner.  When all was said and done, I ended up with a 55 page file!  I shared with a couple of friends and they suggested that I put it out there on TPT for those of you who may be interested.  Here's a rundown of my final version.

I wanted to make a few different options for covers...

Inside, I started with monthly calendar pages.  There are calendar pages for August 2013 through July 2014 plus one blank month in case your school year runs differently than mine!

Next, I wanted a way to visualize my groups for the day and add notes (If you're looking for a simple way to view your weekly schedule, check out one of my posts from last year).  I ended up with 2 pages/day...one for morning, one for afternoon.  I figured I could add my groups and laminate (or use those Dry Erase Pockets) then add in my planned activity with a dry erase marker.

I also wanted to include information on my students, especially their goal and objectives!  I added these student goal and data collection sheets:

You can find out more about the data collection sheets, and download them for free, HERE. What else do I need to keep track of?  How about contact information for parents, a contact log, a to do list, and notes section!  

This part might not make a ton of sense to anyone but me.  You see, I always insisted on buying a planner that had both a month view and a week view.  In the week view section, I would ignore the dates and draw boxes for each type of group (e.g., Preschool Inclusion, Kindergarten Artic, Preschool Language Pull-Out, etc.).  Then, I would add my planned activities to those boxes.  So rather than buy a planner with month/week views, I created these boxes for my planning:

And here's an example of the completed planner pages:

This planner ended up including everything I need in one spot!  However, I started thinking I might end up with a 6-inch binder!  So, I added extra covers if you'd like to keep the data sheets separate from your planning pages.  They coordinate with the plan book covers, but say "Data Book."  

Update:  (7/30/13, 8PM EST)

You asked, I listened!  I just went and updated the planner to include 15 more pages!  It's now at a whopping 70 pages!  Here's what I added per your suggestions:

A list for screenings and evaluations:

 Monthly Sheets for IEPs and Meetings.  (I left the last two columns blank so you can add your own headings...PW completed, Parent contacted, etc.):

Student attendance sheets.  Personally, I would circle the dates the child received therapy, put an X through
holidays and vacations and days absent.  You can use the notes section on the side to more clearly document (e.g. field trip, assembly, etc.)

If you're interested in finding out more about my planner, you can find it in my TPT store!  I will be giving away three copies of the planner.  You can enter to win using the Rafflecopter below!

PS, Let me know if I missed anything!  Also, if you purchase this item now, you'll be able to download all future updates. That means that next year, when I update the calendars, you won't need to pay for the item again.  Just update, print, and go!

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Show Me the Data! Linky

Summer seems to be the time for linkies!  I think our creative juices flow a little more (when we can get the motivation).  I'm loving all the different fun and creative ideas, all in one place!  Today I'm joining up with Jenn from Crazy Speech World for her "Show Me the Data!" Linky.  

Data collection...a necessary evil in our jobs.  I try new methods each year and still haven't found that perfect one.  I started working on some forms the other day and came up with one for student goal information and data collection.  Here's what it looks like:

There are spaces to add the student's name, DOB, teacher, frequency of service, IEP due date, LTG, objectives, and data.  There's another page you can print on the back with more boxes for data collection.  There's a space to keep notes or write anecdotal information on the top.  I think I might print page 2 back to back and continue my data collection on these, then add a new page 1 when IEPs are reviewed.

How do I plan on using them?  Check out this example:

In an ideal world, you'd get data for each objective during each session, but in the school's that's rarely going to happen!  I haven't decided if I want to keep a column for each session or just fill in the blank boxes as I go.  I may end up filling in the blank boxes so I can easily see which objectives need data.

So that's what I'm going to try this year for data collection.  What do you think?  If you'd like to download a copy of these sheets, you can do so HERE.

Thank you Jenn for hosting this linky!  Don't forget to head over to Crazy Speech World to find out more data collection tips and tricks!

Guest Post: Five Things I Wish I'd Known as a New SLP {by Katie of Let's Grow Speech}

Our final guest post of the week was written by Katie Pedersen.  Katie is a full-time mommy, part-time school speech-language pathologist. She has spent most of her time at the secondary school level, and currently works as her district’s assistive technology specialist. She loves living in a beautiful little valley amid the mountains of Utah with her husband and three children, and going on outings with her family. Her newest adventure is sharing her passion for speech-language development with parents and other SLPs on her website, Let’s Grow Speech.  You can also follow her on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

I’m so excited to be joining Carrie for her Blog Birthday! She is a party animal with all of her giveaways this week. It’s so much fun being an SLP. We all remember what it was like to be a newbie, though, trying to figure out the ropes of our profession. There is definitely a learning curve, and I think every SLP would agree that he/she is still learning. For all of you recent graduates, clinical fellows, and maybe even some experienced SLPs, here are the top 5 things I wish I had known as a new SLP: 

1.  Use visuals and other multi-sensory approaches

One of the best things I learned as a new SLP was the importance of using visual supports and other multi-sensory approaches in therapy. Visuals are an excellent way to support learning. Concepts stick with students better when they are paired with a visual, tactile, or auditory cue. I recently shared one of my favorite visual supports for scaffolding narrative interventions. I also use visuals to encourage articulation skills with my sound association cards.

For my students with autism, I encourage the use of visual schedules and reinforcers to provide structure and foster independence. I have even implemented some of these strategies with my preschool daughter to help with her morning routine and managing iPad time. My poor kiddos always have their mom using therapy techniques on them at home :)

2. Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate

You are surrounded by experienced professionals. Use them as a resource. One of my best mentors was a special education language arts teacher. I used a push-in model during her resource English class. We had a room full of unmotivated high schoolers who were supposed to be reading novels and writing essays, but who would’ve rather been playing video games or sleeping on their desks. I learned so much as I watched this teacher carefully select literature that would appeal to this group and scaffold writing assignments so they didn’t even realize they were writing  5-paragraph essays until they were done. After I had done a vocabulary or narrative activity with the class, I would return for my next session to find her reinforcing the concepts I had taught earlier in the week. It was brilliant! Some teachers are more willing to work with you than others, but don’t be afraid to suggest a more collaborative approach to therapy. I know it is not always feasible or best to use this type of push-in model, but there is always something to learn and to be learned between professionals. Many teachers just don’t understand what we do in our closet space and this is our chance to show them.

3.  Take meaningful data

Ah, data. I still don’t think I am a pro at this, but I have definitely learned a few things along the way. For my first few years, I frequently switched my approach to keeping data. Some worked better than others, but none of them were super efficient. I would spend hours transferring plus and minus signs from piles of sticky notes to therapy logs, and then when it was time for progress reports, I spent hours transferring information from therapy logs into progress reports. Luckily I had all the time in the world to stay at work until 6pm every night! I most recently discovered an organized, visual way to monitor progress using Excel spreadsheets, but then my coworker shared an awesome datatracker app she downloaded from Super Duper that essentially does the same thing with even less paperwork! It is $1.99 and well worth every cent. She is even able to email progress to parents as needed.

So when should you take data? I also struggled with this one. I like to approach therapy sessions with the “I do, we do, you do” model. First, I teach and model the target concept. Then, we practice the concept together. Finally, I have the student demonstrate his proficiency with the concept. This is when I take data.  

4.  Make sure the student knows the goal for each therapy session.

Give the what and the why at the beginning of each session. Identify your goal for the session and give the student a reason to accomplish it. Will it help him to communicate better with his friends? Will it help him to write an A+ book report that he can be proud of?  When the student is struggling with motivation, you can remind him why you are doing what you doing. Too often I would go through therapy without giving my students a reason to care.

5.  Have fun and be creative

One reason I love being a speech-language pathologist is because I can get away with doing silly, unexpected things. I can guarantee that you will have your student’s full attention if you show up dressed as a Dumbledore for your Harry Potter unit (yes, I actually did this) or be sitting under the table when they show up for their social skills group. Use technology if you have it. Teachers Pay Teachers is a goldmine for motivating activities to use in therapy. Let your students know that you are enjoying therapy and they will enjoy it too!

So… what do you wish you’d known as a new SLP? 

Thank you, thank you, Katie!  This is great information for new (and even experienced) SLPs! I know I'm continually striving for a better/more efficient means of data collection!  Katie also donated one of her Let's Grow Articulation books for my BIG giveaway!  You will definitely want to check out these amazing resources!

App Review & Giveaway: SpeechCards

Are you always on the the look out for great and affordable apps that you can use for therapy?  Then you may want to check out SpeechCards Pro  by RWH Technology ($4.99 in the App Store).  The app developer refers to SpeechCards as a "flashcards app for improving speech and language skills."

SpeechCards comes with four card decks:  Animals, Food, Initial /p/, and CVC words.  Each card deck includes 10 cards, for a total of 40.  Here's a screenshot of the list of cards in the Animals deck.

But the best thing about this app is that cards and decks are customizable.  You can add cards to the existing decks (up to 20 cards/deck) and also add your own decks (up to 24).  I decided to add a deck of thematic vocabulary words.  Since we are entering fall, here's my "Fall Vocabulary" deck.  It's very simple to create a new deck.  From the screen seen in the top image, I selected the Pencil icon ("Customize").  From there you will see a screen like that above, simply select "Add Deck" from the bottom of the screen. You then give your deck a name and click "Done."

Now it's time to add cards.  See the green plus sign on the right side?  It's as simple as that!  Then tap the gray box to insert a picture.  You then can choose a photo from your camera roll.  Because this is the only option at this point, you will need to take photos using the camera function or upload from Google images prior to creating cards.  (For more info on uploading photos from Google images, check out this post.)

Choose a picture and give it a name.  Then tap the microphone to record speech for the card.  This is the sound that will play when the student touches the card during your session.

Here you can see a list of words that I included in my Fall Vocabulary deck...

Here's the biggest problem I ran into...When adding photos to cards, you are given the editing option of rotating the photo, but not of resizing.

For some reason, I had a couple of pictures that were too large for the box.  I'm not sure why this happened, but I don't think kids can name an acorn if they can't see the whole thing!

Using SpeechCards in Therapy:

SpeechCards allows you to add up to 12 students for data collection purposes.  Click the little blue guy labeled "Students" from the bottom of the welcome screen.  Here you will see a list of students you have already input, plus the option of "Add Student."  From this screen, select the students who will be playing during your session.

Next, select the card deck(s) you wish to use during the session (Yes, you can choose more than one!), and hit "Play."

Here you can select a player.  You do need to manually change players.  Once a card pops up, you can tap the microphone to record a child's response.  Once a response is recorded, a play button will appear next to the microphone.  Tapping this will play back a child's response.  Tapping on the picture will play the desired response (The pre-loaded cards come with pre-recorded responses, if you created your own card, this is where you will hear your recording).  This is very helpful for children who are self-monitoring articulation!  Did you notice the data collection marks on the right?  Another great feature!  You can give a child full credit (check), no credit (X), or partial credit (≈ ).   I love apps that allow for partial credit in data collection!

When you are finished, tap "End Session" in the upper left corner.  You will be shown accuracy percentages for each student.  You can then "Keep" the data and add it to the child's profile, or "Discard" the data.

When you do "Keep" the data, you can create reports for each child stored in the app.  The Session Summary Reports will show you an overall percentage for each session.

You can select a session for more detailed information (e.g., which words the child got correct/incorrect, the number of responses for each).  Notice how the audio saves as well!  With this, you can  play back the child's responses from the reports!  Why I like this feature:  I can share responses with parents/teachers!

The Pros:

• Customization - I love customizable apps!  You can create decks for just about any target:  thematic vocabulary initial /s/, categories, antonyms, synonyms, sight words, etc.  You could even create a deck of all the students in a class so that a child with social language can learn the names of his/her peers.
• The pictures are great.  Using real-life photos makes learning vocabulary more concrete.  Google images plus your iPad camera function allow for endless possibilities
• Data collection!  Need I say more?  
• Record feature - Did I mention that in the Session Summary reports, if you had recorded the child's responses, it will allow you to replay from the report?

The Cons:

• Adding images - there is no image resize feature (see Acorn picture above).
• Limit of 12 students - I don't know about you, but my caseload is larger than 12!!!  I would love to see this expanded in a future update.

The Bottom Line:

         The Pros far outweigh the Cons!  SpeechCards is a must-have app for SLPs.  The
         customization will allow you to use the app to work on just about any target.  You will
         definitely get lots and lots of use out of this app!


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Disclaimer:  Robert from RWH Technology provided me with a code for this app review and another for the giveaway but the opinions are, as always, my own.

Back to School Week: App Review

As part of Back to School Week, today I will be reviewing "What Would You Do at SCHOOL If...," a Fun Deck app by Super Duper Publications.  This is essentially the app version of the Fun Deck card series.  You can input the students on your caseload, then select which ones will be playing during your session.

I haven't added kids yet, so my list is lacking!

 You can also select the questions that will be asked during your session.  You can choose to use all of the questions, or just a few.  I opted to use five questions for my trial.

When you're ready, you will be shown a colorful picture with a common school problem.  If you tap on the picture, the question will be read aloud.  The app allows for data collection as well.  Tap the red dot at the bottom for an incorrect response, the green button for a correct response.

It took me a little while to figure out how to change players, but if you swipe the top bar (where the player name is listed), the player name will change.  The app will keep data for multiple players.

Once your session is finished, you can "View Results" and instantly see data for each of the players.

There is also the option of creating a data report in email form.

 

What I like about this app:

• The questions are great for problem solving, pragmatic language, and expressive language.
• The questions and situations presented are perfect for students on the autism spectrum.  They will allow students to come up with strategies to deal with the situations depicted.
• The pictures are colorful and clear.
• The questions are based on common issues that may occur in a school setting.
• Data collection!  I love apps that allow for data collection!
• Multiple player option.  Many apps are single player, and I typically work with groups of students      rather than one on one.

Areas for improvement:

• I love the data collection idea, but, let's face it, many of our kids will respond with answers that are not quite right, but not quite wrong.  I'd love to see a middle ground (maybe an "Oh so close!" button).  
• The data from your previous session will disappear as soon as you start a new session.  I'd love to be able to "View Students" rather than just "Edit Students" and see a graph or table of their performance.

I had a hard time coming up with many negatives for this app.  Overall, it's a great app that brings more motivation and functionality (with the data collection piece) to the traditional Fun Decks.  Super Duper definitely has a hit with the Fun Deck app line.  You can purchase "What Would You Do at SCHOOL If..." in the App Store for $1.99 (price accurate as of this posting).

Tomorrow is the last day of Back to School Week.  Stop by for activities and printables for "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books"