Bubcaps

Bubcaps are a great way to stop kids pushing the home button when they want to get out of what app they are using. Some students are also learning to stim on the button, opening and closing apps.
Bubcaps come in 3 different rigidities each level of rigidity making it harder to press the button.
At Sommerville we are trialling to most rigid and finding it works a treat, however, it also makes it hard for an adult to press too. So maybe a less rigid one would suffice.

Finger Flick Rugby

Finger Flick Rugby - Free

This is a fun little cause/effect app, especially during the Rugby World Cup going on.
Quite simply...you flick your finger in the direction you want the ball to go and try to kick it through the goal posts. As a bit of extra fun you can choose to kick a watermelon which splats when it hits a wall.
Lots of fun..

Conversation Builder

$8.29
This is a nice little app from the makers of 'Sentence Builder' , 'Language Builder' and so on.
In this app students get to study pictures and choose from conversation starters that relate to the pictures. They can also record themselves saying the sentences and play it back to themselves to get that reinforcement.

Puppet pals

This is a fantastic app! Students can create their own puppet plays using template characters and backgrounds or they can use their own photos of people and scenes around home or school. You then move the characters around the stage and the app records everything being spoken and records it as a movie. This has been really successful in encouraging interaction and conversation skills, also sequencing and planning stories.

3 good apps

Here are 3 great apps from the same company. I particularly like the Pre-school farm animals one as it is free and totally adaptable.

All 3 apps have a similar format where you can choose sets of pictures to show on the screen and a verbal prompt asks you to find a particular picture. You can control how many pictures at a time are presented, how it reacts to wrong choices.

The best part is that you can take your own photos directly with the iPad camera and then record your own verbal prompt for it. You can also record your own verbal reinforcements when they get it correct.

In this way it can be totally adapted for any theme.

Everyday Maths, Monster Squeeze

Simple but really motivating app. This gets up to 2 players to guess a number between 0 and 10. The monster then moves his tentacles in to narrow the choice if you get it wrong. Uses language 'smaller', 'larger than' and is great for turn taking.

Skype

With the iPad2 now out we are finding uses for the built in cameras. We are starting to use the Skype App to help with our communication skills. Students are very motivated to use the iPad and are finding talking to others on the screen less intimidating or stressful. It's a great way to bring the school together too!