Storytelling 2.0

We have a new app for the IPad that I just have to tell you about.   It is pretty fracken cool.

It is called Stories 2 Learn, and it has become something of a rage in the IPad/IPhone special-needs scene.  It is a social stories program that allows you to create stories to teach concepts like sharing and cooperation with pictures from the child's own life, or to provide preparation for something new coming up.  I am not using it for social stories (yet!), but rather to create stories with pictures about J-man's day or about the people in his life as a mode for conversation for us.  I have made two stories up to this point, one with simple pictures of family members so we can talk about Mommy, Daddy, Papa and Mumu, etc etc, and the other one is about what we do at OT. 

Here is a video of J-man scrolling through the A Day at OT story.  Usually I would be commenting about the pictures (trying to get a little conversation going), but in this video I wanted to just show how it worked. 



As you can see, you can put your own pictures, text and voiceover in the story.  How cool is that?

My Birthmas Present

I turn 40 on Wednesday. 

Forty.

4-Teeeee.

*sigh*

Anyhow, the greatest Hubby in the world and the greatest Grandma-Mumu  & Grandpa-Papa in the world got together and got me the coolest gift ever!

Yes, my very own iPad!

I had a hard week so they revealed it a little early.  I have been jonesing for an iPad for quite a while.  It just has so many cool features that we can totally use around here... surf the web from the couch, watch movies on a long car ride, play games, etc etc.  Yes, it is a toy.  But, to be honest, I don't have a lot of toys. Also, the iPad also offers A LOT for kids with special needs like my little J-man.  Shannon Des Roches Rosa and Robert Rummel-Hudson offer a great commentary on the impact of the iPad for kids with special needs.

So it is a toy I can feel pretty good about all around.  It is for me AND the J-man.  Guilt assuaged.

That is, if he could figure out how to use it..... Hmmmmm

J-man has shown limited interest in the computer up until now.  Recently he discovered the joys of YouTube, but just enjoyed watching and didn't show interest in trying to use the computer in any other way.  The idea of the mouse alluded him.  He just wasn't ready which is ok because he is only three and a half.

But what about the iPad? 

Allow me to present J-man's iPad skills. 

Game One:  My First Word



In this game, he moves jumbled letters on top of each letter in the word.  When the word is done, the graphic of the word "dances"

Game Two:  Talking Santa



A pure game.  You hit buttons to have Santa do different things (or have things happen to Santa).  Try to ignore the sociopathic joy he gets from assaulting Santa with a snowball, and notice how he follows my directions and shows shared enjoyment. 

At this point I have owned it about 12 hours. 

J-man's time to learn it:  5 minutes.