AccessAbility Smyles

This is supporting information for the recent webinar on “Assistive Technology and The Dyslexic learner” done with the British Dyslexia Association about helping parents use Assistive Technology in the home and at school. 2,000 people signed up for the webinar and we had over 1,000 people on the call – Amazing! I featured this event on my weekly Podcast listen to it here:-

Episode 31 – Parents in Lockdown

Below is a resource bank to find useful apps and websites that can help you during this time of lockdown. I have also included a teaching plan for those home schooling who would like some fresh ideas to use. Just keep scrolling!

Here is a list of apps you might find helpful with the links to finding them and how much they cost:-

Apps for Dyslexia

Clicker – free access to parents at home during Coronavirus

https://www.cricksoft.com/uk/clicker/clicker-at-home

AppWriter – (£free 30 day trial) – suite of tools from text to speech to speech recognition and word prediction. Works on all platforms.

https://www.wizkids.co.uk/private/appwriter

Lightkey (£free – basic but check that you can still use it after 30 days!)

https://www.lightkey.io/

ReadWrite - £27.99 - customisable fonts, backgrounds, word prediction, dictionary 

https://apps.texthelp.com/

Claro ScanPen £9.99 (iOS and Android) - reads text taken by inbuilt camera 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/id994933713

Claro Speak Plus -£9.99 (iOS and Android)– word prediction, OCR and text to speech 

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/clarospeak-plus/id845128025?mt=8

One Note – £free - part of Office 365  

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/microsoft-onenote/id410395246?mt=8

Popplet Lite – £free simple mind mapping  

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/popplet-lite/id364738549?mt=8

Puzzles

Memorama (free) – pairs game to encourage matching and visual memory

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/memorama-pairs-game-free/id526728411?mt=12

My Own Puzzle(free) – create a jigsaw for up to 12 pieces using your photos

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-own-puzzle-kids-app/id636443362?mt=8

Magic Puzzle (free) – up to 600 piece puzzle !!

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/magic-jigsaw-puzzles/id439873467?mt=8

Jigidi (free) play and make puzzles with other people as well onlne

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/jigidi/id878587596?mt=8

Cut the Rope (£free) – physics type game encouraging problem solving

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cut-the-rope/id1024506959

Gears logic puzzles (£Free- iOS and Android) – hours of fun making the cog wheels turn – another physics problem solving game!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gears-logic-puzzles/id1277048602

Flow Free (£free – iOs & Android) – mathmatical problem solving and highly addictive make the colours connect around the screen.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flow-free/id526641427

Sensory Integration – Reaction time

Tap the Frog(free) – progressive game of reaction and eye hand co-ordination skills

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tap-the-frog-doodle/id427774127?mt=8

Laybrinth2HD(£7.99) – rolling ball bearing using accelerometer

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/labyrinth-2-hd/id307758975?mt=8

Organisation

Google Keep ( free) keep notes, lists in a coloured tile

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/google-keep-notes-and-lists/id1029207872?mt=8

Visual Schedule Planner ( £14.99) use photos to plan your timetable

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/visual-schedule-planner/id488646282?mt=8

Timetable 2 weeks(free) plan a schools 2 week timetable

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/timetable-2-weeks/id914282051?mt=8

Art/Painting/Drawing

Paper (free -with in app purchases) draw and paint with colour wash

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/paper-by-fiftythree/id506003812?mt=8

Brushes Redux (free) – app used by David Hockney

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/brushes-redux/id932089074?mt=8

Colorfy (free -with in app purchases) for those who like adult colouring in

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/colorfy-colouring-art-book/id1009442510?mt=8

Music

Air Harp £0.99) play notes under the strings of a harp

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/air-harp/id364524199?mt=8

Figure (free) create rap and hip hop beats – everything sounds good on this creative tol

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/figure-make-music-beats/id511269223?mt=8

Social Stories

Book Creator One (free) only one book though

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/book-creator-one/id661166101?mt=8

Puppet Pals HD (free) – make up social stories – good for dialogue and creativity

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/puppet-pals-hd/id342076546?mt=8

Puppet Pals 2 (£free) – create stories using historical characters as well as yourself.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/puppet-pals-2/id589141096

Teaching Plans for 12 weeks session

Session	Teaching Points
Guess the animal	Recognise different animals by sharing drawings
Bike Ride	Follow photos and videos about journeys and choices
Maths	Aerobics was a hit. Look at part and whole. Found part and whole in Oak Academy content
Science (& Music)	Guess the material game https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z6kdwty Looking at materials and the natural world under a visualiser. Songtime : “Let it Go” mime to the song as well as sing it. “ I want to be like you.” (Jungle Book) Have some instruments to demonstrate sounds – name game.
English – story writing	Kims Game – 10 objects to see and guess which one is taken away – use the visualiser Storybird – writing a story about a dinosaur who was sad… Why was he sad? What can happen to cheer him up? Artful Storytelling Make up a song about him . Sing “ If your happy and you know it”
Time Capsule	Going to do a writing exercise from Twinkl that may be of interest about writing/drawing to your future self https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/coronavirus-time-capsule-resource-pack-t-tp-2549605
Geography	Only Leo & Maia so concentrated on drawing and pictionary game to start with Located where they are . Looking from different perspective – Google Earth – and seeing where I live and where Colin & Ann live in Edinburgh
Arts & Craft	Make something together using simple materials. Leading each step of the way Find a task using paper or card. Glue and scissors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob50DirreGY Strips of coloured paperStrawsToilet roll paperGlue – PVA or Pritt or UHUScissors
Textured Treasure Hunt (Frottage)	Continuing the Art Theme we will be using Oak Academy on the following link :- https://www.thenational.academy/year-3/foundation/texture-treasure-hunt-year-3-wk4-5# Needed:- A4 Blank PaperPencilsCrayonsBlack felt tip marker ( optional)
Maths	To recognize parts that are equal and parts that are not https://classroom.thenational.academy/lessons/to-recognise-parts-that-are-equal-and-parts-that-are-unequal/ Activity songsKim’s Game
History	Find something out of horrible histories that we can exploreObject/subject from the era. To describe and discuss how it was used. Show a photo of it. Research it. Horrible HistoriesSeries 3 Episode 4Stuarts, Middle Ages, Romans,https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011qmrz/horrible-histories-series-3-episode-4 Hygiene : Why did poor people not wash in the middle ages? Hygiene timeline https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HH_zuJbxu33K5TdXhjhjvJ2weEs05jB7oBtjz4huY-w/edit?usp=sharing Pinterest – Hygienehttps://pin.it/1kQVZ4X
Myths & Legends	Classic fairy tales and more unusual local ones SWGF: learning website and another schools site – not sure what it is called. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOkFxTq2uf8 Myths and Legendshttp://myths.e2bn.org/ “The Gurt Wurm”http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/view_myth.php?id=1852

*Alphasmart DANA – an portable writing tool from the 1990*s

Typing and writing on an Alphasmart Dana :-

” So I discovered this in my storage that I had an old Dana which I used in the old days for meetings. The battery has gone. So if I were to resurrect it it would not work. So what use would it be now. This device must be 16 years old +. I love the keyboard so easy to type with. Well spaced and resposive keys. I do make fewer mistakes..

Using a USB cable they are good for support assistants and for colloabrative work. The support aassistants can make notes for the students or communicate to a deaf student discretely as it just types. The pupil can use it to write with another student in real-time . They can do joint projects with it and write directly to the screen,

Finally, I can try using the send button to send to a PC/Chromebook/ Android device. I think that will work. If it transfers into this article it will work. It did!”

Testimonies

“1’d like to give a shout out to Myles Pilling, BA,M.Ed. and encourage anyone who needs training and support around assistive tech to reach out to him directly. was lucky enough to have several hours of training with Myles thanks to my Access to Work grant. Myles’ training though? Well, it was closer to coaching than training. He didn’t assume. He asked me to show him what I did so he could offer refinements and tweaks.

But the most important thing Myles did was question why I was doing what I was doing; what was the benefit, why was it needed, and if it was what was the most effective way of doing it? No more ‘stick a tech plaster on a Luddite broken leg’ – instead Myles helped me work most effectively with my tech, by helping me figure out when and how I needed it. The absolute best bit? Thanks to working with Myles, I never ever need to do filing again.

Seriously. Never.

Myles helped me set up a system that I would likely never have discovered without him, that allows my work to be recorded and autosaved without a single follow up step.” Leah , Consultant , Search for Serenity

“Accessibility Smyles continues to serve up timely information about the latest and best technology for individuals with unique needs. Always pleased to receive these helpful resources with related links. I share them with parents, educators and others who serve the many with reading and learning challenges. (Thank you, Myles!)” – Jean

“I’ve known Myles for many years, he’s my go-to expert for all this Accessibility, so much so that he’s our resident expert at Anderton Tiger Radio. Whenever we feature this topic he’s always there with excellent advice and guidance, in fact you can listen to him again here from our January radio show https://www.buzzsprout.com/695014/2586430-myles-pilling-talks-about-technologies-for-send-that-have-caught-his-eye-at-bett-2020 Highly recommended, Myles is most definitely one of the top 5 experts in his field in the UK” – Russell Prue, Anderson Tiger

“After one of your recent training sessions, I visited your Techsavvy session and discovered the virtual tour guides. A a result my husband and I enjoyed a splendid trip to Edinburgh. A city I have avoided for a number of years due to its challenges for a wheelchair user due to its very steep streets and cobbles. I think the sessions you have posted are really good and I hoped you would be happy if I suggested these to clients, I am assisting in my volunteering journey. I am also liaising with a local charity who are trying to encourage their older members and I think they too could benefit from your regular hints and tips so would like to suggest they pass on the Techsavvy links. You really are an inspiration.” –

Heather Sneddon

South West Scotland Coordinator , AbilityNet