Choiceworks
A great app for students who need to use a visual daily schedule. We are having great success using it in a variety of our schools for a variety of students. This app is a little expensive at $6.99, but well worth the price.
Here's a great description from the itunes store.
The Choiceworks app is an essential learning tool for helping children complete daily routines (morning, day, & night), understand & control their feelings and improve their waiting skills (taking turns and not interrupting). Created with the support of leading hospitals and child development specialists, this app is designed for caregivers to provide clear and consistent support to foster a child’s independence, positive behavior, and emotional regulation at home and in the community. It can also be customized for teachers in a school setting.
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChoiceworksApp
Key Features
■ Three boards: Schedule, Waiting, and Feelings
■ Three Companion Books supporting each board
■ Image Library preloaded with over 180 images and audio
■ Add your own images and record your own audio for limitless customizability
■ Easily create profiles to personalize and manage multiple users
■ Save an unlimited number of boards for multiple children or different routines
■ Speaks boards out loud with professionally recorded audio
■ Time saving essentials like search and auto-save
■ Share boards by Email or iTunes File Sharing with other Choiceworks app users
■ Ability to print boards or save as PDF
Schedule Board
The Schedule Board focuses on making task completion easier and more fun, allowing the user to select up to five steps on iPhone, seven on iPhone 5 and eight on iPad that can be easily reordered. The schedule is then paired with an all done column to check off steps toward a motivating reward. As the task image slides to the all done column, the user gets both visual and audio confirmation. Schedules can be enhanced by adding a timer. The schedules are easy to edit and fully customizable. Once you have created a schedule, it will be saved automatically.
Waiting Board
The Waiting Board is a great way to teach waiting skills like taking turns and/or not interrupting. The user can begin by reading the companion book, When Do I Have to Wait?, in order to explain to the child the reason why everyone has to wait on occasion. Using the waiting board, the top picture can be selected to indicate the reason why the child will be waiting and a timer can be set to show how long the child will be waiting. Next, both the user and the child can select an activity for the child to do while waiting.
Feelings Board
The Feelings Board provides a tool for helping children understand and express emotions. The user can begin by reading the companion book, When I Get Upset, to provide an example of how the child might recognize an emotion and choose a coping strategy. On the Feelings Board, the user can then help the child indicate how they are feeling from a range of options, select a coping strategy, and then request an activity which would likely help them feel better or re-engage with others.
Profiles
Supporting multiple children is effortless with Profiles. When using profiles, the app automatically organizes boards by child and encourages independence by removing the distraction of other children's boards. Personalize each profile with a name and custom photo.
Image Library
The Image Library comes preloaded with over 180 of Bee Visual’s most commonly used images, each with professionally recorded audio. You can access the images quickly using the search feature or simply by scrolling through the images. Users can add to the Image Library by selecting an image from their own camera roll or by taking a photo. The user can then add a caption and record the audio. The images can be defined as a Schedule Board Title, a Task or an Activity, a Waiting Board Skill or Activity, and/or a Feelings Board Activity. This allows only the images you want to use in those categories to be viewed when you are editing and customizing the boards.
Here's a link that you may find useful when beginning to use this app. Good luck...and enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6lBfRYK6Nc
