Between the Lines by Hamaguchi

             

Between the Lines by Hamaguchi is an app designed to work on inferencing skills.  This has quickly become one of my favorite apps and one that my clients request.  At the price of $15.99 for the full version and 99 cents for the lite versions, I believe this is a quality app.  There are a total of 3 apps that can be purchased that address the same skills.  Levels 1 and 2 are for elementary to adolescents and A is for adolescents and adults.

There are three different activities that are addressed and reinforcers built into the system.  The first activity is listening.  The client is asked to listen to an audio clip and then shown pictures.  The client must determine "Who said it?" by matching the facial expression to what they heard.



The second activity is body language and perspective taking.  In this activity, the client watches a short video clip and then use body language, receptive language and inferencing to determine what the target character is thinking.



The last activity is expressions - slang and idioms.  The client is asked to watch someone using a slang expression, idiom or common expression and determine what it means.



Between the Lines has also built in data collection and can be utilized in a group setting.  This is especially important for those who work in the schools and are often providing services in small groups.  In addition, users are able to customize settings.  you can decide if the client will choose from 2, 3 or 4 choices.  You decide after how many items, the client will be able to get the reward.  The user can also decide if there will be bell or voice encouragement.



The Hamaguchi website also has extension activities for this app available for download.  It gives a list of activities that can be done either by a therapist or a parent to work on inferencing skills.

Hamaguchi continues to make quality apps at an affordable price.  I highly recommend this app for individuals with autism and those working on higher level language skills.

Disclosure:  Hamaguchi Apps provided a copy of this app to this reviewer.

Favorites of a 5 Year Old

I've been meaning to post for a while and the start of the school ya and other things got in the way.  I also live right in the path of Hurricane Sandy and am dealing with the after effects.  I will not be able to live in my condo for at least a month.  I will be living with my mom, whom right now does not have power either.  The family is all safe and that is what is really important.  I wanted to share some observations of what apps my 5 year old nephew has been playing to keep himself occupied without power.

Tizzy Vet - This is an app that I recently downloaded when it was free (not sure if it is still free). He gets to take care if different animals in the veterinarians office. He examines each of the animals according to what it tells him to do and then when he is done with each part, a check is Putin the chart, which he loves.  This is great from a language perspective for labeling the animals and following directions.

Toca Boca - I won't pick just one of their apps because he loves them all!  He loves  playing in the hair salon and making the hair all sorts of wild colors.  He recently discovered the store and has enjoyed playing that with me.  H also loves TocaMonsters.  He loves when the characters make sounds because he has overcooked or over seasoned the food.  In TocaHouse, he especially loves when the one character is taking a bath.  These apps are great for following directions, sequencing, expanding utterances, social language and vocabulary.

I will try to be more regular with my posting. There are a couple of great apps I want to write about when I have better access.