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Apps for Social Skills and Autism Interview by Time Timer(R)

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Thanks to Jessica Chase of Consonantly Speaking website and the Time Timer®  team for a great blog post: Apps for Social Skills and Autism.

Jessica mentioned The Social Express when asked to name her favorite social skills apps.

Here’s an excerpt from the Time Timer interview:

Time Timer: What is the goal of speech therapy? How can it help children across the Autism Spectrum? 

Jessica Chase: Speech-Language Therapy is all about helping people communicate by any means possible.  People on the Autism Spectrum are so diverse. Some have much difficulty communicating at all, while others are great verbal communicators but have difficulty with social communication skills. Some may be working on using eye contact, some may be focusing on using an Alternative Communication device, and others may be learning how to maintain conversation topics.

It really depends on the person’s communication needs, but speech-language therpay can greatly benefit people on the Autism Spectrum – and the sooner they start, the better. 

TT: Which are your favorite apps for building social skills?

JC: I recommend the Social Express, Conversation Builder, Emotional Detective, Social Adventures and any of the Wonkido apps.

I also like the Fun Decks: What Would You Do At School If, What Would You Do at Home If, How Would You Feel If and Practicing Pragmatics.

Jessica also recommends The Social Express for Speech Therapists.

You can read the complete interview at the Time Timer’s blog by clicking here

Time Timer is a cool company that offers many different visual timers.  Each timer displays a wonderful large red (colorful) dot.

The dot becomes smaller as the time counts down. Time Timers are available in in physical clock form or as an app.

From the website, Time Timers are recommended for special needs children and youth.

Recommended by Autism and ADHD experts, the Time Timer is totally intuitive. It comforts toddlers, builds independence in youth with learning disabilities…

They also suggest ideas for using Time Timers to help children with autism. Here are two tips from the company’s Tip Sheet for Special Needs:

Succeed at timed activities:  “Finish your dinner before the red runs out.”

Learn to anticipate transitions: “Here’s what ‘5 more minutes’really means.”

I think we may all need help with ‘What 5 more minutes really means’. Like maybe when I’m watching a football game and my wife has a chore for me to do…

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Autism Education Resource: SLPs Review Social Skills App

Autism Education Resources-The Social ExpressOver at Public School SLPs blog, Pam and Holly posted a great review of our autism education resource, The Social Express!

They like the movie-quality graphics. They also noted that this autism education resource is customizable for each student.

We’ve posted Pam and Holly’s review below.

App Review: The Social Express

The Social Express is more like watching a show on Disney than working on social skills on the iPad. I am so impressed with the work that went into making this app. Here’s what Holly and I love:

— awesome graphics that keep students engaged
— fully animated
— lessons that are real life scenarios
— customizable to your each of your students
— printable lessons
— research based

Thanks Pam and Holly for the review! You can find their excellent blog, Public School SLPs by clicking here.

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Mom Calls Social Learning Software Amazing

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]San Diego, CA (PRWEB) June 19, 2012

Katie Holler, a mother of five daughters including three diagnosed on the autism spectrum, finds that The Social Express is a valuable educational tool in her toolbox. She believes there are lots of learning apps available, but nothing that presents the skills she has set as goals for her daughters like The Social Express™.

The Social Express is a new 16-lesson social learning software program for children between the ages of five and 12 years. It uses interactive video modeling, movie quality animation and original characters that children find engaging. Each one of the 30 interactive scenes contains teachable moments to help parents reinforce learning.

The Social Express Is Movie-Like

According to Katie Holler, “The Social Express is pretty amazing. When you use it, it’s almost like watching an animated Hollywood movie. Except it’s interactive and I can stop the program at any time to talk with my daughters about the choices the characters in social situations can make.”

Holler continued, “The teaching tips included in The Social Express Guide are one of the best things for me. I’ve learned how to reinforce the social lessons when my daughters and I are out and about. As a mom of special needs children, I just try to use every resource I can. Especially one that helps me teach and reinforce the skills we are working with the children on in school and therapy sessions.”

Holler finds that The Social Express works equally well for both her higher functioning children with autism and her lower functioning daughter.

This Social Skills App is a Good Investment

Holler considers the program to be one of the best tools that she’s found because it’s helpful and informative. Holler said, “I highly recommend it to other parents of children with special needs. It helps me a lot. I consider The Social Express a worthwhile investment because it hits on all of the major social skills goals we have for our children. That includes learning social cues, pragmatic skills, non-verbal skills, and inferencing.”

About Brighten Learning, Inc.

Brighten Learning, founded by parents of autistic twins in 2008, is a privately held company based in Encinitas, California. The company develops The Social Express™ and other interactive social learning software. The company’s mission is to help children with ADHD, Autism and Asperger’s to improve their lives by teaching social skills using video modeling. Visit the company at http://thesocialexpress.com/[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Social Skills App Review at Maryland Learning Links Blog

Social-Skills-Apps-Review-at-Maryland-Learning-LinksRebecca Penina Simon posted a great review of our social skills app on The Maryland Learning Links site. Rebecca is an educator and a mom.

Among the reasons she likes The Social Express is:

“Many children on the autism spectrum tend to be visual learners, so The Social Express utilizes Hollywood-quality animation to present content to the users.”

 

Her son also likes using The Social Express.  Here is Rebecca Penina Simon’s complete review:

 

Apps for Social Success

 

Social Skills, such as eye contact, communication, interactive attention span, and flexibility are important skills for all children. For children with special needs, these subtle skills are crucial for their social success.

Most parents of typically developing children take their child’s social skills development for granted. However, that ability to socialize and to create and sustain substantial interactive relationships with parents, siblings, peers, etc., can be a fundamental challenge for children on the autistic spectrum. While it is important to focus on all areas of a child’s development, I feel the first and most important skills to focus on is social development, the ability to socially interact. For oftentimes it is in this area that we are able to create the greatest possibility for change.

 

Children who have high functioning autism, Asperger’s and/or ADHD face many challenges socially. Although these children are likely mainstreamed with their typical peers, they often have a very difficult time creating and sustaining meaningful relationships with others around them. These children are often challenged by tasks such as recognizing others’ facial expressions, social cues, and most importantly, subtleties in body language that convey emotions and feelings.

 

The Social Express ™ was developed to address some of these developmental concerns. Created by a team at Social Express, this animated interactive software teaches children and young adults social and life skills. The app uses engaging scenarios to teach users how to think about and manage social situations so that they are better prepared to develop meaningful social relationships and succeed in life.

 

Many children on the autism spectrum tend to be visual learners, so The Social Express utilizes Hollywood-quality animation to present content to the users. These animations include a social story in which the user is asked to observe the characters in a specific situation as a problem arises. The user must then evaluate how one of the characters is feeling and decide upon a proper course of action to take to resolve the situation. Since not every situation has a black and white outcome, this app helps users to learn subtle nuances that are often hard for them to detect. The Social Express challenges the user to look at the entire social story and make the best choice.

 

The Social Express is one of the few social skills apps that my son enjoys using – so much so that he actually asks to use it. This app is a bit pricey but for good reason as there is no other social skills app like it. And a child being able to exhibit proper social skills and create meaningful relationships is priceless.

 

Thanks Rebecca for reviewing our social skills app!

You can follow Rebecca Penina Simon on Twitter for education and tech updates. Her handle is, @Edtechmorah


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Social Learning Software Startup Presents at ISTE 2012 in San Diego

Social-Learning-Software-Presents-ISTE12We are excited to be sharing our social learning software program at next week’s ISTE conference with tech educators coming in from all over the planet.

It’s the 33rd annual ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference and exposition June 24-27 in San Diego. That’s right here in our home town of San Diego.

Here is our news release. If you’re attending ISTE12 next week, stop by our booth (5226) and say hello!

Social Learning Software Startup Presents at ISTE 2012 in San Diego

Brighten Learning to share new interactive social skills development program with educators.

 

Brighten Learning, a developer of interactive social learning software, will demonstrate its new social learning app, The Social Express™ at the 33rd annual ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference and exposition June 24-27 in San Diego.

The Social Express is a new 16-lesson social learning software program for students between the ages of five and 12 years. It uses interactive video modeling, movie quality animation, socially valid dialog, and original characters that students find engaging. Each one of the 30 interactive scenes contains teachable moments that assist educators to reinforce social skills learning.

According to President Jon Cornick, “Brighten Learning team is excited to meet and share ideas with the tech savvy educators that are coming from across the globe to participate in ISTE!”

“Brighten Learning will show educators how easy it is to use our social learning software program, project it on a classroom whiteboard, and pause the program when needed. The pause feature makes it easy for educators to discuss the social situation choices available to the characters in each scene of The Social Express,” Cornick added.

Educators in a wide variety of environments and populations use The Social Express. Students enjoy and request the program because of its realistic social dialog, Hollywood-quality animation, and interactive components.

Based on feedback from educators, The Social Express works equally well for students with a wide variety of levels of social skill deficits. Students with autism, Asperger’s, ADHD as well as more typical children experiencing social learning challenges will benefit from interacting with the program in a classroom environment.

The company’s ISTE12 booth (#5226) will provide iPads with demonstration versions of The Social Express social learning software app.

About Brighten Learning, Inc.

Brighten Learning, founded by parents of autistic twins in 2008, is a privately held company based in Encinitas, California. The company develops The Social Express™ and other interactive social learning software. The company’s mission is to help children with ADHD, Autism and Asperger’s to improve their lives by teaching social skills using video modeling. Visit the company at http://thesocialexpress.com/

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Autism Software: 5 Winners of iPad GIVEAWAY

Autism-Software-The-Social-ExpressWe have the five winners of our autism software GIVEAWAY! Thanks to all who participated in our contest to giveaway our education for autism learning app!

 

Autism Software Winners Emails Sent

Congratulations to our 5 winners! We sent each of them emails early today, telling the codes so they can download the iPad version of The Social Express.

We also emailed to each of the winners a copy of The Social Express Printables.

Here are the first names and last name initials (where provided) of the five winners:

Tracey

Jenni

Suzie B.

Erosha

Jennifer F.

Please follow the download instructions in the email you received from us today. Please download your iPad version of The Social Express by June 22, 2012.

Using Education for Autism Apps: Suggestions

We recommend that our winners follow these steps when using their new education for autism app.

1. Before using our autism software interactive app with your child, read The Social Express Guide. It explains how to use The Social Express learning program, vocabulary terms and gives you “Teaching Tips”.

2. Get familiar with the Printables. These paper sheets help you to carryover the skills covered with your child during the interactive lessons.

3. Always work through the program with your child. Don’t let him or her use the program by themselves. This way, you can stop the app whenever you want to discuss a skill or decision made by the characters with your child.

4. Go through one lesson at a time. This allows you to reinforce learning when your child is going through his or her day. Your child may want to go through many lessons in one sitting. Don’t let them.

Good luck! Let us know how your child likes The Social Express, autism software.

Join our free newsletter! Get insider updates from The Social Express, click here to join us!

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Autism Help for Parents: Great Tips from a Sensory Design Specialist

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When you’re a parent of a child on the autism spectrum you’ve got a thousand (extra) things to do. We hear you! Maybe redecorating your child’s room doesn’t fall high on your list. But we loved the child’s bedroom improvement ideas shared by Environmental designer Lauren S. Henry. We thought you might find a tip or two to help you.

Lauren Henry uses color and pattern to support children’s environmental needs and provide autism help for parents. She applies a wide variety of techniques to transform the lives of children diagnosed with autism and other special needs through their surroundings.

Here are our favorite tips from Lauren’s helpful list.

Autism Help for Parents: 3 Sensory Design Tips from Lauren S. Henry

Use indirect lamps for lighting. Examine all the lighting in your home and your child’s bedroom. Lauren advises that you “stay away from all florescent lighting, period.” Try lamps instead of overhead florescent lighting.

Add indoor plants. Consider adding indoor plants, even if you don’t have a “green thumb”. Lauren suggests adding plants because they ground our children and us as parents.

Avoid transparent toy containers. When storing your child with autism’s toys and belongings rethink use of transparent containers. According to Lauren, see through containers and boxes can contribute to visual chaos, overstimulation and anxiety for special needs children.

Please click over to Lauren S. Henry’s helpful blog article, Top 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Child’s Life Now. Click here to read her complete article. Her tips will give you some great, easy to do ideas. We can all use more autism help for parents!

Join our free newsletter! Get insider updates from The Social Express, click here to join us!

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Our Social Learning Software Listed as a Favorite App by My NYC Tutors

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]We are happy that our social learning software was included in a list of favorite apps for children with special needs! The teachers from My NYC Tutors wrote a great review about The Social Express.

Our social learning software app was described as one of their 3 favorite apps for special needs children! The 3 apps discussed in the article were all recommended by their special education teachers.

The myNYCtutors.com blog article says in part,

Children who suffer from an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties with social situations and may have significant social skill problems.  This makes it difficult for those with an ASD to form meaningful relationships.

Since ‘social rules’ are largely unspoken, those with an ASD often have to learn these rules as opposed to picking them up naturally. This is where the Social Express really shines.

You can read the complete My NYC Tutor’s review by clicking here: http://mynyctutors.com/?p=2449

We are so honored when special education teachers who like using The Social Express with their students, take the time to write about us.   The article states that our social learning software app is a great way for children to pick up on social cues. We also like that the review notes that children with autism seem to really enjoy it, “The graphics are top-notch and most children seem to really enjoy it.”

Thank you, My NYC Tutors!

You can read more special education and education articles on their blog. Like this one that explains how to use cooking to teach math. How cool is that? http://mynyctutors.com/?p=1961

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Music is One of the Best Activities for Kids with Autism

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I think music is absolutely one of the best activities for kids with autism. Music played a huge role for me when working with my twin boys diagnosed on the autism spectrum.

I was so lucky to be able to learn music and the piano, myself, at a young age. By the age of four, I was a child prodigy playing difficult piano pieces. I went to Berkley School of Music in Boston. Later I became a music composer as well as a musician.

I was so lucky because I played keyboards with lots of different bands. The bands ranged from jazz, to metal bands to rock. It was so cool.

So, as you can imagine, I really believe that old saying, “Music has the ability to soothe the savage beast”.

I think music is just as important as English, mathematics or any other school subject. Fortunately, our boys love music too. One has learned to play the violin and drums. The other is learning to play the piano. Although, one of our twins also loves art. He’s become an illustrator and draws pictures for stories all the time.

Music Provides Great Autism Help for Parents!

Music became especially helpful when our twins transitioned to mainstream school from special education classes. That’s also about the time the boys became interested in socializing with other children. For your child on the spectrum, an interest in music might come at a different time.

Because of the boys’ transition to mainstream classes, I was inspired to write about singing, dancing. I wanted to help them understand how we use our words to socialize with others.

My friend, Kelly Keeling helped me create an album of songs on the topic of social learning. He’s a wonderful singer. Kelly and I met twenty years ago while we were playing together in the band Baton Rouge. (We were signed to Atlantic records.)

Then 20 years later I called Kelly to help me with this unique children’s set of songs. I wanted to write music to help our twins learn about social awareness and social skills through original songs. Eventually, these became the songs we used when developing our social learning program, The Social Express.

We named the collection of songs (album) “On Our Way to Happy Village”. The music is for our upcoming software (Brighten Learning) which is due out in 2013.

We finished the music first and thought people would enjoy it even though the software isn’t finished. The proceeds for sales of songs on Lime Green Limousine go to help research for Autism.

My boys really like one song I wrote, Feelings Change Each Day. They also like a soft ballad I wrote, Beautiful Day. If you’d like to check out the lyrics, you can click to this website. www.limegreenlimo.com/lyrics

When to Use Music with Your Child

I suggest that you try using music with your child with autism, if you don’t already. Anytime of the day or evening is good. When they need to settle down, or when they may be starting to have a meltdown.

I play softer songs like ballads for our boys at night when they’re getting ready to go to sleep. We play songs on the iPad. You can also play songs for your child on a PC.

Sometimes when they come home from school, they have to get the pent-up energy out. Do your kids have this energy thing when they come home from school?

Anyway, we put on music, sing and dance together. We have fun and the boys get the bugs out and work off their energy from the day at school. We think music is one of the activities for kids with autism.

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Help with Asperger’s: Tips on Making Friendships

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Help with Asperger's- Tips on Making FriendshipsHelping kids to learn social skills is the main mission for us here at The Social Express. We’re always on the lookout for help with Asperger’s and autism that we can share with you. Here’s a great example.

Dave Angel wrote a valuable article over on his blog, Parenting Aspergers. It’s about learning social skills and making friendships for children with Asperger’s.

According to Dave’s article, Asperger’s and Friendships (4 Great Tips), children with Asperger’s have difficulty understanding all of the non-verbal things that are going on in a conversation with other children. These non-verbal things include eye contact, tone of voice, body language and others.

Dave interviewed Dr. Lani Ravinovich, a Licensed Psychologist that has worked with many children with Aspergers. Among many other qualifications, she is trained in the PEERS Program (an evidence-based social skills program for adolescents with Asperger’s or High-Functioning Autism).

To Help with Asperger’s, Repetition is Important

Dave’s article has four great recommendations. Here are our two favorite tips from his list, and examples of how we’ve used them.

Break down social skills teaching into small topics and then reinforce them with your child. Repeat the lessons over and over.

This is one of the main reasons our social learning software, The Social Express, includes several places in the program for you to pause it. Then you can discuss with your child the best action to take. For example, you can ask your child: what’s the best action you can take when you want to be a part of the group?

– We like to reinforce the social skill, “keep your body facing the group”. A good way to work on this one is to show your child pictures of children in books. Ask him or her to tell you which of the children in the pictures are facing the group, and which are not.

Consistently work on social skills with your child. Repeat the social skills lessons often.

– We always try to do this with our twins. When handing one of them a cookie, we point to our eyes to remind them to make eye contact. We hold onto to the cookie until they look us in the eye. This is a simple exercise, but one that’s helped our boys to learn to make eye contact.

Thanks to Dave Angel for writing such helpful and easy to read tips. I recommend that if you’re looking for help with Aspergers, definitely read the full blog article. You can find it by clicking here.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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