AT assignmnet # 2

The student I chose for assignment 2 is a grade 1 Autistic student going to grade 2. He recognizes very few of his letters or the sounds associated so he is a reluctant reader. He does enjoy being read to. He is very bright, articulate and enjoys talking about dinosaurs and trains. He knows more about dinosaurs than I ever will. He prefers computer over paper and pencil activities. He has good basic computer skills. He presents with fine motor challenges and finds the whole process of printing frustrating.
This student will have an IPP next year around early reading and writing skills therefore I looked for APPs that will support him with them. Where he likes using computer technology and games, I believe he will have fun with the use of an I Touch and selected APPs and will have plenty of opportunities to develop his fine motor skills. If paper and pencil tasks continue to be a turn off for him he will have developed skills to stay current with the technologies he see everyday and can make independent choices as to how he will communicate. Once I began looking for APPs it was a challenge to decide on which three APPs to use. You can spend hours looking and marvelling. In the interest of time I feel I selected useful APPs.

The first one is ABC Tracer and Words.



This activity teaches correct formation of letters by tracing them on the screen. It gives feedback of right and wrong strokes. It has games also to teach ABC order. It has great music, songs and interesting actions which will help to hold interest. This new addition allows the student to trace words too.






I first looked at Alphabet Tracing and may have the advantage for my student because it has a train that traces the letters and he has a passion for trains. I could not retrieve a picture of this APP for my presentation so I selected one similar to it. See the screen shot of Alphabet Tracing.



The second APP I selected was Early Reader.
The Early Reader develops skills for early reading. There are four sections = phonics, sight words, sounding out, and sentences. There are 160 sounds spoken with the option to have audio on or off. Sounds can be repeated by tapping the screen.





The third APP was selected because of the students' interest in dinosaurs. It is Little Brainiac Dinosaur.

I feel this APP will support his early literacy outcomes; sound letter associations, spelling and sight words while having visuals from a favourite theme. This activity gives one word and the student chooses a match from four pictures. Words can be spoken for the student by touching the mouth icon or hear a sound associated with the word by touching the era icon. The student will receive an auditory cue to try again if he makes the wrong selection.
I found there to be two versions of this, Little Brainiac Dinosaur and Little Brainiac Dianosaur Pro. I will introduce him to Dinosaur initially where there are only 12 dinosaurs covered. If all goes well and he is ready for more I would consider Dinosaur Pro which covers 65 dinosaurs
I selected this APP over many others because the images are more realistic and not so cartoony. I think he will relate better to the life like pictures. Not many of early learners resources in general have realistic pictures but is improving.

I will continue to review APPs that will support this students goals and interests as well as for other students. This is very exciting technology and I look forward to utilizing it in my endeavour to teach students.