AMDi is proud to provide our E-News subscribers with a Sneak Peek of our Exciting New Partnership!
| Laureate and AMDi have partnered to create powerful communication activities that target receptive and expressive communication | |||
| As we all know some ideas come to you out of necessity. I was working with a student to establish an effective communication strategy using a static display device. I created several fun activities, accompanied by overlays with appropriate motivating vocabulary (or so I thought) but nothing seemed to be working. My activities were not motivating him to communicate. So one day I decided to observe him to see what items or activities interested him in his classroom. He spent a greater part of thirty minutes glued to the computer screen as one of his classmates was working on Exploring Nouns by Laureate. This student who normally exhibited minimal eye contact barely blinked. He had a huge smile on his face and even more amazing, every time Zot (Laureates character who provides language reinforcement) would enter the screen, he would laugh out loud. So the idea was born. Why not create an expressive activity to go along with the Laureate’s receptive Exploring series? | |||
| Created for the Smart/128, these activities include 6 scenes from the Exploring series of your choice. Using a visual scene layout with accompanying vocabulary these hybrid activities not only encourage individuals to comment about what occurs while using the software it also provides opportunities to use the vocabulary learned when not on the computer. Fun extension activities created for use when not on the computer, encourage communication and conversation while reinforcing targeted vocabulary by encouraging users to ask questions, participate in fun games such as Simon Says and exploring the interactive visual scenes. While on the computer individuals can answer questions, comment about what they see and make requests. These Smart/Ease overlays can be used with all 8 activities available on each of the Exploring Series CD, including Optimized Intervention, Identification, and Testing. During therapy, keep track of expressive communication interactions while Laureate’s software automatically collects extensive data concerning receptive language (along with a variety of other variables). The data gathered by the software can generate reports when paired with tracked expressive interaction can provide valuable expressive and receptive language data in just one activity! | |||
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As for my student, I turned on the Exploring Verbs CD and placed his device with the corresponding visual scene overlay below the computer monitor and stepped back. In a matter of seconds he came over to the monitor looked at the scene and then looked at the device and smiled. The software then prompted What is this? and flashed an object on the screen. My student smiled reached down and used his device appropriately to answer. When Zot entered the screen he then laughed and used his device to tell a student sitting next to him Look there’s Zot! Success!
Each Laureate Exploring Smart/Ease Activity comes with 6 overlays each created using Laureates wonderful illustrations and a pre-recorded flash containing vocabulary and sound clips of fun sounds contained in the Exploring Series software to encourage interaction and turn up the FUN! |
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If you will be attending the ASHA Conference in Chicago we would like to invite you to come by AMDi’s and Laureate’s booth and see this partnership in action. If you have any questions or comments regarding this newsletter please contact Alli at allison.yates@amdi.net |
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