BridgingApps Presentation, Down Syndrome Guild of Dallas 2013 Fall Conference Children with disabilities often have difficulty with engagement and interaction. This session focused on methods of using the iPad to help children develop engagement and encourage social engagement and interactivity. Specific apps that encourage engagement were also discussed.

1. Captivating Power of Mobile
Devices With Young Children
Through Elementary

2. Agenda
• BridgingApps Program and History
• Using mobile devices with young children
• App demonstrations
• Raffle

3. Who We Are
BridgingApps is a volunteer community of parents,
therapists, doctors, and teachers who share information
on how we are using mobile devices such as the iPad,
iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices with people who
have special needs.
www.bridgingapps.org

4. Beginnings

5. BridgingApps Website
www.bridgingapps.org
• Getting Started—hardware, accessibility,
communication apps, videos, tablet accessories
• App Search Tool—search apps, read app reviews,
create lists, share lists
• Programs—Classes, services, AT labs, training
• Community—Online community groups, local
meetings in Houston, Austin, McAllen
• About Us—Contact us & success stories

6. Engagement and
Interactivity
Children with disabilities often have difficulty with
engagement and interaction.
• This session will discuss methods of using the iPad
and other mobile devices to help children develop
engagement and encourage social engagement and
interactivity.

7. Why Use a Mobile Device
With A Young Child?
• Great for visual tracking & eye contact
• Shared enjoyment with a caregiver
• Mobile devices are a fantastic cause and effect toy
• Great for fine motor practice
• Safer for kids - and they can’t write on the walls
with the iPad
• Vocabulary development

8. Definitions
What is engagement?
• Engagement - the act of sharing in the activities of a group
• The “group” can be as few as two people interacting
What is interactivity?
Interactivity in learning is "a necessary and fundamental
mechanism for knowledge acquisition and the development of both
cognitive and physical skills" (Barker, 1994:1)
Barker, P. (1994). Designing Interactive Learning, in T. de Jong & L. Sarti (Eds), Design and
Production of Multimedia and Simulation-based Learning Material. Dordrecht: Kluwer
Academic Publishers.

9. Vital Skills
• Children must learn to engage with and interact with others.
• These are vital social skills that we all use every day.
• iPads should enhance skills rather than allow the child to
move farther into his/her own world. Engagement and
interactivity are very important skills at home, in the
classroom and in therapy sessions.
• The iPad is a great tool to foster these skills.
• The level of engagement between an app and the user is a
good indicator of usefulness of the app.

10. Social Engagement
• Automatic magnet for peers
• Can help level playing field, brings child with
special needs “up to” the skills of the typical child
• A central theme to talk about! Texting - kids
communicate with texts - a nonverbal child can join
in the texting
• Social stories - Toca Boca, Story Creator - writing
your own story

11. Apps for Young Children
• Apps should be engaging, colorful with high quality graphics
• Apps should react easily and consistently
• The amount of sensory stimulation should match the child’s
sensory needs
• Apps should be rotated based on development
• Enough but not too much sound, sight - Injini Child
Development Game Suite is a great example
• Ability to customize app

12. Strategies for Reluctant
Readers
• Text to Speech
• Interactive Books
• E Books
• Make your own books
• iBooks - will read aloud, you can look up words
• Do not replace “real”books with ebooks - the child
should be exposed to both

13. Quick Feedback
• The almost instantaneous feedback is very
engaging for children especially those with special
needs.
• The timing is key
• Children with delayed processing also benefit when
they are in control of the feedback

14. Parental Involvement
• It is crucial that iPads add to parental involvement,
rather than detract from it
• Screen time should be limited
• A child under 2 should never be left with a mobile
device to “work” on their own.
• Close contact - lap sitting
• Larger devices are better for sharing - 10” screen size

15. Vocabulary Development
• A recent study funded by the Department of Education
showed that the PBS Kids iPhone app “Martha
Speaks” boosted 3-to-7-year-olds vocabularies by as
much as 31% over the course of two weeks.
• Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/20/no-
screen-time-for-2-year-olds-do-ipad-apps-
count/#ixzz2BkDmI8Ey

16. Classroom Example
• This small device worked with every different learning style. Students
that before had found lessons inaccessible were able to thrive with
this new tool. Kinesthetic learners were able to manipulate
information and materials with their hands. Visual learners saw
pictures displayed at multiple angles, in three dimensions, rotating
and spinning, with vivid colors that engulfed their senses. The
auditory learners heard their stories read to them, listened to the
pronunciations of words, and listened to music. It was beautiful.
By Sarah Hayden, 5th Grade Teacher, Salem Keizer-School District
- dreemdigital.com

17. • According to the literacy test results, classes using the
iPads outperformed the non-iPad students in every
literacy measure they were test on.
”We are seeing high levels of student motivation, engagement and learning in the
iPad classrooms,” said Sue Dorris, principal at East Auburn Community School.
“The apps, which teach and reinforce fundamental literacy concepts and skills,
are engaging, interactive and provide children with immediate feedback. What’s
more, teachers can customize apps to match the instructional needs of each
child, so students are able to learn successfully at their own level and pace.”
http://www.ipadinschools.com/328/largest-deployment-of-ipads-in-schools/

18. NAEYC Position
• “As the lives of children, parents, families, and
educators are infused with technology and media,
early childhood classrooms can benefit from the
possibilities of extending children’s learning through
judicious use of these tools.”
• http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/PS_technology_WE
B.pdf

19. Additional Resources
• http://www.naeyc.org/content/technology-and-
young-children/infants-and-toddlers
• http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/PS_technology_
WEB.pdf
• http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/PS_technology_E
xamples.pdf