When I use an iPad with my social communication groups, I have noticed a tendency for students to grab the device without asking. Additionally, when they're using the device, I have to remind them to look up and speak to other individuals in the group. So, after I saw this blog post from Bob Sprankle regarding driver and navigator roles in a coding activity, I thought the idea could be extended to targeting social communication skills with fewer prompts in a coding app for children. In Bob Sprankle's blog post, a video showed how one of his students was the navigator, and he was the driver. The navigator told the driver what to do, similar to the manner in which a navigator in a car would tell a driver where to go. The driver followed the directions provided by the navigator. If the dri[...]

// Use two forward slashes for a single-line comment /* Use a forward slash followed by an asterisk to start a multi-line comment. To end the multi-line comment, use an asterisk followed by a forward slash. */ /* Did you know it's also possible to nest comments in Swift? /* You can nest comments by starting a multi-line comment, then starting another. */ Finally, close the last (two) comments */ These examples demonstrate how to write different types of comments in Swift. As you might be aware, Swift is a new OS X and iOS programming language announced this week at WWDC. After hearing the announcement, I immediately wanted to check it out because I enjoy coding iOS apps, even though I’m only a beginner (experienced programmers write a large majority of the code in our company’s[...]

Eric Sailers, speech-language pathologist and owner of Expressive Solutions, has been learning iOS programming. He took the initiative because he wanted to collaborate more effectively with iOS developers on apps by Expressive Solutions. Plus, he has hopes of developing iOS apps for Expressive Solutions at some point in the future. He started creating videos to demonstrate various iOS programming skills. He believes if he can teach the skills he can demonstrate his understanding of the skills. Here's a video (best viewed at 720p in full-screen mode) of Eric using Xcode (Mac app) to demonstrate how to post to Twitter from an iOS app. If you can't see the video, click here to go to YouTube.

Eric Sailers, speech-language pathologist and owner of Expressive Solutions, has been learning iOS programming. He took the initiative because he wanted to collaborate more effectively with iOS developers on apps by Expressive Solutions. Plus, he has hopes of developing iOS apps for Expressive Solutions at some point in the future. He started creating videos to demonstrate various iOS programming skills. He believes if he can teach the skills he can demonstrate his understanding of the skills. Here’s a video (best viewed at 720p in full-screen mode) of Eric using Xcode (Mac app) to demonstrate how to animate an image in an iOS app: If you can't see the video, click here to go to YouTube.

Eric Sailers, speech-language pathologist and owner of Expressive Solutions, has been learning iOS programming. He took the initiative because he wanted to collaborate more effectively with iOS developers on apps by Expressive Solutions. Plus, he has hopes of developing iOS apps for Expressive Solutions at some point in the future. He started creating videos to demonstrate various iOS programming skills. He believes if he can teach the skills he can demonstrate his understanding of the skills. Here's a video (best viewed at 720p in full-screen mode) of Eric using Xcode (Mac app) to demonstrate an iOS app with a mood ring using a picker: If you can't see the video, click here to go to YouTube.

Eric Sailers, speech-language pathologist and owner of Expressive Solutions, has been learning iOS programming. He took the initiative because he wanted to collaborate more effectively with iOS developers on apps by Expressive Solutions. Plus, he has hopes of developing iOS apps for Expressive Solutions at some point in the future. He started creating videos to demonstrate various iOS programming skills. He believes if he can teach the skills he can demonstrate his understanding of the skills. Here's a video (best viewed at 720p in full-screen mode) of Eric using Xcode (Mac app) to demonstrate an iOS app that displays information in a table via a dictionary: If you can't see the video, click here to go to YouTube.

Eric Sailers, speech-language pathologist and owner of Expressive Solutions, has been learning iOS programming. He took the initiative because he wanted to collaborate more effectively with iOS developers on apps by Expressive Solutions. Plus, he has hopes of developing iOS apps for Expressive Solutions at some point in the future. He started creating videos to demonstrate various iOS programming skills. He believes if he can teach the skills he can demonstrate his understanding of the skills. Here's a video (best viewed at 720p in full-screen mode) of Eric using Xcode (Mac app) to demonstrate a student roster in an iOS app: If you can't see the video, click here to go to YouTube.

Eric Sailers, speech-language pathologist and owner of Expressive Solutions, has been learning iOS programming. He took the initiative because he wanted to collaborate more effectively with iOS developers on apps by Expressive Solutions. Plus, he has hopes of developing iOS apps for Expressive Solutions at some point in the future. He started creating videos to demonstrate various iOS programming skills. He believes if he can teach the skills he can demonstrate his understanding of the skills. Here's a video (best viewed at 720p in full-screen mode) of Eric using Xcode (Mac app) to demonstrate a simulated on/off light switch in an iOS app: If you can't see the video, click here to go to YouTube.

LinguaPix and LinguaPix - Full version 1.0.1 were updated today. Here's a list of the new features: Updates on the information screen Added buttons for Deselect/Select All Nouns and Deselect/Select All Verbs when customizing a user’s decks Improved Save/Cancel features for user profiles Fixed a bug in the Flashcard activity that occurred during the Describe It task Improved formatting of Scores saved in the app as well as exporting out of the app Fixed a crash in the in-app store (of the free version) for incomplete in-app purchases If you like the new features, please leave a comment on the iOS App Store listing for LinguaPix and/or LinguaPix - Full. If you have feedback, please email support@expressive-solutions.com.

Happy New Year from Expressive Solutions! We hope your new year is off to a great start. If you're interested in learning more about our new app for expressive language, LinguaPix, click on the links below to look at these awesome reviews from respected websites: The iMums AppyMall TeachersWithApps SmartAppsForKids Sublime Speech The response to LinguaPix has been great so far and we'd love to hear what you think! We look forward to supporting your work with children with special needs in 2014! Link to blog post image by amytrippmyers

As an interactive app designed to build expressive language for everyone, LinguaPix is not only engaging but was also developed with research in mind. The American Speech Language and Hearing Association highly advocates for practicing Speech-Language Pathologists to use evidence-based practices which include integration of clinical expertise, the perspective of the client and family, as well as external scientific evidence (ASHA, 2005). Thus, we wanted to highlight how the skills practiced using the LinguaPix app aligns to research. Considerations for Design A study by Gilliam, Gillam, and Reece (2012) indicated that both contextualized and decontextualized intervention yielded significant statistically gains (e.g., children improved the skills on post-testing), yet, contextualized [...]

This week, December 9-15, is Computer Science Education Week with several websites determined to increase awareness regarding coding (aka computer programming). One of the websites, code.org, has an initiative called The Hour of Code, which provides anyone with free access to learn coding for an hour. The initiative is seeking 10 million individuals who are willing to participate, hoping that many of these individuals will pursue an estimated 1.4 million computer science jobs expected by the year 2020. Our owner, Eric Sailers, has already participated in The Hour of Code: https://twitter.com/esailers/status/410073570660732928. Plus, he is planning to educate his students this week about coding. Here is his lesson plan that may inspire you to do something similar with your students: [...]