Remediation (to improve fine motor skills and prepare for writing)
Dexteria. $4.99 – writing readiness, develop pre-writing skills – so good for remediation and not for older kids. Isolates finger control. Pinch, tap and write options. Various stylus’, good for different age levels.
Bugs and Buttons. $2.99 – Pinch and Grab - develops finger control, pressure, hand-eye, etc. In a game format. Great for younger kids. What if kids have a bug/spider fear?! Roach Racing – Two finger control
Juno’s Piano. $0.99. Piano playing app. Finger control and isolation. For kids.
Injini. $29.99 or FREE for the lite version. 9 levels to enhance writing skills – also includes following direction/attention and so forth in addition to fine motor. Visually it’s less child-like (more middle elementary less primary). Can use your finger or a stylus to develop both skills.
Touch and Write. $2.99 (Free on webinar but that must have changed). Engaging and fun for younger kids. Develops finger skills with tracing. Allows you to use funny materials such as ketchup to write with :) Can use a stylus as well. Can add your own personalized word list.
Shape Builder. $0.99. Visual motor, strength, grasp, etc. Complete letter puzzles with various shapes – it then works on sounds of letters as well. Can use finger or stylus for various skill development.
Cars2 AppMates. Free. Need to purchase the physical car to use on the game. Supports grasp and pressure development. Definitely a fun game for kids to develop those skills and also following directions skills.
Pirate Scribblebeard. $0.99. Very engaging – use for fine motor development (stylus). Animates what you draw! Definitely engaging! Great for upper elementary and even junior high.
Support (when remediation is not appropriate – to support writing tasks in a variety of ways)
WritePad for iPad. $9.99. Great for older students (junior high). At this age kids feel disengaged and frustrated at writing process. This app will help! Students can use finger or a stylus to write, it then converts immediately to text. Students can then send their work to themselves, parent or teacher. It also has a keyboard option if it’s not recognizing handwriting. Option for word prediction as well which would alleviate frustration for kids. It also supports different languages (great for my school!).
Availability – At my school this would probably not be an issue. We have a travelling card of ten iPad’s and the Learning Center also has a couple of iPad’s for kids to use as well. Some of the extra items, like a variety of stylus’ or the Cars app car would add to cost and may be difficult to purchase.
Impact on kids – Certainly engaging and motivating for younger kids. At my grade 8 level the only one I could see kids using would be the WritePad or Pirate Scribblebeard. However, those would both improve motivation and perhaps lessen the stigma of needing assistance with writing.
Want even more apps to support fine motor skill development? Check this out: http://www.appolicious.com/curated-apps/7387-apps-for-occupational-therapy-skills
Stephanie, It's great that you have access to a set of iPads at your school. You can now try out some of the apps we have learned about with your students. We only have two iPads at our school which could be difficult to work with depending on the activity. I feel that by the time we actually purchase a set, everything we've learned about will be outdated and new programs will be surfacing. Limited funds are hard to work with!
ReplyDeleteI had the opportunity to work with one iPad at school and went to an iPad PD. I found that I learned more from this webinar than in the PD! The PD was focused on Apps for Autism, but a lot of the ones we learned were repeated in this webinar! I agree, I learned lots about fine motor skills too!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed it! and you're able to apply your newfound knowledge!
ReplyDeleteSteph, thanks for your comprehensive overview of the apps from the Fine Motor Skills webinar. I had watched the math webinar, so I am thankful that you reviewed many of the apps that you learned about! It was an interesting fact that remediation would probably not work after age 11, I also did not know that. I also appreciate you sharing the apps that you feel would be appropriate at the junior high level! You are lucky that you are at a school that has funds for IPads...I plan on pushing for some when I return back to work!
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