AUTISM AWARENESS

Happy Autism Awareness Day!! 

"Nearly a quarter century ago, the Autism Society launched a nationwide effort to promote autism awareness, inclusion and self-determination for all, and assure that each person with ASD is provided the opportunity to achieve the highest possible quality of life. This year we want to go beyond simply promoting autism awareness to encouraging friends and collaborators to become partners in movement toward acceptance and appreciation." (Autism Society)

Be sure to check out tons of FREE and discounted apps today!
http://www.smartappsforkids.com/2015/03/autism-awareness-month-day-1-1.html

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/02/apple-promotes-world-autism-awareness-day/

http://atmac.org/waad-2015

#ATchat

I'm new to the Twitter world, but I often hear that its a great place for PD. I've made it a goal to try to use Twitter more often now that I'm in this field. Karen Janowski is a well respected professional in our field, and I've learned a lot from her through classes, meetings, conferences, and various professional development opportunities. Karen leads an #ATchat on Twitter every Wednesday evening from 8-9, and I finally had a chance to attend last night! The discussion was on "AT, EdTech and UDL" and I thought it was awesome! People from all around the United States participated, and I felt that there were some great conversations, questions, and ideas. It was interesting to see how everyone runs into similar problems no matter what state they are from, but it was great to hear the different ways people educate and provide PD to assist with these problems. I'm looking forward to attending more #ATchat discussions in the future.

Favorite UDL resource

One of my favorite Universal Design for Learning (UDL) resources is called the "UDL Tech Tool Kit." This Wiki is broken down by categories, such as: graphic organizers, literacy, story telling, math, writing, etc. and lists numerous resources, including lots of FREE tools! This is one of my "go to" tools, and should be yours too! You can find the link here.

Resources for Apps!

Besides scrolling through the iTunes store, googling, and Pinterest, I wanted to share with you some of my favorite resources to help you find apps!

Here is a link that gives you alerts when there are apps that are temporarily FREE for kids!  It is also a great reference page: http://www.smartappsforkids.com/

Here are some other great references when you are trying to find apps:

Apps in Education

Appy Mall

Best Austism Apps

Apps for Children with Special Needs

Geek SLP

Jane Farrall - AAC and switch accessible apps

Positively Autism

Speech Techie