10 tango! lessons. for SCHOOL

Transcription

1 10 tango! lessons for SCHOOL 900 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY blink-twice.com tango! is a registered trademark of Blink Twice, Inc Blink Twice, Inc.

2 Hi! Nice to meet you. We appreciate that you ve gotten your child a tango! But this is just the beginning. Now it s time to make sure your child uses the tango!, gets the most out of it, and truly communicates with the people most important in his or her life, and that s you! The tango! will allow your child to do many things that were previously unthinkable for someone who needed to rely upon a speech-generating device. Most of all, they will have unprecedented access to communication, and powerful tools to customize and create communication of their own. With the tango!, children are able to fit in better. With our powerful Core and Topic Words, they can build sentences and pursue literacy. But with tools like Phrase First communication, Photo Albums, Voice Morphing, and tango! Stories, they ll also be able to reach out to friends and others. We know your first steps with AAC can be a bit overwhelming. We deal with many parents. And our company was started by a father of a child with cerebral palsy. But learning to use a speech-generating device doesn t have to be hard work. It can be fun! With the right lessons, anything is possible. And if you need anything else, give us a call at BLINK-11. Here s how to tango! These tango! lessons provide a fun way for teachers and students to interact in real communication situations and share the experience of learning how to use the tango! All you ll need to do is follow the simple steps on the following pages. Each lesson should take no more than a half hour you can often do them in less. On each page, you ll find 5 areas Goal This describes the technical or academic thing you will learn that day. What To Do! Directions on how you should direct the lesson. A related tip that will add to the experience. Here s What You Learned A recap of the part of the tango! that you just learned; we ll put the skill into perspective for you. Other activities you can do to gain more skills related to the day s lesson. TEACHER do Press Home. Child say Let s read a book. Before doing tango! lessons we recommend you spend a half hour with the Quickstart Guide. That will let you know how the tango! operates. From there, you can learn the many ways it helps create communication. 10 TANGO! LESSONS FOR SCHOOL That s all there is to it. Enjoy. Learn. Go forth and communicate. And, of course, share these lessons with therapists, teachers, and anyone else with whom your child interacts. It s a great way for everyone to share our vision.

3 1 Basic Communication Structure Goal: Get ready to learn the basic structure of the tango! It s time to experience real conversation with the first AAC device designed to support conversation. Complete this routine with your student. Create opportunities to take turns communicating. It s fast and it s easy! Repeat this interaction with your student, slowly building on this theme; expanding and developing communication together. Talk Topics are organized into 5 Screens of 6 Topics Right arrow from the first Talk Topic Screen to find all the different areas. 1. Daily Routines 2. Home Activities 3. Out and About 4. School 5. Power Sets Let s go to recess Press home. Press talk topics. Press right arrow three times, pause, press recess. you say: It s time for recess! Point to and press Do It. Point to recess. child says: C mon. Let s go to recess. Great. What do you want to do? Point to and press Things. Point to something or friend. I want something to play with or I want a friend to play with. Okay, let s go. The child plays for a while. Point to and press thumbs up. Point to fun or cool. This is really fun! or Cool! Press thumbs up. Point to again. COMMUNICATION CREATES COMMUNITY In a fun and useful activity, you found all sorts of things you can model for your student during recess. You explored different Phrase Banks, such as Do It phrases (things you do during recess), Thing phrases (objects needed during recess), and Thumbs Up phrases (positive comments about recess). Let s do it again. he tango! is very user-friendly, makes it very easy to express T Melissa Cordone, SLP wants and needs. Explore some of the other Phrase Banks in Recess. Look at Questions and Thumbs Down. Model for your student all the other things they can say when you re in recess together. Remember to show them what they can say by modeling the phrases yourself. Remember to communicate together.

4 2 Phrase First Language Goal: Become more familiar with the power of our innovative Phrase First Language Structure. There are over 2,000 phrases pre-recorded on your tango! And you are about to explore even more communication options, as well as one powerful customization feature. Go to the Quick Tip now and turn off the Phrase Scroll Back feature. You ll see how it s easier to explore new phrases in any set. Arriving at school you say: Good morning! Press home. Press Talk Topics. Press Right Arrow three times. Point to and press Arriving. Press Thumbs Up. Point to Good morning. Here is how you can say good morning to me. When exploring, turn OFF Scroll Back After Phrase Enter programming mode Press the right arrow Press toggle FUNCTIONS Press scroll back AFTER PHRASE Press OFF Exit programming mode child says: Good morning. Well thank you. Are you having a good morning? If your student is not looking happy, press Thumbs Down. Point to Boring. Boring. Oh no, that s too bad. Let s find out what s wrong. Press right arrow. Point to Tired, Mad, or sick. Label each of them as you go. I m tired or I m mad. That s too bad. Let s find something you like to do, and see if that will help! Press Up Arrow. Press Things. Here are some things you can do. What do you want to do first? Point to something for play, books or computer. I want some books or I want the computer. Great, let s do that! We have been trying to find the best access for years. Her interest and motivations were clear: She wants to use the tango! Anna Foster Quick Communication means More Opportunity By turning OFF Scroll Back, you and your child can more easily explore the phrases on the tango! You may have noticed that the Phrase First Language Structure is very different from every other AAC device. But we think you ll agree it s a more efficient way to communicate so many different and exciting things. There is a lot that everyone says over and over, so why not just speed that up! Explore some of the other Talk Topics, like Reading, Morning Meeting, and Snack. If you set Phrase Scroll Back to OFF for exploration, you ll need to use the Up Arrow to scroll back to Phrase Banks. However, once you are familiar with the phrases, it may be faster and easier to turn Auto Scroll Back to ON.

5 3 Story Telling! Goal: Let s learn to share favorite conversations in a way that really engages others! We all tell stories over and over again. Now, a child can easily participate in extended turn-taking and experience real engagement, whether telling favorite stories, or using ones that come with the tango! Here, we ll explore Stories found in each Talk Topic. But you ll find more Stories under the Stories button on the Home Page. (To go to the Home Page, just hit the Home button.) Show and tell y o u sa y: Time for show and tell! Let s tell your friends all about what you brought. Press home. Press Talk Topics. Press the right arrow three times. Point to, pause, and press Morning Meeting. This story will help you with your show and tell. Your friends will love this. Point to and press the Story button. Now press Button One and let s listen to what it says. Point to button one for the child to press. c h i l d sa y s: My turn, I have something to show. Great! Go ahead and show us and tell us some more. Let s hear what is next. Point to button two and give a cue to continue. Look what I have. That is really cool! Continue through the sequence of the Story and your student can be a part of show and tell! Just press the symbol buttons instant communication! Keep going with the Story and have a great time communicating with your student! The phrases are recorded in sequence. If your child understands this, let them lead. If they are having difficulty going in order, turn ON Automated Social Scripts. This way, your student can hit any button and the Story will continue in the correct step-by-step sequence. See the Quick Tip to make communication errorless for your student. I think the visual cues paired with the auditory support are what make the tango! a truly unique and wonderful device. Kelly Meyer engagement leads to motivation By using a Social Script, you and your student can quickly engage in a communication interaction! Your student can ask questions, make comments, give commands, and take turns with a communication partner about many different topics and activities. You also learned how to make this interaction even easier for your student so the buttons do not have to be pushed in sequence to get the story. For error-free Story telling, use Auto Sequence Enter programming mode (press abc and PopTalk! at the same time) Press right arrow Press toggle functions Press social scripts in sequence Press ON Exit programming mode Explore other Stories in the tango! You ll find a Story in every Talk Topic. In Recess, your child can lead a game of Hot Potato. Or check out Home Work and your child and their teacher can tell you what they did today. The tango! Stories are fun and a true tool in allowing your child to build relationships with all the important people in their life.

6 4 Using Word Banks Goal: Let s start adding words to how we communicate using the tango! You ve already mastered the phrases on the tango! Now begin adding the 4,000 words to your communication! Words are found in every Talk Topic and also in the Lists area on the Home Page. For this activity make sure to turn Scroll Back After Phrase to ON. Lesson 2 will remind you how to do this if you forgot. There are 4 types of Word Banks Nouns Verbs Days of the week y o u sa y: Time to start the day. It s calendar time. Who s ready? Press talk topics. Press right arrow three times. Press Morning meeting. Press Do It, pause, and point to My turn or Go first. Modifiers My Words* Don t forget to add your own My Words chi l d sa y s: I want a turn or I want to go first. Okay. Tell me what day of the week it is? Press the up arrow, then the right arrow to get to words. Press days. Okay, this is where we can find the days of the week. Which day is it? Point to Today is and then the day of the week. Today is Monday. That s right, now can you tell me what tomorrow will be? Point to, pause, and press Tuesday. Tuesday. That is right. Now, let s talk about the weather for today. Press the up arrow. Press weather & seasons. You can continue the interaction from there. discover the power of combining Phrases and Words You ve seen the efficiency of the phrases and now you ve experienced the precision of the words. Use a phrase to initiate an activity, then use the words to add specificity to your interaction. It can be a lot more engaging and efficient than waiting to build an entire sentence. In this example, you were able to review different parts of the games as well as find out favorite places and characters. Later on, you will learn how to use Word Banks to build sentences, providing even more communication power. After only minimal practice, a young man I work with was able to independently order a Sprite at McDonald s, pay for it, and say, Thank you, have a nice day. Peggy Toonen, SLP Explore the Word Banks in the other Talk Topics. You ll see how we organized most of our words. We think you ll agree it s easier to navigate a group of important topic words, rather than be confronted by huge pages of vocabulary.

7 5 PopTalk! Goal: Learn to communicate quickly with the power of PopTalk! PopTalk! provides many commonly used phrases needed frequently throughout the day. You can always get to PopTalk! just by pressing the (!) button. Right now, PopTalk! closes as soon as you say something and returns you to where you last were. However, to explore PopTalk! more efficiently, just turn off the Auto Close feature. (See Quick Tip) Say hello to a friend y o u sa y: Let s say hi to one of your friends. There are lots of cool things we can say. Press PopTalk!. Press hi and bye. Auto Close PopTalk! Enter programming mode Press right arrow Press toggle functions Press PopTalk! Close After Speaking Press OFF Exit programming mode chil d sa y s: (any message will be appropriate, reinforce the choice they make) Great! Let s try it again, what else can you say when you meet someone? Point to and press hi and bye. Point to Hey. Hey, how are you doing? It s going to be most meaningful and powerful if greetings are done within a functional context. So walk down the hallway in school and have your child greet different friends. being fast can be fantastic Research has shown it s often hard for individuals to initiate conversation with speech-generating devices. PopTalk! gives kids fast and easy access to important phrases useful in any setting, with any communication partner. They re a quick way to say hello, tell people about yourself, or give directions. Remember, like any phrase on the tango!, PopTalk! phrases are fully customizable. So add your student s own frequently used phrases. After reviewing the instruction book for minutes with my son, we both felt confident in using the tango! Donna Dernulc You ve just seen all the different ways to say hi and bye. But You ve just seen all the different ways to say hi and bye. But poptalk PopTalk! offers so much more. Use the Right Arrow to explore offers so much more. Use the right arrow to explore all three screens. all three screens. And get ready to personalize the About Me And get ready to personalize the About Me phrases in Lesson 8! phrases in Lesson 8!

8 6 Making Photo Albums Goal: Create a photo album and communicate in a new way. Photo Albums are an amazing communication tool that let you share information. Create up to 30 Photo Albums, with 12 pictures in each. Imagine sharing a school field trip, family vacations, what you did in school today, or something as simple as what you did last night. The possibilities are endless! And they are created and stored right on your tango! Make a photo album Create a photo album about a field trip. 1 Press Home. Press Take a Photo. 2 Button 6 is the viewfinder. Take a photo of your bedroom. Press Take Photo. 3 If you like the photo, press create album. Photo is the cover of your photo album. 4 Title your photo album. Type My Field Trip. (watch for word prediction) 5 Press EDIT/Save. Then press Save album. 6 Now take a photo of favorite things on the field trip. (button 6 is still your viewfinder) 7 Press Take Photo. If you like the photo, choose the photo album you created, My Field Trip. It s right there in button one. 8 Now record a message. Press Record. When you hear the beep, wait one second, then speak in a normal voice. (for best results speak four inches from the microphone) 9 When you are done recording your message, wait one second then press Stop. 10 Press Voice Morph to change an adult s voice to a child s. 11 Press Save All. y o u sa y: Let s practice telling mom and dad about your field trip. Let s use our photo album to share this with your Mom and Dad when you get home! chi l d: (presses any picture, order is not important right now) The expression on my kids faces were priceless. Once they began to navigate the phrases and Talk Topics, they loved it! Janice Edmonson picture perfect communication With Photo Albums, your student can quickly communicate new ideas and share important events. For example, things that happened that day, or something from a special day. A built-in camera isn t a gimmick. It s a tool for integrating important things and objects into daily conversations. And now you can do that in 2 minutes, not 20! You can also synthesize what you say! It s easy to record for quick story telling But spellers or kids learning literacy can also synthesize their message Just hit Synthesize instead of record! Photo Albums are a fast and fun way to always be ready to share stories with others. Create new albums for your student s field trip. Or capture a day at school and the different activities they participated in throughout the day. Photo Albums allow your student to communicate new and motivating things with their peers and teachers.

9 7 Personalize the tango! Goal: Customize for your student. You just explored the power of the camera and Photo Albums in the previous step. Now use the camera to create new picture symbols that are meaningful for your student. It s a great way to motivate your student to want to use the tango! You are not going to believe how easy it is to seamlessly integrate pictures into your tango! It s faster and more efficient than any communication device today. What can we do at recess? Customize their tango! by taking pictures of the child s favorite recess activities and customize the phrases in the Recess set. Taking Great Photos The key to taking great photos is to make sure that only one object is central. For example, if taking a picture of a shirt, lay it on a single-colored bedspread or towel. Don t have patterns or too much going on. Quick steps to edit a button 1 Press the Recess Talk Topic. 2 Press Things. 3 Enter programming mode. 4 Press Edit Existing. 5 Press Ball. 6 Press Change Image. 7 Take picture of the child s favorite ball. 8 Press Use This Photo or Redo if you need to get a better shot. 9 Press Edit Audio Phrase. 10 Press redo if you want to record your new message, or press synthesize if you want to type out a synthesized message. 11 Press Save Audio. 12 Press Save All. y o u sa y: It s time for recess, what do you want to do? Press Things. chi l d sa y s: I want to play with my favorite ball. add images for added interest You ve just learned how to begin personalizing your tango!. Photos can create images that are motivating for your student, increasing their desire to communicate about their favorite things. The more personal the tango!, the greater the motivation to use it. Make sure you include your student in the process of personalizing their tango! they will definitely let you know what is important to them. For more information on customizing content, refer to the Quickstart Guide that came with your tango! Great, let s find it and go outside. I am amazed how quickly he has taken to the tango! Spring Dolbec Look through other Talk Topics and customize with picture symbols of favorite things. In Reading, add classroom text books or create a reading library, in Arriving to School, add picture symbols of classroom work areas. There s no end to the possibilities of customizing each Talk Topic for your student to support a classroom curriculum.

10 8 Personalize PopTalk! Goal: Create a great way for your students to introduce themselves to others. The About Me set in PopTalk! provides key messages important for your student. You ll find phrases that let them say hello and tell others about themselves. As well as phrases for basic answers, directions, and safety. PopTalk! means quick communication in any setting. Introduce yourself! Quick steps to customize 1 Press Poptalk!. Press right arrow. Press About Me. 2 Enter programming mode. (press and release POPTALK! and ABC at the same time) 3 Press edit existing. 4 Press Name. (button one) 5 Press Edit Audio Phrase. 6 Press Redo. Record your child s name here. (remember, wait for the beep, wait one second, then speak!) 7 Press Stop when you re done recording. 8 Press Listen. If you like the way it sounds, press Save Audio. Or press Redo. 9 Press Edit Text Phrase. 10 Press Edit. Press Clear. Type your child s name, as you recorded it. 11 Press Save/Save Text. 12 Press CHANGE IMAGE. Take a photo of your student. 13 Now edit the other About Me. Press Edit Existing and add your child s phone number, address, school name, etc. In minutes, you will have the entire set personalized for your child. So far you ve learned about the different customization features, and now you ve learned how to create powerful social opportunities. You ve given your student an easy way to build relationships with the important people in their life. Now that you ve finished customizing About Me, press the Right Arrow and customize How I Communicate, another powerful set for your student. How to make great recordings Before speaking, wait one second after you hear the beep. The microphone is checking background noise levels. Speak 4 inches from the microphone. You don t have to speak loud but do add energy and emotion. Quick Customization! Unheard Of! I think that perhaps you are just beginning to see the tip of the iceberg in the changing tide you are all creating. Susanne Frische There are other important areas where you can personalize content! Go to Things in New People and add your own phrases and pictures of family and friends. Or go to People Lists, and place a picture of all their classmates. There are so many opportunities with the tango! to create meaningful content.

11 9 Move, Hide, and Swap Buttons Goal: To further customize areas, you can swap, move, and hide buttons. When you swap or move buttons, your student can find their most important phrases and words even more easily! You can also hide buttons to maximize access and increase language learning opportunities. Let s customize after-school Go to After School. Press Do It. Your student needs to say let s go to my cubby at the end of every day. Right now that phrase is on the second screen, but let s move it to the first screen so it is easier to find, and quicker to access. When to hide the camera button Sometimes kids will use the camera feature on the tango! to take pictures of everything and anything If that happens just use the Hide/Show feature to hide the camera button! Quick steps to move a button 1 You re in After School, Do It phrases. Enter programming mode. 2 Press the Move, HIDE and DELETE button. Press Swap. 3 Swap another picture or if you are done, press Up Arrow. Press Exit. Now, an important phrase for your student is on the first page rather than second. Quicker access, quicker communication. Quick steps to hide a button Some of your students won t be ready for all 6 phrases on the screen. You can make it easier for them by hiding buttons so they start with only 3. You can hide any button you want on the tango! 1 You re still in After School. Press Do It. 2 Enter programming mode. 3 Press Move, HIDE AND DELETE. 4 Press Hide/Show. 5 Press and hide say goodbye. 6 Press and hide take that home. 7 Press and hide can t find. 8 Choose any button you want to hide and repeat sequence for any other button. 9 When you re done, press Up Arrow. Press Exit. Her motivation was incredible! Anna Foster create exactly what you want Now you know how to make your student s most important communication more available by providing easier access, and quicker communication. In short, you re starting to see how many ways there are to customize the tango! for your student and for your classroom. You ll learn even more about this in our Reference Guide. Or check our weekly tips. Further explore this customization. Try the Move Before, or Move After buttons. Unhide the buttons you just hid. See how easy it is to truly make the tango! work better for your child. Also, look to the Reference Guide and see how you can copy buttons and phrases between Talk Topics.

12 10 Create Complete Sentences Goal: It s time to create a message all your own. You can create messages by combining words from Word Banks with the words from the Core Words. From there you can build further language precision by using vocabulary from Word Lists. Further expand on your options by using the Spelling Pop-Up at any time. With the tango!, you can share any idea you can think of! Two ways to hear your sentence Press Edit/Speak, then Speak. You will hear what s in the Message Strip Choose the book you want you say: Touch the Message Strip. This speaks your message BUT it keeps the words active so you can keep building your sentence Time for readers workshop. We can read your library book or your school book. But I want you to tell me using your Core Words, I want my library book. I know you can do it, it s going to be easy! Press Reading. Press Right Arrow. Here are your reading words. Press Right Arrow. Here are your Core Words. Press Button One and point to I. Let s start here. child says: I Great. Now I know you want something. Press button three and point to the word want. Want Perfect! Now let s find the word my. Press button one. Point to My. My Great. Now what do you want to read? PRECISION VS. EFFICIENCY. WHAT S BEST? We can t make that decision for you, but what we can do is provide you with the option to choose what works best for your student, at that time. Phrases allow for quick engaging communication, an unbelievable way to build relationships with the meaningful and important people in their life. Words and Core allow your student to provide efficient messages, which take a bit longer to compose, but allow for the precision for such tasks as writing. Press Left Arrow. Press Thing to Read. Let your student pick. Comic book! (they may surprise you with their own choice) Press Edit/Speak. Press Speak. I want my comic book! She asked me what I was going to do that night. It brought tears to my eyes! Christine Berg Explore the other words in the Reading Talk Topic. See how you can combine the different Reading Words with Core Words. It s almost endless! A consistent language structure across Talk Topics supports literacy and language learning, while never limiting communication opportunities.