Kelsi+Vigil

**TeachTown Software** A software program developed for student with Autism Spectrum Disorder. It uses ABA methods for teaching in the core deficit areas. It can be used for early childhood learning levels (ages 2 – 7 years old) and for instruction in these areas; adaptive skills, cognitive skills, language arts, language development, mathematics, and social and emotional skills. It provides automated progress monitoring, engages and motivates students, is individualized, supports early learning and IEP goals, connects school and home, and fidelity of implementation. There is also an off computer component to help connect parents to what the child is doing in school. This software is considered a drill and practice software with some instructional games. It uses Discrete Trial Training, and Pivotal Response Training methods of teaching and practice. In my classroom we provide discrete trial training with our students on specific vocabulary instruction like labeling food items. This program would come in handy to use as a technology piece to provide extra practice with the vocabulary instruction they are already working on to see if they are able to take what we do with them and generalize it elsewhere. I believe this could be used cross curricular because you are able to individualize the lessons and make it work for the student and what they are working on. Using the same method of teaching for each area. The strengths of this software would be that it is engaging and motivating by providing games and cartoon rewards, its character driven, and it encourages positive social behaviors. It also does the automated progress monitoring which is important to help you keep data on the students for their IEPs and to help keep the parents informed. The weaknesses are that if the students don’t connect with the characters they won’t like the program, because they are throughout all the lessons. System requirements are; an internet connection is necessary for certain parts of the program like creating a student account. Requirements for PC installation are, windows XP SP2 and SP3, Vista, Windows 7, Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise including 64 bit editions, Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition SP2 an SP3. Intel Pentium 4 2 GHz or faster, 1 GB or RAM or more, CD-ROM or DVD drive, 1 GB free disk space, Super VGA (1024x768) or higher video adapter, Mouse and keyboard, touch screen and interactive whiteboard compatible, Adobe AIR 2.0 (installed with TeachTown installation disc), QuickTime 7.0 or later, Windows 98 and Windows 2000 are not supported. Requirements for Mac are, Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Tiger), 10.5.4, 105.5 (Leopard), or 10.6.x (Snow Leopard), internet connections, Intel Core Duo 1.8 GHz or faster, 1 GB of RAM or more, 1 GB or available hard disk space, DVD Drive, Mouse and keyboard, Touch screen and interactive whiteboard compatible, Adobe AIR 2.0, power PC or operating systems before 10.4.11 are not supported. The link to the retailer is [|www.teachtown.com] or phone number 1-800-283-0165. The cost wasn’t available unless you register and log in to view more.
 * __Software Evaluation__**

**Intellitools Classroom Suite 4 Software** This software is for children Kindergarten through 5th grade in the areas of Reading, Writing, and Math. It is used as an instructional tool that combines direct instruction with a flexible tool environment that helps students succeed in the above areas. It provides explicit instruction, constructive practice, and embedded assessments. It helps keep progress monitoring on students and individualizes activities. It’s a research based software that can be aligned with current curriculum within a district. It includes reading instruction, math instruction with number sense and automaticity, writing templates across genres, creativity tools for whole class and student presentations, and early learning activities for emergent learners. I have used intellitools classroom suite 4 with a couple of my higher functioning students to help support what they were already doing in their general education classrooms. I have a fourth grader that was working on poems, and we used one of the writing templates to help her put together an acrostic poem about flowers, and added pictures, and because writing is difficult for her sometimes because of spelling she was able to use the word prediction piece to help her with that issue. This project then became a presentation that she was able to share with her class. The strengths of this software are that it is very easy for the student to use, and it can be used for all subject areas. The students are able to create their own login and once the activities are set up for them it’s very simple to click on the activity and get started. The weaknesses are that it takes a lot of teacher time to set up the programs for the students, and there are a lot of steps to follow. The progress monitoring piece is nice, but not so simple to use. The software comes in bundle packages that include Classroom Suite Primary Skills Builder, Classroom Suite Reading Tutor, Classroom Suite Math Tutor, and Classroom Suite 4 for $549.00 or you can just buy Classroom Suite 4 for the price of $345.00. You can purchase the software at [|www.intellitools.com] or phone 1-800-547-6747 or mail Cambium Learning Technologies, 4185 Salazar Way, Frederick, CO 80504. System requirements are; Processor: Pentium II (600 MHz), operating systems: Windows 2000, XP (excludes XP 64 bit Edition), Vista, Windows 7; for Voice Text speaking voices a minimum of 700MHz and 256 MB RAM is required. 1.2 GB hard drive space; 16 bit hi colors 1024x768. Macintosh G3 333MHz OS 10.2 – 10.4; OS 10.2 and 10.3-128MB RAM; OS 10.4 -256MB RAM; 1.2GB hard drive space; Thousands colors 1024x768.

**Pics for PECS Software** PECS or Picture Exchange Communication System is used as a teaching tool to help students communicate by learning how to exchange a picture to get a desired item immediately. It also helps students learn how to discriminate symbols and then use them to create sentences. This software will help facilitate speech in some students that are nonverbal or low verbal. It can be used as early as preschool and continued into adulthood. It supports communication, cognitive and physical difficulties. It uses the pictures to teach, because students with Autism are usually very visual they can be taught almost anything with images. It provides many different pictures of items to help with generalization. It was created with educators, residential care providers and families in mind. PECS is an instructional tool and provides drill and practice flashcards or pictures to use with the students to foster and support speech and language communication. I use PECS in my classroom for a student that is nonverbal. We are working on his ability to request food when he is hungry and a drink when he is thirsty. He has a picture of food and a picture of a drink and when he wants one he must hand it to the teacher working with him and then she gives him what he wants. He has been able to generalize the skill over his day from breakfast to lunch and snack. This program can be used in all areas once the student knows how to discriminate and generalize. The strengths of this software are the availability of varied pictures and how simple it is to use and print. The weaknesses are that it’s not an easy program to do unless you are very consistent and everyone is using it with the students, or the student will not pick up how to use the system very easily. Pics for PECS software is pretty reasonable at $56.00. It can be purchased at [|www.pecsproducts.com] 1-888-732-7462. I had a hard time finding system requirements for this software, but I can tell you that I have used it on the school computers that have Windows 2003 and at home where I have Windows 2007.

**Basic Attainment Series Software** This software is used for children 5 years and up. It teaches basic concepts, colors, dimensions, numbers, and spatial relationships. It has animation and graphics that are engaging to students, especially those with communication disorders. It contains three modules; 1. Colors, 2. Shapes, and 3. Numbers. This type of software is a tutorial with some instructional games included. With my students with Autism I have used a software that is similar for helping with basic concepts. I have a student right now that is 8yrs old, has academic skills in the kindergarten level, and is low verbal, he has a hard time with responding to questions, and using labels for everything. I would use this program to help him with some basic language skills along with learning some academic concepts to bump him up to the next level. The strengths of the software is that it is very basic and easy to use. It appears to be engaging and motivating to all students, and provides a wide range of activities for each module. The weaknesses are it’s very basic, so it wouldn’t be for all students, because some students may be beyond it. System requirements are, Macintosh System 7 or higher, or Windows 95 or higher. The cost is $79.00 at [|www.acadcom.com] where you save $20.00 (original price $99.00). The company can be reached at 1-888-758-9558 or by mail at Academic Communication Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 4279, Oceanside, CA 92052.

**You Are a Social Detective Software** This is an interactive software that teaches school aged (7-12 years old) students to become better social thinkers. It teaches them to use their eyes, ears, and brain to make smart social choices and to explore how others emotions and responses are connected. It has 6 levels with 200 or more video prompts that break down social situations. The 6 levels are; 1. Understanding others’ comfortable/uncomfortable thoughts, 2. Understanding others’ expected/unexpected behaviors, 3. Guessing others’ thoughts and emotions, 4. Making smart guesses, 5. Using your tool box items (eyes, ears, and brain), 6. Using social mapping. It also provides a daily tracking report that can be printed to help the teacher keep track of their results. This type of software would be considered problem solving, with some instructional games. I hold a social skills group every Friday for my students with Autism. I use this as a small group activity where we can explore a social situation and problem solve our way through it using our eyes, ears, and brains. The students then have discussions as we go about when this might happen to them, and how they handle it. I use this for my students grades 2nd through 5th. This type of program can be used in all areas of their day, because even though this isn’t an academic subject, they need to use social skills in all aspects of their day. The strengths are that it helps with a life skill, and the activities are engaging and fun. It has lessons that definitely apply to each child. I haven’t found a weakness yet. The system requirements are, Windows/Mac OS X or above, Windows 98, ME, XP, VISTA, Win 7, 300 MHz or higher, 600 MB of available hard drive space, 4x CD ROM drive, 16 – bit color, and 800/600 resolution or better video card. The cost is $89.99 and can be purchased at [|www.socialskillbuilder.com].