NZSL Dictionary

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/sat/sat-20110702-0845-rachel_mckee_sign_language-048.mp3

Interview with Rachel McKee from VUW on NZSL dictionary

iOS Apps for pre-school CI Kids

My family has been an Apple family since the beginning. We are fortunate enough to now have a number of Apple iOS devices including an iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. These are fantastic devices. They are robust and extremely intuitive. My kids are now proficient and self sufficient operators of all these devices. It seems to take a kid about 15min to become proficient!

There are now a number of apps which have proved to be very useful for my daughter in the development of her listening and speech. I'm going to list these and comment.

SoundTouch

This is a great app. It has grids of pictures that you touch and it brings up a photo and plays the sound. The grids are different categories so it is good for learning groups as well as listening to different sounds and learning the nouns.

TapAndLearn

This app has two modes. One is a smaller set of pictures than SoundTouch but operates the same way. The other asks you to pick from three pictures after asking "Where is the...?".

ABC Phonics

This game incorporates elements of the previous two apps but also allows you to trace the word. Its probably more suited to 4+ year olds.

My First Couplets

This app is basically flashcards. BUT you can buy more categories of cards. AND you can even make your own cards with your own pictures and audio. Its useful if you want to hammer a particular word.

First words

This app is to teach the spelling of some early words. It has very good audio feedback.

Learn2Listen

This app is a smaller less refined version of SoundTouch. But still pretty good.

Ling 6

This is a simple Ling sound app.

The uses of these apps is really limited by your imagination. They can be used simple to hear a sound or word. They can be used to get responses to a "Where is the...?" question. They can be used in a multi-component request like "Find me the cat, dog and goat?". As I say... limited by imagination.

There are a heap of other apps probably more suited to school aged kids. These ones are good for pre-schoolers and new CI kids.

Free CI Book

Here is a link to a free book for parents of CI kids.

http://ebookee.org/The-Parents-Guide-to-Cochlear-Implants_1055039.html

MAPing

Here's a useful article on MAPing for CIs

http://www.hearingpocket.com/mapping.shtml