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hi my name is Lynn Carahaly and I'm a pediatric speech language pathologist
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and i'm going to be discussing some best practices when using your iPad
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Having an iPad to do therapy for SLPs and parents
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is very very exciting. It's a very motivating tool
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There's a whole world of apps on the market that are
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uh... fun
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and motivating and educational
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and uh... it's just become a wonderful tool for both slps and parents.
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that being said there are some points i would like to make
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First, apps
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are not replacement for speech therapy
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or
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the sl p
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so that's very very important point to make because
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when we have this world of apps- all these tools and resources at our
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fingertips
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it becomes very easy to
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rationalize how much we can now do therapy at home.
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for whatever reasons that maybe he whether it be financial reasons; not
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having to go to therapy has as much uh... or the convenience of its some
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some families
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are driving a half-an-hour to even an hour to even get to therapy
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uh... or just the frequency of it. Going to therapy three to four times
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a week
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can be inconvenience to the idea of having these apps and devices
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for home use is very alluring.
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and
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considering cutting out the sl p or reducing the
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therapy sessions with an slp but I really urge you that that is is not
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uh... what we'd want as as SLPs and as a developer my self, it's not the
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intent.
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um... these tools are are just tools
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and are not meant to replace the SLP
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or even cut back on on therapy and really has to supplement whatever you're
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currently doing & to provide you with some resources
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to work with your child at home
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but by no means are they designed to
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uh... reduce therapy or or replace the sl p
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so the next point that i would like to make - kind of along that line
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is the idea that these apps and devices
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uh...
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really cautioning you that that they are not to become the instructor
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so
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very very important point is that
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these are wonderful tools and they're very very educational and motivating
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but don't rely on that app or the device to instruct your child
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and at making an and hoping that they're going to make substantial progress
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without that sl p
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and then the last point that i would like to make
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is that um... but very important is is because of these apps and the devices
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are so fun and motivating
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kids do want to get their hands on them
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so it's very very tempting and for us to think, oh Wow, they love the iPad
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they're requesting it
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What you don't want to do is just hand the iPad over to the child
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and have them go to their speech work or have them play uh... indeed
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that's a really important point to make because the two in a child's mind
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it does seem like a game it does seem like they are playing
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but keep in mind that these apps that are developed as speech therapy tools
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are not to be self directed by the child.
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you really need to be sitting down with your child, working with your child and
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giving them feedback and support and not expecting them to just sit on the couch while
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you're making dinner or washing the dishes, to do their speech homework
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Kind of along that line to is we
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are very
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encouraged by the device when we see that the child is having fun.
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uh... another point that i'd like to make is that these apps are not
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necessarily meant to entertain your child
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uh... it's again not a game or toy but a tool
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so we do want to get
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the most out of our our apps, specifically the ones that are designed
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to help in speech therapy
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but again it is very tempting to want to download
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uh... apps are are just
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fun an entertaining to the child
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so with speech therapy that's not always the case so really to make sure that
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that parent is sitting there with them. perhaps using some other apps that are
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fun and rewarding
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uh... in between as a little reward or a little break is a great idea but
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uh... just really kinda searching for apps that are just
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fun and ... game like
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that uh... that is of word of caution too. So those are some best practices that I
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encourage you to implement
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when you're working with your child
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and uh... and having
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this whole world of apps at your fingertips
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and to be able to really make some sound choices
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Thank you very much and I wish you all the best.