Sunday, November 11, 2012

Introducing, Social Quest App!

Smarty Ears has done it again!  They created a fun app to address a difficult skill.  Many of my readers are always looking for apps/materials for pragmatic groups.  This one should be on your list!  Introducing, Social Quest!
There are many setting options to customize to your needs.  I personally prefer the "remove item" that is incorrect to allow students to correct themselves and learn from their mistakes.

When you "select students" you can create profile pages and decide if you are going to address receptive or expressive skills.  Unfortunately you can not address both in one session.  You can add student's names and an avatar or picture.  The avatar/picture is used to designate when it is the student's turn.  The picture is placed into the "knight" which is extremely motivating.  Due to lack of time, I did not have a chance to let my students select their own avatar but I plan to do this in a future session.  By allowing the students to select their own, it will make it more motivating!  If you are using the "receptive" mode, you can decide if you want students to pick from the three choices one or two correct responses.  If you click "on" then they have to pick both responses to get credit.  If you select "off" they are only required to pick one.  This can make a different between easy and hard levels.  Use your students' skill levels to make that decision!  You can edit the use profile at any time.  You can also delete.  Just tap on the student profile to select them and click "next."  You can use up to 4 players at a time.


Locations used in the app: home (kitchen, bedroom, living room, bathroom, garage/yard); School (classroom, auditorium/library, cafeteria, hallway/office, yard/gymnasium; Community (grocery store, mall, restaurant, neighborhood, movies, doctor/dentist office).  You can work on one location or multiple within student or groups.  Once you tap and drag the picture/avatar into the location you want to address, you "slide to transport" where it says to to begin.  It is fun and motivating in itself with cute audio.  I allowed my students to take turns starting the game!


This app uses real life situations and images to address receptive and expressive social language. The Expressive Activity has students respond to open-ended questions corresponding to those asked in Receptive Activity. Expressive questions are worded more broadly to promote generalization of skills. You can score your students' responses or you can have them self monitor and assess themselves. This app is appropriate for students in older elementary grades, middle and high school. The target situations can elicit conversations about the scenarios and contexts.

Receptive:


Expressive:




The app uses a problem-solving quest theme in order to address a variety of locations in a community and home. This app uses questions about what to say, do, and infer the various social situations presented. The graphics follow a map/quest/adventure theme which is motivating!

Students earn "rewards" in each social location.  This is a great motivator.  I used the rewards as a way to count "points" instead of correct/incorrect responses for some groups.  They thought the prizes were hysterical!  These rewards are stored in the "Hall of Rewards."
At any point, you can click "done" to end the activity.  You are automatically brought to student profiles to access score reports and the "Hall of Rewards."  You can always gain access to this when you hit "reports" on the main page.



Things I like about this app:
  • Multi-user and customizable
  • Addresses receptive and expressive social language
  • Targets multiple and various social scenarios around community and home
  • Motivating theme and graphics
  • Real life situations and images used
  • Score reports and data collection
  • Easy to use and navigate
  • Does not take much time to set up (great for when you have a quick 2 minutes before your next group walks in through the door!)
  • Can easily stop at any point
Things I would like to see in future updates:
  • Ability to work with more than 4 students.  Most of my groups are up to 5 students. 
  • Ability to access follow-up materials on their website that go along with the topics discussed.
This is a great app for social skills groups.  Learn more about this $14.99 app by visiting iTunes.

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