Speak for Yourself is an AAC app developed by speech language pathologists that gives an individual access to a variety of core vocabulary with the addition of various features that makes communication quick and efficient.This AAC app turns the iPad into a communication device to give a voice to adults and children who are not able to speak or are limited in their ability to express themselves verbally.
I wanted to highlight an excellent feature of “Hold That Thought” on Speak for Yourself and use it in the recommended activity of Guess Who? board game. Guess Who? is a logic based board game that challenges a player to deduce your opponent’s mystery person. The game helps facilitate asking questions and problem solving.
Combine training of using Speak with Yourself with Bluebee Pal!
- When playing Guess Who, the student can choose Bluebee Pal as the participant and use Speak for Yourself to ask questions and attempt to figure out the other game player’s mystery person. When using Speak for Yourself, the feature of Hold That Thought can be useful and accessible.
- Before playing the game, discuss various questions that you would want to ask your opponent, such as “is your person a he or she?”, “Does your person have brown hair?” etc. As you are creating these sentences, add them to Hold That Thought. When the game begins, the student can use those sentences that they have already constructed to ask questions quickly and with no delay. Other utterances such as “my turn”, “your turn”, “yes”, “no” and “oops” should be created spontaneously via Speak for Yourself.
Playing Guess Who with a Blueebee Pal can make the game more engaging and playful and can give an interesting spin to your session! You can also target working on various skills such as creating sentences, accessing quick vocabulary, actions, navigation, problem solving and taking turns in conversation!