Quiver, Fun App Meets the Engagement Triangle

Last week, I had the awesome opportunity to speak to graduate students in the speech-language pathology program at NC Central. The students were wonderful and asked on-target questions, and the topic was using technology in evidence-based practice in the school setting. 

One of the main points of the talk was that using any technology in therapy should follow a "triangle model"--one point is the student, the second is the adult, and the third is the piece of technology such as an iPad.An iPad is a tool to help facilitate skills--the iPad doesn't teach; the adults teach using the iPad.

With this model in mind, when I find a new app, I now look for ways to augment it to enhance the communication between the child and adult.  My students need to learn to request, comment, answer questions, ask questions, reject, and other basic communicative functions.  I think the app, Quiver, will enable the child to do all of these, especially with language modeling and possibly communication boards.  The app is free, as are many of the coloring pages.  There are, however, in-app purchases you can make if there are certain pages you want.  (I paid 2.99 because I really wanted the hot air balloon picture).

From the iTunes page: "Coloring pages have never been so much fun! The Quiver App combines physical coloring from “back in the day” with state of the art augmented reality technology to bring you and your children an extraordinarily magical experience." (I'm sure you need a newer version of an iPad. I have an iPad Air.)

From a speech pathology perspective: You can make a communication board or set up a device for your more challenged children to request colors, and coloring pages. Some of the pages are vehicles, some are little animated creatures, some are animals, and the list goes on.  You do have to careful about what you print, as some are not free.  Make a page of comments or core vocabulary you want to target.  Using this app can be a true interactive experience! 

Have fun!  I'm so amazed with my iPad these days!  This is a totally cool app.



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