iSuppports for Children with Autism: Cookie Doodle Language Therapy 2

The Last Five of Ten Ways to Teach Communication Skills Using Cookie Doodle iPad App  

(See previous blog post for the first five)


Watch the video below first and then see ideas for using this app to teach communication skills.

6)     Planning and Sequencing

•       In order to learn how to make a plan, it is helpful to plan the same kind of thing over and over.  I ought to know how to pack a suitcase for a trip, but I don't do it often so I end up packing things I don't use and wanting things I did not pack.  On the other hand, I know how to make and use a list and I have this strategy that helps me get to my destination with most of what I need.  Children using Cookie Doodle can use the recipe and see ingredients checked off as added--which is a strategy that parents should highlight as they play.  Using a list is a great planning skill to teach.  It is also possible to plan an imaginary cookie party, using a paper and pencil list where party guests are listed and a set number of cookies are made for each guest.  If you take the skill from one practiced on the tablet computer to one practiced with paper and pencil, your child is much more apt to use this skill when it is needed in real life.  The next step, of course, is to plan a real cookie party and make real cookies.  The idea of a "list" can easily be used for everything from decorating for the Cookie Party to cleaning up after the guests have gone home. 

7)     Politeness  (Caring for the Needs of Others)

•      While we are on the idea of a Cookie Party, it is possible to help a child consider what each guest at your party might like in Cookies.  Daddy likes to play golf.  Let's make him a pretend cookie that looks like a golf ball.   It is much easier to discuss the preferences of others and make each person a unique and beautiful cookie on Cookie Doodle than it would be in real life.  The language of politeness can be practiced many times over at Cookie Doodle parties.  Daddy, would you care for a cookie?  to which Dad replies Yes thank-you.  You are so kind!

8)     Mental Flexibility

•      Several of my young clients get stuck, almost immediately, on one kind of cookie and make the same exact cookie over and over.  I recently talked a child into making one chocolate cookie even though he was stuck in a pattern of making pumpkin orange cookies.  I allowed him to make pumpkin cookies for himself but asked him to make a chocolate cookie for me.  He did but then decided to eat my cookie too since, as he explained it,  he really needed to eat chocolate cookies too! We will have to move back to the politeness learning objective, I guess.

9)     The Language and Concept of Gradation

•      If your child is "all or nothing" in his or her approach to life, it is useful to play games that help a child identify all the points that can be located between all and nothing.  For example, in loving orange pumpkin cookies deeply and disliking all other kinds of cookies (except my chocolate cookie) my young friend has narrowed his cookie world down too far.  He does not use all the colors, shapes, and decorative possibilities that he should explore in order to learn more about the cookie world.  I can talk about cookies that I don't like, that I like a little bit, that I like a lot, and that are my favorites.  With some children, I might introduce the idea not in the context of emotions but rather in the physical world that has pale light blue, light blue, darker blue, and really dark blue--all of which are colors of frosting available for decorating cookies on Cookie Doodle.  We can have tiny sprinkles and bigger sprinkles, and sprinkles that are almost as bid as candy!  We can cut cookies into small circles, bigger circles, or into huge circles with out own sharp, but virtual, knife.  We can eat one cookie, a few cookies, or eat so many that we make ourselves sick.

10)  Beginning and Ending Activities Verbally

•      Many of the kids I see each week end an activity by walking away. We always teach kids a verbal way to end an activity-- usually by saying, All Done.  But there are less abrupt ways of ending an activity than saying All Done three seconds before you walk away.  As children have the language to say more, we want to teach them to say more and to leave activities in socially appropriate ways.  I am getting tired of this game, I might say, are you tired of this game yet?  If the child wants to play longer, I will negotiate an end point I will play this for three more cookies and then I am done playing Cookie Doodle.  I often start saying this kind of thing when I see a child's interest in the activity is flagging, so that I am modeling the language that the child could use at the same time the child might actually need that language.  It is always more effective to teach new language skills at the point in time when they might be handy to the child.  There are many different scripts that we use for ending an activity and pointing them out to older children can help the child both end activities gracefully and also become aware when others are trying to end and activity but doing so in a socially appropriate but subtle way.

iSupports for Children with Autism: Cookie Doodle Language Therapy

Ten Ways to Teach Communication Skills Using Cookie Doodle iPad App.

I invite you to watch the video below first before reading about some of the learning objectives you might target while using this app. 

1)     Joint Attention

• With many young children who have autism, it is difficult to establish Joint Attention (JA is when two people are doing, looking at, feeling, intending the same thing at the same time--and know that they are both together in this enterprise).  iPads are visually riveting.  It is relatively easy to get most children with autism looking at things on the ipad.  The child knows that you are both looking at the same thing, in part, because you can easily both be interacting with the pictures on the program.  When you say Hmmm, what color?  Brown.  I choose brown  the child can see that you selected something that was brown and if the next time you name a different color and select it, the meaning of the color word becomes increasingly obvious.  If you say Cut, cut, cut while cutting the butter, the child sees what the word might mean.  These programs give the child practice in maintaining joint attention with another person because it is easy, and highly pleasurable for the child to maintain joint attention in this kind of an activity.

2)     Taking Turns

• It is relatively easy to move the iPad from one person's reach to another person's reach, allowing each person to take a turn.  You can create a turn taking activity easily.  If at the same time you announce Mommy's Turn and then David's Turn, you are making the act of turn-taking even more obvious.  When first taking turns, make Mommy's turn really quick and David's turn longer.  Eventually, make turns more evenly timed so that David can play with another child and not just mommy.

3)     Speech Sounds

• One of the ways that we teach a child new speech sounds is we let the child hear the sound repeatedly--often slowing the production of the word down to emphasize the target sound a little.  I might choose the Cookie Doodle app, for example, when I was helping a child use the "k" sound instead of the "t" sound in appropriate words.  This would be the child who pronounces the word cookie as "tootie".   There are so many opportunities to emphasize the "k" sound while playing this particular game. This therapy strategy would not even require that you ask the child to say the "k" sound, at least not at the beginning, but rather that you just find as many opportunities to say words with a "k" sound as you can while playing.  Here is a little sample of how one might talk while playing if the idea was to say as many "k" words as possible.  "Wow! You chose green.  Green Cookie?  Yuck! No Cookie for me!  I don't like green Cookies.  I can't eat green cookies! My turn.  I will make green cookies too but Yuck!  I won't eat them.  I will cut, cut, cut, cut my cookie and no one can eat it.  Cookie crumbs.  You can't eat cookie crumbs." 
•  While I might find another app for another sound, I would not need to. With a little thought, one could probably target any sound using the same app.  Write out a little script for yourself to help you think of how to say the same sound over and over in different words while playing the game together. If your child is working on sounds with a Speech Language Pathologist, ask this professional for help with choosing sounds to target in play.

4)     Vocabulary

•  It is easy to teach vocabulary with any activity where the child can see exactly what you mean as you say the word.  Some obvious vocabulary to teach with this game would be descriptive words (colors, shapes, sizes), space/location words (down, up, next to, beside, on top, on the edge, far away, close), action words (cut, sprinkle, stir, color, bite, eat, pour, shake),  politeness words (please, thank-you, your welcome), labels (bottle, egg, salt, bowl), time words (first, second, third, after, next time, last time, before).  You might want to look on your child's treatment plan or IEP to see what kind of vocabulary goals your child has or ask your child's Speech Language Pathologist to help you choose some words.

5)     Pretend versus Real  

•       Anything you teach in the two dimensional world of a computer screen or for that matter, a book, is pretend, not real in this presentation. You can make the concept of pretend versus real more clear if you use these words while doing the activity on the screen and then repeating the activity in the real world.  E.g.  Let's make pretend cookies versus Let's make real cookies.  Cookie Doodle is very easy to do in both worlds.  The concept of "pretend" versus "real" can be a useful concept to teach. It has long intrigued me that with typical children, we tend to throw pretend and real together and let children sort out what is pretend versus real eventually--as in the case of Santa Claus.  It is much more pervasive than the clearly deceptive manner in which we present Santa.  We do things like threaten to eat your little toes while changing a baby's diaper--what a horrible thing to say to a child but we smile as we say it and apparently, young children trust our smiles more than they trust our words.  That might, in fact, be what we are teaching as we say this.  Trust my facial expression, not my words when there is any doubt.  We give children books with stories where animals talk, dinosaurs walk the earth, and orphaned children live at Hogworts Magic Boarding School.   For children with autism, who tend to be very literal in their thinking, it can be useful to teach, from an early age, that some things are real and somethings are pretend.  We want all children to enjoy rich imaginative lives but there can be some distressing confusion in our cultural approach for children with autism.   
•       I want to make another point,under this heading of pretend versus real and slip it in here. A child is much more likely to use new communication skills that are taught in the two dimensional world of computers if these same skills are explicitly taught in the real world soon after. Don't expect a child to use the vocabulary, for example, that you teach with Cookie Doodle, unless you also teach that vocabulary in other real places--such as when cooking real cookies.

Next blog post will cover the following communication learning objectives.  If you can think of more learning objectives and strategies related to using Cookie Doodle--please put them in the comments section. 

6)     Planning and Sequencing

7)     Politeness  (Caring for the Needs of Others)

8)     Mental Flexiblity

9)     The Language and Concept of Gradation

10)  Beginning and Ending Activities Verbally

i Supports for Children with Autism------Basic Concepts

I am excited to start a series of blog posts on using the iphone, the ipod touch, and the ipad with young children who have autism.   For the past couple of months I have been working with an ipad, and an ipod touch in our clinic and helping families use these tools in their homes.  My experience with these tools does not make me an expert but already I am finding so many possibilities that I feel sure some of what I can tell and show you will be useful. Some parents that I work with are out in front of me on this but many more are unfamiliar with all the i-things that are coming onto the market but still interested because of the buzz in the media about using these tools with children who have autism.  Let me start with some of the basic concepts based on questions that parents frequently ask me here at the clinic.

Why are so many people talking about using these devices with children who have autism?  These devices offer some relatively inexpensive solutions to some nagging problems.  For example, a family may be using pictures to support early communication development in children with autism.  These pictures are very helpful but hard to organize and find when needed.  On any of these i-machines, a parent can store and use all the pictures that the child needs in one place. So, for example, it is much easier for a parent to pull together a group of photos to show a child what they are going to buy at the  grocery store or at Target.  Sometimes, it is the child who needs the pictures to communicate with parents or others and there are several inexpensive systems available so that the child can do this. Using one of these augmentative communication systems used to be a possibility for only a few children due to the cost and complexity of the systems but new simple systems are available for many more children.  There is also software available that helps over-worked parents of young children with autism organize life and specific tools for understanding some of the systems that parents must negotiate--such as Individual Education Plans (IEPs).

What is the iphone and the ipod Touch?  These two devices are little tiny computers with touch screens. Ignoring the fact that one is a phone, they are very similar devices.  With both the iphone and the ipod touch you can get on a wireless network and use the Internet. With the phone, you need to pay a monthly fee for both voice phone service and for the ability to use the Internet even when you are not within the range of a wireless network.  You can buy apps (software) for both machines (see below) and these apps are what make the machines useful for children with autism.

What is the ipad? The ipad is a bigger little computer with a touch screen but it is still quite small.  The ipad also uses apps  (see below).  The ipad comes in two versions.  One version connects to the Internet via a wireless connections and there is no monthly fee with this ipad.  The other  version connects to the Internet anywhere you go and one must pay a monthly service plan.  At this time, I don't see much advantage to buying the ipad that requires a monthly fee if one has a wireless computer network at home.  The ipad looks and operates like a large ipod touch.  The size, it turns out, makes the ipad useful in some situations where the ipod or the iphone would not be. Likewise, in some situations the smaller size is more useful.  It is nice, for example, to be able to carry the ipod touch and still hold a child's hand with your other hand.

What is an App?  An App is a small software program that you can acquire and install on your iphone, your ipod touch, or your ipad.  One absolutely delightful thing about apps is that they are instantly available.  YOu don't have to wait for your computer to start up, update several programs automatically, then load the software you are trying to use.  Young children with autism just don't give you that much time to get your stuff together. I find it much easier to use these little computers with a young child who has autism because I can touch a button and start playing with the child on the machine.

How do you get Apps? 
You acquire all Apps from the iTunes Store.  Some Apps intended for children are free, many cost a few dollars and a few cost a much as a couple hundred dollars.  Other phones also have apps but so far, the itunes store has by far the largest selection of apps. You open an account with the itunes store on your computer, making very sure you can remember your account name and your password.  From then on, you acquire new apps on your iphone, your ipod touch, or your ipad by going online and selecting what you want directly on the machines.  However, many apps need to be backed up on the computer.  This is accomplished through connecting the i-machine to your regular computer and then syncing to the itunes store online.  I won't explain this process here but you should know about it.

You frequently need to know your itunes account number and your credit card number as you acquire new apps.  Write down these numbers somewhere safe but somewhere accessible. I mention this because I am constantly forgetting my own personal account number and now my clinic has a second account number that I need to remember!  Yikes!

Is one device better than the others as a tool to help a child with autism?  Even though the ipad and the ipod touch are very similar, except for size, there seems to be some distinct advantages to each so this is not an easy question to answer.  I think the ipod touch (preferably with a camera built in) or an iphone would be really useful for nearly any family to own. Why?  Because this portable little device makes it possible to take visual supports (pictures) with you every where you go.  Showing the child visuals can become a way of life--and that is extremely helpful for a child who has autism.  I will be blogging on some of the wonderful ways that having photos with you everywhere can help a child learn language, stay focused and stay emotionally regulated (calm and happy).

Should the machine be given over to the child to use at will? With young children, not usually.  Yes, eventually, if the machine is being used as a communication device but then it would not be wise to put competing games on the device.  Even then, one would have to teach the child how to use the device. It is very easy to delete many programs off these machines.  If the ipod touch is being used as a learning tool, not a communication device, then the adult should manage the machine very actively with young children.  This is going to mean some arguments at the beginning.  Parents should not cave on this argument, simply make a rule that grown-ups hold the machine and stick to it.  I am not advocating buying an ipod touch for a young child to play with independently.  Quite the contrary. I think this would be unwise and cause the child to become more self-isolated since it is easy to become addicted to the games available on these devices. I don't think small hand held gaming machines are healthy for any young child and the research seems to support my view on this.

The ipad is the better tool for teaching new concepts to children, in my short experience. It is bigger and the graphics just pop out making it very easy to get and keep a child's attention.  It is a great at home learning tool for everything from music concepts, to drawing, to writing, to geography and of course, from my perspective, it is perfect for teaching language concepts and that is what I will be blogging about.   I think that all language concepts that are taught on a screen need to be taught in the real world too or else they will not be useful to a child.  Keep in mind that the ipad is fragile and easily broken.  It is also addictive so parents will need to limit screen time.  I recommend only letting a young child use it when an adult is playing with the child.


Are these machines good augmentative communication devices?  Yes, these devices appear to be an entire game changer in the world of augmentative communication, but there are some drawbacks and as a Speech Language Pathologist, I am still working hard to figure out how best to use them.  I will do some blog posts soon on using these devices to help children who are nonverbal start to communicate.  These machines allow us to augment communication for many more children and, we hope, help children learn to communicate more quickly.





i-Supports for Children with Autism Blog Series


1  Basic Concepts...a post that describes the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad and how apps are used on these devices.
2  Grocery Shopping...a video clip demonstrating how the iPhone or iPod Touch to support social engagement and language learning while grocery shopping.
3.  Rules for the Computer...a post on setting limits on computer time.