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Last month I visited the MindWing Concepts offices to lead a small group workshop on integrating tech tools with Story Grammar Marker^® and Thememaker^®. One of the biggest topics of interest involved ways to use MindWing’s story and expository maps on laptops, iPads and even within Google Apps, and we spent a chunk of time exploring these possibilities. We thought that this topic could use an update on the blog, so here we go! First of all, some rationale. Why might you want to work with these tools digitally (meaning the files—PDFs—provided with your purchase of any MindWing manual, either via CD-ROM in previous years, or more recently, via a free download code within the manual)? A few reasons:...

In April, Autism Awareness and Acceptance month, we have a specific focus on the population of students with autism spectrum disorders, awareness of their strengths and challenges, as well as strategies to help them be successful. This diagnosis often accompanies difficulties in social attention and situational awareness, as well as the ability to use narrative language to describe situations. And what is a situation? Essentially it comprises people (Characters) in a place and time (Setting) when events typical to the situation or unexpected for the situation (Kick-Off) occur. Besides the clear tie-in with Story Grammar Marker^® in this regard, also see the work of SLPs Sarah Ward and Kristen Jacobsen on the Space, Time, Objects, and People (STOP and Think) model of situational awareness...

To Maryellen: “Wishing you good luck and true friendship forever!”  This was the inscription that author Martin Nelson Burton wrote in November 2004, on Maryellen’s copy of Dear Mr. Leprechaun, Letters From My First Friendship. This is a delightful, true tale based upon the author’s childhood writings to his leprechaun friend. The original letters and the responses (written by the author’s father, aka The Leprechaun) are presented in the book. On each page, there is a leprechaun that younger children will enjoy searching for. The beautiful artwork of Clint Hansen was created with paper sculpture. The last page of the book gives a brief description of the sculpture process that children and adults will find fascinating...

Our baby cousin Avery
celebrating Dr. Seuss!

This week brings us to an exciting yearly event…

Read Across America Day, March 2nd, created in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday. Dr. Seuss—Theodor Seuss Geisel—was born here in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1904 and grew up on Mulberry Street, just a short walk from our MindWing office. We are looking forward to the completion and opening of the Dr. Seuss Museum here in Springfield! It will be such an exciting destination for children as well as adults who grew up loving Dr. Seuss stories! “The more that you read the more things you will know. the more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” With this quote in mind, please enjoy reading and sharing the following links to Seuss-related information!...

Just about any topic can be a context to develop narrative and expository language with Story Grammar Marker^®, Braidy the StoryBraid^®, and Thememaker^®’s narrative and informational language icons and maps.

Right about now, snow is big on everyone’s mind in the Northeast, having just endured a blizzard and with another snowy week on the way. So, though I don’t love it, snow can provide a good example of working within a theme and identifying and pairing activities to build narrative and other language skills while immersing students in a context...

Because collaborators come from different points of view in terms of their view of the students’ needs, the contents of this listing may be something to use as a discussion tool fostering collaboration among general education teachers, special education teachers, speech/language pathologists, school adjustment counselors and those focusing on social communication growth!...