The goodness of Mr. Potato Head

So, we all love Mr. Potato Head because we can target so many goals with him. In my very first practicum, he and his friends were essential in targeting regular plurals and possessives. There was so much parallel and self talk going on, you wouldn't believe it! :) 

Well, I was surfing the app store after downloading some free goodies for Autism Awareness Month and look what I came across:

The digital version of Mr. Potato Head! Since I travel around to several locations, I try and minimize what I carry in my already full bags (my shoulders will thank me later). When you first push play, this is the screen you will see:

I used this screen to target 'wh' questions and elicit conversation about their outfits, where they might live, what they might do, etc. Once you choose which Mr. Potato Head you want, you will then be directed to this screen:

This portion of the app is great for requesting, receptively/expressively identifying objects, identifying body parts/functions, following directions, regular plurals, and possessive pronouns, just to list a few. :) After you build your Mr. Potato Head, you get to move on to this screen by pushing the little green guy in the top right hand corner.

 
In this screen you get to choose the setting for your Mr. Potato Head to visit. Once you choose a setting, there is a ton of things for him or her to do!

So there is a ton to elicit language in this part of the app. The best part is, the child can take pictures of his Mr. Potato Head and you can go back and review them to target past tense verbs! Well, maybe I should have said this was the best part...when it saves the pictures, it does NOT save them to your Ipad's camera roll! I was cringing every time my student was taking a picture thinking that I was going to have a TON of pictures to go through and delete.When I went to my pictures, there was not a single Mr. Potato Head picture! You can only view them from inside the app unless you tell it to save the picture to your camera roll.

And did I mention this app was FREE?!

How else could you use this app?

--Shelley