Zoo Train: An iPad Reinforcer for Distractible Kids

Full transcript

Hi, it's Nicole from the NYU Motor Speech Lab. Day three, talking about reinforcers for your little ones doing motor speech therapy for CAS.

We have to remember that we want conscious practice during therapy, and we want high-quality repetitions: a lot of repetitions, and high-quality repetitions. That's not always easy to do with a kid who is distracted by manipulatives.

In that situation, what I like to do is get the iPad. I don't always use the iPad for treatment, but I find it better for the kids who are highly distracted by physical toys, because I can just pull it back and give it back to them.

I wanted to share one of my favorite apps, which Julie Case actually told me about years ago. It's called Zoo Train. This is what it looks like: it's that little lion, and when you open it, it gives you a choice of five different games.

I like all of them, but I really like this one. I'll give them the iPad and have them place, let's say, three tracks. I put the sound off so that it's not distracting. Then I take it back and say, "Okay, we're going to do a block now. We're going to work on our words." I have them really looking at me and really focused, and they're highly motivated, because once they get all of the tracks down, a train comes out and drives on it. All of the other games in this app are similar: they're quick, quick, quick, and then they end in something that's fun to see, and then we can get them back to work.

So it's called Zoo Train, and I find it incredibly helpful. I could use it for the duration of a session, and some of my kids are highly motivated by it. I hope that's helpful.