ChoiceBoard Maker is live on App Store!!!!!!

After months of hard work by my nephew Andy, the app I have always wanted for Jason is now available for everyone using iPad!  We decided to call it "ChoiceBoard Maker" to highlight the fact that it is more a tool for customizing choice boards than an app with everything ready made.  I have only had to tell him what I want, and I let him figure out the technical part.  Of course, I had to at least contribute by writing up the app features for the official launch.  Initially he was not quite ready for the launch. But the beta version that I had expired and he had to reload to my iPad again.  Adding to the fact that I will be leaving Canada, I urged him to speed up the launch so I don't have to worry about another expiry.  So with my relentless pressure, he finished some final details of the app last week.  It was only 2 days after the launch and we were quite surprised to see more than 1500 downloads already.  This is a pleasant surprise to both me and Andy, who often doubt the potential of this app.  There are many features that I want to see added of course, but since he is still busy with his school work, (he is 4-year engineering student) I will spare him for until later.  There are some darn good review too and I am so happy his hard work does finally get rewarded. Of course, his insistence to make this a free app (in its current version, at least) in order to help other children like Jason also warms my heart.

Jason looooves using his iPad now.  Whenever I give him the choice to do something vs iPad, he will say iPad for sure with a big smile.  I use ChoiceBoard Maker to let him choose his favorite music, motivate his visual skills by touching at the requested object (e.g. Find the duck) etc... I'd also use a doodle app which allows me to type a word and save it in the iPad image library.  Then I present Jason with whatever sight words I happen to need at that moment, and he will choose between those words.  This is done either in context (e.g. choosing which activity to do: piano vs computer) or as a stand-alone activity (e.g. word recognition).

Jason enjoys everything done with this app and he now knows what is expected from him - touching and pointing! Who needs a mouse? It's so difficult to control! Who needs dual-switches for step-scanning? It's more complicated than setting a VCR program! Fingers are all we need!  Thanks to Apple, Thanks to iPad, and Thanks to Andy.  You all together have opened up more possibilities for Jason, that I have never thought of.  Even though he is not 100% solid with his pointer skill, just that fact that he thinks it's fun makes it a great learning tool.