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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome & PDD
All students with ASD by definition have communication problems or difficulty with pragmatics. However, each individual child has his or her own pattern of language strengths and weaknesses. Some children with ASD show a similar pattern to children with expressive language disorder.
These children benefit from explicit instruction to work on syntax or grammatical forms, listening to repeated readings and practicing retelling the stories with correct grammatical forms. Students with ASD also can have difficulties with narrative skills, understanding and using mental state verbs, responding appropriately, and following directions. Timo Stories provides opportunities to work on these skills.
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Attention Deficit Disorders
Children with Attention Deficit Disorders also can have some of the language problems described above. In addition, these children can be impulsive, interrupt others and their language can be disorganized. By using Timo Stories, a child who is impulsive can work on taking turns and not interrupting Timo. If the student has difficulty organizing information and problems with concepts such as "before" and "after" sequencing, the Timo Stories sequencing activity allows the student to work on these skills.
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Deaf & Hearing Loss
Because children with hearing loss filter auditory input through a damaged auditory system, and do not overhear much language, their base of language experience is low and its development inhibited. Children with hearing loss acquire vocabulary at a slower rate and understand and produce shorter, simpler sentences than their hearing peers.
The stories and language activities in Timo Stories expose students to both concrete and abstract vocabulary. Because new vocabulary is presented within the context of a story, students have opportunities to review and develop concrete vocabulary. The stories expose students to a variety of sentence structures, and the language activities provide specific practice.
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Developmental Delays/ Mental Retardation
Children with developmental delays, mental retardation and/or Down’s Syndrome can use Timo Stories to build vocabulary, story retelling, and listening and thinking skills. Designed for students with the developmental ages of 3-8 years old, the stories introduce practical life skills and are written in a simple and explicit manner.
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Apraxia, Speech Production, Articulation
Speech sound disorders are characterized by difficulties making speech sounds, substituting sounds and/or distorting sounds. Four types of speech sound disorders include functional speech disorders, developmental phonological disorders, developmental apraxia and developmental dysarthria. Students with speech production issues can listen and watch Timo as they are provided with mutli-sensory cues related to speech production. Correct production of speech sounds can be practiced during story retell activities.
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Behavior Problems
Motivation is often a core problem for children with learning and behavior problems.
Use of computers has been shown to increase student motivation. Field testing of Timo Stories has shown that students with strong oppositional behaviors and learning situations have enjoyed learning with the program. Like one-to-one tutoring, Timo allows students to work at their own pace and provides as much practice is needed for success.
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English Language Learner (ELL) Students
In addition to being useful for special needs children across a wide range of diagnoses, educators have indicated that Timo Stories is also beneficial for ELL students. The program provides opportunities for students who are learning English to practice new vocabulary in a variety of linguistic contexts and improve their conceptual understanding.
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