Sequences: 4-Step
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Sequences: 4-Step
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this app.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Sequences: 4-Step uses 12 sets of sequential picture cards to encourage the processing of social situations. Kids can practice cause and effect by ordering cards by chronology or predict what's coming next in each sequence. Parents can adjust difficulty as kids progress in their ability to describe, order, and predict social sequences by adding more or fewer cards to the sequence. It's best used with an adult who can listen and correct misunderstood sequences. Designed by language therapists, the app is especially beneficial for kids with expressive and pragmatic language needs. Parents should preview sequence cards before using this tool with their child to gain the most benefit of time spent interacting with the app. Note: No privacy policy was available at the time of review.
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What’s It About?
With adult help, kids can set up their own user account using SEQUENCES: 4-STEP and choose their difficulty level. Then, they choose one of three activities to practice sequencing: ordering activities in a series, describing a routine based on its parts, or predicting what might happen next. Within each activity, kids click the check mark if they were successful, the "with adult help" check mark if they needed help, or the incorrect "x" based on how they performed. The app takes data on success rate, which can be accessed through the setup menu.
Is It Any Good?
For kids with language deficits or who might benefit from specific pragmatic language practice, this app is a win. Sequences: 4-Step is especially handy when you're uploading kid-specific routines or to introduce kids to new places or space they may be unfamiliar with. It will be important for an adult to pair these images with specific words to help kids commit these sequences to memory and reason through unpredictable additions to their routines.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what to expect when entering a new space by using Sequences: 4-Step. For example, preview going to the grocery store by snapping pictures of the actual store a child may be visiting. Target four major events that will happen (getting a grocery cart, walking the aisles, paying, bagging, or going home) and have kids order, describe, and predict this routine.
Talk about how sequences can be similar and different. Help kids practice general routines (going to bed at home) and help them see this routine and sequence in a different environment (going to bed at a friend’s house or hotel). This may help kids transfer what they know will happen in a familiar place to what will happen in an unfamiliar place with a similar routine.
Ask questions about expected versus unexpected behavior in each sequence practiced. For example, would it be expected or unexpected that the girl would sit on top of the table during breakfast? This will help kids identify how to appropriately duplicate this scenario in their own routine.
App Details
- Device: iPad
- Subjects: Language & Reading: vocabulary
- Skills: Thinking & Reasoning: logic, prediction, thinking critically
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Release date: June 2, 2015
- Category: Education
- Publisher: ColorCards
- Version: 1.2
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 7 or later
- Last updated: October 20, 2019
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