DoodleBuddy

This app was probably one of the first I ever bought. Although it is traditionally for art or drawing, it is easily adaptable to help kids with autism use expected behaviors during therapy or classroom sessions. It can provide visual support and real time feedback for kids so that they know how other people feel about their actions.  

I often use the stickers when tracking behavior. This makes the tracking fun and playful. Some kids get really into the funny noises that you can hear when you "paste" a sticker on the board. This also creates a strong motivator to act in a positive manner so that they can earn the stickers

Here are just some specific examples of how I modify this app to help give real time feedback on behaviors:

1) I use the stickers (located at the bottom of the screen) to keep track of how many positive behaviors the student has. I might keep track of how many comments a student does during a play session. I might also keep track of how many questions the student asks of other people. Sometimes, I give stickers to keep track of how many times the student initiated an interaction with a peer. It's nice to use as a visual reinforcer and a great way to keep track of how much success they had across the session. 

2) I use a smily face to show every time I have a positive thought about the other student. If it is a bigger more important thought, I might change the sticker to be big (a choice once you press the stamp icon (the stamp icon is the 4th from the left on bottom). 

2) I modify Michelle Garcia Winner's curriculum to show students when I have "green" (positive, comfortable, happy, expected), "yellow" (confused, slightly unexpected, weird) or "red" (uncomfortable, unexpected) thoughts. There are actually yellow, red and green speech bubbles that I put on the page and use the stickers to visually illustrate each of my thoughts as they happen.  We can talk about each behavior right then in the moment, or wait until a different time too. 

3) I often use Doodle Buddy on the fly to replace my pen and paper. In fact, it enhances my old analog tools because it provides colors for when I don't have a pencil box with me. As one example, I've modified Kari Dunn Buron's Incredible 5 point scale in the heat of a moment to illustrate where my student's behaviors fell on the 5 point scale vs. where they should have been based on what happened. The sound for the emoticon stickers can be particularly funny and helpful when trying to explain how behaviors are perceived by others.


The best part about using visual supports for behavior management is that I do not have to make any comments as behaviors happen. I can mark down my feelings about a behavior or tally the behavior. Usually, the visual cue can be enough to help guide the behaviors to being more expected than unexpected. Making it digital and having it include sound just enhances the reward factor for my students.