Celebrate fall with new software...and a giveaway

Happy back-to-school days! Let’s kick off the new school year with a look at a great new program from Judy Lynn Software Inc.:  Listen and Respond.

This simple-to-use program places students in the role of a retail clerk, filling customer orders. When customers ask for one or more items, the student clicks from an assortment of buttons to give them these items. Students have to listen closely to the order being given, remember the item(s), and locate them from the choices. Teachers can select options to customize the difficulty of the task to meet the learning needs of the student.

There are lots of things about this program that I really like.

1) This game is perfect for junior and senior high school students, or even adults in vocational programs, with access and/or cognitive issues. Anyone working with older students knows how hard it is to find excellent age-appropriate software that doesn’t require fine motor finesse and lightning reflexes.

2) It is easily accessed using a mouse, touch screen, head mouse, eye tracking, switch scanning, a keyboard, or other alternative input devices...all at the students’ own response speeds.

3) The layout and tempo of the game is calm, supporting students who are easily overloaded by sensory input.

4) The feeling tone is quite positive. Successful attempts are acknowledged and errors are corrected with constructive encouragements.  

5) So many features are customizable, making the game useful for a wide range of skill levels. It can be made extremely simple or really push memory skills with long strings of items.

Caption: Here is a screenshot from the Judy Lynn site highlighting customizable features in each version

Easy to use set-up menu from the Pro version

5) Customers in the standard version have animated mouths, making it highly motivating.

6) In the professional version, you can import customers from your own photo gallery. When we played this at home, we even brought in a head shot of our Golden Retriever! That certainly got a smile from my girls. Imagine the school principal, a favorite teacher, or a hot pop singer shopping at the store where you students work. Talk about engaging and motivating!

I added Carrie Underwood as a customer using an image I found online

7) The program tracks performance data, making it easy for you to monitor progress.

If there was any one thing that I found less than ideal, it was that my sluggish old computer with its antique processor responded pretty slowly during the video instructions and in presenting new sets of button choices. This should not be a problem for the vast majority of you having newer, racier computers.

Take a look at helpful video previews of both the Standard and Professional versions here.

I do need to disclose that I got to be involved with the development of Listen and Respond. It was a terrific project to watch come to life. My participation is completely voluntary, although I did get copies of the software for my daughter and her school.

In addition, the company has generously donated a copy of Listen and Respond (Professional version) to give away here at Adapting Creatively. If you have a Windows computer and would like a copy for your classroom or your student at home, please leave a comment on the GIVEAWAY PAGE. This giveaway will close at 9 pm Pacific Time on Sept. 17^th, so don’t wait!