How To Use Apple Books In Speech Therapy
If you're like me, you had an iPad and/or iPhone for years without realizing the potential it has in speech therapy. Apple devices, such as iPads and iPhones, come preloaded with an application called Apple Books (formerly iBooks). While this app is designed for reading magazines and books, it is a simple and effective way to store and use a variety of therapy materials during speech therapy. Speech-Language Pathologists can have a myriad of activities ready for instant use with no printing or prep work.
When downloaded onto an Apple device, PDFs can quickly and easily be opened in Apple Books. After you download the PDF (directly from a website such as TeachersPayTeachers or as attachment in your email, for example), click the "share" button in the top right that looks like a square with an arrow pointing up. Select where you’d like to open the PDF, which in this case is “Copy to Books.” The PDF will open and is now stored in the app for future use.
Once opened in Apple Books, the PDF can be used in many ways. Some PDFs are created to have interactive components, such as clickable buttons to navigate through various pages of the document or select answer choices. The PDF could also come with fillable text boxes where words or sentences can be typed. Other PDFs may contain check boxes as shown below.
Any PDF, whether or not it contains interactive components such as those mentioned above, can be used interactively in Apple Books using annotation tools. Annotation is the ability to create a layer over the document by, in this case, drawing. Students can annotate lines of various colors directly on the pages of the PDF, just as they would write on a paper worksheet. With this possibility, many traditionally printable worksheets are able to be used in Apple Books, even if they weren’t specifically created to be used digitally.
Many SLPs own iPads and/or iPhones and don’t realize they have a valuable tool for speech and language therapy at their fingertips. With the push of just a couple of buttons, a PDF can be opened in Apple Books and you have an interactive tool to target your students’ goals.
