Black Sheep Press Narrative vs CPAT

This app teaches the concepts of ‘Who’, ‘Where’, ‘When’, ‘What Happened Next’ and ‘The End’.   Written and narrated by Bec Shanks and Catherine Bowen, the app is designed to complement storytelling work in the classroom. The skill of storytelling plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining social connections, starting in childhood, extending through adolescence and persisting into adulthood. This app mirrors the development of narrative skills in children – from raising their awareness of the individual components of a simple story to retelling and generating their own endings to stories. It is a versatile resource which can be used alongside other narrative interventions in the classroom The app contains 26 games which introduce narrative concepts and provide multiple practice opportunities: An explanation of narrative - A video narrated by Bec Shanks explaining to children that stories are made up of lots of different bits … ‘Who’, ‘Where’, ‘When’, ‘What Happened’ and ‘The End’ An introduction to narrative - three games introducing the colours and icons used in the narrative approach. Individual sections 3 to 8 contain a total of 23 games ’Who' - (4 Games) From simple picture matching to helping Freddy the Magician with his tricks by answering all the ‘who’ questions. Where - (4 Games) From simple picture matching to flying a rocket to the moon by answering all of the ‘where’ questions When - (4 Games) From matching a ‘when’ picture to deciding when Jack might ride his bike - in the morning, afternoon, at lunchtime or in the evening. Consolidation A game to consolidate the concepts of ‘who’ ‘where’ and ‘when’ What happened- (4 Games) From making silly sentences to deciding what might happen if you saw a lion in the school field. The End - (2 Games) begins with selecting the ending to a story the child likes the best to generate and recording their ending to a story. This app has been trialled with children ages 4 - 7 by clinicians, teachers, and parents, producing extremely positive feedback from all groups. Don’t take our word for it, hear what some users say… ‘When he went back to class, despite playing several activities it was the app activity that the child immediately told the teacher about ‘Guess what, we played a game about telling stories… it was about a clown who went to space and saw a pig in pants!!!!!’ The child was very animated and looked forward very much to using it again. It was the first thing he asked for in his following session. Another child did not want to return to class as he was enjoying activities so much.' (Clinician) Easy to navigate, colourful, clear instructions, narrative components are well organised, fun, effective and enjoyable games, handy to have all resources/components and activities in one place. (Teacher) ‘Their favourite things were the monster who you had to feed the story elements. The animation and sound effects were great. They loved the silly stories and enjoyed switching all the sections and hearing the story play back to them. They also loved Pop the Bubbles and the magician. It was great to have a voice-over for all the instructions so my son (4) could play all the games and do all the activities without having to be able to read’ (Parent) ‘The app is easy to use, accessible for children, and brightly presented with lovely colours and pictures to appeal to children. It is easy to navigate, the voices are pitched at an appropriate level for children and nice to listen to. If the child doesn't give the correct answer they don't get a cross or a 'wrong' noise. Games can be played for a few minutes as a stand-alone activity or you could work through them in order.’ (Teacher) Age: 4-7+ years (Appropriateness for older children will depend on the learning and language profile of the child)

CPAT is provided as part of the Teacher Training and Attention in Autism (TTAA) Erasmus+ funded project (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/psychology/ttaa/index.aspx) and is freely available. The app is designed for use by teachers and practitioners to help develop and promote basic attention skills in autistic children (as well as anyone who can benefit from improving attention skills). Attention is a fundamental cognitive capacity critical for human behaviour and especially related to academic performance and engagement in classroom settings. Therefore, improving attention skills can lead to substantial impact. The app is designed for teachers and practitioners (‘Users’) who are interested in helping students to develop their basic attention skills. The app includes a series of game-like activities that are designed to train different attention skills. The activities progress in difficulty as a function of the student’s individual performance. The app also includes customization tools to help the student engage with the activities. It is important to note that the app is not a Magic solution, and that training attention skills requires effort and commitment. It is strongly recommended that before users start using the CPAT app they take the freely available online course: Attention in autism, available here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/attention-and-autism). You can also see here for version of this course in different languages: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/psychology/ttaa/outputs.aspx. For previous uses of CPAT in research you can read in the following research publications: • Shalev, L., Tsal Y., & Mevorach C. (2007) Computerized progressive attentional training (CPAT) program: Effective direct intervention for children with ADHD. Child Neuropsychology, 13, 382-388. • Spaniol, M.M., Shalev, L., Kosyvaky, L. & Mevorach, C. (2018). Attention Training in Autism as a Potential Approach to Improving Academic Performance: A School-Based Pilot Study. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 48(2), 592–610. • Spaniol, M. M., Mevorach, C., Shalev, L., Teixeira, M.C., Lowenthal, R., de Paula, C.S. (2021). Attention training in children with autism spectrum disorder improves academic performance: A double-blind pilot application of the computerized progressive attentional training program. Autism Research;1–8. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2566