Screenshot of TinyTap app while creating the Spring Flowers interactive book.
Strategy

TinyTap App: CVI-Friendly Books and Games

Great resource to create your own INTERACTIVE book or find teacher-created CVI-friendly resources!

Did you know that you can create customized INTERACTIVE books and games? Interactive – meaning that you can make an image or area on the screen an interactive button, which the student can tap and activate. I am super excited about this app for students with CVI, students with multiple disabilities, and young students! It is a super simple tool that creates interactive books/games, making educators feel like they are creating cause and effect apps and/or interactive digital worksheets!

You can create a simple cause and effect (tap the screen) book, or a game that asks the student a question and the student has to tap (choose) the correct image/answer. You can determine the size of the interactive button – make it the whole screen for those students who have motor issues or you can make the interactive button area to be the size of a specific image on the screen. Simply draw the size and shape of the button that you want!

Note: These resources are considered “books” and you can created pages in the books. Often these books are called “games” because they can be made to be interactive. Depending on the interactions, these digital books may more closely resemble interactive digital “worksheets” than traditional books.

Creating customized books is simple with TinyTap app. You can choose an image (with the option of no backgrounds), add a recorded sound, record your voice speaking the directions or words on the page, add text, choose colors, choose the size of the text or image, and so much more!

Place the image in different locations on the screen to encourage students to scan and find the image and/or look in a specific direction.

You can create a variety of games, not just simple cause and effect or matching. Try a puzzle game (drag parts together to complete the puzzle) or drag and drop games.

No time to create your own books and games? No problem! Simply find a book/game that has been created by another educator!

If you are looking for teacher-created CVI-friendly resources, do a search for “CVI”  or search by author name; be sure to browse through Diana Fitzpatrick’s books!

Note: TinyTap books and games are NOT accessible with VoiceOver. These games are for students with functional vision. TinyTap books are super for students with motor issues, as the student can tap the screen with multiple fingers/whole hand. Students do not have to use a 1-finger tap!

In the video tutorial below, Diana Fitzpatrick demonstrates several different CVI-friendly books and she demonstrates how to create a customized, interactive book.

Searching and Saving Books

Open the TinyTap app. On the Home page, the tool bar at the top has an arrow, Editors’ Picks in the center, Create, Search and Menu buttons. 

Home Screen of Tinytap app with the tool buttons: Editor's Picks, Create, Search and menu. 2 rows of book cover images, title and author with download button.

Search

Select the Search button and type in the name of the desired book/game. (Note: When naming your books, use creative names! If you use a generic name, such as Matching Shapes, there were be many books with that name.)

Searching by author’s name when Filtered was selected included many more books than just the desired author’s book. However, when Filtered was unselected, only the desired author’s books were shown! You can find Diana Fitzpatrick’s books/games created (demonstrated in her video tutorial) by searching for her name with the Filter button unselected.

Download 

There are two main ways to download a book. Downloading the book makes the book available offline. It is also an easy way to find your favorite books again!

Screenshot of TinyTap app's Well Done page with the download button in the upper right corner.

After selecting to download a book, you are then asked to place and hold two-fingers on the screen (Parental control) and a menu appears. Options are Copy, Play Later, Save to Voice Dream (if you have that app), Safe to Files.

If you select Play Later, the book is added to your “My List”. To find books under My List, go to the Home screen, tap on Editor’s Picks (or the last category you selected) at top center of the screen. Select “My Lists” from the options. (Editor’s Note: After adding multiple books to My List, only the last few appear here. I’d suggest sharing a book via email (sends a link to the book) and keeping a list of these links or downloading the book directly onto your iPad for Offline use. However, if the books are physically downloaded to your iPad, I would assume they would take up memory space on your iPad.)

If you X out of a book (while the book is open, tap the “X” in the top left corner) and then move screen to the right, you will see additional information about that book and additional options. Some popular options are to follow the author, upload the book, or save the book to “My List”.

Screenshot of book information (age, description, when it was created, etc.) with author being

You can also find the books that you recently used under the category, Recently Played. From the Home Screen, tap on Editor’s Picks (or the last category you selected) at top center of the screen. Select Recently Played.

Find the downloaded Offline books by pressing the menu button (3 horizontal lines) in to the top right of the screen. The parental control feature pops up, so hold two-fingers on the circles. This will take you to your profile which includes the parent dashboard, play offline option, and other options. Select Offline and the book that you downloaded will be listed here, under the “My Games” list. Note: You can access the downloaded books without Internet.

Books under your My Games list, can now be edited, duplicated, shared or deleted. Press the three dots button under the desired book to access these options.

Teacher Dashboard

Want to keep track of your student’s progress and/or the games that he has played? Check out the Parent Dashboard located in the Menu (top right button on the Home screen.)

Cost

TinyTap premium, originally $70 a year, is now free to teachers since distance learning started. With the premium account, teachers can create student accounts and assign content to students. The preium option allows unlimited resources and you can create books of any length. (Editor’s Note: I downloaded the free TinyTap app from the app store, selected Teacher, answered the registration questions and automatically had access to as many books as I wanted – no daily limit and no cost!)

The original Free account version has a 3 game/book limit per day.

Resources

Note: Diana Fitzpatrick originally shared her Tutorial: Creating Digital CVI Books with Tiny Tap App video on FaceBook. This video and information is used with permission.

TinyTap Pinterest tag

By Diane Brauner

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
outline image of special eye protection glasses worn when watching a solar eclipse.
Activity

Eclipse Soundscapes and low vision

Flaring sun with a black moon moving in front of the sun in a dark sky.
Article

Solar eclipse and Eclipse Soundscapes app

Clay shapes modeling the phases of the moon
Activity

Phases of the Moon Using Clay