Start by dragging the Speak Text Button onto your project. The Speak Text Button is different in that it will speak text that you type in, not just the label on the button. The Speak Label Button will read the label on your symbols in Play mode. So cool and easy to use! Once in Play mode (you have to select play mode- the green play button in the upper right corner- in order to use your project), simply click on the red circle to record and the green play button to hear it back. The Recording Gadget lets students record their own audio and listen to it. You can insert a button to read the text on the screen, speak the labels on the pictures, and even record. Once you scroll down the toolbar (weвЂ™re still in the basics folder) there are even more choices.

My farm lesson project using the Play Sound gadget Record Sound You then pick which animal sound you want, press save, and youвЂ™re ready to go! I selected browse, and then clicked on the Animals folder. This will allow you to browse through their sound files or record one yourself. A pop-up menu appears describing what the button will do. Start by dragging the Play Sound Button onto your project page. For my farm animal lesson below, IвЂ™ve added animal sounds next to the buttons to make the activity interactive.

Once you add a Play Sound Button you click on it to select which sound you want to play. Boardmaker has a folder of sounds you can chose from or you can insert your own. I love using the Play Sound Button because you can insert fun sounds into your project to make it more interactive. If you are creating a project that is more than one page, you will need to add a Next Page Button, or you wonвЂ™t be able to get to that page. For example the Next Page Button creates an arrow that you use to click to the next page of your project. All of these gadgets do what their name says. The first buttons you see are: Close Popup Button, Next Page Button, Open Page Button, Play Sound Button, Popup Video Button, Previous Page Button, and Print Page Button.

LetвЂ™s start with the folder labeled Basics. When you click on Gadgets, you see a bunch of folders pop up on the toolbar. When you open up a new project, you can find Gadgets on the toolbar on the left side of the page, under Symbols. The gadgets are the cool features you can add to your standard buttons to make them perform all sorts of fancy actions. I learned a lot of new tricks and IвЂ™m happy to share them! The following are some of my favorite Gadgets in Boardmaker Studio for SLPвЂ™s. In the middle of all the snow last week, I went to a training workshop on Boardmaker Studio. Favorite Boardmaker Studio Gadgets for SLPвЂ™s!

Boardmaker listen