Meet TinyTap’s Trusted Teachers: Britney Vaccaro

I found Tiny Tap about 4 or 5 years ago and created a few specific activities for children I was working with but wandered away for awhile and am back now focusing on creating activities for the children I work with in a way that I think will also benefit a larger audience. I am a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) and work with children and adolescents with special needs and so I’ve been using it for skills that are relevant to my clients.

For me the best part of creating a game is developing the idea and finding a way to make it fun and engaging but also really meaningful for kids. I also really love the visual component, I enjoy finding eye catching clip art that can really boost the activity and make it more enjoyable. I’ve recently begun to make my own “teaching videos” to provide additional value to some activities using whiteboard video software and that’s been so fun as well!

Long term I hope to create several courses on topics that are relevant to the needs I see across the families I work with. Right now I’m working on creating a series focused on learning about the calendar and I want to address all the components from knowing the number, days, and months to being able to count how many days between events.

My favourite feature is the Houdini feature where you can make an image hide or appear when you tap, there is just so much that you can do with it. My favourite way to use it is to set an image to appear upon tap and have it show up when a correct answer is tapped.

I also really love the sound board, which provides endless possibilities like jumping to various pages.

Mostly from the children that I work with but it can also be from a set of clip art. When I see some sets of clip art the ideas just start to flow. I’ve also really enjoyed looking at other creators activities to see how they’ve used the Tiny Tap features and that may spark an idea.

I would say to really put some time and thought into how you are creating your activity. Is it visually appealing? Is the sound clear? Does the sequence of pages make sense? Is the purpose and goal thought out and executed thoughtfully taking development into account? Also, just have fun exploring the features and have kids try out what you make and get feedback from them.