MindWing Concepts Blog

Maryellen Rooney Moreau is presenting again at the Social Thinking Providers’ Conference in South San Francisco on June 20! Having presented with Michelle Garcia Winner in her four initial Traveling Providers Conferences (Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, 2013), we have been receiving much interest in our professional development opportunities and our many tools for narrative development and social communication. Narratives can be used to facilitate the building the gestalt or the “big picture.” Narrative ability is much more than a simple story retell. In fact, it is a window into oral language development, listening and reading comprehension, written expression and social communication through the communication of feelings and thoughts. Narrative development and its stages are present in language and cognitive research dating back to the late 1970s. Using our tools assists in informing instruction and designing intervention for students in general education, special education and students who are learning English as a second language...

We are thrilled to share that on February 17th, Maryellen Rooney Moreau welcomed her 4th grandchild into the world! Casey is Sheila Moreau's first child and Maryellen's 3rd granddaughter. This is the first picture of Casey that was taken.

She continues to be very alert and Maryellen is already studying her language development, noticing that Casey focuses her eyes on the “characters and settings” around her. Casey loves the sound of Nana’s voice (as do so many of Maryellen’s workshop participants)! Today, on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, one of our favorite holidays, Casey is one month old!..

StoryBird is very helpful for using technology to develop story telling and story writing skills. However, while providing artwork and a very simple platform for adding text, it does not provide the narrative structure necessary for writing the actual text of the story. Using Story Grammar Marker, students can have the structure to know what parts go into the story. The Common Core State Standards call for the blending of narrative and expository text in lessons as well as integrating technology and multimedia. The following lesson demonstrates it...

On Friday, November 15, 2013 we will be presenting MindWing’s new SGM® App for Story Grammar Marker® in Learning Lab #1 in the Exhibit Hall at ASHA in Chicago from 9:30-10:15am. Prizes will include FREE App Codes for SGM® App and All4MyChild apps and EVERYONE will receive a Story Grammar Marker® App T-SHIRT!

For those of you not attending, here is some of the information that will be covered...

October 31 is Halloween. According to history.com, “every October, carved pumpkins peer out from porches and doorsteps in the United States and other parts of the world. Gourd-like orange fruits inscribed with ghoulish faces and illuminated by candles are a sure sign of the Halloween season. The practice of decorating “jack-o’-lanterns”—the name comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack—originated in Ireland, where large turnips and potatoes served as an early canvas. Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, home of the pumpkin, and it became an integral part of Halloween festivities.”...

At MindWing Concepts, we are very excited to be celebrating the release of the official Story Grammar Marker app! Our goal in developing this app was to create a digital version of the SGM manipulative in order to take advantage of the iPad’s multifunction capabilities: students can touch the icons, add text, draw or import pictures, and record oral language in the process of story mapping. The app will complement MindWing’s tools for existing users of our methodology and also welcomes those who are just discovering our visual, tactile and kinesthetic approach to narrative language!...