by Aubrey Klingensmith
App: Mask Doodle
What It Is: A mask-decorating app by Shoe the Goose.
Price: $.99
OS: Apple
Version: 1.0

How It Works: Well, Shoe the Goose made this part of my review quite easy by providing a simple six-step direction page: “1. Select a mask style. 2. Change the head shape, eyes, mouth, and nose. 3. Decorate with paint, texture, and jazz. 4. Print on heavy cardstock. 5. Cut out. 6. Add an elastic band and wear.”
You can make half-masks (masquerade ball, anyone?), animal masks (everything from monkeys to wolves), robot masks, and people masks. Decorations include various paint colors, patterns/textures, brushes (including slingshots, toothbrushes, rolling marble, and more), text, and “jazz” (mustaches, jewels, flowers, etc). When you’re finished, emailing and printing (or directly printing) is SUPER easy.
Therapy Applications: As with all the Shoe the Goose apps, there are about a thousand and one ways you can use it. Think: remembering and following directions (written or spoken), general vocabulary and concepts (common verbs, colors, animals), and more. See my reviews of Cookie Doodleand Cake Doodle for further ideas. Unique to this app, however, is the ability to print your creations for functional use later. SO many awesome ways to incorporate this into therapy! For example, have the child print the mask and then act out what that character would do (sounds it would make, how it would walk, etc)–great imaginative play. You could easily tie in silly theory of mind activities during group therapy–e.g. the child wearing the cat mask has to guess what the child wearing the mouse mask is thinking when they see each other. Or one child puts on the mask without looking and the other children have to describe what s/he is until s/he guesses (so you could also focus on descriptive words, asking/answering questions…). Endless possibilities here!

Pros: 

1. Price! Love quality, multi-purpose apps for cheap!
2. Number of customization options. You can change everything and make an infinite number of masks.
3. Ability to go from virtual (in-app creation) to reality (printing actual mask).
4. So many ways to address so many goals!
5. Written directions pop up as soon as you open the app, so it’s easy to address direction following with the child (or, as the therapist, just plain know what you’re doing!).

Cons: I’m racking my brain over here, but I truly have nothing to suggest to the developers!
The Take-Away: Such a fun, multi-purpose app for an incredibly affordable price. This is great for preschool all the way up through late elementary school! I would highly recommend the purchase.
My Questions for You: How would you use this app in therapy? Have you used any Shoe the Goose apps before? What goals have you addressed?
Disclosure: Shoe the Goose provided me with a free copy of this app to review. I was not compensated in any way for the review, and they were aware that I would be discussing the app’s strengths and weaknesses.
 
Featured Author/Blog:  Aubrey Klingensmith, SpeechieApps.com
Aubrey is a part-time speech-language therapist and full-time grad student with a love for taking advantage of technology to enhance therapy.  She is currently working as an SLT with preschoolers, as a direct support staff with adults with developmental disabilities, and as an intern for a variety of grad school placements. She has recently joined the staff of YappGuru as their Director of Website Content Development.
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