The Birthday Party was designed by speech therapists specializing in helping autistic children, using real life video clips to take the child to a birthday party. The Birthday Party CD-ROM is centered around the social interaction and language associated with a real life birthday party. It addresses the different emotions, space, volume and language that are appropriate for both the host and guests during a special birthday event. The child is first familiarized with the appropriate vocabulary and responses, then asked to implement them in 10 different birthday party scenarios. The program is separated into four levels in order to best match the child's level of function. It offers rewarding and challenging activities.  The Birthday Party may be integrated into Discrete Trial Training / Applied Behavior Analysis intervention programs, with the child's progress tracked by the program.  This same manufacturer also produces the software title, My School Day.

The child and caregiver can chart their progress over time in order to follow and document gains made. This program is appropriate for children with the cognitive ages of 4-8 years old.

Workbook

Social Skill Builder's Language Expansion Workbook is designed to be a companion tool to The Birthday Party CD-ROM for parents, educators and therapists. The Workbook outlines the sections of the software program and offers a multitude of suggestions on improving and expanding language skills in children when working. Each level is outlined and specific activities are described and reviewed in clear understandable terms. The Language Expansion Workbook can enhance the child's benefits from the software program by expanding on all the targets involved. Reproducible pages are included to provide additional worksheets or home programs. The workbook is appropriate for various levels of functioning and offers ideas on continuing to grow with and challenge the children using The Birthday Party software!  This workbook has a really nice section on reading faces and providing faces, cut-outs of eyes and mouths for practice.

System Requirements

Windows 95/98/2000/NT/Me operating system
200 MHz or higher
600 Megabytes of available Hard Drive Space
4x CD-ROM drive
16 bit color monitor
800/600 Resolution or better Video card compatibility
Mouse 

Testimonials

"It is so hard to target social behaviors with my child, The Birthday Party program and workbook really helped me know what to work on, both on the computer and at home." - Parent of a 4 year old child with PDD

"The Birthday Party and My School Day really motivate my clients with Autism. They request to play the games and talk about the social interactions and emotions expressed even after they are finished playing!"-   Private Practice Speech Language Pathologist