Happy New Year from the AES Team!

A Word from the Founder:

2007 will bring big changes to AES and what we can provide for our customers. Here are just a few to start the year.

• DT Trainer New Content: We have hired a new staff member to help develop more content for the DT Trainer. We have a bunch of new content in development so you will be able to teach the students a wider range of topics, and you will be able to use the DT Trainer with a wider range of students. Eight more programs were made available in the last two weeks with another 6 by the end of this week or early next. See the section below on “DT Trainer New Content Program Add-ons”.

• Live Web Based Training: We have started hosting Web Based Presentations & Training Classes. You will be able to sign up for scheduled sessions. Presentations will be free and Training Sessions will initially be free but later there will be a nominal charge. We will offer a range of classes but have started with Overviews. On Thursday, we will have the first Intermediate Questions & Answers Session. See the section below on “DT Trainer Webinars”.

• Coming Soon… Automatic Update Feature: We will shortly make available for download a DT Trainer that will show you when new content, reinforcers, or patches are available. Web connected DT Trainer installations will periodically check for updates and facilitate installation at your discretion. You will no longer have to manually download updates from our website. This will make it easy for you to keep up with our planned expansion of the DT Trainer. We will be able to release content, reinforcers, and features as we develop them and not have to wait until we have a major release.

• Coming Soon… Activity Trainer: Video Modeling has been shown in study after study to be a powerful teaching method for individuals with autism and other learning disabilities. Unfortunately, it is a pain to do, so the method is rarely used. We are releasing a product called the Activity Trainer that will make video modeling easy. There will be a library of activities that you can use as is or customize for specific students. You will also be able to add your own activities. The activity trainer will allow you to teach the student to perform the activity, and easily change between more supportive and less supportive forms of the model or instruction. This allows the utilization of video modeling, but decreases the support transitioning to picture, audio, and text forms. The goal is that the student can perform the activity from a short text or audio instruction.

Thanks for your continued support. Your purchases allow us to reach more students and provide funds to expand and develop more tools to help our kids.

Karl Smith

DT Trainer New Content Program Add-ons: Available at www.dttrainer.com

· Now available

• Days Abbreviations programs teach standard 3-letter abbreviations of the days of the week as well as other commonly used abbreviation forms for Tuesday and Thursday. To meet the needs of our learners, we have included all commonly found abbreviations and have provided options to allow the user to tailor which abbreviation items are used with a particular student.

• Months Abbreviations programs teach standard abbreviation for the given month. Standard 3-letter abbreviations are for most months. Sep. and Sept. are used for September. June and July are usually not abbreviated, but are presented as Jun. and Jul. to give the student exposure to these less common abbreviations. May is not abbreviated.

· Released 12/28/2006

• Digital Numbers programs include Identification and Matching skills for 45 digital numbers 0 to 100. Calculators, digital clocks, and DVD/VCR players display digital numbers.

• State Abbreviations programs address US States and their respective standard 2-letter abbreviations. These two programs teach matching target State to its printed abbreviation and matching Abbreviation to printed State name.

· Released September 2006

• 5 Dolch Sight Words programs are the 220 most commonly used words. These represent over a half of the words in most written material. Instant recognition of these words builds reading fluency.

DT Trainer Webinars!

The online DT Trainer training you’ve been asking for is finally here! Terri Mann, Director of Instructional Support and Customer Relations, will be facilitating online, interactive, real-time sessions. These sessions are presented at no charge at this time. Register by clicking on the Training tab at www.dttrainer.com or go directly to the training site at https://dttrainer.webex.com/mw0302l/mywebex/default.do?siteurl=dttrainer

Sessions currently offered include:

- DT Trainer Overview

DT Trainer Overview is a short, but thorough walk through of the DT Trainer software program for teachers, parents, and related professionals. We will cover key features including content programs, reinforcers, setting up a student, and test features.

- DT Trainer Intermediate Question & Answer

DT Trainer Intermediate Question & Answer Session is an opportunity for you to get questions answered by our Director of Instructional Support, Terri Mann, and our developer, Karl Smith.
You may submit your questions in advanced to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or type them in the Question text box once you are in the live session.

This is an Intermediate level session open to those who have used the DT Trainer and are familiar with its features.

We will continue to expand the range of topics and levels offered to accommodate the needs of our customers. Check the “Upcoming” section of our training page periodically for a list of classes.