Artic Pix Resource Guide: 50 Nifty Games and Activities (2004). By Rae Cuda and Sarah Willard. Thinking Publications, Telephone number for purchase: 1-800-225-4769. $18. Reviewed by Ruth Stoeckel, Rochester, MN.

Artic Pix Resource Guide is a companion publication for the Artic Pix CD-ROM photo gallery.  The suggested games make use of the types of picture layouts that are available on the CD-ROM, although they can potentially be adapted to make use of pictures from other sources.  Each suggested game includes a listing of materials needed, instructions for assembly, directions for playing the game, and reproducible patterns as needed.   

The authors indicate that the activities were developed for small groups of children but can be easily adapted for larger groups.  The difficulty level of the game can also be modified to some extent by the choice of stimulus pictures and type of response being required.  The description in the guide indicates that none of the activities requires extensive materials or construction. 

It is true that the materials required for these activities are minimal or easily obtained by most SLP's who work with children.  There are several activities that would take a fair amount of assembly time, cutting apart small pictures, adding Velcro to sets of pictures, etc.  This could be a worthwhile investment of time if the activity were to be used with more than one group of children, as would often be the case in a school-based setting.  Some of the activities are potentially time-consuming to complete, and a careful clinician would want to be conscious of keeping the focus of the session on the target behavior.  For example, assembling picture books to take home, or putting toppings on a bagel are suggested activities that might be time-consuming to be attempting with a group of young children.  All of the activities are presented as being at a level of single word production, although one could certainly request phrase-level responses from children as they play.  

This resource is probably most useful for a new clinician who is looking for motivational ideas and is beginning to build a library of materials to use in therapy.