Ten Apple iPad Apps To Help Children With Autism
Autism is a developmental disorder affecting children from birth or the early months of life. It results in delay in, and deviance from, the normal patterns of development. These occur in three areas of behavior:
· Social relationships and interactions
· Language and communication.
· Activities and interests.
I am no stranger to the mysteries of autism and indeed studied it in-depth at The University of Birmingham – one of the world’s leading research development centers for studies into childhood autism.
There is no cure for autism. Children with autism become adults with autism and most with additional learning disabilities will require care and supervision all their lives. People at the other end of the spectrum, however, and with ordinary intellectual ability, usually become partially or fully independent as adults but require specialist help as children. Interventions are designed to assist people with autism to achieve their full potential at all stages of their lives and to support and help parents and carers to accomplish this.
I think this list of apps that I have collated here will really help many families and individuals, take a look and let me know what you think.
Proloquo2Go
Proloquo2Go provides a full-featured augmentative and alternative communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking. It provides natural sounding text-to-speech voices (INITIALLY AMERICAN AND BRITISH ENGLISH ONLY), high resolution up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary of over 7000 items, full expandability and extreme ease of use.
Proloquo2Go is for anyone who cannot afford spending thousands of dollars on an AAC device and yet wants a solution that is just as good if not better. SLPs, teachers and parents recommend it for children and adults with autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, developmental disabilities, apraxia, ALS, stroke or traumatic brain injury.
$189.95/Download
Story_Builder
Story Builder is designed to help children accomplish the following educational goals: 1) Improve paragraph formation; 2) Improve integration of ideas; and 3) Improve higher level abstractions by inference. Extensive use of audio clips promotes improved auditory processing for special needs children with autism spectrum disorders or sensory processing disorders.
Story Builder offers a rich and fun environment for improving the ability to create a narrative.
Price: $3.99/Download
Off We Go – Going to the Dentist HD
Off We Go! books prepare children for everyday experiences and improve language and social skills. Each book tells the story of a particular event or everyday activity in a sequence of 12 steps. The Off We Go! book series help prepare a child to cope better with that new event or activity. Each book supports kids to partake in activities that they might otherwise find overwhelming, decrease parent stress levels, while at the same time provide a valuable learning tool.
Price: $4.99/Download
Soundtastic
Being able to change the pitch of a sound from that of a monster all the way up to the sound of a chipmunk makes Soundtastic the coolest new sound app for the iPad. Not only can you record you own sounds, but you have a built in selection of pre-recorded sounds to get you started quickly, You can tap all across the screen to change the pitch of one sound over and over again or tap on multiple sounds in sequence to make your own symphony of unique sounds.
Price: $0.99/Download
Visual Impact – Living Safely
Visual Impact, by AbleLink Technologies, provides an evidence-based, self-paced and self-directed learning tool for acquiring and reinforcing skills necessary for achieving independence across life activity domains, including education, employment, independent living and transition. This version of Visual Impact features important Living Safely topics based on proven content provided by the Attainment Company.
Visual Impact utilizes the AbleLink Instructional Media Standard (AIMS), AbleLink’s award-winning step-by-step multimedia training system which applies universal design principles to provide accessible multimodal instruction using visual and auditory media. Cognitively accessible training is available on specific content areas in each version of Visual Impact. AbleLink Technologies is the leader in developing tools for persons with intellectual/developmental disabilities, short-term memory loss, and age-related cognition issues. Anyone who needs support learning and maintaining skills necessary for daily living can benefit from the simplicity of Visual Impact.
Price: $34.99/Download
TapSpeak Sequence for iPad
TapSpeak Sequence for iPad revolutionizes how parents, speech therapists, vision therapists, schools, and institutions create and use message sequences to help disabled children learn to communicate. Use TapSpeak Sequence instead of sequential message switches to record and customize messages without losing any previously recorded sequences.
Kids with cerebral palsy, autism, cortical vision impairment (CVI), pediatric stroke, or any disability that impairs their ability to communicate can make use of this app.
Price: $29.99/Download
iCommunicate for iPad
Create pictures, flashcards, storyboards, routines, and visual schedules. Record custom audio in any language. Converts any words with Text to Speech that do not have custom audio recorded. We include 100+ pictures(first 5 have audio) to get you started. Add pictures with your camera, or from your camera roll, or use Google image search. Utilize as audio visual prompting tool or AAC device.
Two types of storyboards are possible:
♦ 10×4 – up to 10 pictures down by 4 pictures across
♦ Task Completion – view a picture at a time, swipe to move forward and back, touch with a finger for over a second to add/remove checkmark to mark task completed
$29.99/Download
AutoVerbal Talking Soundboard PRO
Elegant interface, quality recognizable images & customizations allow for quick & easy communication!
$9.99/Download
Is That Gluten Free?
Is That Gluten Free? is designed for those with gluten sensitivities, Celiac Disease or anyone wanting more information on gluten-free products or leading a gluten free lifestyle.
$7.99/Download
iDress for Weather
Dress for Weather is the very first ever assistive technology weather app available to enrich the lives of individuals with disabilities! Originally inspired by the producer’s desire and passion to create assistive technology in the realm of weather for people with disabilities, iDress for Weather supports people whose cognitive processing or memory is affected by a disability (such as autism or other developmental disabilities) or has changed due to an injury or illness (such as a traumatic brain injury, stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, or dementia). iDress for Weather can be the tool to learn or re-learn the connections between weather and clothing.
$1.99/Download
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
9 Comments
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MobileReflex
MobileReflex is a ipad framework used to build mobile applications. visit http://www.mobilereflex.com for more details.
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Eric Wright
We have developed another app that I think should be added to your
list, the AACSpeechBuddy (http://www.aacspeech.com).
It is an AAC app using PECS and text-to-speech technologies. The big
difference is it has a data sharing component. All of the
configuration (menus, icons, sounds, etc) are controlled by an account
on the website. The sets can then be loaded to any number of remote
devices, and can be shared with others. Once the data has been
download to the device, a network connection is no longer needed for
operation. Supports iPhone, iPad, iTouch, Android 1.6+, and any Java
capable machine (Linux, Mac, Windows).
I would be happy to provide any additional information and promo
codes/demo versions to you and your staff.
Thank you for your time
-Eric
Code:Dimensions
Development Team
http://www.codedimensions.com
Wayne Allen Bateman
Please permit me to introduce you to a new children’s educational game for the iPad and iPhone:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/counting-beads/id441820190?mt=8&ls=1#
Counting Beads is a totally fun way for children to learn numbers and letters of the alphabet. The numbers (or letters) appear as colored beads that you connect by dragging each bead into its next higher numbered bead. As you connect the beads in numbered order, you create a chain that follows the lead bead as you drag. This teaches the numbers visually. You can also move the bead chain by holding the device face-up parallel to the floor and tilting it slightly to let gravity roll the leading bead downhill. Even older folks can have fun with this amusing simple game.
A brief demo video of this app is available on UTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GwIbIZOQu0
Don McCarty
We love the AACSpeechBuddy – for iPad, iPhone, iTouch & Android
Speech Sets can be shared with your child’s speech therapist and can be loaded on multiple devices.
With the easy to use web management, parents and teachers can collaborate and work on Speech Sets from any Internet Browser on your computer or mobile device.
No other AAC app gives you the ability to share your created, customized, personalized
speech sets with others.
Not only does the AACSpeechBuddy give you the ability to share your created, customized, personalized speech sets with others, it also gives you the ability to load the speech set that specifically pertains to a certain individual or situation – by simply selecting a speech set or entering a profile id which changes the entire content loaded onto your APP in one easy action!
A Speech Set consists of selected images with corresponding words/sentences. Essentially custom digital PECS icons with text and audible speech.
Now including over 2000+ images from the Mulberry Symbols collection by Paxtoncrafts Charitable Trust.
best iPad Games
Woah this blog is great i really like studying your articles. Keep up the good work! You already know, a lot of people are looking around for this info, you can help them greatly.
Richard Vogel
I am helping two sisters ages 8 & 9 whos single mom has no other income than $1250 a month assistance and food stamps. The girls are Autistic and I helped get them each an iPad. Please help me find Apps for them to learn communicate with each other, their mom, and the world.
Thanks
Richard Vogel
I am helping a single mother of two Autistic sisters ages 8 & 9. I initiated a drive to get them each an iPad. They also use iPads at their school.
Please help me find the proper apps to help these girls learn to communicate with each other, their mom, and others. Thanks