The Newest And Best iOS Apps To Help Children With Autism

Training application using simulations to model and display a child’s behavior based on interventions applied by the user, which provides an interactive environment. Caregivers learn to effectively implement proven behavioral strategies and techniques using game-based technology. The goal is to provide parents and caregivers with an opportunity to learn and practice reinforcing skills they want to see increase and to use extinction to reduce rates of behaviors they would like to see decrease. To progress, the user will have to master the skills of reinforcement and extinction.

Supports iPhone 3GS or better, iPod Touch 3rd generation or better and iPad devices.

Free/Download

Music for Exceptional Minds – Download the first lesson free and introduce students to Tuneville where dynamic music, movies and activities keep children entertained while they learn.

Obtain the free lesson "How Many" by downloading the Tuneville app. Then purchase additional songs and fill your town with hand-picked lessons. These and future lessons will provide a foundation for academic and basic life skills.

Parents, teachers and clinicians, whether sitting and guiding a child or allowing a child to be independently entertained, will be satisfied knowing their child is exploring an award winning system of learning.

Begin building your Tuneville village today!

Featuring: the original song "How Many"
√ Fun and imaginative village map from which to browse lessons
√ Fun and engaging 4 step program that moves the child from singing to speaking
√ Teaches common amounts for every day items
• Answers “how many” questions
• Requests information using “how many”
√ Seven years of proven success

Free/Download

Scene Speak provides a framework on the iPad to create visual scene displays. This application allows an image can be edited with active “sound areas” that can be selected and used as a means of communication. Images then can added into “books” by theme or area of interest. Scene Speak is a wonderful communication tool for those with Autism, Aphasia, Apraxia, developmental disabilities or anyone wanting to enhance receptive language or visual memory.

$14.99/Download

Color SLapPs was created to help teach children identify the names of twelve different colors. Simple to use, Color SLapPs was designed by an SLP and modeled after Discrete Trial teaching. Children are asked to find a color(s) and rewarded with funny sounds and visuals. Users are able to choose which colors to work on within three different levels of difficulty. Color SLapPs is recommended for SLP’s, teachers or parents to make learning colors fun!

Key features:

Simple and direct teaching of basic colors
Choose which colors you want to work on
Three levels of play as well as randomization
Settings allow control of auto advance, sounds and visual effects.

Free/Download

InfiniTrack is a fun tool that can be used by both children and adults. It promotes development of gross and fine motor and visual tracking skills, and attention to task. High contrast, simple graphics make it easy to track the ball around the infinity-shaped path. Change to desired ball color or speed.

This App was developed by an Occupational Therapist who is experienced in pediatric development as well as stroke rehabilitation. InfiniTrack can also be used by anyone as a tool to promote relaxation, calm and focus.

$0.99/Download

This app uses Discrete Trial Training (DTT) to help your child learn the basic shapes. DTT is the primary teaching method used in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to teach numerous pre-academic and social skills to children with autism. This app can be used to help teach the basic shapes to children with autism, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), or any child who has trouble staying on task.

Children using this app will be able to learn the shapes in English, French, Norwegian or Spanish. Other downloadable language packs will be added soon! (Note, the startup and config screens of the app are currently in English only).

$14.99/Download

Created by a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist, “Speech with Milo: Verbs” offers a versatile and entertaining speech therapy tool for children. The app is for speech therapists working with children, or parents who want to teach language skills to their children.

•Used in therapy for children with special needs, such as: Autism / Asperger Syndrome, Down Syndrome, developmental delays, cognitive delays, speech and language delays.
•Fun and affordable
•Milo, an animated mouse, keeps children interested and motivated to learn.
•Instructions for Speech Therapists and Parents (in English only)
•Verb is spoken as the action is completed to reinforce action with auditory input. There is an option to turn this feature off.
•Written verb is displayed at the bottom of the screen to reinforce reading skills.
•Phrase button allows child to listen to a sentence using the verb.
•Milo takes a break every once in a while with some cheese and a dance. The child gets to feed Milo some cheese and watch him dance as a reward for his/her hard work.
•You may customize the actions that Milo performs. On List of Actions from the Home Page, you can do the following: random order, alphabetical order, or select your own custom set of verbs to work on by touching the word(s) in list of actions to activate/deactivate blue button.
•Background music can be turned off if it is too distracting for the child.

$2.99/Download

The application is straightforward.   It has two, large, color-coordinated buttons…one for yes, and one for no.   Press either, and you will hear a voice read your selection. New in Answers:YesNo HD is the ability to create a custom button pages which will allow the user to place custom text on two buttons, record custom audio to play when the custom buttons are selected, and save up to 6 custom button arrangements. Because of the ability to assign custom recorded audio to each button, Answers:YesNo HD will support any language the user is able to speak.

Although there are many options that provide nonverbal communication for those with autism and similar disorders, most are expensive, and cumbersome. YesNo HD gives users a voice, and provides the ability to answer simple questions using an iPad.

$1.99/Download

Pictello is a simple way to create talking photo albums and talking books. Each page in a Pictello Story can contain a picture, up to five lines of text, and a recorded sound or text-to-speech using high-quality voices. Stories can be shared using iTunes File Sharing or via WiFi with other Pictello users through a free account on the Pictello Sharing Server.

Pictello is developed for all ages and skill levels, so it is easy to use and requires no reading skills to locate and read stories. Pictello offers an easy visual story creation wizard so everyone can use pictures and sound to share important moments in their lives. An advanced editor gives full control of the editing capabilities.

$14.99/Download

Award-winning writer Pamela Sloane-Bradbury and veteran cartoonist Allison Garwood created these fun, witty, picture books as a way of helping children with limitations understand their behavior better in a positive and engaging way while boosting their self-esteem.

"Zanny, Born to Run" is part of the very first book series ever written expressly FOR children with special needs.

* Beautiful, hand-drawn illustrations
* Interactive and Exciting sound and movement touch features to hunt for and discover (Make Cheerios fly across the page, frogs leap for joy, play kickball!)
* Pictures that move by touch and animate with gravity as you tilt your iPad
* Professional and lively audio narration
* Charming background music recorded especially by an award-winning producer

***Bonus game attached – "The Extra Special Feelings Game" is for young children, or anyone who needs help with recognizing feelings and facial expressions.

$2.99/Download

My Pictures Talk helps you catalog, share, remember, and can teach skills to those with autism or developmental delays. It also allows you to document trips, adventures, class trips or create your own stories. Use your imagination! We allow you to bring your photos to life with text and audio. You can create talking photo albums, or use as a teaching tool to help promote wanted behaviors.

Take videos on the fly with an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, or load videos onto your device thru iTunes. It can now serve as a way to make your own social stories utilizing video modeling. No videos are included, but make it personal and create your own. Video modeling has been proven to be a useful tool to help children with autism learn social skills.

$9.99/Download

MyTalkTools Mobile for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad enables people with communication difficulties to express their needs and desires to those around them. Your purchase provides access to both MyTalk Mobile and MyTalk Workspace. Together, they represent a major breakthrough in augmentative, alternative communications (AAC) by making it easy to customize how you communicate through a variety of images, pictures, symbols and audio files including human voice. In 5 minutes, you can create your very own content and communicate in a way that YOU choose. You also won’t have to worry about losing or breaking your device as all information is backed up on MyTalk Workspace. MyTalk offers ease of use and time-savings in a portable, effective, and cool communication tool. MyTalk helps people communicate in a whole new way.

MyTalk LLC is a member of Moms with Apps, a collaborative group of family-friendly developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families.
Recommended Ages: all
Categories: Early Learning, Special Needs, Parents

$39.99/Download

Download any flashcard set from from Quizlet.com in seconds and let Talking Flashcards speak it! Thousands of pre-made sets. Designed for students, teachers, parents, and individuals with special needs.

– Create your own flashcard set
– Select from two high quality text to speech voices and adjust the speech rate to hear your flashcard set
– “Play”-Scrolls through each card in a deck and reads aloud the front and back. Great for listening on the go or to support students with special needs in acquiring reading and sight word recognition skills.
– Use while driving, running, walking to capitalize on “down time”
– Add/Arrange/delete cards within a deck
– Share your deck with your classmates or colleagues through email.
– Use text, import images or both on front side of card.

$3.99/Download

TapSpeak Button for iPad modernizes the idea of a mechanical switch that records and plays messages. We have taken the idea and extended it to provide a portable, convenient, and stigma-free tool to use for basic teaching and communication tasks. Speech Language Pathologists, parents, Physical Therapists and Occupational Therapists can all make use of our line of products. TapSpeak Button is especially useful for teaching cause and effect relationships.

TapSpeak Button for iPad runs on the Apple iPad.

Features include:
• DynaVox/Mayer-Johnson PCS 4500 symbol core library included in the purchase price.
• Photos can be used for button images.
• An expanded set of geometric symbols can be used as button images.
• PCS symbols and photos can use a geometric symbol as a background image. You can now "place" a photo on top of a button.
• Folders have been added to organize your buttons. Create folders for each student you have or for various situations.
• The button list has button thumbnail images to help identify a button in the button list.
• In portrait orientation the toolbar completely disappears leaving a clutter-free button image. Bring up the tool bar by swiping down and dismiss it by swiping up
• Touch/Tap configuration. Adjust the screen response to allow for a variable finger drift/dwell on the iPad surface.
• External switch support via RJ Cooper’s iPad switch interfaces
• Shrink and move around the screen a button image to work with target acquisition and eye-hand coordination.
• Use just the button image or the whole iPad surface to activate messages.
• Optional button border

$49.99/Download

TapSpeak Choice for iPad re-interprets low- to mid-tech communicator for the iPad. It’s a complete communication board editor and player that saves up to 75% of the setup time over conventional devices and virtually eliminates maintenance time. Use the DynaVox/Mayer-Johnson PCS library, your own photos or images, and geometric symbols for visual targets. You can record your own voice for playback (a set of sample libraries include a pre-recorded voice).

For those whose motor skill abilities make it necessary to use a switch, TapSpeak Choice support using the iPad screen as a switch for scanning and is the first app to use RJ Cooper’s iPad Cordless Super-Switch and iPad Switch Interface for external switches. You can use one or two switches for auto scanning and step scan and choose among a complete array of scanning options.

Children and adults with autism, cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, cortical vision impairment (CVI), stroke, or any disability that impairs their ability to communicate can make use of TapSpeak Choice.

$99.99/Download

Expressive is an entry-level, easy to use, and powerful app that allows children and adults with a speech impairment or a communication disorder to express their wants and needs through the use of pictures. It does not matter if an individual is having difficulty communicating due to autism, apraxia, stroke or any other communication disorder, Expressive will give that person the ability to express themselves through the use of pictured images and corresponding audio.

The best thing about Expressive is its ease of use. It does not require any knowledge about programming or manuals; Expressive is intuitive and simple to use.

Flexible and intuitive customization within Expressive allows users to select from a pool of images with audio files, create their own folders and arrange the images as they please.

If you have a family member that has lost the ability to express themselves(even if just temporarily due to a surgery, accident or aphasia) Expressive will give them back the ability to communicate and express their basic needs.
Expressive is compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch, and the iPad.
Expressive contains male and female voice audio.

$34.99/Download

The AAC Speech Buddy was created to quickly & easily create custom Speech Sets Online (aacspeech.com) which could be loaded on one or many AAC Speech Buddy Apps. The AAC Speech Buddy comes complete with several demo speech sets – and access to our Default Profile menus. Users are welcomed to create FREE LOGIN accounts online at AACSPEECH.COM – and build customized menus with 6 Text-to-Speech voices to choose from. – or use profiles created by other users with a provided profile id#

The AACSpeechBuddy solution allows users to quickly and easily create customized Speech Sets using their own photos or collected images, or using images from the AACSpeech.com image repository.

With the AACSpeech.com image repository you have access to over 2000+ images from the Mulberry Symbols collection by Paxtoncrafts Charitable Trust.
These images are internationally recognized standardized PECS images, and are now available FREE for use in your own custom speech sets.

Users can also share content with each other , allowing Teachers & Parents to create and share Speech Sets – that can be loaded onto the AACSpeechBuddy APP

$39.99/Download

Match2Say is the matching game for children that have difficulties producing some sounds. While they play they say the words and improve their articulation skills at the same time. Children will learn their sounds while playing!
Match2Say was developed by a speech therapist and can be used by parents to help your child learn to pronounce their sounds quicker.
We know that intensive practice and parent support is the key to speech therapy success.
This app contains all sounds in the English language and several levels of difficulty.
The iPhone/iPod app contains 3 levels, the iPad app contains 5 levels

$34.99/Download

Model Me Going Places™ for the iPad is a great visual teaching tool for helping your child learn to navigate challenging locations in the community. Each location contains a photo slideshow of children modeling appropriate behavior.

LOCATIONS:
– Hairdresser
– Mall
– Doctor
– Playground
– Grocery Store
– Restaurant

EASY TO USE:
Touch the forward and back buttons to move through the photos one by one. Or simply press the slide show button to advance photos automatically. A home button brings you back to the navigation menu where you may choose your next destination.

ABOUT:
This app is based on the Model Me Going Places™ DVD, the latest addition to the Model Me Kids® social skills training series for children and teenagers with Autism and Asperger Syndrome.

Free/Download

Behavior analysts often use tangible rewards when working with children. For example, when a child earns a certain number of stars for behavior you want repeated, they are rewarded. 
 
Use of motivational charts is not limited to any one group. We all benefit from motivation to achieve our goals! This type of praise or approval will help parents of typically developing children, children with autism, developmental delays, ADHD, and anxiety disorders.
 
How does iReward work? Choose the behavior you are trying to reinforce, choose your reward, and then choose the number of times the behavior needs to be completed before the reward is earned. Then, you can take a picture with your camera, or select a picture from the camera roll, which will provide extra motivation or reminders about the goal.
 
Progress is tracked by tapping on a star when the desired behavior is attained. The star will then turn to gold, red, a smiley, or a checked box, depending on what is selected in Settings. When all five stars have been tapped, they turn to the selected setting, indicating that the goal has been attained. You may provide voice praise in the Settings also. You may clear all the stars by double-tapping anywhere on the screen when viewing a reward. You also have the ability to take away progress by removing a star.

$4.99/Download

iMean turns iPad into a letterboard with large easy-to-read keys and word suggestions. I developed it to help my autistic son communicate and formulate his thoughts. He enjoys the word suggestions not just for speed but because they make him read. We are hoping that other people who use typing or facilitated communication because they cannot speak or speak well will enjoy this app too.

We have found iPad makes it easy to switch into this app from reading or watching a video so we can discuss what we are studying and then switch back again.

Unlike icon-based systems this app is dedicated to text and the subtleties of expression and immense developmental potential that using text and formulating thoughts offers many people on the autistic spectrum.

The app saves what’s been spelled and features large YES and NO buttons in the main view.

$4.99/Download

This exciting and innovative reading app is designed for children 8+ years old! Anybody can read this, but it is especially great for children with general reading, dyslexia, and/or language based processing issues. Reading cannot be enjoyed when it is difficult, but this eReading app puts the fun back into reading! This app might even inspire the reader to read more!

Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver’s Travels in 1727. In order to make it easier for struggling readers to read, we took the first part of the book (Voyage to Lilliput) and abridged it and rewrote it into modern English. This allows for the main ideas in the story to be retained, but the reader will experience an easier to follow the story. We created 32 beautiful original illustrations to enhance the experience.

$1.99/Download