Apps for Autistic Children

Best Apps for Autistic Kids

Thank you to Dad developer Kyle Tomson of Mobile Education Store, for letting me repost his great article on apps for high functioning autistic children.  They  benefit greatly from the language aspects of these apps.  Kyle has a daughter, Caitlin, who is very high functioning on the autism spectrum so this topic is very near and dear to his heart, so much so that he went and developed them himself!

Click here for the full post.  The apps are listed below.

p.s. My husband gave me this link to a 60 Minutes segment on Apps for Austism. It was about how Steve Jobs changed the world significantly for those with special needs.

p.p.s Another post on Apps for Special Needs is here. All posts on Special Needs here.

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Sentence Builder was designed specifically for Caitlyn to teach her how to put together a grammatically correct sentence.  I spent a tremendous amount of time on encouragement animations (jumping dogs/dancing cows – that sort of thing).  They are what make the program fun for her to play, and what keep her engaged. Once she started playing, she made such dramatic improvement in her sentence formation that I decided to “throw it up” on iTunes.  I have been shocked at the number of SLP’s, teachers and parents from around the world who have contacted me telling me how much they like the program and how much it has helped their students/children.  It has been a truly humbling and unexpected experience.

Sentence Builder is $3.99 at iTunes.  To examine it more closely, please click on icon.

My next two applications were inspired by Caitlyn’s needs as she grew.  I made Question Builder because as she started to use language more, she would more often than not echo questions back to her teachers rather than answering the questions.  As with Sentence Builder, within months of using Question Builder, this problem was completely arrested in the the classroom.  Now in the 2nd grade, Caitlyn is expected to do more creative writing, which she really struggles with.  My featured application this month, Story Builder, was designed to help her come up with her own creative ideas, rather than letting her pick the answer from a list.  Story Builder was made to address the core of her language deficits.  Already she has made great strides in her ability to build a creative narrative.

Question Builder is $2.99 at iTunes.

Story Builder is FREE at iTunes