April is Autism Awareness Month. There are an enormous number of children and their families who are suffering with this condition every day. I want to tell you about a few apps that might make living your life with Autism a little easier.
Proloquo2Go
$189.99 (Available for Apple Devices)
· This is an augmentative and alternative communication app for people with Autism.
· It is for those who have trouble speaking or cannot speak at all.
· The child touches the icon on the screen and Proloquo2Go says the word associated with it.
· It can form sentences—even picture sentences.
· Has a choice of several natural sounding voices that the child can choose from depending on who is using it.
· Allows them to communicate with anyone, anytime.
· It has a great base of “core” words as well as a vast array of “fringe” words to allow for expression and growth as the child grows older.
· Supports both text based as well as picture based communication.
· You can even go back and check what was spoken up to a week before.
EASe Pro Apps
Range from $0.99 -$99.99 (Available for Apple devices)
· Electronic Auditory Stimulation effect (EASe)
· Helps children who suffer with Sensory Processing Disorder to cope with all sorts of noise. They can’t handle a lot of noise.
· The app plays lovely smooth instrumental music and the child gets to be the maestro. During the song another sound can be heard—a sound that doesn’t belong with the rest of the song. It will have a higher pitch than the rest of the song. The therapist or parent can control how often those sound bursts happen, how high the pitch is and how long it lasts.
· Headphones are recommended.
· It’s meant to not only calm your child, but help them build up a tolerance for noise.
· Comes in 3 versions : Lite, Personal and Pro. The bonus to the Pro version is that it allows you to import more EASe listening modules into the app after purchasing them on CD.
Word SLapPs
Ranges from FREE to $4.99 (Available for Apple devices)
· This is an app for teaching and testing vocabulary.
· This can teach basic concepts like above and below as well as nouns, verbs, opposites, and identifying differences in pictures.
· There are several levels and with each level you can add more pictures to work with.
· You can even use your own photos and your own voice.
· Once the pics are on the screen, the app will ask you to find one of them on the screen—for example, “find the bird” and the child will have to select the correct picture. If the child does, they get a reward that is both audible and visible. If the answer is incorrect, the voice will keep asking “find the bird” every 5 seconds.
· If the child has issues with the visual or sound rewards you can turn them off. You can also turn off the sound prompts and just work off of the visual prompts instead.
· Great for parents, speech pathologists, and teachers.
Additional Resources
1. One of the best sites to search several autism-related apps:
http://www.appymall.com/appystore/AppsforAutism
2. Be sure to follow this Facebook page for all the best news related to tech and special education:
https://www.facebook.com/techinspecialed
3. This app developed by a great broadcaster and passionate weatherman Justin Berk: