Seven Special Needs Apps in the Google Android Market

by Tzvi on Wed, March 9th, 2011 This Post is part six of the Special Needs iPad & App Series. Almost from the day the iPad was launched there was an immediate buzz about the special needs apps that were available in the iPad app store. Apple quickly realized that the iPad was perfectly suited to enhancing the lives of individuals with special needs and created a special education section of the app store. Websites and blogs sprung up dedicated to reviewing apps for Assistive Communication, Social Skills, Life Skills, Scheduling and more. With all the hype surrounding the iPhone & iPad I started to wonder: what if you are a Google geek and prefer the Android platform? Or what if you work for Google (which would mean iPhone & iPad use is prohibited) and you have a child with special needs? Are there any quality special needs apps for Android Phones or Tablets? After digging around online, here are seven Special Needs Android Apps in the Android Market Voice4u Price: $29.99 Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.voice4uaac.android.voice4u Voice4u, is a revolutionary picture based AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) application that helps individuals express their feeling, thought, actions and things they need. It is a perfect solution for learning and communication for individuals with autism. Voice4u includes over 150 Pre-loaded icons and lets you create your own icons and categories. TapToTalk Price: Subscription based- $99.95 per child per year Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.Assistyx.TapToTalk TapToTalk turns an Android device into an affordable AAC device. TapToTalk displays a set of pictures on the screen. When you tap a picture, TapToTalk plays a word or sentence and displays another screen of pictures. Each of those pictures can lead to another screen, and so on. For example, a picture representing Food can lead to a screen with pictures of Fruit, Vegetables, Sandwiches, Snacks and other foods. JABtalk Price: $9.99 Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.jabstone.jabtalk JABtalk is an android application that provides a fresh new approach to speech and communication technology. Speech therapists commonly refer to JABtalk as an easy to use and effective AAC device. By combining personalized voice and images with an extremely simple user interface, JABtalk delivers a speech solution that is both fun to use and easy to learn. Model Me Going Places Price: Free Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=org.cocos2dx.application Model Me Going Places™ is a great visual teaching tool for helping your child learn to navigate challenging locations in the community. Each location contains a photo slide show of children modeling appropriate behavior. Locations include: Hairdresser, Mall, Doctor, Playground, Grocery Store, Restaurant Behavior Tracker Pro Price: $29.99 Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mc.btpBehavior Tracker Pro dramatically increased the efficiency of an Autism treatment program. BTP is a behavioral data collection app that allows behavioral therapists, teachers or parents to track and graph behaviors. BTP improves your child’s ABA therapy by capturing behavioral data and translating into an easy to understand graphical format. AAC Speech Buddy Link:www.market.android.com/details?id=com.codedimensions.android.aacspeech Price: $27.99 AAC Speech Buddy create custom PECS Speech Sets. 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. AACSpeechBuddy 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. iAugComm Price: $4.99 Link: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ideal.iaugcomm Created by Apps4Android, an Android software development company dedicated to developing Android applications that enhance the quality-of-life, independence and educational success of individuals with disabilities. iAugComm turns your Android into a powerful, high-quality, low-cost AAC device, which can enable individuals who are non-verbal or whose speech is difficult to understand to communicate easily and effectively using a simple, icon-based interface. The Bottom Line If you are in the market for a tablet or smart phone and you plan on using special needs apps, then you definitely should stick to the iPad and iPhone. The Apple App store has a much bigger selection of special education apps to choose from and the Android Market doesn’t have any of the bestselling apps such as Proloquo2Go or iPrompts. Google is just now releasing optimized operating systems for tablet devices. It will be at least a year before the Android Market will be able to compete with the iPad App store.

Smart Apps for Kids THANK YOU Free Christmas App

12/03/2011

Free Christmas Apps, Part Two: Cut the Rope Holiday Gift

Thanks to some research with my kids and great reader feedback, I'm going to post about some Christmas apps you can download for free!
(We've taken a quick look at all of these to ensure they're worth the download...)

Next up is Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift...if you haven't tried the Cut the Rope series, now is the perfect time. We've reviewed Cut the Rope: Experiments and the original Cut the Rope if you'd like more information. From iTunes:
A mysterious holiday package has arrived, and the creature inside has only one request…CANDY! Help get the candy to Om Nom, the adorable monster, in this free companion to the highly innovative and addictive puzzle game, Cut the Rope. Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift combines outstanding physics, devilishly tricky levels, and bright colorful visuals with a special winter feel.
****
If you would like to purchase Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift, please use the links provided. Thanks for your support!
iPad/iPhone (FREE): U.S. Canada U.K. Australia
****
Free Christmas Apps, Part One: Toca Hair Salon Christmas Gift

Link to the site:  http://www.smartappsforkids.com/

Link to Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/smartappsforkids

iPad Apps for Autism

      iPad Apps for Autism

• Model Me Going Places 2 – Social Stories – Free 
• Is That Gluten Free? – Nutrition – $7.99
• Sentence Builder for iPad – Language – $3.99
• TapToTalk – Language – Free
• Story Builder – Language – $3.99
• Understanding Autism – Educational – $2.99
• Proloquo2Go – Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) – $189.99
• Question Builder for iPad – Language – $3.99
• AutoVerbal Talking Soundbox – Language – $9.99
• iCommunicate for iPad – Language – $29.99
• MyTalk Tools Mobile – AAC – $39.99
• iDress for Weather – Life Skills – $1.99
• MyTalkTools Mobile Lite – AAC – Free
• TapSpeak Button for Ipad – Language – $9.99
• Grace – Picture Exchange for Non-Verbal People – Language – $37.99
• Alexicom AAC – AAC – Free
• AACSpeechBuddy – AAC – $44.99
• Visual Impact – Living Safely – Life Skills – $34.99
• Off We Go – Going to the Dentist – Social Stories – $4.99
• Off We Go – Going on a Plane – Social Stories – $4.99

Ohio Center for Autism & Low Incidence Resource

OCALI offers excellent resources in addition to the link of the 17 page booklet about Autism Apps I am going to provide you with the link for the Autism Internet Modules (AIM) it is also and excellent resource!!
This is the link for the booklet about apps http://www.ocali.org/up_archive_doc/Spectrum_Apps_ASD.pdf
This is the link for AIM http://www.autisminternetmodules.org/ 
Let me know what you think!!

November 29, 2011, 11:47 am

Finding Good Apps for Children With Autism

By PRADNYA JOSHI

Shannon Des Roches RosaLeo Rosa, son of Shannon Des Roches Rosa, of Redwood City, Calif., plays with Spot the Dot, an educational app for the iPad.

The Apple iPad has been hailed as a savior for assisting children with autism spectrum disorder or other special needs. It was portrayed as a minor miracle in a recent segment on “60 Minutes” and has been found to help even the very young quickly learn.
Anecdotally, teachers, parents and therapists describe the profound difference that apps for Apple and Android products have made in helping autistic children develop skills. IPad programs have provided a means of communicating for some children with autism who cannot speak or have language delays. Other apps help children learn to handle social situations that can be stressful, like crowds at malls. And many programs can help develop fine-motor skills, which promote functions like writing or manipulating small objects.
Sami Rahman of Houston said that his son, Noah, 3, who has cerebral palsy, was woefully behind in fine-motor skills, speech and cognitive skills before he began therapies and intervention programs. But in four months, the apps he used — along with sessions with therapists and teachers — have put him ahead of the curve in all these areas, Mr. Rahman said.
The iPad “has lowered the cognitive base you have to have to interface with a computer,” Mr. Rahman said. “You touch it, and something happens.”
But as is the case with so many categories of apps, it’s daunting to know where to begin when sorting through the thousands of programs available. “There are so many apps, and not all of them are great,” said Shannon Des Roches Rosa of Redwood City, Calif., whose son, Leo, 11, has autism.
To that end, several good Web sites have been created to review special-needs apps. Most of these sites are not driven by advertising nor do they receive referral fees for recommending apps:

iPad Apps for Autism A Google docs site maintained by Ms. Rosa that grew out of a project she did for the Hollyrod Foundation. The apps she has reviewed and recommended are classified into categories like art, language and music. Jordan Sadler, a professional speech therapist in Chicago, and Corina Becker, an adult with autism, are among the main reviewers. Among the developers she recommends are Injini, Toca Boca, Duck Duck Moose and Oceanhouse Media. “Specific companies produce great apps,” Ms. Rosa said.
Other sites she recommends for app listings include Technology in (Spl) Education, which includes a list of free and discounted apps, and Speech-Language Pathology Sharing for language development.

SNapps4kids.com The site, a program of the Easter Seals, lists more than 700 apps but includes about 60 that have been professionally reviewed. The reviews are all done by a special education teacher or certified therapist, many of whom are a part of the Easter Seals network. Mr. Rahman and Cristen Reat, who has a son with Down syndrome, co-founded the site to help identify useful apps. The reviews and categories are organized based on skills learned rather than what disability or diagnosis is targeted. “It’s really for all ages,” said Ms. Reat. “We know stroke victims and people with Alzheimer’s who are using our Web site.”

a4cwsn.com This site, which stands for Apps for Children With Special Needs, features 500 video reviews done by Gary James of Oxford, Conn., who has a son with autism and a daughter with epilepsy. He says he has reviewed some 5,000 apps, but only lists reviews of apps that he believes do what they promise. If an app passes that test and is listed, developers can pay to be on the home page of his site. But that revenue does not cover all the costs of operating the site, he said.

iAutism.info This database contains over 400 apps for iPad/iPhone and nearly 70 for Android. The site was started by Francesc Sistach and his wife, Susana Vila, who live in Spain. Iván Soriano, another parent of a child with autism, is also a main reviewer. Mr. Sistach says the app he finds most interesting is See.Touch.Learn, an app based on Applied Behavior Analysis, a common early intervention therapy for autistic children. “This app can complement expensive one-to-one sessions with a therapist with self-learning sessions using a tablet,” he said.
The site also includes Spanish and other foreign language apps. “Many U.S. developers are forgetting that there are many, many users in other countries, and they only publish their apps in English.” Mr. Sistach said. “ We encourage all developers to translate their apps to other languages, and we are even helping some of them in this process.”

This is a GREAT app

Model Me Going Places™
Model Me Going Places™ is a great visual teaching tool for helping your child learn to navigate challenging locations in the community. Each location contains a photo slide show of children modeling appropriate behavior. 6 locations: Hairdresser, Mall, Doctor, Playground, Grocery Store, and Restaurant.
www.modelmekids.com/iphone-app-autism.html

Check it out!!!

New apps part of kids' with autism therapy

In treating patient after patient with autism, Mark Bowers found himself frustrated with how they struggled to apply the strategies and skills they learned in his office to real-life situations.
"He would come home for dinner and say, 'I wish there was some kind of way for me to be with kids at school,' " said Bowers' wife, Kelly Bowers. "It would be kind of like having a psychologist in their pocket."
So Bowers, who grew up in Webster Groves and works as a pediatric psychologist in Ann Arbor, Mich., developed the Sosh app to improve social skills for those with Asperger's syndrome. Sosh joins an exploding list of apps to help those with Autism Spectrum Disorders — developmental brain disorders that result in mild to severe problems communicating.
More parents are turning to apps to improve their children's skills because of the technology's ability to captivate, individualize and offer immediate feedback in ways other therapies can't. The ease and portability of the iPad, released a year and a half ago, is also fueling the growing use.
"It's huge, and it's only going to get bigger. It's absolutely crazy," said Gary James, who created the Apps for Children with Special Needs — or A4CWSN — website in January to help parents wade through the choices. "Ever since the iPad, the app world has gone absolutely bonkers."
James said his A4CWSN website has already passed 1.2 million views, and its corresponding Facebook page has nearly 7,000 members.
Steve Jobs might not have had children with disabilities in mind when developing the iPad, but the touchscreen 1-pound computer tablet has opened a new world of communication and learning for autistic children.
James created his website after seeing the difference using apps on an iPad made in his autistic son, now 6. Learning went from being a struggle to being fun, James said.
"I saw how my son took to this and I thought, 'Wow, I need to share this with people,' " he said. His site has informational videos on over 500 apps.
James, 43, is also working to provide iPads to families and educators across the world who want to use them to help kids with special needs. He recently raised money to give away 50 iPads; 2,000 U.S. families applied for them. Developers, including Bowers, donated their apps. James has left his home in Connecticut and is now traveling to every state to give one away.
Becky Cannon, 35, of Troy, Mo., will be getting one of the iPads when James travels through Missouri next month. "It wasn't anything I had considered in the past just because of the expense," Cannon said. An iPad costs about $500, and while some apps are free, others can cost as much as $300. She is excited to offer more options for two of her children, ages 2 and 8, with special needs.
"My options and my resources in the community are very limited," she said of living in a rural area. "This puts the masterminds who have created this technology in one setting and just expands how I could help my children."
Hundreds of apps are available to teach everything from fine motor skills to getting dressed. They include games to help promote eye contact, interpret facial expressions and react to social cues. They can even prepare kids for situations like going to a restaurant, getting a haircut or seeing a doctor.
The Sosh app alone provides more than 60 screens of exercises, strategies and information aimed at tweens, teens and young adults with Asperger's. They include a voice meter to keep from talking too loud, a dictionary to define figures of speech and a virtual 'shredder" to get rid of negative feelings.
'APPS ARE A BLESSING'
For those who are nonverbal, apps are helping them communicate through pictures or text for the first time.
Katie Beach of Affton uses more than a dozen apps on an iPad to help her son, Conrad, 5, who was diagnosed with Asperger's a year and a half ago. She said the technology helped him learn letters, colors, shapes, addition and eventually to read.
"The apps are a blessing for Conrad," she said. "He is such a visual person and the apps allow him to gain knowledge and learn other skills, but at his own pace and in a way that is structured for his mind."
Simon Wallace, a director of scientific development at Autism Speaks, the nation's largest advocacy organization, said rapidly advancing technology is creating endless opportunities for support for special-needs families.
"It's really capturing the imagination of our community," Wallace said.
Last week, Autism Speaks, Hewlett Packard and The Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism came together to hold a "Hackathon." Designers and autism experts collected the best ideas from families and therapists to develop five new apps to help people with autism, which will be made available for free.
Jeanne Marshall, chief program officer at TouchPoint Autism Services, which serves over 2,700 people with autism spectrum disorders and their families each year in Missouri, said apps are proving to be effective for kids along the spectrum who thrive with positive reinforcement and a sense of control.
"Apps give kids a level of independence in their learning that traditional teaching does not," Marshall said. "They can often independently guide themselves through a program and get immediate feedback from the device, as opposed to a teacher having to provide continual prompting."
A PERSONAL TOUCH
Autistic children also sometimes have intense interests, such as trains or dinosaurs, and apps can be centered around that interest, Marshall said. Apps can often be personalized with recordings of the child's own voice or parents' voices and pictures of items and people in their lives.
Therapists and scientists are seeking to put some research behind the use of apps. TouchPoint has given an iPad to 10 kids in the Cape Girardeau area and will be assessing over the next three to six months how certain apps improve their communication, social skills and academics.
"We will roll it out to another 10 children, trying to give as many kids as possible the opportunity to borrow an iPad to try it out for a period of time, so that the families can determine if it would be a wise purchase," Marshall said.
Wallace at Autism Speaks urged some caution among families. Touchscreen phones and tablets should not further isolate or separate those with autism from others.
"We don't want them to fixate on technology," he said. "We want it be a bridge to better social interaction and communication with those around them."
By:  Michelle Munz