5 Apps That Help Kids With Autism - http://clapway.com/2015/08/04/5-apps-that-help-kids-with-autism-2/

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disease, and according to the Centers for Disease Control, one in sixty-eight children were diagnosed in 2014.

What is Autism?

As previously mentioned, it’s a developmental disease that is characterized by the difficulty present in learning communication skills, personal and intrapersonal, language, abstract concepts, and how to form healthy relationships. According to Autism Speaks, the most obvious signs and symptoms seem to appear between 2 and 3 years-of-age. Researchers have been studying the causes and symptoms for quite some time now, and developers have come up with a few apps that help kids with Autism learn the necessary skills needed to interact with people on a daily basis. Research has been done regarding many apps, however, four out of these five (one is lacking evidence to support its claims, but I know from word of mouth) have directly related evidence supporting that the technology is helpful.

1. I Can Have a Conversation With You.

This app that helps kids with Autism and their social language therapy system teaches children how to begin, maintain, and end a conversation without getting frustrated and retreating.

2. A Present for Milo

This interactive book is an app that helps kids with Autism by focusing on their language skills.

3. Alpha Writer

This app focuses on communication and language as well.

4. Dr. Seuss’s ABC

This app teaches children the ABCs through pictures and funny words. It keeps their attention and they learn at the same time.

5. iPrompts

This app helps kids with Autism by creating a visual schedule and focuses on social skills, behavioral intervention, and functional skills.

Do you or someone you know have Autism? What apps or technology has worked for you/them?

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Technology can change lives for the better. Find out more about some useful, fun new tech in the reviews on Clapway Trends:

 

5 Apps That Help Kids With Autism

Tech every speech pathologist should know about. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/01/how-a-learning-app-can-help-improve-conversational-skills-of-kids-with-autism/

I am not yet a parent. Though I am an aunt to 3 toddlers, I still do not make parental decisions on a daily basis, and the only experience of raising anything I have is my dog. And she’s kind of a jerk sometimes.

One tool I’ve seen, especially in younger parents, is the use of electronics at a young age. This is a pretty controversial subject in the parenting world, according to my mommy friends.

Are they too young to be playing games on your iPad? Are they too young to always be looking at a screen? I know I want my kids to play outside and experience the dirt and the bugs, because as small as that sounds, those experiences help shape us as adults. However, there can be many advantages to those games and learning apps you see the child in the booth next you is playing. A study done by Common Sense Media says that there is a difference between active time and passive time playing on tablets.

There are many learning apps and games for children of all ages. I’ve played games with my nephew in the backseat of his mom’s car as we’ve gone out to lunch. He might be smarter than me and he’s only 3. He speaks complete sentences and knows bigger words than most 3 year olds do, and his mother attributes those abilities, in part, to the things he’s learned from those games. In fact, there is a new iPad learning app that is designed to help children and young adults with autism to significantly improve their conversational skills:

“I Can Have A Conversation With You”

This new app was created by speech pathologist Karen Kabaki-Sisto. It is a social language therapy system that teaches children with autism how to begin a conversation, maintain one, and end one in a much better capacity than before. It teaches them gestures and body language, how to understand and express words, and feelings that might occur during a conversation with someone and to handle them.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tells us that autism rates have risen over the last ten years, so now is a perfect time for Kabaki-Sisto to put her learning app out there to see what it can do. The goal of this app is to create a non-conventional and interactive approach to the current hurdle that people with autism face. This app is available for iPad only and is in the iTunes Store for $29.99. The response to this app from parents and other speech therapists so far has been incredibly positive. This app is not only for children with autism, but can help so many other children who might have Asperger’s or other social and pragmatic communication disorders.

While iPads and other handheld devices seem to be taking over the world, I find comfort in the fact that there are learning opportunities with these devices. Not only for children but adults as well.

How A Learning App Can Help Improve Conversational Skills Of Kids With Autism