Vicki Windman as she demonstrates the use of iPad apps for special needs students. In the audience are educators from the Rebecca School,
a therapeutic day school for children ages 4 to 21 in New York City. To
learn more about the apps shown in the video, visit Vicki Windman's wikispace.
iPad Apps for Autistic Students This is a very good resource of apps specifically curated for autistic learners. This is a spreadsheet created by a parent, an autistic adult and an SLP and features a very big collection of iPad apps for autism.
10 Great Apps for Dyslexia (teacher-tested) TapTapSee( IOS and Android) is a mobile camera application designed specifically for blind and visually impaired users, TapTapSee utilizes your device’s camera and VoiceOver functions to take a picture or video of anything and identify it out loud for you
Be My Eyes IOS pairs sighted volunteers with visually impaired individuals who would appreciate a bit of remote assistance.
Omoguruis a reading app for students with dyslexia. It offers a wide variety of tools 'designed to make the text more readable'. Some of these features include: tools to adjust text appearance and enhance its readability (e.g., letter spacing, line height setting, contrast setting colours, text size and weigth), syllable marking ( the tool allows you to mark syllables in different colours enabling readers to easily identity and read multi-syllable words), speed reading, and many more. Omoguru also offers the Overlay tool which is available with the Scroll reading style. Overlay helps struggling readers focus on text by highlighting lines they read. The digitization functionality is another key feature that makes Omoguru stands out. You can take photos of printed text and convert them into digitized text and save them as notes.
MBraille IOS Amobile braille keyboard.With the free features you can type, edit and send tweets and text messages using contracted or uncontracted English braille.*With the full version you can also use braille to- call contacts or telephone numbers- send email- do facebook status updates- add calendar entries
ViA (Visually Impaired Apps), a fully accessible app for iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. ViA has been designed to help identify apps that are useful for adults and children who are blind or have low vision, including those with additional disabilities. Users can easily sort through the 500,000+ apps in the App
Seeing AI is a free app that narrates the world around you. Designed for the blind and low vision community, this ongoing research project harnesses the power of AI to open up the visual world and describe nearby people, text, and objects.
Follow the Story of a Typical DyslexicWhat Is Dyslexia? gives an overview of what it’s like to live with dyslexia. The app also includes a quiz that can help users determine if they have signs of dyslexia. What Is Dyslexia? was developed by Nessy Learning Limited in the UK and is compatible with the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Cost: FreeClick Here to Visit iTunes App Store
Avaz Communicate with someone with autism using this tablet-based augmentative & alternative communication app. IOS and Android
The NaturalReader text-to-speech(TTS) application converts PDF files, MS Word documents, and e-books into spoken words. You can have any text read to you in one of over 18 natural-sounding voices.(offline voices) It is also an efficient proofreading tool; it not only picks out mistakes in your work, but gives you a good sense of the natural flow of what you have written.Moreover, NaturalReader is a great help to students with dyslexia or other learning difficulties. By listening to text rather reading, students are better able to comprehend reading materials or detect spelling errors in their own work. Finally, NaturalReader is a great tool with which to learn a foreign language. You can practice your comprehension and pronunciation skills by listening to any written words being spoken at your preferred speed.
Marlee Signs: Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin wanted to create a simple, visual representation of American Sign Language vocab. Taught through short videos showing Matlin signing each letter or phrase, this app makes it super easy to become a signing pro.
Dyslexia ToolboxThis app “by dyslexic people for dyslexic people” has a suite of useful assistive technology features for older kids with dyslexia. One feature is a type pad with word prediction software that can help kids create messages for text, email and social media. Another is a digital overlay for reading text through a color screen. There’s also a digital document reader (for purchase) that takes photos of text and reads them aloud.
iBrailler remarkable App. If a student is blind, they can physically place their hands on the iPad and the Braille keyboard comes to them. It is literally placed over top of their fingertips. If the student needs to move their hands because of discomfort, the keyboard moves with them. According to the App's description, iBrailler Notes supports English Braille Grade 1 (uncontracted), English Braille Grade 2 (contracted), and Six-Dot Computer Braille. There are a variety of features and functions built into the App, like copying, pasting, undo, redo, and even the ability to organize your notes. The obvious question may be, how does the person know what they wrote? iBrailler even has a Speak Selection feature. When students need to share, they can easily use BRF import/export, email and Dropbox. openWeb - Here is a free accessibility-minded web browser for iPhones & iPads that is built with a font specially designed for dyslexic readers.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/seeing-ai/ ModMath ( app) is an adaptive program that improves math skills. The app lets you type math problems right onto the touch screen of an iPad rather than write them out long-hand. You can then solve the problems using the touch pad and print or e-mail the assignments all without ever picking up a pencil.
Exploration AppsThere are apps that provide GPS. These apps let you explore the world around you using audio messages. It tells you about nearby places, and it also will set up routes. The app lets users point the phone in your hand in any direction to hear the nearest places as virtual talking signs. When pointing straight at a virtual sign the speech is loud and clear, but as you point away from it, the speech starts to get staticky, so you have quick audio feedback about the exact location of the virtual talking sign. Here are the two popular free apps. overTHERE (iOS only) Lazarillo (iOS and Android) Sighted Volunteer AppThese are apps that narrate the world around you using a phone or glasses to identify what is around you out loud. Tap Tap See (iOS and Android) Seeing AI (iOS only) Google Lens (Android and iOS with this hack) Google Lookout (Pixel only) These videos show how this technology works.
Alt TextMore and more content creators realize the importance of including alternative text (alt text) with their images. This allows the person consuming the content to understand what is in a picture if they are unable to see it well. Screen readersBrowsers like Chrome have screen readers built in. Other browsers like FireFox have addons. There is also screen reading software. NVDA Thunder WebAnywhere JAWS (commercial)
Tinycards - Learn with Fun, Free Flashcards Memorize anything while playing a game! Tinycards is a brand new app from the team behind Duolingo, the most downloaded education app in the world.
BridgingAppsWhether you are a teacher, therapist, or institution this is for you. It's a volunteer online community of parents, therapists, doctors, and teachers who share information on using the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices with people who have special needs.
Fleksy a state-of-the-art text input system so powerful that you can type without even looking at the screen. For the first time ever, sighted, visually impaired and blind people are able to quickly and easily type on touch screen phones and tablets.
Prizmo: $$ With Prizmo, users can scan in any kind of text document and have the program read it out loud, which can be a big help to those who struggle with reading.
ESL Reading Comprehension-Help your ESL/ELL students sharpen their reading comprehension with quick and interactive lessons. Identify key concept words and develop familiarity with common phrasings.
App Collection for Special Needs Students called PowerUp help students with special needs and learning disabilities. I think one of the possibilities of touchscreen and multimedia devices is that it can make a wider array of content more available to a wider range of students. CommonSense Media does a nice job of annotating the apps in this free list (which is also downloadable as a PDF) and putting them into various categories, and then sorted by difficulty/age levels.
Sôsh is a mobile app designed to help ‘tweens, teens and young adults with Asperger’s syndrome to improve their social skills. These “5Rs” serve as a roadmap for students who want to be social, but may have faced obstacles in the past. Sôsh contains more than 60 screens that presentexercises, strategies and practical information to work through social situations in a step-by-step manner. The app also offers students a journal, a goals area, a to-do list and a rating scale (to rate anything from their school day to their interactions with peers), a behavior tracking area and an interest log. TheShredder, which is both visual and audible, lets students type their trouble in the dialog box and drag it into the shredder to see it ripped to shreds. The Facial Expressions gallery is a place within the app for students to brush up on recognizing emotions. If students are talking too loudly, a Voice Meter helps them learn to lower their speech volume. The app is available for the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch at a cost of $39.99; discounts are available for educational institutions. Click Here to Visit iTunes App Store
Transfer Behavior Skills to Real-Life Situations Designed for children affected by autism and Asperger’ssyndrome, FizzBrain’s Eye Contact – Zoogamerewards children for quickly focusing in on a person’s eyes. Through repeated practice, the game helps children learn to make eye contact by habit and to cope more readily with real-life situations. The app is available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch at a cost of $2.99. Click Here to Visit iTunes App Store
Speech Therapy for Apraxia for helping children/adults w/ speech problems such as Apraxia. To be used w/ Parents and Speech Therapist to help children develop their speech. This is done by selecting different word groups and patterns and listening to the words and sounding them out. As a user proceeds they progress through 9 different levels motor/speech articulation or they can choose what level they want to work. Progress tracking w/ detailed instructions on how best to use this app.
ArtikPix is an articulation-based app from Expressive Solutions. The app contains decks of flashcardsand corresponding games and activities for children with speech delays. Twenty-four decks, each with 40 color-coded cards (113 cards in the r deck, 1,033 total cards), address the sounds represented by the following letters: th, f, v, ch, sh, k, g, s, z, l, r, s-blends, r-blends, l-blends, p, b, m, n, t, d and j. ArtikPix also includes recorded audio and video, voice-recording capabilities and a module for creating your own cards. The group-scoring feature enables up to four children to complete activities together. The cost is currently $29.99 for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Click Here to Visit iTunes App Store
FreeSpeech- iPad app for Special Ed teachers and students who have difficulty speaking. A teacher can record their voice to a image to help students understand.
SpeechPrompts - This iPhone & iPad app provides a variety of speech therapy exercises to help those with autism spectrum disorders.
SoundAMP amplifies the sounds of the world around you
Glow Draw!: Glow Draw! is a fun drawing app for students with visual development problems.
What Rhymes?: Encourage reading comprehension with this reading comprehension tool for visual and auditory learners.
Free Speech app is designed to assist students who have Autism and other speech and communication impairments. The Free Speech app provides a set of images and icons representing common household objects and activities. You can add more categories beyond the default and icons to the app by taking pictures with your iPad and labeling them. You can also add more categories and icons to the app by uploading them from albums on your iPad. The first time that you use the Free Speech app it asks you to fill in a bunch of information about yourself and your student(s). Some people may be turned off by all of the information that they ask for. I was able to use the app by only entering my name and email address making those other questions optional. The app does require iOS 6.0.
Dragon Dictation voice recognition application that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages.
Voice Text Pro: FREE Dictating has never been easier! Voice Texting Pro doesn't need to learn your voice, no training is required. It works straight out of the box. By default, it uses the language appropriate to the settings of your device. So if you are in Spain, it recognizes Spanish, etc. You can change the language in the settings page.
Apps that develop fine motor skills Let's Be Social ($!5 )Let's be Social! targets the pragmatic skills of Recognizing Emotions, Solving Problems, Forming Friendships, and Predicting Outcomes. Let's be Social! comes standard with 25 high quality lessons created by licensed SLP's. Each lesson includes walks the user through different social interactions and asks questions to help encourage retention and carryover of skills. Custom illustrations to show emotions felt and actions taken during each stage of a lesson.
Dyslexia Quest (1.99) Climb the mountain and play the yeti games. Each game will test memory and learning skills. The Yeti Master will explain signs of dyslexia.
ShowMeAs a student looking to learn about a particular topic you can search Show Me by topic and subject. As a teacher, you can create your own videos or assign one from the community for students to view. If you would rather share your knowledge with your class, you will need to download thefree iOS app. Video
SlideShark for the iPad; is a free app for converting and viewing PPT files on your iPad. SlideShark converts your PowerPoint files without losing any of your original formatting, transitions, or animations.
StudyBlue allows you to create flashcards in three ways. You can enter text, take a picture, or speak into the app.
iComm Communication can create a barrier for children with conditions such as Cerebral Palsy or Autism. Often, getting the simplest of needs across creates frustration and difficulty for both parents and children when talking is tough. iComm comes pre-loaded with a number of stock pictures and recorded descriptions of colors, shapes, letters and body parts. However, the true advantage of this app is the ability to upload your own photos and voice recordings.
Speech Journal by Mobile Education Store creates books that allow you to pair recorded voices with an image. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s not just for speech therapists. You or your student can create social stories,
Model Me Going Places: This visual teaching tool can help your child navigate challenging locations with appropriate behavior.
Go Go Games is a set of iPad games designed to help children that have Autism Spectrum Disorders practice recognizing the features and patterns of objects. While these games were designed for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders any young child would enjoy them.
Tilly's Petting Farm$1.99 - This app offers an interactive approach for students from ages four to seven years who need to learn basic vocabulary and sentences to increase memorization and understandings. In one part you can hear all sorts of fun phrases and sounds when you touch a picture. It also moves the image or something pops out. The other part consists of questions that can be answered by touching the appropriate picture. If the child answered a question incorrectly three times, a hint is shown. After five wrong answers a new question will automatically be asked.
Talkulator: Talkulator can help students with visual problems count and do arithmetic.
Audiobooks This app lets you listen to 4,382 classic audiobooks including professionally narrated modern best sellers and hand-selected classcis edited for maximum quality.
Google Play Google Play is where you can now find the Android apps, Google Music, Google Books, and Google Play Movies. If you have an Android tablet or Android phone the Android Market app will be automatically updating (provided you have background data enabled) to provide access to the new Google Play store.
Google Apps for the iPad is a small site built by Google Certified Teacher Jill Galloway. The site addresses a lot of common questions about using Google Apps on iPads. Additionally, you will find some helpful tips for first time users of Google Apps on iPads.
Side by Side An iPad app that splits the viewing a browsers viewing screen. A user can control how big/small a screen is by sliding a cursor around. This is very handy when wanting to look at two different sites on the web at once. Also, there is Dropbox support as well, so a user can browse the web in window and a file in the other.
Audio Memos is an iOS app for creating and sharing audio messages. The app is available in three versions. The free version is limited to 3MB recordings, the $0.99 version is limited to 15MB recordings, and the "pro" $9.99 version has a nice selection of audio editing tools built-in.
Autism Apps Free. for the iPhone or iPad. Autism Apps is a comprehensive list of apps that are being used with and by people diagnosed with Autism, Down syndrome and other special needs. The app are broken down into paid, free, iPad, iPhone, price and rating.
AppInventor Teachers and students make their own Android apps with this useful tool from Google Labs. The site comes with some good tutorials and guides with example projects.video intro
Conduit Mobile- I innovative site for creating apps. This is ideal for bloggers, web designers, or schools in a one-to-one environment who are looking to create a great-looking mobile app for free or share news/homework in a mobile environment. A very easy site to use that takes you step by step how to get that done and you can have an app ready to use in 5 to 10 minutes
TinyTap is a free iPad app that allows kids to make educational games. This is done by uploading photos and then recording your audio and placing them into existing games. Also, a user can create their own Q/A, add a soundtrack, and track their child's score. " Infinite Monkeys drag-and-drop platform allows anyone to simply create their own mobile social network, for FREE.
Red Foundry Mobile App Platform is a suite of free online tools which should enable anyone with a good idea to build an iOS app -- a system which also includes tools to help make it profitable. (You do pay a fee when you submit an App to Apple, after which it should cost about the same as hosting a website).
Appmakr The free website allows you to build an iOS app from start to finish, and will even help you submit your creation to the App Store. Easy to use with a minimal amount of programming background needed.
My Talk Tools Enables users to connect through pictures There is a lite free version to get started _ Apps.Search.Yahoo.comSearch for Android and iOS apps. You can filter results ccording to OS, price, and category.
SmarTotsis a website that hosts reviews of iPad & iPhone apps for young students.
Soundnote app ipad It tracks what you type and draw while recording audio, so you'll never worry about missing an important detail. While playing back your recording, just tap a word; SoundNote will jump right to that point in the audio. Bitsboard uses beautiful photos, has 1,000 lessons and gives the ability to create your own new boards. There are Flashcards that have a word and picture. Students can play mini-games by touching the correct photo or matching up images to the correct word. Word and sentence builder have the child drag and drop letters or words into the correct sequence. It’s easy to create new boards that can be tailored to their curriculum. Grasshopper Apps offers numerous free and inexpensive early learning apps that offer flexibility and customization that is so important for our students.
Kindergarten.com has nineteen excellent ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) flashcard apps that are worth exploring too.
iPad for All is designed to share resources with educators, occupational, physical and speech therapists, special needs students, and persons with disabilities iPad for All shares apps, user tips, accessibility features, accessories, and helpful resources.
KinderTown is a service for iPads app designed to find the best educational apps for pre-K children. KinderTown reviews apps and categorizes them according to content area (Social Studies, Math, Language, Art, and Science). To find an app appropriate for your child select the device your child is using, select your child's age, and select a content area. After making those selections KinderTown will generate a list of appropriate apps.
Educreationsis a new iPad app that turns your iPad into a whiteboard. You can use the app to illustrate concepts and narrate what you're doing on the screen. You can draw images from scratch on the Educreations iPad app or you can upload images and draw on them. Your completed lesson can be shared directly to others or made public on the Educreations website. Similar to Show Me and Screen Chomp iPad apps. All three of these free iPad apps could be used to deliver short lessons to students. You could also use these free iPad apps to have students develop and share short lessons with each other and you.
iStoryBooksis a free iPad, iPhone, and Android app that offers two dozen free digital storybooks for kids ages two through eight. Most of the stories in the app are adaptations of classic children's tales like The Ugly Duckling. The app gives you the option to read each story or to read along with each story while listening to the narrator.You can find the iOS version of iStorybooks here. Get the app from the Android Market. And now you can get iStoryBooks on Kindle Fire
APPitic- A terrific site for finding educational apps. There are over 1300 apps reviewed by Apple Distinguished Educators.
Mind Leap- A great site for finding and reviewing educational apps on a five-star system for grades PreK - MS.
Apps 4 Kidsis a free app that helps you and your children find new apps to use on your Android phone or Android tablet.
Dragon Go! - FREE This is a new app that allows you to speak what you're searching for on the web - so Google, Wikipedia, Youtube are defaults. You can also search for maps (using the location function), Twitter, and more.
Dragon Dictate - FREE Handy for taking down memos and short notes, it still can make errors with background noise or mumbled words - but all-in-all pretty good! If Dragon Dictate is too inaccurate for your speech, you can add in a Voice Memos app which will just record your note as audio.
Mobile Learning Reflections A free ebook that anyone interested in using mobile devices as instructional tools should read. is eighty pages of detailed examples of leveraging mobile devices to create meaningful learning experiences for students.
Note-Taking Apps - Soundnote ($4.99) and PaperDesk ($2.99) Soundnote basically turns your iPad into a Livescribe pen. It's great for notetaking because the audio is time-locked to your typing and drawing. If you want to use your iPad as a laptop, you might want to buy a keyboard and stylus, unless you prefer to write with your finger. PaperDesk has more options than Soundnote - like inserting photos, importing pdfs, organizing pages into notebooks, option to export to a whiteboard, but its interface can be more complicated. Our son tried both and ended up preferring PaperDesk.
Flipboard Magazine Social Media - FREE We really like Flipboard's social media-magazine app which takes RSS feeds, news sites, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and converts them into a visually attractive and easier-to-read magazine format. Because reading lines are shorter and text is support well with visuals, we found it much easier to skim and read. VoiceOver does work with Flipboard artilces.
Apps and Extras for iPad Accessibility Following is a list of apps and accessories that will enhance the iPad experience, including styli, iPad covers and other features that make the iPad the best tool for both students and adults.
Accessories Toughest iPad- Biggrips- available for the iPad 1 and 2. The Big Grips Frame helps keep the iPad from slipping out. It is made out of foam, which protects against accidental drops. Best of all, the Big Grips is non-toxic, lead and latex free, PVC free, resistant to oils and chemicals, durable and lightweight. It also has a stand that can be purchased separately. The case is $39.95. Purchasing the case and stand together is $49.95.
Bupcap- Does your child keep hitting the home button when working on an app? Bupcap will prevent this with 3 different types of caps from regular to maximum protection. These covers fit over the home button. The company recommends: starting with the Explorer 6-Pack, which includes two BubCap (regular), two BubCap Ultra, and two BubCap Max home button covers. The cost ranges from $5.00 to $6.99.
Keyguard- Bumpers to prevent the student from accidental activation of a key. This is especially great for apps such as Proloquo2go. The guard is $19.95.
Mouthstick Stylus $40.00 Stylus a solution for quadriplegics, people with ALS, MS or other disabilities where they cannot use their hands. It has a default stick size, which can be altered when ordering. It has two working solutions: A fully conductive mouthstick with a Stylus Sock on the tip or a separate Stylus Sock that you can wrap around your own mouthstick plus a slice of the same conductive fabric that connects the sock to the iPad body.
iPad Steady Stylus $40.00 This T-shaped stylus has a wooden handle with a grip made from transparent rubber wrapped around a wooden stick. The pointer is made from aluminum with a conductive fabric sock plug as the tip. Especially good for people with limited strength in their hands.
Stylus R Us has a wide variety of telescoping styli ranging in price. The average price is around $40.00.
SoundAMP-R $4.99 Using ear buds, hear what you would like to hear. Provides users with clear sound and maximum volume possible. Records lectures, presentations, and interviews. Bookmark the recording to remember important points. Export recordings to your computer.
Voice Brief $2.99 Personal assistant app; allows users to customize for news, the weather, calendar and more.
Big Contacts-large font $.99 BIG Contacts is for anyone who has trouble reading the default text in the iPhone's contacts app. The bold and condensed Helvetica font is one of the easiest fonts to read.
Sign Language Fun Learning $4.99 Lively and engaging video app includes proper American Sign Language for letters, numbers, animals, family members, transportation modes, nature scenes and salutations.
Web-Reader text to speech $1.99 Uses text-to-speech technology along with web page content recognition to read web pages to users. Configure web pages to be read as soon as they are loaded, read pages manually after they are loaded, or use cut, copy, and paste to read only sections of text.
Intellipad $19.99- Expensive, but worth it! Offers notepad functionality plus word prediction, text-to-speech and a customizable keyboard. Keyboard Editor allows users to merge cells to form larger keys. Enter letters, words or sentences. Select fonts and letter sizes. Choose from an array of colors and color templates that can be applied to the whole keyboard or to select keys. Users can create audio recordings that are played when the key is pressed._
Access Apps60 open source apps that run from a USB drive Tools to support writing, reading, planning, graphics and much more Helpful tutorials available for installing software on the USB drive and for using the applications Click HERE for more information
MITS Freedom Stick"Americanized" version of open source apps that run from a USB drive (similar to Access Apps) Designed to run in any Windows or Linux computer _
Spatial Thinking
Pictorial Pictorial engages learners in a variety of activities involving spatial reasoning including for instance : recognizing the hidden pictures in a sky night full of starts, solving the mystery of the pirate’s map, or discovering the story behind the dance o snowflakes on the arctic blizzard.
Flow Free Connect matching colors with pipe to create a Flow. Pair all colors, and cover the entire board to solve each puzzle. But watch out, pipes will break if they cross or overlap! Free play through hundreds of levels, or race against the clock in Time Trial mode. Gameplay ranges from simple and relaxed, to challenging and frenetic, and everywhere in between. How you play is up to you. So, give Flow Free a try, and experience "mind like water"!’
P.O.V. - Spatial Reasoning Game and Left Right Discrimination a set of 3 activities designed to teach spatial reasoning skills through fun, challenging, interactive activities.1)Intro & Explore- Learn about the game mechanics and 4 different points of view. 2)Vantage Point - See a top view and side view of objects and choose the matching side view. 3)Make a Scene - Move the top view objects to match the side view. Players must think their way through the activities, which get increasingly difficult as each level is mastered. Players are timed and are challenged to continually improve on their best times.