- Proloquo2go: This application, referred to as an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app, allows children who have difficulty communicating to create sentences using pictures, words, and their own voice. A bit pricey ($189), but it is well worth the cost for enabled communication.
- ABA Flash Cards: This helpful app quizzes children with autism on different facial and social cues to help them recognize emotion in others. Best part? It’s free.
- GraceApp: This is a life-saver for people with autism who are non-verbal. This is a basic AAC app; users communicate by choosing pictures for words. $24.99
- TaptoTalk: This is a free AAC app that also features choosing pictures to form sentences and make requests.
- Autim Tracker Pro: This ten-dollar app lets you, the caretaker, stay organized about your child’s behavior, habits, and development. You can also create, organize, and share calendars.
- iCommunicate: This is an awesome app that lets your child create sentences using photos of themselves and others they know and connect them to universal symbols of needs and places, like bathroom or bus. $49
- First Then Visual Schedule: This is a great visual manipulative device for the child who feels more comfortable with a routine. You can program you child’s day with activities and events that he or she can check off after completing. Additionally, the events come with timers, so your child can feel comfortable knowing the beginnings and ends of daily events. $9.99
- iCan Toilet Training Program: This affordable ($3.99) app teaches autistic kids the benefits of using the bathroom and rewards them with fun games. It also includes timers and reminders to use the bathroom.
- Caught Being Good: This is one awesome 99c app. Reinforce good behavior by “catching” your child being good and then allowing them to spin the wheel for a reward. This will thrill your child when he or she is using good behavior and will remind you to make sure you look for the good and the bad.
- Count to 100! – This is a fun, basic math game you can play with your child. In addition to counting up, you can teach your child to skip count up to 100 by different numbers. And, at $2, this won’t break the bank.
- Communicating Basic Needs – For children who are less communicative, this allows them to use universal symbols and pictures to get their message across fast. It’s $39.99 for the full app, which includes full use of the web-interface, where parents can upload and record customized messages and pictures.
- Dr. Suess’s ABC: Help your child learn and appreciate the ABC’s with this fun, creative, and classic app. Each letter comes with entertaining pictures and is read aloud when tapped! $3.99
- Expressions: Teach your child to better recognize common emotions in others with Expressions, $1.99. Using a fun game, children can match the faces to the emotions they’re expressing. You can up the challenge by timing the rounds. Each correct answer gets a reward from the game.
- Fun Timer: This app will help you teach your child an understanding of timing and encourage him or her to finish tasks. A place or reward activity is pictured on the phone or iPad as well as a timer that counts down. When your child wastes time doing chores, homework, or a required task, you can make the timer count down. Your child can see how getting his or her work completed will lead to more time doing the reward activity.
- Felt Board: Just like the traditional toy of the same name, the felt board is an iPad app that lets children design and dress people, pick scenery and animals, an encourages creativity. This iPad app is low-cost, $2.99, and includes letters and numbers.
- iDress for Weather: This $1.99 app is an interactive game that teaches the functional skill of choosing appropriate clothing for the weather.
- Type-A-Word: This app teaches beginning typing skills that can be used with the iPad keyboard or an attached keyboard. It’s a great functional skills and educational app and rewards children for picking the right letters. $2.99
- Alpha Writer: This is a $4.99 Montessori designed application that teaches spelling and word recognition.
- Behavior Tracker Pro: This $29.99 app is a great help for parents, teachers, or therapists that want to quantitatively assess behavior patterns in children with autism. This will allow you to notate, date, and even graph behavior events of a child and assess what behavior modifications and interventions are necessary.
- Draw Free for iPad: Encourage your children to express themselves creatively with this free app that works like a sketchpad. They can draw on photos and share their work over social media.
“How can you help a child with autism” and “Best software programs, iPad apps for children with autism”
“20 best social games for children with autism, aspergers, ADHD“