Conversation Builder is a must-have application for every speech language pathologist (SLP) working with students on the Autism Spectrum. This app prompts students through each stage of an interactive conversation and records their spoken responses. At the end of each session, Conversation Builder plays back the entire conversation at a natural pace so that students can hear themselves successfully exchanging comments with their virtual peers.
Little Writer PRO is an en excellent pre-handwriting tool. This app teaches proper formation techniques for upper and lower case letters and numbers and shapes. It also provides exercises for users to trace individual letters to create simple words and offers corresponding sounds with the letters. Little Writer provides a starting point in the form of a picture and prompts the user to trace the letter, number, etc. following a pattern of other pictures. If the formation is incorrect or does not stay within guidelines, it will prompt the user to start over. When tracing is completed correctly, the app will provide positive verbal reinforcement. Little Writer is completely customizable and allows the user to select the order (random or sequential) or change the formation pattern of letters and numbers, and choose the difficulty level. This app serves as a great tool for motivation and keeps students engaged with its fun pictures and backgrounds. The music and sounds alone are a lot of fun!
As one of the first Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) applications made for Apple mobile devices, Proloquo2Go has been around long enough to work out bugs and develop a strong user base. It provides an easy to use “voice” for individuals who cannot otherwise speak. One very important feature of Proloquo2Go is its ability to work on iPod, iPad, and iPhone platforms. For users with fine motor or visual disabilities, the large screen of the iPad may be the best interface. For other users, the portability of an iPod Touch or iPhone can support independence in the real world. At $189 for a single user license, Proloquo2Go is one of the most expensive apps used in the field of special education. It is important to have a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) evaluate students to determine the suitability of this application versus many of the competing products.
Anyone who appreciates a good narrative or who would just like to assist their child in describing their experiences or making up a story will appreciate The Super Duper Story Maker Application. When creating a story with this app you can choose from over 800 images that are in various categories, such as people, places, animals, transportation and time. You can add personal photos from your camera roll to your story. Budding artists can add their own drawings. Now let’s add some dialogue or description either through writing, typing or recording. The app then turns your pages just like a book as you listen to and view your creation. I can have students work on vocabulary, sentence making, grammar, story elements and problem-solving while using this app and at the end I have something I can print or share by e-mail. 
The Clicker Docs application is an assistive word processor that can support students with a variety of disabilities. It uses word prediction technology to support students with correctly spelled and grammatically correct suggestions. Synthesized speech allows students to review their work by listening for auditory cues. Word banks can be set up to provide students with advanced vocabulary to support their writing. Finally, Clicker Docs integrates with DropBox to provide secure cloud storage and document sharing. During Autism Awareness Month, all Kindergarten.com apps are available FREE of charge!
ABA Receptive Identification by Kindergarten.com is an excellent tool for teaching young children to identify objects by looking at their picture. The app follows proven principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and errorless teaching techniques in a manner that is both clear and easy to use with young children. According to the developers, the Receptive Identification App contains about 300 pictures. The pictures are high quality photos that with white backgrounds and no distractions.
Data collection is an important part of any true ABA program. Kindergarten.com’s receptive identification app collects data during each session including a detailed summary of the correct and incorrect answers. The app provides a simple export mechanism to email the data to teachers or caregivers. My only complaint (if I had to make a complaint) is the fact that data collection does not support multiple students.
ABA Receptive Identification is marketed by Kindergarten.com and is available in the iTunes app store FREE (along with all other Kindergarten.com apps) during Autism Awareness Month.
A great app for picture sequencing. It uses real photos but you have the ability to take your own photos (directly using the app, from your iPad’s camera or your existing camera roll). There are 15 built in sequences with 3-5 pictures. By tapping on each photo, a text is read to you. You do have the ability in settings to turn the text on/off, turn the audio on/off or turn the numbers on/off for the pictures. You can “shuffle” the cards as many times as you like and when correct, the child receives a “great job” or a cheer. If incorrect, the child is told “try again.”
Language Builder is a highly effective app designed to help students increase their expressive language skills; but it can be used for much more! The app houses pictured scenes that users are asked to create sentences about. This isn’t a written language task; the user formulates the sentence in their mind and then says it aloud while recording it. This voice record feature is highly motivating for our students! They love hearing themselves say the sentences that they have formulated about the pictures and enjoy playing with their voices in their recordings! The pictured scenes are appropriate for users of all ages and serve as a great teaching tool for a variety of skills. WH-Questions can be asked about the pictures, complex stories can be created by linking the pictures together to tackle creative writing skills. One of my favorite ways to use this app is as a self-monitoring tool for speech production targets (e.g., articulation, fluency and voice). Students can listen to their recordings and judge if they used their best /s/ sound, or if they used their best ‘smooth speech’. 
One app that I use almost daily in my World History classes is HISTORY TODAY. This app gives my students access to different events, births, deaths, and holidays that occur on any specific date throughout history. This app allows the students to find events that happened in both recent times and in the past. tudents can then pair events with content that they are currently studying. In addition, this app enables students to learn birthdays of their favorite actors
Discrete Trial Training (DTT) Letters is a great app to utilize while teaching receptive letter identification. DTT is the primary teaching method used in Applied Behavior Analysis to teach multiple skills to children with autism, so this is a great tool to support teaching. This app is customizable with the ability to choose correct and incorrect letter cards the child is learning, allowing the target letters to be randomized. Upper or lower case letters can be chosen, as well as a variety of fonts and styles. DTT Letters also allows the instructor to change the number of stimuli in a field and it offers pictures of the American Sign Language letters. One of the most helpful things about this app is that it has the ability to track and record student progress. This log provides individual student records broken down by date, shows the letters that were presented for each trial, and the number of cards in a field. The DTT Letters app is a great way to keep students motivated and engaged while learning their letters!
