Phone Apps for Special Needs

A great set of iPhone and iPad apps for "special needs" but, where are they for Windows, Blackberry and Palm phone users?  Until we find a hero, let us know if you use them and how you rate them!

• iPrompts: The original picture-based prompting app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad! Thousands of caregivers use iPrompts to provide visual support for those with language and behavioral challenges, including autism and ADD/ADHD. Acclaimed in news stories around the world, iPrompts also works great with typical kids! iPrompts is hundreds of dollars less expensive than DynaVox Mayer-Johnson’s Boardmaker® v.6. And, 10% of all iPrompts sales benefit Autism Speaks™, the nation's largest autism science and advocacy organization.

• 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.

• iCommunicate : Create pictures, flashcards, storyboards, routines, and visual schedules. Record custom audio in any language. Includes 100+ pictures (first 5 have audio) to get you started. Add pictures with your camera, or from your camera roll, or use Google image search. Utilize as audio visual prompting tool or AAC device.

• iConverse: An iPhone and iPod touch application that functions much like a picture exchange communication system (PECS) designed specifically for autistic individuals, and individuals with other communicative disabilities.

• AutismExpress: People with autism have trouble interpreting emotions and understanding what different facial expressions may represent.

• stories2learn: It is perfect app to create personalized social stories using photos, text, and audio messages for autistic kids having communication difficulties who need support with excursions, routings, or transitions. In order to create stories just arrange the pictures in a sentence.

• TapToTalk: It makes communication fun, like another “game” on this cool device. Just tap a picture and TapToTalk speaks. Each picture can lead to another screen of pictures. TapToTalk allows you to create your own AAC albums to meet the specific needs of autistic child. Currently, TapToTalk includes a library of over 2,000 pictures. You can add your own pictures, photos and sounds. Albums created in TapToTalk Designer are “synced” over the Internet directly to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. TapToTalk app is available for free.

• ArtikPix : ArtikPix has flashcard and matching activities to address articulation difficulties. The activities include features such as recorded audio, voice recording, and data collection to help children with speech sound delays. Children use ArtikPix to practice sounds independently, with a speech-language pathologist or their parents.

• Grace App : A simple picture exchange system developed By and For non-verbal people allowing the user to communicate their needs by building sentences from relevant images. It can be customized by the individual using their picture and photo vocabulary with the user taking and saving pictures independently to the app.

• iEarnedThat : iEarnedThat is an amazingly simple motivational tool to help children develop desirable behaviors by working towards tangible goals. Turn any picture of a desired reward into a 3D interactive jigsaw puzzle of up to 60 pieces! Set the goal and have your child EARN their reward one puzzle piece at a time! iEarnedThat works because it keeps children interested in accomplishing things through providing instant and ongoing positive reinforcement.

• Behavior Tracker Pro : An iPhone/iPod Touch application that allows BCBAs, behavioral therapists, aides, teachers or parents to track behaviors and graph them. The application was specifically designed to support the behavioral treatment plans for children with Autism.Available for Blackberry and Android also.

• First-Then Visual Schedule : First-Then visual schedule application is designed for caregivers to provide positive behavior support for those with communication needs. This application provides an affordable and convenient audio-visual prompting tool for use on the iPhone or iTouch. The portability of the iPhone and iTouch and ease of use of the application make it perfect for use at school, home or in the community. Visual schedules provide positive behavior support through the use of images that show daily events or steps needed to complete a specific activity. For individuals with communication needs, developmental delays, spectrum disorders or those who benefit from a structured environment; visual schedules serve to increase independence and lower anxiety during transitions through different activities. Visual schedules help set a child up to be successful with clear expectations by promoting understanding of upcoming events.

• iMean: One of the first apps developed for Apple's new iPad is a tool to help autistic people communicate. Called iMean, it turns the entire iPad screen into a large-button keyboard, with text display and word prediction. It allows people who are speech-challenged to communicate their needs and ideas directly, distinctly and independently.

• iComm : The iComm (short for I Communicate) is an app providing an affordable, custom built and easy to use communication system using pictures and words - both written and spoken. It is ideal for children under three until they are able to express their needs through well formed speech. The iComm is also very useful for children with a broad range of disabilities who have trouble communicating such as cerebral palsy or autism.

• QuickCues : QuickCues is a social script app that helps teens and young adults on the autism spectrum to handle new situations and learn new skills. Social scripts have been used successfully for years, but QuickCues makes these tools mobile and easy to use in everyday situations.

• In My Dreams : Have fun with reading, matching, and sign language. "In My Dreams" uses animation and repetition to promote literacy. Each page has the same sentence structure and reinforces understanding of nouns, verbs and prepositions. "In My Dreams" is an instructional app designed with illustrations that provide language cues. Personalize the app for your child, student or client by adding their photo!

• Proloquo2Go : Provides a full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking. It brings natural sounding text-to-speech voices, up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary of over 7000 items, full expandability and extreme ease of use to the iPhone and iPod touch.

• Expressionist : Expressionist is designed to help users to express, and to help users to model expressions. Expressionist stands out not only by using only highest quality pictures, but also avoid secondary reference (such as using "snail" or "turtle" to represent "slow"). Most importantly, Expressionist does not require learning by using picture encoding (which is a serious flaw in most picture-centric system). The facial and gesture of the cartoon character is carefully designed such that any visual learner (such as those in the autistic spectrum / autism) would have no issue understand nor modeling it. In fact, none of our picture requires learning any symbol/encoding system.

• HaloTalk : HaloTalk is a simple yet powerful augmentative learning software. The application comes with over 50 pairs of responses commonly used daily. Each pre-defined response/adjective is natural voice enabled, with visual cue to help the user to pick an item.

• MyTalk : Enables people with communication difficulties to express their needs and desires to those around them. Your purchase provides access to both MyTalk Mobile and MyTalk Workspace. Together, they represent a major breakthrough in augmentative, alternative communications (AAC) by making it easy to customize how you communicate through a variety of images, pictures, symbols and audio files including human voice. In 5 minutes, you can create your very own content and communicate in a way that YOU choose. You also won't have to worry about losing or breaking your device as all information is backed up on MyTalk Workspace. MyTalk offers ease of use and time-savings in a portable, effective, and cool communication tool. MyTalk helps people communicate in a whole new way.