Image from Magical Concepts
Our attention was grabbed recently by a couple of apps designed for children with autism and children with speech difficulties.
The first app, called Magical Concepts, was designed by Virtual Speech Center Inc. for speech-language pathologists. The idea behind it is to help kids master basic concepts like quantity, temporal direction and essential reading concepts. The company says that it does this through the use of photos, audio instructions and a magic show reward for accomplishments. It’s available for iPhone and iPad, and costs $19.99.
Image from SPEAKall!
The SPEAKall! app, which arrived in the iTunes app store in November, comes from Purdue University and was created to help children with special needs learn to construct sentences. According to Purdue, “This app specifically targets children with severe communication disorders who need intervention in the area of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). It can be used within an exchanged-based communication approach.” Essentially, children with autism can choose pictures and symbols and the app will create and speak the sentence out loud. SPEAKall! is free but it’s iPad only.
Have you tried either of these apps? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Download SPEAKall! and Magical Concepts
