10 Best Educational Apps for Children with Autism

If you are looking for some good educational apps that will help your child acquire and build up new skills while occupying their attention at the same time, take a look at this list of 10 best educational apps for children with autism. You can always hear grandparents and older people how technology has changed the society often for the worst. Main arguments are that people constantly stare at their mobile phones, tablets and that they do not communicate as much as they would if they were not constantly preoccupied with technology. While there is some truth in this statement, when it comes to autistic children, technology can be a blessing in disguise.

Traditional methods of teaching often do not have any impact on autistic children which is why they usually attend programs that include Applied Behavioral Analysis. If you are interested which states cover insurance costs for ABA and what are the best places to live in for autism services, take a look at our list of the Best Cities and States to Live in for Autism Services. Besides these specially designed programs, mobile applications are a great tool for teaching. They can catch child’s attention and when the child is focused it is much easier to teach them. While a lot of kids seek constant interaction with other people and try to imitate speech, this is not the case with autistic children. They are often withdrawn and have problems in verbal communication. Tablets, computers and smartphones actually help autistic children to communicate and build up their language skills. Vocabulary building apps help them learn new words and express themselves (often through images) and stay in their comfort zone at the same time. Interaction with other people can make a lot of autistic children very nervous and uncomfortable while with educational apps, they are the ones who are in control. Predictability of educational apps and feedback (applause or verbal praise for correct answers) is also comforting.

Matt Dierickse, an educational assistant for the Niagara District School Board, explains that they often use apps that help autistic children recognize various facial expressions, body language, etc. If you look up educational applications for autistic children you will come across a plethora of applications. How to choose the right one for your child? First of all it is important to have a goal that will help you to find the most suitable app. For example, if you want your child to work on his/her communication skills you should search for educational apps that build up those skills. Many children with autism need additional skills when it comes to social skills and recognizing emotions. In that case, it is best to search apps that help a child (through series of images)  identify emotions. Once the child learns how to use the app you can also try and act those emotions yourself and ask the child to connect them with the emotions in the app. In this way emotional intelligence is improving and you create social interactions as well. It is also good to contact professionals who are working with your child to check if the app you chose is suitable for your child.

It is pretty hard to single out best apps for children with autism since there are a lot of applications designed especially for them. I’ve consulted several sources: LifeWire, ESchool News, Parenting, Teacher Cast, LaptopMag, Common Sense, Deal with Autism and of course Autism Speaks.  All of these sites recommend various applications and I chose those that are more frequently mentioned on these and some other websites. Applications on this list of best educational apps for children with autism will be ranked according to price, from highest to lowest (or free). Let’s take a look:

10. Proloquo2Go

Price: $249.99

Proloquo2Go is augmentative and alternative communication solution (AAC) app that teaches children how to construct sentences by using pictures and symbols. This app is used to improve language development and communication skills and it is appropriate for all ages. It contains five vocabulary sets targeting different age groups and has text to speech conversions supporting both, American and British pronunciation.

9. AutisMate

Price: $149.99 but you can try it online for free

This app that ranked 9th on our list of best educational apps for children with autism combines several applications into one. Unlike other AAC apps which use pictures and symbols to articulate thoughts, AutisMate also allows the creation of real-life scenes such as brushing teeth, washing hands and many more. Since it is a little bit complex, this app will (at first) require help from adults. Once the parent creates the “hotspot” for example, water facet, once it is pressed the “hotspot” will show a menu with phrases associated with that object as well as pictures and videos. Users can also create visual schedules which are comprised of pictures representing everyday tasks in chronological order.

8. Aacorn

Price:$149.99

Aacorn, next on the list of best educational apps for children with autism is the first augmentative assistive communication solution (AAC) app. It creates “word trees” consisting of a circle of words which interconnect as sentences are constructed. It is a great way to help children to communicate faster and more effectively.  Aacorn also uses word predictions where logical options are presented to help complete the sentence and the app then remembers these words. This app is widely recognized by language professionals, parents of autistic children and schools. You can read some of the parents’ reviews on Aacorn’s official website.

7. The Social Express II

Price: Free but it uses many In-App purchases where price for one month is $14.99 and for one year the price is $69.99

This app, next on the list of best educational apps for children with autism helps children with autism to learn social skills, the importance of eye contact, and how to deal with stressful situations as well. It helps them to become more socially competent by showing them how to start conversations, be part of a group, read non-verbal social cues, stay focused on the topic while having a conversation, etc. In brief, this app contains everything that one needs to know about social interactions with other people. It received many positive reviews and some parents reported their children (with severe social skills problems) starting to talk with other kids using the knowledge they acquired from this app.

6. SPEAKall

Price: SPEAKmore: Free

SPEAKall: $39.99

SPEAKall Premium Plus $149.99

This app received top-honors at the 2014 International GAIN-TEN Business Pitch Challenge. SPEAKall is an app for ACC intervention designed for non-verbal individuals with autism. It can teach communication skills by storyboarding strip where the child adds pictures in order to create sentences. SPEAKall minimizes sensory difficulties and it can be used with children, adolescents and adults as well. If you are interested in finding out more about the research and benefits of this app, please read a study on this topic published by the University of Florida. There are three versions of this app and the first one is completely free. You can always try the free version and see if it is worth upgrading.

5. Pictello

Price: $19.99

We are continuing our list of best educational apps for children with autism with the Pictello that is a talking visual story creator which can be a powerful educational tool for children with autism. Parents or teachers can create a unique story focusing on specific concepts such as the importance of eye contact, expressing emotions, etc. These stories are like talking photo albums used to prepare children for various social engagements or events that they might attend. Combining visual and audio stimuli can help them to learn how to pronounce words and improve their communication skills.

4. First-Then Visual Schedule

Price: $9.99

This app, the next on the list of best educational apps for children with autism offerd an audio-visual representation of a routine or some activity. Designed for persons with autism spectrum disorder and those with communication delays, First-Then Visual Schedule app serves to reduce anxiety caused by actions which require a transition. Schedules are very important for autistic children since they have a strong need to feel the sense of structure and order. With this app, you can create as many schedules as you want and personalize them by adding your own pictures and voice. Essentially, this app helps an autistic child to understand what is currently happening and what will happen later on, making them comfortable with transitioning from one activity to another. The app received many positive customer reviews and it comes at an affordable price.

3. Kid in Story Book Maker

Price: $6.99

We are continuing our list of best educational apps for children with autism with this app that places your child as the main character of the story which you create. It helps an autistic child to see himself/herself encountering certain situations such as going for a haircut or visiting a dentist. Stories can be created to help the child prepare for some future event or even as a cute little memoir of past events. You can fully personalize the story and add your own voice narration as well.

2. Learn with Rufus

Price: Learn with Rufus: Feelings and Emotions: $4.99

Learn with Rufus: Numbers and Counting: $0.99

Learn with Rufus: Fun and Games: Free

Learn with Rufus is actually series of apps dealing with various segments that are very useful for autistic children. It was designed by Dr. Holly Gastgeb, licensed clinical and developmental psychologist. Learn with Rufus: Feelings and Emotions helps children to learn to recognize facial expressions that correspond to basic human emotions. Learn with Rufus: Numbers and Counting improves mathematical skills and children can learn number sequences forwards and backwards as well as comparing quantities of various objects. Learn with Rufus: Fun and Games is the perfect app if you want your child to have a break from studying. This version uses “toys” from other versions and combines them to create a perfect (free) package for fun.

1. ABA Flash Cards

Price: Free

This app is designed to help children develop language skills by using flashcards with images. Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is recommended therapy for children with autism and this app, designed according to ABA standards, can help your child acquire new skills and have fun at the same time. Since autistic children often have problems identifying emotions (and responding to them accordingly), this app helps them to recognize emotions with colorful flashcards.  This collection includes 50 colorful images of 10 basic emotions. Text and audio are added to flashcards as well as classical music playing in the background. ABA Flash Cards app thus benefits both, audio and visual learners. We hope that this list of the best educational apps for children with autism will help you find something for your child. These apps show that fun and learning can go hand in hand and that technology, in the case of autistic children, can help in improving communication and social skills.