13 Of The Best Special Needs Apps [Updated]

13 Of The Best Special Needs Apps [Updated For 2020]

by TeachThought Staff

1. See. Touch.Learn. Pro by Brain Parade is one app that can have many purposes, including creating your own lessons. The most important asset to this app is built-in flashcards with interactive features that can be customized by a speech therapist, teacher or parent. Having all the libraries available and the ability to add your own custom cards makes it a very powerful learning tool.

2. Pictello by Assistiveware offers a fun way to create and share talking photo albums and stories and is used by many teachers, students, families and children. It offers a fun way to create social stories and is used by many teachers, students, families and children.

3. Dragon Diction by Nuance Communication is a fabulous speech to text application.  To use it, students speak into the microphone and their speech is converted to text.  The accuracy is impressive, even with difficult words or background noise.  Students can use Dragon Dictation to compose notes, email messages, tell a story, or have an oral book report recorded.

4. The Social Express, by The Language Express, Inc, uses engaging scenarios to teach users, with high functioning Aspergers or other similar conditions, how to think about and manage social situations so that they are better prepared to develop meaningful social relationships and succeed in life.

5. My First AAC by Injini is is an inexpensive augmentative/alternative communication application for the iPad that is designed specifically for the younger set who have delayed speech or severe speech disorders. Intuitive and child-friendly, this app helps young children to communicate with others.

6. Conversation Builder Teen by Mobile Education Store; a teen version of the popular and award winning Conversation Builder app, older students learn when it is appropriate to introduce themselves, ask questions, make observations and change the subject of the conversation. They will also be exposed to sarcasm and how to respond when someone is bullying them or someone around them.

7. Phonics Genius by Alligator Apps is loaded with content. One of the best ways to rapidly learn how to speak, read, and recognize words is through phonic awareness. This app is specifically designed to help students recognize and distinguish words by sounds, it is one of the most comprehensive phonics apps available.

8. SoundLiteracy by 3D Literacy, LLC is the first iPad app that brings your letter tiles in to the 21st Century. It is being used in 15 countries across the globe and growing quickly! The app is incredibly useful, employing the Orton-Gillingham method to help students recognize the spellings of English phonemes.

9. Letter School, by Boreaal teaches letter formation in a rich aesthetically pleasing environment, it offers many ways for your child to practice letters, including upper and lower case letters, as well as numbers. Letter School forces the child to have the correct length and formation of the letters and works on the extinction of lazy letters, while making writing fun. The children are able to make the letters while being entertained, but not frustrated.

10. Social Quest by Smarty Ears will  have speech therapists, teachers, and parents engaging students in clever castle adventures while working on speech and language as well as social skills. This app is designed for older elementary, middle school, and high school-aged populations.  Actual photographs make the experience more real and reinforce concepts. Students will love their picture being in the House of Heroes.

11. P.O.V. – Spatial Reasoning Skills Development by Binary Labs helps develop spatial reasoning skills in kids and adults, spatial reasoning skills are the foundation of many important developmental and cognitive skills. P.O.V. is a set of 3 activities designed to teach spatial reasoning skills through fun, challenging, interactive activities. Players must think their way through the activities, which get increasingly difficult as each level is mastered. This app is designed for all learners age 8-18. Advanced 6-7 year olds may also benefit from using the app, as well as adults who are “directionally challenged.”

12. Speech With Milo by Doonan Speech Therapy is a series of nine speech apps to build language skills. They make their apps as interactive as possible, and they are designed for the child to be actively working with a parent or therapist. They also incorporate animation as much as possible so Milo demonstrates the word or skill that the child is working on, but does not detract from the focus of the skill.

13. i Get It! by I Get It, LLC are also a series of specialized apps, they offer two series of educational apps, the Identification Series and i-Seequence Series. These apps are designed to facilitate cognitive growth through building language skills.  The i Get It! apps are appropriate for typically developing children as well as children with special needs such as language impairments, autism, ADHD, and auditory processing disorders.