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Display Accommodations

Speech (Speak Selection ON, Highlight Content ON)

Larger Text

Touch Accommodations?

Guided Access

Dictation: Microphone

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Simple, yet powerful app

Dictation (Speech to Text)

Tap & Hold on sentence, select Speak Sentence.

Speak punctuation

Encourage students to hear it back & correct.

Reduce distractions with Full Screen Mode

Scan Documents, Add Picture/Video or Sketch

Scan allows you to crop

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Auto settings: Pro or Con?

Predictive Text

Enable Dictation

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Similar features to Notes App but more robust
Best Features:

Dictation & Text to Speech embedded with documents.

Easily Annotate docs

Email worksheet to students

Copy to Notability

Students have many response options

Auto Backup of Notes, more options for organization

Set Text to Speech Speed in Settings

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ePub format
Speak, Look Up, Highlight, Note, Search, Spell Tools

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Intuitive Tools

Combine Images, Video, Recorded Audio easily

Dictation & Text to Speech

Collaborate with Others Tool (Need Apple ID 5th-8th)

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Teach students to speak punctuation/Capitalization & Read it back

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Noteability

Settings (Gear or Wrench)

Educreations- Paper options

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iBooks (ePub format better than PDF)

Learning Ally

Sora App (login is student ID for username & password)

Explore, preferences, Audio

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Students record repeated readings

Students listen to their readings & submit their best!

Voice Memos App

Voice Recorder App

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Removes Ads & puts Safari in full screen

Without Reading View:

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Limit students to one App, lock out parts of screen

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Educreations

Screen Record (Embedded App)

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Eye to Eye Empower

Our Feelings

The Social Express

Breathe for Change

Center for Resilience App

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What can kids learn

Kids can learn to emphasize the good things about who they are and appreciate the things that make them unique. They'll also put together an advocacy plan that can help them communicate what their special learning needs are.

Subjects & Skills

Self-Direction

Emotional Development

What's it about?

EYE TO EYE - EMPOWER DIFFERENT LEARNERS is a collection of resources, information, and interactive "quests" designed to empower kids with learning and attention issues. Quests encourage kids to self-reflect and highlight what's positive about them and what makes them unique. Once a kid completes all of the quests, the information is collected into an advocacy plan that kids can use to help them communicate their needs. A resource list points kids toward third-party apps and websites that support learning.

Is it any good?

These templates can help kids create a potentially powerful learning tool. Kids may find the quests enjoyable and should appreciate expressing themselves and accentuating their positive features. The final plan is simply a single document that puts all the completed quests together and includes some useful tips for parents and teachers. It can be a great way to communicate strengths and needs to those involved in kids' learning. Though the quests are a nice opportunity for self-reflection, kids must follow a strict template, so there isn't much room to customize how they interact with the app. Another disappointing aspect of the app is that the tutorial says that it has dictation and read-aloud abilities, yet those features are really just built in to your device and have nothing to do with the app itself. As an app, Eye to Eye - Empower Different Learners may feel limiting for some kids; however, the information it gives can be useful, and the self-reflection prompts can certainly help kids with learning differences feel empowered and speak up about what they need.

Screenshot

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EYE TO EYE - EMPOWER DIFFERENT LEARNERS is a collection of resources, information, and interactive "quests" designed to empower kids with learning and attention issues. Quests encourage kids to self-reflect and highlight what's positive about them and what makes them unique.

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Create your own webs with Popplet App

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With autistic learners and their teachers, Popplet is proving itself a popular choice. A simple touch, and the visualization of an idea immediately begins... This is particularly useful with students who grow impatient quickly. Photos, videos, drawing and images and sound can be added, enhancing sensory interaction. Links between ideas is enabled simply by touching the screen: an order, a logic that can be followed is formed.
Of course, eductaors know Popplet is much more than a mind mapping app. In the hands of students, unforgettable valuable learning experiences are being be created. From mind mapping, to minds meeting!

Not Just Another Mind Map

Part of what makes Popplet attractive is its simplicity and effectiveness. The colorful graphics, intuitive interface and immediate results encourage people to create and to communicate. The podcasts from Concordia Ed Tech discuss teaching techniques for students with particular learning needs such as students with autism, and we agree with them that Poppet is "not (just) another mind map......it is better!"

Their recent review highlights how "incredibly simple" it is for kids (or anybody!) to start generating ideas when they are using Popplet in a learning environment. Time and energy are channelled to the most fertile learning zone: the space where ideas are created and shared.

"You don't have to tell them how it works - they just get it!"

Simple, creative and fast. Particularly when coupled with the iPad, Popplet is a powerful tool in the field of autism education. There are a wealth of resources available. Here are some of our favorites.

Jordan Sadler on developing Social Cognition

Speech pathologist and mother of two, Jordan Sadler uses Popplet as a tool to teach and develop Social Cognition in her work with children. In this fascinating article, she provides two examples where she was able to use Popplet intuitively to immediately create successful, adaptable activities with different groups.

What can you do when four school age boys just won't agree with each other on what game to play? That's the situation Jordan was faced with in a class recently. So, determined to help them find common ground and reach a consensus Jordan immediately picked up Popplet to create "Friend Files" and produced a powerful visual representation of where the boy's mutual interests lay. Here's what she did:

She began by engaging the students in a focused discussion to discover their individual likes and dislikes

With that information she then uploaded images to Popplet (Angry Birds, Phineas & Ferb etc.) creating a popple for each image.

Next, she created a separate popple for each student, uploaded their picture, added their name and used a separate color from the "likes/dislikes" popples.

She used links to connect each student with the popples which contained their "likes".

She was then able to identify a popple which was connected to all the students.

The visual was then completed by changing the color of the popple and enlarging to highlight it.

The finished Popplet was then printed and shown to the students so they had an understandable visual image of where they agreed (and disagreed!). The students were then able to choose which game to play.

Jordan emailed the Popplet to each student to encourage reflection on the process.

In her next example, a group of preschool girls engaged in a drawing activity began asking questions about how to draw different faces. Connecting facial expressions to emotional states is a critical skill in development. How can you teach a child that when when someone has an angry face, they are angry? Jordan was able to use Popplet along with an iPad mini to help the girls learn to form, recognize and respond to common emotions by helping them identify the corresponding facial expressions.

First, Jordan and her colleague engaged the girls in a discussion about the connection between emotions and facial expressions and demonstrated how they are connected, for example, "an angry face will have an angry mouth".

Then, students had a fun time recording their own facial expressions over a range of emotions using the reverse camera on an iPad, adjusting their facial expressions until they matched the feeling they wanted to portray, then taking a photograph.

Next, each group member showed their photos and had the group identify which emotion was being expressed.

Finally, Jordan created visuals for each student to email to parents so they could practice later.

Choosing Apps for Learners with Autism

Deciding which apps are appropriate for groups and for individuals often requires some experimentation. Indeed, not all apps are conducive to learning. Some speech augmentation apps may actually prevent healthy communication and the overuse of others can result in other unhealthy behaviors sometimes associated with digital technology and social media.

Fortunately, many respectable professional bodies like the Autism Association of Western Australia are aware of this problem and have addressed it. They test and evaluate apps and technology which are aimed at people with autism and those involved in the field of autism education. On their website detailed, informative reviews can be found of apps that they have have tested, assisting parents and educators who decide which apps best meet a child's needs when it comes to education and development.

In this recent review Popplet Lite is featured as an app which can be used to "facilitate organized planning", that is particularly effective in the areas of "Personal and Social Capability" and "Critical and Creative Thinking". Popplet is also "great for" its ease of use and navigation.

Popplet Amongst the List of Amazing Apps

Common Sense Media also published a review of what it calls " 6 Amazing Apps For World Autism Day ", held globally every March. Popplet is one of those amazing apps and is in good company along with Proloquo2Go ("an extrodinary communication aid for kids who need talking assistance), and "Calm Counter" (an ingenious tool that helps kids calm themselves down quickly).

Popplet was described as "especially useful" for those who struggle with conventional forms of learning and organization. The ease with which Popplets can be created and the fun that students have in their creation is given special mention. They also comment on just how useful Popplet can be in the areas of organization and communication with peers when participating in class activities such as homework and group projects.

Karina Barley reviews Popplet

The sheer number of iPad apps and even the abundance of apps developed specifically for use in autism education means that choosing the best apps requires some consideration according to veteran educator and autism consultant, Karina Barley . We obviously agree! In the following informative article Karen lists "the best apps for autism". This useful list is subdivided into visual, sensory and augmentative apps. Popplet earns a well deserved mention in the "Good visual apps" section as a "Platform for ideas".

People with autism, especially children, experience fewer constraints when faced with new technology such as iPads and smartphones. Autistic learners also have different needs than those of conventional students and as such they benefit more from sensory material, especially where it encourages the communication of ideas. It is no surprise therefore that digital technology has fast become a formidable learning tool and is valuable to both students and teachers.

How are you and your students benefiting from using Popplet? Share your experiences with us, and our community on Twitter and on our Facebook page.

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Mind Mapping to Minds Meeting: Popplet in Autism Education

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With autistic learners and their teachers, Popplet is proving itself a popular choice. A simple touch, and the visualization of an idea immediately begins... This is particularly useful with students who grow impatient quickly. Photos, videos, drawing and images and sound can be added, enhancing sensory interaction.

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What are you hoping to learn today?  Think about a student you would like to help & tell us about it.

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What are you hoping to learn today?  Think about a student you would like to help & tell us about it.

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Tools for Students App

Read & Respond App

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We've all seen catchy music paired with a montage of all the awesome things you can do with an iPad. The iPad-and Apple, in general-is all about the wow factor. Not to be outdone, Microsoft has also released a pretty spiffy tablet called Surface, with tons of entertaining marketing to boot. Then there's all the techy Android tablets, like the new Yoga and the Samsung Galaxy Note and Tab, as well as the Kindle Fire.

With these gadgets offering so much functionality, mobility, and quintessential coolness, it's no wonder therapists are bringing iPads and other tablets into their practices. In addition to using these devices for their text-to-speech functionality (for those therapists who prefer to dictate their notes) as well as for documentation and practice management purposes, pediatric OTs can also use tablets to aid in treatment and development. What child doesn't want to play with an iPad?

Here are some of our fave apps for pediatric occupational therapists:

Fine Motor and Spatial Reasoning Apps

1. Dexteria features a set of hand exercises that improve fine motor skills and handwriting.Through the multi-touch interface of the iPad, patients can enhance strength, control, and dexterity with this app.

2. POV features a set of activities that teach spatial reasoning skills. Developed by the makers of Dexteria, this app helps patients develop an understanding of left and right as well as math and mapping skills.

3. Ready to Print (Apple and Amazon Apps) helps teach pre-writing skills to children in order to build a strong foundation for beginning print writers. The app works on visual-motor, visual-perceptual, and fine motor skills.

4. iDoodle Card is a free app that's great for working on basic visual motor and visual perceptual skills. With 54 different drawing activities-including mazes, coloring, and freehand-the app has six primary-colored markers and an eraser. Patients can save their creations, or you can screenshot them for reference outside of the app.

5. iWriteWords is a cute app providing activities that teach children to write. In the process, the app improves fine motor skills and handwriting.

6. Cut the Buttons is exactly what it sounds like: an app for cutting buttons. But it's oh-so-entertaining and very interactive, because it requires users to maneuver virtual scissors-using their thumbs and index fingers-to cut buttons off pieces of fabric to earn points. But watch out for screws, which dull the scissors and reduce points.

7. Cookie Doodle gets kids creative-and makes everyone hungry. In this app, which improves fine motor skills, patients can make, bake, decorate, store, serve, and eat cookies. And don't worry about boredom setting in: according to the app's site, "Cookie Doodle includes twenty four recipes that lets you actually pour the vanilla, crack the eggs, shake the salt, and interact with the other ingredients."

8. Labyrinth (Apple and Android) is exactly like the traditional game. The user manipulates a ball through a wooden maze by tilting the tablet. The free version has 20 levels of increasing difficulty, but for a few bucks, you can get more than 1,000 levels.

9. Fruit Ninja (Apple and Android) is probably already in your smartphone. It's a super-fun and addictive little game, but lo and behold, it works well in pediatric OT, too. Patients use their finger to slice fruit while averting bombs.

How does your salary stack up to the national average? Download your free copy of our updated OT Salary Guide to find out.

Sensory and Cause and Effect Apps

1. Cause and Effect Light Box (Apple and Android) provides children and teenagers with 21 abstract scenes that encourage the exploration of different touches, taps, and gestures. While the developers originally created Light Box for teens with visual impairments, autism, and intellectual disabilities, younger children-with and without special needs-have found great utility in the app. Check out Light Box in action here.

2. Fun Bubbles allows kids to create and pop brilliantly colored bubbles on screen, helping children of all ages improve their fine motor skills while having fun.

3. Fluidity is an on-screen lava lamp that children can manipulate (by changing the colors, viscosity, sparkle, and momentum) simply by moving their fingers around the screen.

4. Pocket Pond 2 (Apple and Android) allows children to listen to the sounds of nature while interacting with fish and frogs on the screen. Using their fingers, the children can scare them, feed them, and watch as they school as well as see the water ripple in response to their touch.

5. Heat Pad provides children with a realistic simulation of various heat-sensitive surfaces that react to the heat of their fingertips, thus improving their understanding of cause and effect.

6. Gloop "sits somewhere in that improbable space between an interactive lava lamp, foam resting on water, and alien clouds lit by the setting sun," says the app's developers. This OT encourages her kids to use their fingers to move the goop on the screen around as well as change the goop color and density.

Self-Help Apps

1. Toothbrush Timer runs for two minutes, teaching children how long to brush their teeth. It provides a visual cue for what part of the mouth to brush and even breaks each quadrant into outside, top, and inside.

2. Put It Away allows parents and teachers to customize a set of tasks to help children learn to maintain a living space-a skill that is essential to building independence. The app displays a list of items that need to be put away next to a scene with the items misplaced (the scene can even be an actual photo). The child can drag each item to where it belongs in the scene, thus checking off that item from the list.

3. DialSafe Pro teaches children how to use a phone and dial numbers through memory, lessons, and challenge lessons. This app also includes a phone simulator, through which the child can have pretend conversations and practice answering common questions a 911 operator might ask.

New tablet apps hit the market regularly. So, fill us in! What great apps did we miss? What do you recommend?

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iPad and Tablet Apps for a Pediatric Occupational Therapist

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We've all seen catchy music paired with a montage of all the awesome things you can do with an iPad. The iPad-and Apple, in general-is all about the wow factor. Not to be outdone, Microsoft has also released a pretty spiffy tablet called Surface, with tons of entertaining marketing to boot.

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Many OTs are moving towards using applications to help with treatment, including in the development of skills for pediatric patients. With innumerable applications and resources available today, finding and sorting through applications can feel like a daunting process.

Look below for 60 school-based apps for occupational therapy, sorted by treatment area and described in brevity by name, price, and description. These school-based apps for occupational therapy are available for both iPhone and iPad through iTunes App Store.

Emotions
ABA Flash Cards & Game - Innovative Mobile Apps
For $.99, you get 50 flashcards to help children learn emotions.
Touch and Learn (Emotions) - Innovative Mobile Apps
$1.99 - Teach children to understand body language and emotions of others.
Autism Learn Games: Camp Discovery Pro - PixelAtion Labs
Free! - Developed by the Center for Autism and Related Diagnoses. Learning games to match objects, shapes, colors, emotions, and more for ages 2 and up.
Emotionary - Funny Feelings
Free! - Emotion diary for teachers and caregivers. This app helps find trends in contexts or situations that may trigger certain behaviors.
Social Emotional Exchange (S.E.E.) - Saym Basheer
$9.99 (Lite version is free) - An interactive way to teach children various human emotions by looking at facial expressions.
Alien Buddies Preschool Learning - Artgig Studio
$2.99 - Facilitates finger control and provides learning opportunities including letter recognition, dot to dot, and puzzles.
Dexteria: Fine Motor Skill Development - BinaryLabs Inc.
$3.99 - Tap, pinch, and write options to develop pre-handwriting and finger isolation skills.
Domi Domi Nature Shapes: Child Fine Motor Practice - Yellow Dot
$2.99 - Preschoolers use fine motor skills to sort/classify shapes and match colors, sizes, and shapes.
Ready to Print - Essare LLC
$9.99 - Visual motor and fine motor activities including tapping targets, connect the dot activities, and mazes for beginning printers. This app also has free downloadable companion worksheets at www.readytoprintapp.com

Gross motor
GoNoodle Website
Free! - Two to five-minute videos offering physical fitness and "brain break" activities.

The iPad and school-based apps for occupational therapy is not the end all be all for pediatric OT. NGOT is working hard to bring you clinical resources to improve your treatments as a new grad.

Handwriting
123s ABCs Preschool Learn HWOTP Kids Handwriting - TeachersParadise.com
Free! - Trace, hear, and learn to print letters using Handwriting Without Tears curriculum.
abc PocketPhonics - Apps in My Pocket Ltd
$6.99 (Lite version is free) - Hear the letter sound, and then trace it.
Cursive Practice Handwriting for Kids - Brainstop
Free! - Cursive tracing game following the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum.
Cursive Touch and Write - FizzBrain LLC
$2.99 - Teaches cursive in single letters and whole words.
iWrite Words - gdiplus
$2.99 - A basic letter/word-tracing app that provides visual and auditory feedback to stay on lines. Autocorrects to send children back to start if they are forming the letter incorrectly. Option for high contrast theme.

LetterSchool Lite: Learn to Write the Alphabet - LetterSchool Enabling Learning B.V.

Free! ($10.99 to unlock ALL features) - Provides an introduction to the letter. Then opportunity to trace and then write the letter from memory.
Little Writer: A Tracing App for Kids - Innovative Mobile Apps
$0.99 - Children can trace upper and lowercase letters, shapes, and numbers with auditory and visual feedback that alerts them when they're demonstrating correct or incorrect letter formation.
Touch and Write - Fizzbrain LLC
$2.99 - Practice writing with the option to choose several silly textures: ketchup, chocolate, shaving cream, etc. A cursive version also available.
Trace It, Try It: Handwriting Exercises for Kids - This Reading Mama, LLC
$2.99 - Multiple opportunities to learn how to form letters, numbers, and three-letter words.
Stay tuned for more. We plan on updating and improving this article soon with school-based occupational therapy apps compatible with Android devices!
Life Skills
Choiceworks - Bee Visual LLC
$6.99 - This app helps children with daily routines, emotional regulation, and independence. Developed in conjunction with child developmental specialists.
DayCape: Daily Visual Planning - Diamonic Creations AB
Free! - A visual planning app that helps a child visualize their daily schedule. Timers available for different activities. Helps children feel organized and in control during changes in their day.
Highlights Monster Day - Highlights for Children Inc
Free! - Children get to help care for their monster and assist them through their daily routine by completing tasks such as getting dressed and brushing their teeth.
Kid in Story Book Maker: Create and Share Personalized Photo Storybooks - Enuma
$6.99 - Create customizable social stories.
Counting Caterpillar - Bellamon
$1.99 - Feed the caterpillars by counting and catching aphids in the correct number sequence. 45 levels.
DB Complete Math Pack - WeWantToKnow AS
$19.99 - Uses fun, creative puzzles to assist with number recognition and build logic skills.
Geoboard - Clarity Innovations
Free! - For students in elementary school through high school to help develop and improve their understanding of geometry and fraction concepts.
Let's Do Mental Math - Bloomsbury Publishing
$3.99 - 15 different types of exercises in three categories and 50-word problems that focus on addition and subtraction. App for each age group ie: ages 5-6, 7-8, etc.
Mathmateer - Freecloud Design Inc
$1.99 - Math challenges including patterns, telling time, and working fractions to earn money for building a rocket ship. Ages 9 to 11.
Marble Math Junior - Artgig Studio
$3.99 - Math problems located throughout a marble maze.

Moose Math - Duck Duck Moose LLC

A mathematical adventure with 5 multi-levels to teach counting, addition, subtraction, sorting and geometry.
Park Math - Duck Duck Moose LLC
Free! - Teaches early math concepts, using common core standards, for ages 2 - 6.
Sparky's Brain Busters - NFPA
Free! - Fast-paced trivia game for grades 3-5 to review Common Core math, science, social studies, and literature.

Thinking Blocks (Addition, Multiplication, Fractions) - Math Playground

Free! - Use number blocks to solve addition, multiplication, and fraction problems.
Alphamonster - Marbotic
$2.99 - Alphabet app with great visuals and sound effects to teach young children about letters and letter sounds.
Andy Helps You Read - Jordan Price
$0.99 - Reading help for children with ADHD, dyslexia, and special needs. Twenty lessons for word recognition, letter formation, and reading practice.
Bob Books Reading Magic Sight Words - Bob Books Publications LLC
$3.99 - Helps learners arrange letters to spell 30 common sight words, practice tracing them, and then places them into sentences to finish the story.
Bla Bla Box - Marbotic
Free! - Helps children combine letters together to learn sounds, syllables, and words.
Elkonin Boxes - Ross McNamara
$0.99 - Helps beginning readers develop pneumonic awareness and foundational reading skills.
Kid's Sound Lab: D Sound of the Woodpecker - Raddlist
$19.99 - Provides visual and auditory cues to master English consonant sounds.
One Giggly Gorilla - Wasabi Productions
$3.99 - Fun, interactive story incorporating directions for children to follow within the storytelling experience. Helps with attention and following directions.
Learn to Read and Write - BlueCompass.eu
$2.99 - 20 Lessons for early reading skills in the areas of phonics, sight word recognition, writing, and reading comprehension.
Word Wagon - Duck Duck Moose LLC
Free! - Award-winning app for teaching letters, phonics, and spelling for children ages 2 - 6.
Action Graphing - The Universe and More, Inc
Free! - A hands-on, kinesthetic way to explore concepts related to graphs of velocity. For high school students studying algebra, physics, and related topics.
The Everything Machine - TinyBop Inc
$2.99 - Provides children the opportunity to problem solve and create machines. Promotes computer programming, logic, sequencing, and circuitry by building their creations.

Self-regulation
Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame - Sesame Street
Free! - Sesame Street characters provide breathing and problem-solving practice for children ages 2-5.
Calm Counter Social Story and Anger Management Tool - Touch Autism
$2.99 - Visual and audio tool to help children calm down when they are angry or anxious.
Heat Pad - Padadaz
Free! - A doodle app to help promote stress relief and decrease overstimulation.
Zones of Regulation - Selosoft, Inc
$12.99 - Zones of Regulations is a framework geared to help students monitor their emotions, behaviors, and alertness and implement problem-solving strategies to help them with regulation.

Sensory Processing
Brain Works - Sensational Brain LLC
$8.99 - This app, developed by an OT, may best be used as a resource, offering 130 sensory activities ie: army crawl, ball toss, etc.
Fluidity HD - nebulus design
Free! - A calming app offering interactive visual stimulation similar to that of a lava lamp.
Sensory Processing Therapy - Sensory Treat Ltd
Free! - Designed to help families determine ways to help their child with sensory processing issues that may occur throughout the day.

Visual Perception
Combinations - Valcour Games
Free! - Visual processing game where children find 3 cards that make a combination of attributes (color, shape, fill, count). Similar to the Set card game.
Doodle Find Numbers and Letters - Sigma Sky LLC
$1.99 - Figure-ground challenge game. A prompt appears at the top of the screen and kids have to find a letter/number in an ever-growing array of other objects.
Hidden Pictures - Highlights for Children, Inc.
Free! (with in-app purchases) - 50 hidden picture activities
Little Finder - Innovative Mobile Apps
Free! - A figure-ground challenge, offering an option for 2 players. ABC version also available.
Little Things Forever - Klicktock
$2.99 - A more complex figure-ground game for older children.
My Little Suitcase: The Memory Board Game - Innovative Mobile Apps
Free! - Basic visual memory game that allows for up to 4 players.
Spatial Line Puzzles - Visual Learning for Life
Free! - Build spatial and visual memory skills by solving dot and box puzzles. Designed by an OT.

In addition to choosing an app for a specific treatment area, consider structuring the use of the app to address impulse control, following directions, turn taking, and transitioning skills. If a child has the tendency to "self-absorb" into the device, turn the volume off on the device and provide demonstration and verbal directions to ensure therapist-child interaction. Practice taking turns, sharing, and social play when using the apps. Use clinical judgment on structuring app use in sessions.

For example, school-based apps for occupational therapy may be best used following a non-preferred task to help motivate some children. For others, a child may have difficulty transitioning away from the app and may need time to participate in other activities before transitioning to class. Most apps work by "tapping" the screen, which will help promote finger isolation and extension.
Consider purchasing a stylus to help develop tripod grasp in patients.
Use of an iPad in treatment sessions can be a very motivating and effective tool to help children build skills. Additionally, recommending apps to parents may help facilitate continued skill building while at home. Select a few apps to try out in your next session.
We would like to hear how you creatively incorporate the iPad and the use of these school-based apps for occupational therapy into your therapeutic interventions!

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60 Effective School-Based Apps for Occupational Therapy

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Many OTs are moving towards using applications to help with treatment, including in the development of skills for pediatric patients. With innumerable applications and resources available today, finding and sorting through applications can feel like a daunting process. Look below for 60 school-based apps for occupational therapy, sorted by treatment area and described in brevity by name, price, and description.

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Looking for effective and engaging apps for speech therapy and some new tools to help out in your next SLP session? Whether your expertise is articulation, expressive language, receptive language, social skills integration or another specialty, the top 10 speech therapy apps that made our list have a lot to offer school-based SLPs - and the children they help.

1. Articulation Station
Developer: Little Bee Speech
Cost: Free (Full version is $59.99)
Available From:Apple iTunes App Store

Articulation Station is the flagship app of Little Bee Speech, and is intended to serve as a comprehensive program to help those with speech sound delays. SLPs can use the app in both individual and group therapy sessions, facilitating the practice of 22 sounds and collecting data to help evaluate progress. Parents can find this useful for reinforcement of therapeutic goals at home. In-app purchases are available for as little as $3.99, with the full version ("Articulation Station Pro") is $59.99.

This articulation app enables children to practice their speech using flashcard and matching activities. Collecting, saving and exporting time-stamped data (per student) is possible for individual sessions - and group therapy for up to four children at a time. The free version gives you "th," "w," "y," and "h" decks; an additional 20 are available as an In-App purchase, with discounts available for all or multiple decks.

Ideal for children aged nine and older, this app gives therapists more than 3,000 questions to use as prompts, helping students aiming to make progress in expressive language, pragmatics, problem-solving and cognitive communication. Individual and group therapy is customizable, with individual goal tracking and reporting available.

4. Keyword Understanding
Developer: Aptus Speech & Language Therapy Ltd
Cost: $11.99
Available From:Apple iTunes App Store (other Aptus apps are available for Android through Google Play)

A receptive language app, Keyword Understanding helps children experiencing auditory processing difficulties, receptive language disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorders and reduced attention. Basic concepts (e.g. size and color) are addressed, as well as prompts to follow directions with up to two steps, in increasing difficulty. Therapists have the ability to facilitate learning in auditory mode, text mode, or both.

Speech therapists, special education paraprofessionals, and parents can find value in this app, which contains 40 written and five video lessons. Lesson plans are customizable for K-12 children and can be utilized in therapy for those experiencing developmental delays, social/emotional issues, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and deafness. Lesson segments include personal interactions, navigating the community, behavior, change, and relationships. Note: this app may also be purchased as part of a bundle: "Complete Speech and Language Bundle: Social Skills, Emotions, Language Development" for $29.99. The other two apps in the bundle cost $9.99 when purchased separately.

Want to encourage children to make certain sounds, and be visually engaged in the process? CineVox, a speech therapy game tool, responds to sounds with fun graphics. There are 21 different visual effects that show patients the results of their vocalization. Variations in producing fricative sounds (e.g. shhh) will change the display appearance.

This app is designed for both children and adults. You can access audio and high-definition images for 8100 words, 1800 phrases & sentences, and 115 stories to address articulation and language skills. This includes real-world photos for over 3800 minimal pairs as well as almost 300 multi-syllabic words. There are over 120 categories for language building and over 25 social language categories. Interactive materials found with the Pro version are located in the Phonology, Language, and Social Vaults. You are able to create individual or group files to track the data of your clients.

Therapists, teachers and parents alike can use this talking flipbook, which is customizable to individual student needs. Speech therapy practitioners can generate specific word lists - for example, focusing on all words that begin or end with a certain sound - and help students hear their progress using recording and playback features. The free version includes 16 sounds and 40 words, with the option to upgrade to more than 2,300 word recordings, 125 phonemes and clusters, all vowels and consonants, and more than 250 sets of homophones.

Have you ever wished you could show a child the inside of the mouth as they practice sounds? Speech Tutor, another one-of-a-kind speech therapy app, makes the face visually transparent as sounds are being made. The animation is viewable at three speeds and can be paused - helping students see where they have succeeded and where further speech therapy practice is necessary. There are 132 animations, recording capability - and, if practicing speech with parents at home, tips provided by SLPs. Search for the free version in iTunes ("SpeechTutorFree"), or download the full version.

You are able to purchase any of the 4 apps included in this robust collection individually if desired. The full app includes over 700 core nouns, verbs, and adjectives, thousands of exercises and activities, as well as recommendations on what to focus on next based on the clients' scores. The 4 areas include: Comprehension Therapy (understanding spoken language), Naming Therapy (to strengthen word-finding skills), Reading Therapy (addressing literacy skills), and Writing Therapy (addressing spelling skills).

SLPs - if you use any of the above apps, we would love to hear your feedback on how it worked for you in the comments section! And if there's an "app for that" not listed above and you believe it should be, please share with us!

Want more apps? Check out 10 of the Latest and Greatest Apps for SLPs >>

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The Top 10 Apps That All SLPs Should Be Using | Therapy Source

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Looking for effective and engaging apps for speech therapy and some new tools to help out in your next SLP session? Whether your expertise is articulation, expressive language, receptive language, social skills integration or another specialty, the top 10 speech therapy apps that made our list have a lot to offer school-based SLPs - and the children they help.

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Teachers With Apps brings you 31 super speech and language iPad apps for home, classroom, and/or the therapist's office. Speech and language is one area of educational apps that has exploded with smashing success. The prices range anywhere from free to expensive-there is a stuttering app that runs almost $1,000! Don't fret, most are reasonable and many have a free/lite version.

More importantly, SLPs feel they are getting results like never before. Below you will find 31 super speech and language iPad apps that we and several SLPs consider to be the most effective. The apps are listed in no particular order, except... however, we did start our list with Mobile Education Store, as Kyle Tomson's first-class apps were the first of this sort that TWA reviewed.
31 Speech And Language Apps For iPad
1. ConversationBuilderTeen is a conversation simulator designed to help teenaged children learn how to have multi-exchange conversations with their peers, in a variety of social settings. The auditory pattern of conversation is presented in a visual format to help students recognize and master the flow of conversation. ConversationBuilder is designed to help elementary aged children.

2. Story Builder for iPad targets picture description, word order, sentence formation, vocabulary, making predictions, cause/effect, pronouns, verb tense, and sequencing. It is designed to help children improve in paragraph formation, integration of ideas, and making higher level abstractions by inference.

3. Language Builder targets picture description, sentence formation, word order, verb tense, vocabulary, pronouns. It is designed to help children improve sentence ideation, sentence formation, and receptive and expressive language.

4. Preposition Builder targets picture description and sentences formation using appropriate prepositions. It is designed to help elementary aged children learn to use prepositions and learn how prepositions can change the meaning of a sentence.

5. TenseBuilder is designed to help students learn how to identify and use correct tense forms by playing movie quality animated videos to demonstrate past, present and future tense. 48 video lessons (will expand to 54) are in place to help give students a deeper understanding about the purpose of tense. Special attention is paid to the past tense of irregular verbs.

6. Question Builder is designed to help elementary aged children learn to answer abstract questions and create responses based on inference. Extensive use of audio clips promotes improved auditory processing for special needs children with autism spectrum disorders or sensory processing disorders.

7. Sentence Builder is designed to help elementary aged children learn how to build grammatically correct sentences. Attention is paid to the connector words that make up over 80% of the English language. Sentence Builder offers a rich and fun environment for improving the grammar of all children.social settings. SentenceBuilderTeen is designed to help teenage children learn how to build grammatically correct sentences.

8. Rainbow Sentences is designed to help students improve their ability to construct grammatically correct sentences, the who, what, where, and why parts of sentences are color coded to help students recognize and understand how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure.

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9. Profile of Phonological Awareness was developed for the purpose of evaluating and describing the phonological awareness skills of children.

10. Articulate Scenes allows children to practice their sounds with a variety of engaging and fun activities based on the cinema.

11. Social Quest improves pragmatic language comprehension and expression in a variety of social situations for older elementary, middle school, and high school-aged populations.

12. Syntax City targets a variety of grammatical elements for elementary and middle school children. The English rules of plurals, irregular verbs and verb agreement are addressed.

13. Articulate It! is designed to help SLPs work towards improving the speech of children with speech delays. It contains over 1 thousand images in all sounds of the English language. Voice recording and data collection included.

14. iName it was designed by and for speech-language pathologists to assist individuals with word finding difficulty secondary to aphasia. Additionally, it can benefit individuals with apraxia that are assisted by visual and sentence completion cues.

15. Language Empires is designed for elementary age students and targets 8 goals: Answering how, why, and which questions, inferencing, vocabulary, predicting, figurative language, and sequencing.

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16. Proloquo2Go provides a master solution to assist anyone who may have difficulty speaking. This communication system redefines AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication).

17. Pictello is a simple way to create talking photo albums and talking books. Each page in a Pictello Story can contain a picture, up to five lines of text, and a recorded sound or text-to-speech using high-quality voices. Target: social stories, story retell, etc.

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20. SLP Minimal Pairs Full, by SLP Tech Tools, uses pairs of 367 words to help clients identify and correct phonological sounds. Developed by speech-language pathologists, this app can help identify phonological disorders in children age pre-Kindergarten through sixth grade.

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21. Speech With Milo Apps, by Doonan Speech Therapy, are a series of nine speech apps to build language skills working on sequencing, vocabulary, and basic subject + verb + object sentences.)
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23. Phonics Studio, by Grasshopperapps.com,makes learning how to pronounce words fun and easy. Mastering pronunciation, your students will also greatly expand their existing vocabulary since the app comes fully loaded with over 2,500 gorgeous flash cards.

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26. iCommunicate, by Grembe Inc. lets you design visual schedules, storyboards, communication boards, routines, flash cards, choice boards, speech cards, and more. It is customizable to meet your needs.
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31. My PlayHome, by Shimon Young, again not specifically for speech and language, but every SLP has it on their list. It is the original and best doll house app. Massively interactive, your kids can explore and use everything in the house. The characters eat, sleep, shower, brush their teeth, open the closets, watch TV and take showers.
Image attribution flickr user jasmic

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Teachers With Apps brings you 31 super speech and language iPad apps for home, classroom, and/or the therapist's office. Speech and language is one area of educational apps that has exploded with smashing success. The prices range anywhere from free to expensive-there is a stuttering app that runs almost $1,000!

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Tools for the Teacher:

Create Guided Notes

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Guided Notes are teacher-prepared handouts that outline lectures, audiovisual presentations, or readings, but leave blank space for students to fill in key concepts, facts, definitions, etc. Guided Notes promote active engagement during lecture or independent reading, provide full and accurate notes for use as a study guide, and help students to identify the most important information covered.

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What can kids learn

Kids can learn the practice of meditation, and they also can learn the practice of stopping to take stock of their emotions, taking a deep breath, and articulating their emotional needs. By encouraging kids to meditate daily and focus on kindness to others, this app offers great lessons in perseverance and compassion. The built-in progress-tracking and meditation guide make it consistently exciting to explore further meditations and learn more about the importance of compassion. Stop, Breathe & Think is an accessible, well-designed tool for making meditation an approachable daily practice for kids -- and adults.

Subjects & Skills

Emotional Development

Health & Fitness

What's it about?

In STOP, BREATHE & THINK, kids can experience guided meditation exercises from their mobile devices. Kids can use this app to select a particular meditation (15 are available, all 10 minutes long or less) or to receive a "curated list" of recommended meditations based on a self-report of their current emotional state.

Is it any good?

Stop, Breathe & Think makes meditation approachable and even fun. Kids can earn stickers for consistently using the app, getting rewards for achievements such as multiple days of meditation and journeys through the same meditation. The progress page allows kids to track simple information (such as total meditation time) and more abstract data (such as state of "settledness" over time). Stop, Breathe & Think's developers seek to promote compassion in the world, and this app is one piece of that mission. Its message is overwhelmingly positive and encouraging.

How parents can help

Families can talk about which meditations they prefer and which seem to suit different situations.Parents might help younger kids navigate the section that allows users to select different emotions. This can help kids become increasingly articulate about naming their emotions before they embark on meditations that help them navigate them.

Screenshot

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In STOP, BREATHE &amp; THINK, kids can experience guided meditation exercises from their mobile devices. Kids can use this app to select a particular meditation (15 are available, all 10 minutes long or less) or to receive a "curated list" of recommended meditations based on a self-report of their current emotional state.

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Apps By Areas of Occupation 10-2015.docx

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‎** Happy Frog Apps is a Mom's Choice Award Winner! Also featured on FunEducationalApps.com, TeachersWithApps.com, and more! ** Conversation Planner teaches your child a step-by-step method to prepare for any conversation or social situation. Kids learn to think about who they are talking to, what t...

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Apps can be a helpful tool for young kids who struggle with self-control. Certain apps can encourage kids to think before they act, keep their emotions in check and stay focused on specific goals. Explore these options. For even more ideas, see Tech Finder.
Price and availability may vary but were accurate at the time of publication, on February 25, 2016. Understood does not endorse or receive financial compensation for the sale of any of these products.

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7 Apps to Help Younger Kids With Self-Control

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Apps can be a helpful tool for young kids who struggle with self-control. Certain apps can encourage kids to think before they act, keep their emotions in check and stay focused on specific goals. Explore these options. For even more ideas, see Tech Finder.

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I would like to become more familiar with the options on an IPad to assist our special learners.

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I would like to learn more features on the iPad that would assist text to speech features.

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I would like to learn more features on the iPad that would assist text to speech features.