Amazing iPad apps to help with autism and awareness

The United Nations General Assembly designated the day in 2007 as a way to raise autism acceptance and help those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Since it's launch in 2010, the iPad and iPad apps have been a tool in providing that help, and in aiding those with autism in finding their voice.
According to the CDC, one in 68 kids in the U.S. are on the autistic spectrum. According to a study by UCLA, using the iPad can help minimally verbal children more than double the amount of words in their vocabulary, and the earlier they start, the better they do.
Guided access
Guide access that lets you lock the iPhone or iPad to a single app. For as long as guided access is enabled, only that one specific app can be used, and there's no way to exit it for the Home screen or any other app. That can make Guided Access extremely useful for people on the autistic spectrum who need assistance focusing or with fine motor challenges.
Proloquo2Go
An argumentative and alternative communications (aac) app, Proloquo2Go is for anyone on the autistic spectrum who has trouble speaking. It provides natural-sounding text-to-speech voices, including American English, Australian English, British English, and bilingual American Spanish-English for children.
- $124.99 (on 50% off sale) - Download now (opens in new tab)
Grace
Grace helps give people on the autistic spectrum a voice by letting them assemble sentences based on images.
- $29.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Proloquo4Text
Proloquo4Text offers natural sounding voices in 15 languages with word and sentence prediction and a customizable screen layout for easy conversation.
- $59.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Autismate365
Autismate's comprehensive approach encourages the user to develop communication and behavioral skills simultaneously.
- Free with IAP - Download now (opens in new tab)
FlummoxVision
Flummox and Friends is a fun, quirky live-action comedy show that tries to help kids learn and understand the social and emotional dynamics of the world around them.
- Free with IAP - Download now (opens in new tab)
Kid in Story Book Maker
Stories are powerful and visual stories even more more so. For children on the autistic spectrum, Kid in Store can be a fun way to learn language skills and social modeling.
- $0.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Keeble
Keeble is a keyboard designed for accessibility. It helps those with fine motor challenges and others better and more easily input text, with word prediction, timing options, and more.
- $19.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Pictello
Pictello allows someone on the autistic spectrum to create simple talking photo albums an books. You get one image and up to fixe lines of text per page, and audio can be recorded or added using high-quality text-to-speech voices.
- $19.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Choiceworks
For those on the autistic spectrum, daily routines can be anything but routine. Choiceworks helps by providing management tools that encourage emotional control and patience.
- $3.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
iDress for Weather
How should you dress if it's warm outside? If it's cold? If it's somewhere in between. iDress for Weather uses a customizable closet to help personalize the connection between what the weather's like and what clothing they should wear.
- $1.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
PuddingStone
PuddingStone, developed with the Boston Children's Hospital, is a way to help make language development not only interactive, but fun.
- $19.99 Download now (opens in new tab)
ChatterPix Kids
Take a photo, draw a line to make a mouth, record your voice, and, with ChatterPix Kids, your pictures can now speak.
- Free - Download now (opens in new tab)
Toca Band
Toca Band promotes learning sounds, beats, and rhythms through play and experimentation.
- $2.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Toca Town
How a city works and what various locations are for, like stores, parks, and restaurants, are discoverable and learnable through Toca Town.
- $2.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Peek A Zoo
Discovering animals, learning their names, and identifying social cues lets Peek a Zoo help engage children and build interactive experience.
- $2.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Injini: Child Development Game Suite
The Injini collection of learning games can help with cognitive, language, and fine motor skills in a fun yet functional way.
- $29.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Tiggly Counts
Tiggly Counts is a math toy for iPad that helps pre-schoolers and kindergartners (age three and older) develop early numeracy, counting, and math skills. It includes a set of five sleek, magnetic counting toys that interact with three different learning apps on your iPad.
- $29.95 Order now (opens in new tab)
Todo Number Matrix
Todo Number Matrix lets kids practice match skills with fun, challenging matrices.
- $0.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
Motion Math: Pizza!
With Motion Math: Pizza! kids can learn everything from basic arithmetic to economics by buying ingredients, designing pizzas, setting prices, and serving customers in a fun, simple simulator.
- $5.99 - Download now (opens in new tab)
And more!
The iPad and the App Store make computing more available and accessible to everyone, including those on the autistic spectrum. If you or someone you know and love is using the iPad and iPad apps to help with autism and autism awareness, please let me know how!
iMore Newsletter
Get the best of iMore in your inbox, every day!
Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.
-
I get how most of these apps would help those on the spectrum but the iDress app makes no since because shouldn't it be obvious what your should wear regardless of your spectrum status. Is there something I'm not aware of?
-
Nice list. I'm going to share it with my wife, who is a developmental therapist and works with Autistic children. That said, not all people with Autism are children. My oldest is 19 and is on the autism spectrum. While there is a lot of attention and focus on children with autism, there is very little for those same children as they age. Providing for teens and adults with Autism is perhaps where the most focus is needed because they will be adults in a world that doesn't understand them longer than they are in early intervention programs. </End of Rant>
-
No. Some people with Autism really do have trouble understanding the world around them, even stuff that should be obvious. Good article Rene.
-
I guess that's the case, I kinda saw that app and only saw it from my point of view, which was, "How lazy do you have to be to not look outside or something to decide what to wear?". I honestly thought it was just a product of having an app for everything.
-
It's worth pointing out that this is 1 one study done on a small number of people. It's interesting, but it's just one small data point in the process of learning what helps autistic people.
-
Tarozq That may have been what it was designed for (I'm thinking little kids) but that doesn't mean it can't dp double duty.
-
Oh no doubt, its just a little weird idea for an app to me. That doesn't destroy its usefulness.
-
Butchered your name. Sorry
-
I have Asperger's Syndrome and I would have loved to have devices like the iPad when I was a kid. Sent from the iMore App