Many people are now using the iPad as a tool to help and teach autistic children communicate with others. There are many apps available and most of them can be used by children as young as 3 years old. If you would like to try out an iPad app to help your child communicate, below are some apps you can try -
1. iConverse
iConverse is an Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) application which allows your child to communicate what he needs. This app comes with six communication tiles which represents a person’s most basic needs (food, drink, bathroom, break, sick and help) and you are able to create and add in your own communication tiles. You can use the built in text to speech audio or you can choose to record your own voice.
iConverse is designed for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It is currently being sold for $9.99.
2. Proloquo2Go
Proloquo2Go offers an alternative way for your autistic child to communicate. It has a default vocabulary of over seven thousand words and provides natural sounding text-to-speech voices. It currently allows the user to choose from the following accents – American (male, female, girl or boy), British (male or female) or Indian English (female).
Proloquo2Go can be used on iPone, iPod Touch and iPad without requiring the user to purchase it twice. It is currently being sold for $189.99.
3. iCommunicate
iCommunicate allows you to design your own visual schedules, flashcards, storyboards, routines, choice boards, speech cards and a lot more. The beauty of this app is that it lets you record your own audio for the pictures and boards in any language that you want. You can customize this app by using your own photos or the photos found online.
iCommunicate is designed for both iPhone and iPad. It is currently being sold for $49.99.
4. Grace
Grace serves as a digital version of a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). It helps autistic children to communicate by putting together images to form a sentence. This app comes with a database of basic photos and can be fully customized to include the photos that you need either through the device camera or by using your saved images. The goal of Grace is to encourage independent social interaction by allowing your to take control of what they want to say.
Grace is designed for both iPhone and iPad and is currently being sold for $24.99.
