The first app was released on April 3, 2010 and the field has
grown rapidly since, said Tzvi Schectman, a family coordinator at the
Friendship Circle of West Bloomfield. Many of the apps are free with the most
expensive, “Lamp Words for Life,” costing $299.99, according to the Website, www.friendshipcircle.org/apps/browse. “Lamp,” for example,” addresses the
language development and communication needs of children with autism.”
Categories of apps include those for speech and language,
communication, social skills, life skills, behavior, educational, scheduling
and games.
Those developing apps fill out a form on the above Website to
get approval and distribution of the app on either the Apple or android
platform.
“This is absolutely a growing field,” said Schectman. One of
the first apps was “Proloquo2go,” an assistive communication app. It helps with
children who have autism or are nonverbal. “They choose pictures of items to
communicate” and “it works with most anyone with impaired speech.”
The scheduling app helps someone with a cognitive disability
structure the events in their days.
It’s a visual schedule that might show a picture of a breakfast
table, then a school bus. Some of the apps also help “parents monitor their child’s
behavior,” said Schectman.
One app, “The Birdhouse for Autism,” allows parents to keep
track of what their child does during the day. “Every day they write what the
child ate, how medications affected the child, and then Birdhouse finds
correlation and patterns in that child’s everyday life to see what meds or
activities are working and what areas need more work or modification.” The app
is free and parents need only create an iPhone account and enter information
about their special needs child.
Other apps help develop social skills, teach proper
etiquette, encourage children with developmental disabilities to make eye
contact with others and even how to say hello to someone.
The 59 apps in the social skills category on the Friendship
Circle website include “Stepping Stones,” a personal visual organizer for prompting daily routines and
schedules. Its cost is 99 cents. It was designed for users with developmental
disabilities and the app assists in building independence. A simple interface
allows a caregiver to create a routine, or ‘Path’, for the user to follow. The
Path then works as reminder with visual and audio guides to act as prompts.
Jerry Wolffe is the
writer-in-residence/advocate-at-large at the Macomb-Oakland Regional Center. He
can be reached at 586 263-8950.
