iPad Apps for Special Education Students

Here are some iPad apps that were recommended by Randall Palmer from the Children's Institute, Verona, NJ.  I enjoyed seeing all the quick demos!

Communication Apps:

• Scene Speak: This app allows you to take a picture and audio-lable the items. $10.  Works great with younger children.


• Proloquo2go: a full-featured communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking.  Works great, but is expensive. $190


• Verbally: An app that does what proloquo does.  Try the free version, which may be all that is needed.  There is an upgrade version for $99


• Functional Communication System: This is new and has the advantage of using real images instead of stick figures.  $50

Social Skills:

•  Sōsh:  is a mobile app designed to help ‘tweens, teens and young adults improve social skills. It is especially designed to be used by individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome.  Randy couldn't say enough about this app.  It is for high functioning students and is packed with options.  It includes a dictionary of idioms, talking strategies, recognizing feelings,  voice meter that is helpful in speech therapy, a shredder for ridding negative thoughts, and more.  $40


• Stories to Learn:  Students can create their own social stories that include pictures and audio. $13.99


• Conversation Builder:  Neat app! Students select responses  and record their voices. $9.99


• Sharing Timer:  an animated timer with sound effects show kids when it’s time to take turns


• Look in My Eyes:  A game-type format to help children learn to make eye contact. $2.99

Activity Schedules:

• Chore Pad HD: an electronic checklist.  Can add rewards if you wish. $2.99


• First Then Visual Schedule:  designed for caregivers to provide positive behavior support to increase independence and lower anxiety during transitions through different activities.  $9.99


• Video Scheduler:  Blends activity schedules with video modeling. $12.99

Self-Regulation:

• Time timer:  A visual timer that would be helpful in any classroom.  $1.99

Misc Supports:

• Read2Go by Bookshare: an accessible daisy e-book reader. $19.99


• Constant Shopper: is visual shopping list with pictures of items  $2.99


• Dragon Dictation: voice to text app that is very accurate.  Free!


• Twin Calc: Two large screen calculators that work side-by-side.  $.99

Moms with Apps:  a catalog of great children's and family-friendly apps. Search by educational categories and age groups to discover new apps and developers. Check out their website for "Free app Friday" where vendors make their products available free for one day only.

Curriculum 21

Heidi Hayes Jacobs was a keynote speaker at FETC that I very much enjoyed due to her common sense suggestions.  She is the author of six books, most recently, The Curriculum Mapping Planner: Templates and Tools for Effective Professional Development, co-authored with Ann Johnson, a book available on ASCD.

Her message:  "We do not need educational reform.  We need new-form."  She believes that we are using 19th century schedules , 20th century curriculum,  and our students are 21st century learners.  The time to make changes is NOW, as the common core curriculum standards are implemented.

Strategic replacement of curriculum is what needs to be done.... short term replacements with long term vision.   Dr. Hayes Jacobs recommends for every school to do the following:  Have every teacher in the school choose one upgrade.  Example: convert a persuasive essay assignment into a persuasive videocast.  The move to the Common Core Curriculum standards is a huge opportunity to upgrade.  Think of the collective difference this could make if everyone made just one upgrade to their current instructional practice.

To help teachers identify their one upgrade, the Curriculum 21 Clearinghouse can be used.  Websites and web 2.0 applications have been reviewed and tagged with curriculum-friendly terms to make it easy for teachers to choose curriculum and topics.  It's a tremendous resource; check it out!