Thirteen-year-old Alec Marvin sits with an iPad in a classroom, his teacher Sandra Doherty sitting next to him. She holds up a laminated picture of a $50 bill and asks Alec to identify it. Alec looks at his iPad, touches a tile titled “money id”, then presses “$50”. “Fifty,” says the device.
Alec is among a growing number of children in the US with autism spectrum disorder. These children are increasingly using what are known as autism education apps on electronic devices like the iPad and smartphone. And among all the autism apps that are used, “What is the expression” and “Make sentences” are the two most used.
Just a few years ago, Alec would have used a bulky assistive communication device, which cost between $7,000 and $9,500. That is, if these devices used some form of communication. Autistic children and children with special needs have long used so-called assistive technology devices. These included audiobooks for the visually impaired, to special transmitters for the hearing impaired. Autism education apps are more geared towards blended learning. The “What’s the Expression” and “Make Sentences” apps combine the blessings of technology with more traditional instructional methods. It’s less annoying for autistic children than it is for their conventionally educated peers.
There are many different autism apps that can help a child. These applications, what is most interesting, are all customizable. This means that these apps can be customized to suit each individual child. All over the world, autism education apps are helping kids because it’s usually so much easier to read.
Some experts have warned against the indiscriminate use of autism apps. This is because research on the effectiveness of educational technology for autistic children is still scant.
But educators, therapists, counselors and teachers who use autism apps say children with special needs respond particularly well to educational apps because the programs respond in predictable and consistent ways. Unlike previous technologies, smartphones and tablets are much more portable and indistinguishable from the devices neurotypical learners use.
Developer teams are continually trying to create new apps that can better help children with autism. Apps like “What is the expression” and “Make sentences” have really shown the way. The researchers are now trying to introduce intelligent robots that will further help autistic children in their education. Hopes are already high, relying on the success of the “What’s the Expression” and “Make Sentences” applications.