Must Have Apps

In the internet world a variety of downloadables apps for tablets and cellphones are available for us to play and relax, but some of them are also very helpful to assist in improving education, communication, and even cope with sudden changes aticipating children when different activities are happening, which reduces anxiety and make transitioning easier for them. Here are some of the ones that have been more effective in my working experience with pre and gradeschoolers:

Haircut Apps

The haircut moment is one of the most challenging for the children on the spectrum, it involves meltdowns and a lot of resistance from the child at the moment of hear the sound of scissors near his/her hair, and even the slightest contact of the comb on the hair can provoke tremendous distress. Certainly, this is a moment that implies a lot of unfamiliar inputs and therefore the child might feel loss of control of the situation. To prevent that, I recommend the use of this app at least one week prior the event of the haircut, pairing it with tha game of cutting our own hair. Doing this, you are anticipating the event, and also practicing some turn taking in a relax and playfull environment. This allows the child to gain control of the situation putting himself in the hairdresser position while he/she cuts a little of your hair, and then you too cut a little of his/hers.

Download link:

Toca Hair Salon

Toca Hair Salon 4

Apps for: Medical and body parts identification

 
This app its great to review and label parts of the body related to illness, improving the children's vocabulary, communication skills and identification of medical tools and gadgets that the doctor could use on them

Download link:

Toca Doctor

Toca Life: Hospital

Apps to: Improve food selectivity

 

Most of the children on the spectrum have eating disorders, they are commonly known as  picky eaters, refusing to try or eat a variety of foods, being very restrictive with the food they choose, tending to only eat food of certain texture, smell, shape and even color. An effective approach is to expose children to new food, first putting some of it on the table, and then in their plates without forcing them eating it, only waiting fot them to interact with it and eventually taste it. In this game you can find four hungry characters that have different reactions to a variety of food in diverse format: fried, cooked, raw, etc.

Download link:

Toca Kitchen

Toca Kitchen 2

Educational Apps

This App encourage children to explore the world of science, playing with the 118 elements of the periodic table. Each of them have their own pesonality, and you can experiment with them using a variety lab tools.  

Download link: Toca Lab



This app is excellent to help children to build a strong vocabulary in spanish include their context and usage. With the help of adorable monsters, the child will explore new worlds puzzles featuring letters that comes to life, and a sentence puzzle with words that transforms into what they describe. 

Download link: Endless Spanish

This app includes different games that integrate the use of pictograms, solving different puzzles helping to strengthen executive functioning by completing different sequences, up to emotional development by identifying and exemplifying different emotions. (Spanish only)
 

Download link: TEAPP




Although this app it's not a game itself, it's great to support transition to another activities because it's excellent to mark waiting times. It works like a stopwatch that as time goes by shows an image facilitating an attentional shift to lower the child's anxiety level. You can also reinforce concepts such as colours, animals, shapes, etc. while the image is displayed.
  
Download link: Children's Countdown

Communicatinal Support Apps

 

This app works as an augmentative and alternative communication system using your cell phone or tablet. Here you can find a variety of pictograms to create complex sentences, to express different actions. 

Donwload link: Talk Up!




Spanish App with different games to work phonemes, hand-eye coordination development, fine motor skills and increase vocabulary.

Download link: Conciencia Fonologica