ipads and autism

[crazynell]

hi, my grand daughter aged 5 has autism and my daughter has been told that the iPad really helps autistic children.

Does anyone know anything about this

thanks for your help/advice

Not sure if it helps children with autism, but my 4 year old ASD DS is hooked to iPad and iPhone. I timeshare my iPad with him! now during half term he hogs it most of the time. Have more apps downloaded for him than me, he loves it because he can navigate all by himself. I have started using it as a reward now! :)

I think some of the apps are great for kids like my DS who are very visual and like to explore around on their own. He likes like apps for painting, aplha bet/number writers, and read-me-story books. He is also getting to be interested in stories now - he struggles during story time in preschool. He is also knows youtube quiet well, watches lots of educational video and favorite cartoons.
I do sometimes wonder though if it makes him more solitary.

My DS(2) is obsessed with it :), guess it's the visual aspect an the simplicity of touching the screen.

DD's daughter again.
I share Dad's ipad. I find it's really helped with school stuff because I can sit comfortably where I choose and I don't feel like I'm working because I'm not sat in front of a computer at a desk on a chair. There are lots of games and I find the drawing apps and art apps great for homework too. Also I use it for reading, the print seems easier than a book some days. I have Aspergers, ADHD, ODD and SPD. Hope this helps.

Can you please suggest/list any apps you currently use.
My ds never liked to sit down and read books with me, but I found he was very interested in an app touchybooks, so I would welcome any other suggestions.

this is a great response, thanks for your replies - i'd also be interested to know what apps people use x

ipads/ipod touches can be great.

the main advantages for dd1 have been:

ease of use (she did not 'get' the mouse/cursor correlation for a long time)
immersive quality
apps are cheap, so I can download a few variations for her to try out, without worrying greatly if she doesn't take ot it - much easier to 'waste' 79p than £5+ on a board game/flashcards/whatever

we have loads of apps for dd1 (dd2 uses them too). list far too long to re-type, but if you use the search, and search for my posts (in all topics) on apps, then a few threads should come up which are useful.

off the top of my head, particular favourites for us have been:

Grasshopper apps - great apps for spelling/reading which are fully customisable. also a telling the time app which dd1 has loved.

Open University Our Story app. fantastic if your dc likes storybooks - you make your own by using your own photos, and can customise each page with appropriate words/phrases, and record the sentence/phrase too.

iwritewords: great for learning to trace/write letters and spell too.

kindergarten apps (I think) do a good range of ABA style apps - lots of Feature Function Class style mini games.

Teachme range (teachmetoddler, teachme 1st grade etc)

pocketphonics is ace.

montessori words and numbers apps are good for initial numberbonds/counting and letter recognition.

they are my favourite educational ones, probably. but there are so many more. lots of counting/maths games, even games like classic pelmanism can really help with improving memory and recognition. apps like I see ewe, shapebuilder, preschool adventure,old macdonalds farm,animal farm, iplay and sing, have all helped dd1 along the way too.

dd1 has her own ipad, fundraised for at ehr last school. without it, she would not now be reading and writing (she probably would have got there eventually, but certainly not so soon - she is 7, and can spell simple words, write almost legibly, and read simple stories. this has all happened since she got her ipad, through the use of apps such as little speller and our story)

My 4yr old ds with ASD loves iPads and iPhones, we gave him dp's old iPhone as he loved it so much but it eventually stopped working (it was a 2g and dp had previously dropped it down the toilet so nothing to do with DS), I'm thinking of getting him an iPod touch for Christmas. If he's acting up or getting stressed I give him my iPhone and he calms down and sits peacefully playing with it.

DD's daughter.
I can't recommend anything for the reading, because I'm fifteen.
But the art apps we use are Inspire pro and ArtStudio.

DS loves angry birds, all the talking animals eg talking tom cat, Story books, car games, drawing apps and educational games that test his numbers, letters and shapes. The AppStore has loads of kids apps to choose from

dd3 likes doodle buddy, it's a drawing app but has stamps that you can add to the drawing, the stamps all have a sound effect to go with, including a dog poo that she finds hilarious There's a toy story book that's free.

Thank you justabout
Mum often thinks it best we answer stuff like this, and I like it.
The homework thing took a lot of working out. I don't mind doing it but I find it easier to do it my way. Mum accepts that it's just different to her way, and so long as I'm doing it, and getting the marks for it, she doesn't mind.
The British Library and The Guttenberg Project both have a lot of out of copyright books available for free. I'm reading some classics now, because it's on my terms. Does that make sense? I can choose, although I can choose the books too, but on the ipad the print doesn't seem to move as much. Some older classics the print is so small it looks like ants to me and then they start marching off the page, that doesn't happen with the ipad!

Dr Suess big hit here
eg one fish two fish

DS loves his ipad but would not say he learns hugely from it (other than hundreds of labels on flashcards). It turns into a stim. If you can use it as reward or as part of therapy thats great. Speech apps, storyboards, timers etc useful for therapy but we have to do a specific programme to get him to take turns / share it. We rely on it far too much in his leisure time as he can't play much and gets bored. However it does mean we can go to supermarket and restaurants now which is fab.

DS goes on youtube and has learned to type his favourite song titles which is a bit worrying as not everything on youtube is child friendly