It is indeed sad to realize that a significant portion of children/student population across the world has learning disabilities, mainly due to various health problems ranging from dyslexia to autism.
A report by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) said that in 2017-18 about 34 percent of all students who received special education services in the U.S. under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) had specific learning disabilities. Shocking, isn’t it? But what is even more shocking? Most education systems and institutions across the world are not equipped or well set up to help children/students who learn differently and might need special assistance in the classroom/school.
Well, this is where the need of technology is often felt the most. Assistive technology can fill in this gap and help students with learning disabilities. And thanks to massive advance in technology, there are a number of apps that have been created to help students with learning disabilities. In this article, we bring you some amazing apps that can help students with learning disabilities to learn according to their needs and keep up with their peers. Take a look!
Autism Core Skills
Autism Core Skills is an innovative educational platform built by autism experts for children with autism to help them reach their full potential. It teaches academic, social, and communication skills that are interactive and engaging for verbal or non-verbal learners. The app quickly and easily customizes each lessons based on user’s interests, attention span, and skill level making learning easy and fun for children.
Teachers can track the progress of children and share it by printing or emailing to parents or other teachers.
Learn with Rufus
Learn with Rufus is an educational software application designed for children ranging from those early achievers without any diagnosed learning difficulties to those who struggle with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on a daily basis. It is developed by Rufus Robot, Inc. that offers a wide range of fun, useful, and affordable mobile-based educational software applications and services.
Designed by Dr. Holly Gastgeb, a clinical and developmental psychologist who works with children with ASD, Learn with Rufus app can be customized for kids with varying skills, ability levels, and learning styles.
ModMath
ModMath is the first free iPad app that helps kids with dyslexia and dysgraphia do math. Dysgraphia affects kids with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, dyspraxia and other disabilities. ModMath helps to level the playing field.
Developed by parents of a child with both dyslexia and dysgraphia, Modmath provides students with virtual graph paper to solve math problems in a legible format without ever picking up a pencil. In addition to basic math problems, the app now handles complex algebraic equations too- from multiplication and long division to variables and quadratic equations.
Choiceworks
Choiceworks is a picture-based learning tool that helps children complete daily routines, understand and control feelings, improve their waiting skills and make choices. The creator company, BeeVisual, was founded to help improve the communication between children and caregivers.
Created by Michael Walker, MS Applied Educational Psychology, in collaboration with world-class experts in the medical, educational, and child development fields, the Choiceworks and Choiceworks Calendar apps incorporate the use of picture and choice in a practical and easy-to-use format to help children learn social skills, develop self control, and complete daily routines.
Articulation Station Pro
Developed under the Little Bee Speech host of apps for speech and language, Articulation Station helps students learn how to pronounce the sounds in the English language through engaging and fun activities such as Flashcards, Matching, Rotating Sentences, Unique Sentences, and Storytelling.
The app was created by a certified Speech-Language Pathologist to help children and adults with speech and articulation problems learn to speak and pronounce their sounds more clearly. It is a comprehensive articulation program offering practice at the word, sentence and story levels in 22 sounds in the English language.
Apart from the above, there are various essential apps for students with learning disabilities, such as MyTalkTools Mobile, Dyslexia Toolbox, Voice Dream Reader, and Autism express, to name a few more. Make the most of the above apps to help your children learn according to their needs and to make them keep up with their peers.
