Student+On+Autism+Spectrum

This is an extra credit project. You will get 50 points for doing this project.

V. is an eleven year old boy who has been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. Here is what he is working on learning:

He is working on social skills, simple addition and subtraction, reading and comprehension. I [his grandmother wrote this to me] would love for him to be able to dial a known person/telephone number and make a call; and have a brief conversationand to learn to text. He so enjoyed seeing a text that one family member sent to another family member telling her to tell V. that she loved him...as he read the text, he was so excited. He also enjoyed seeing pictures of his sisters on the telephone. A telephone will open up a brand new world for him. A family member also had his schedule on her phone and he read what he needed to do and then eliminated that task...what a joy to see him so excited.

Your Mission Should You Choose to Accept It

V's family is thinking about getting him an Android-based phone. Find an application that you think V would enjoy using and that would benefit him educationally, and/or in some other way.

The application has to be for Android and it has to be free.

Write what the application is, what it does, and why you think it would be beneficial to V.

For example: HiQ Mp3 Recorder This application records sounds. One way V. could use it would be to record his own voice saying the kinds of things he wants to say (such as, "I am hungry," or "I am mad!!"). Then, he could play the recording of his own voice communicating these things when he is upset. That would help him to communicate but it would be better than using a computer voice because it would be his own voice. It might remind him that he has words he can use to let people know what he needs.

Some resources that might help you to think about this project:

Design for Cognitive Assistance

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Responses from students in Education 151:

Codie M: App: Autism Speech DiegoSays

This app helps children form simple phrases. It has an action that you match with an object. It just has three actions to choose from (I want, I am, I am going). They choose one of those then they choose an object that shows a picture with the word under it. They can then form simple sentences like I am going home. This will help him communicate better with people by just forming the simplest sentences. He will be able to carry on a conversation.

Kathleen S.


 * Andriod App for Autism: **

==== Spell Me- Lite Autism Series. This app teaches kids on the autism spectrum spelling tricks. It's a very simple app that allows children to learn how to spell in an interactive way. The 'Spell Me' app utilizes the ABA method of intervention for children with developmental disabilities, special education needs or autism. ====

This app would be great for V because his grandmother wants him to be able to text his family members. He needs to know how to spell and construct sentences so that he is able to effectively communicate through texts.

Here is a short YouTube clip that show how the app works.

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I also came across this article, although it is about the ipad and not the android phone, it talks about how ipads are a great communication tool for autistic children

[|iPad gives voice to kids with autism]

Matt D:

"Facing Up All Smiles" is a free app that displays a face which the child can touch. As the child touches the face, emotions from happy to sad are displayed. This could help the child display his feelings while doing just about anything. The example I thought of was the child being taught a new thing and having this app nearby to express that he/she "gets it" or is becoming frustrated, etc.

"Show Me - Numbers" is another free app which helps the child learn to count a number of objects. Since it says on the Wiki the child is ready to learn addition and subtraction, I thought this would be an excellent precursor to help the child become more comfortable with the idea of numbers and quantities.

"Visual Auditory Timer" is a free app and is very simplistic in design. It looks and functions just as a regular kitchen timer. I thought a child with autism would benefit from this by being able to visualize time in a way other than by trying to read a clock. The app is colorized so the child can easily see how much time remains to complete a task, or before something begins, etc. A tone is emitted when the timer is completely depleted.

"Kid Mode: Play + Learn - Basic Number Skills", "Let's Do the Math", and "Peter Pig's Money Counter - Coin counting" are all free and all have a focus on teaching addition and subtraction. Kid Mode has a game-like atmosphere, "Let's Do the Math" allows the student to actually draw the number on the app (so the student gets practice in both math and writing), and Coin counter allows the student to manipulate coins and bills. Melissa G: @http://www.iautism.info/en/2011/03/25/list-of-apps-for-android/

1. AAC speech communicator - AAC based on images to build grammatically correct sentences

2. Pictodriod Lite – allows users to communicate through pictures for simples phrases like: I want to go to the bathroom I want to play I want to drink 3. Touch and Go - Speak


 * turns the phone into an assisted communication device.

4. Vocal Slides

- imply app to associate images to a voice recording and play them.

Kirby L. This Android app is free access to children’s storybooks that would help V in reading. But I also think this app would benefit V in comprehension because the storybooks have fun pictures and an option for audio to go with the text. This app allows you to add or remove any books for your mobile library, helping V choose stories that he would be interested in that would also help in comprehension. According to androidapps.com the type of books for this app are very wide verities. Some including children’s books, story books, bedtime stories, classic stories, folk stories, toddler books, preschool books, nursery school books, kindergarten books, fairy tales and picture books. All books come with accompanying audio of the text in each page. Grace S.