Did you know that 1 in 68 children have some form of autism? And did you also know that EVERY person with autism are not the same, in fact, they are very different. So, if you have an autistic child in your classroom one day, will you know what to do to differentiate for them? The first, and most important, thing you can do for your students is to GET TO KNOW THEM! Every child is different and every child learns differently whether they are autistic or not.
Recently I learned about many apps that you can use in your classroom to help increase reading comprehension in children with autism. You may be wondering how apps can help students with autism and I am here to tell you that the possibilities are endless! Children with autism commonly struggle with single word reading, homophones, antonyms, synonyms, and higher-thinking skills. When using the iPad, autistic children like the colors, pictures, and the easy-touch screen. Oftentimes, autistic children have very strong visual recognition skills, so when using the iPad, the colors and pictures help engage students and help then retain more information in an easy and effective way.
Below I am going to list some of the apps I have been introduced to with a short description of what the app does. You can click the app icon for it to take you to the iTunes app store to download immediately.
Inference Clues: Reading Comprehension ($4.99)
Inference Clues helps build strong reading comprehension skills in a fun, game-like environment. It helps build inference skills step-by-step unit mastered. New levels are unlocked only when the child is ready. It has a fun and engaging reward system to increase student motivation.
Same Sound Spell Bound ($0.99)
This app is designed to help students understand homophones. The player gets to start out by choosing to be Luna or Leo and then they get to be a magician and work towards understanding the magic of words. In this game, the player must correctly identify which homophone correctly completes the sentence puzzle.
Opposite Ocean ($0.99)
Opposite Oceans is a sister game to Same Sound Spell Bound above and it teaches about antonyms. Again, the player chooses between Luna and Leo as their character and they have to choose bubble word antonyms to solve whale puzzles. The player earns a pearl each time they get the answer correct and when they earn five pearls, a mermaid appears with a bonus jewel that the player earned.
Noodle Words HD ($2.99)
Noodle Words contains a series of animated words that was created to help emerging readers from ages 4-7 discover word meaning. The reader can interact with the words and play with them. For example, they can make the word spin actually demonstrate spinning.
Picture the Sentence Lite ($0.99)
This app offers three different levels of difficulty. This allows the user to attend to important elements of a sentence and "picture it" by attaching meaning to the words. It can also help anyone trying to learn English. (ELL students) You can turn the voice commands off and turn the text features on, and use the game as a practice for basic reading comprehension skills.
Reading Comprehension Camp ($19.99)
Reading Comprehension Camp is a multi-purpose app specifically designed to encourage language and reading comprehension. It contains multiple levels and fifty different stories for the user to go through and also has the option to create your own personal story. (perfect for social stories, SCORE!) The app holds data, so a parent or teacher can easily access scores and monitor progress. Reading Comprehension is customizable and offers many different opportunities for differentiation.
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