Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech, and nonverbal communication.
Fortunately, technology can help us with this matter. But how? Exposure to the right quality autism apps can help a kid with autism in several ways.
Especially if you are in need of assisting your kid in developing skills, such as decision making, communication, social interaction, and finding the motivation to improve and learn, autism apps for kids are golden opportunities!
Besides, the right-quality autism apps help children gain confidence as these apps reveal that they can achieve something.
In this blog, you will learn about some of the best autism apps for kids that are available today.
Autism can be reflected in many different areas, such as reading, spelling, and math. Here are the best apps that can help you:
We’ve compiled a list of the top apps for kids with autism with developmental difficulties. Available on iOS and Android, these special education apps can help with math, communication, language therapy, and even problem-solving. Off we go!
Although MentalUP is not an app specifically designed for children with autism, it offers a personalized methodology according to the learning potential of the person, and with this feature, it has become the first choice of many families who are looking for apps for kids with autism.
You can start attention exercises now with MentalUP’s scientific games designed by academicians and professional game designers. Along with its easy usage on any device, it is one of the best ipad apps for kids.
Increasing your mental agility by exercising the brain has never been so easy! Help yourself to these various riddles, puzzles, and games. Benefiting from them plays an active role in autism treatment to stay mentally strong.
| MentalUP Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| No ads | Limited features for the free plan |
| From pre-K to high school | |
| Detailed progress report | |
| Pedagogically approved | |
| Family plan (Up to 3 members) | |
If you’re interested in the top communication apps for children with autism, Proloquo2Go is one of the best apps for kids with autism to assist nonverbal children.
You can use this ACC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) as a daily communication tool, supporting the development of key language skills. Because it is fun to use, the app functions as one of the best toys for autistic kids.
Proloquo2Go is an easy-to-use communication app for people who cannot speak or need help being understood. Featuring natural-sounding voices, including real children’s voices, Proloquo2Go is a simple yet powerful AAC tool.
The app is fully customizable and can be utilized to build language skills and grow with a person’s communication, supporting both beginning and advanced communicators.
| Proloquo2Go Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Advanced grammar | Expensive |
| Customizable vocabulary | Can be difficult to navigate |
| Variety of access methods | |
| Social sharing | |
This app emphasizes connecting images with their accompanying sounds.
Since the developers are parents of a child with autism, they know well the importance of parental control in apps for kids with autism. This app also stands out with its advanced parental control feature.
Autism iHelp is a vocabulary teaching aid developed by parents of a child with autism and a speech-language pathologist.
Autism iHelp was inspired by the need for specific language intervention tools for children with autism spectrum disorder focusing on their unique strengths and difficulty with expressive vocabulary.
| Autism iHelp Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Developed by parents of an autistic child | Lack of support |
| Parental control | |
| Integrates auditory and visual stimuli | |
Meet one of the best reading apps for kids with autism: Endless Reader!
Kids will have a blast learning sight words and their context and usage with the adorable Endless monsters.
Each word features an interactive word puzzle with letters that come alive, and then a sentence puzzle with words that become what they describe. See the word "dog" as a barking dog, and the word "up" as reaching for the sky!
| Endless Reader Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Adorable animations liven up letters and demonstrate word meanings. | Letter sound pronunciations can mislead kids. |
Created under the guidance of parents, psychologists and special education teachers, assistive games in Otsimo teach fundamental education and concepts that develop cognitive, communication, and motor skills with categories such as:
| Otsimo Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Wide range of language options | No free trial |
| Impressive layout | |
The Miracle Modus app is a source of hypnotic rainbows and soft bells.
It was developed by an individual with autism: “I’m autistic, and I wrote this because I wanted something to mitigate sensory overload. I find mathematically-patterned rainbow lights very soothing.”
This fact makes this app much more useful and enjoyable for kids with sensory processing difficulties. Let your kids enjoy this innovative and soothing experience in one of the best autism apps for kids!
| Miracle Modus Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Developed by an autistic person | Weak customer support |
| Donation-based | |
This app for language and cognitive abilities has gone through clinical studies and helped over 8,000 children learn how to speak confidently and achieve language development milestones.
The app includes bright, interactive puzzles designed to help children learn how to mentally integrate multiple features of an object, an ability that has proven to lead to vast improvements in general learning.
Over time, success with MITA puzzles can result in significant improvements in a child’s overall development, specifically in the realms of language, attention, and visual skills.
| Language Therapy for Kids Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Engaging | Some pages aren’t user-friendly |
| Wide range of languages | |
Avaz AAC is an augmentative and alternative communication app that empowers children and adults that have speech-related disabilities with a voice of their own.
This fully-featured speech app also includes a training module for new AAC users and caregivers. The benefits of communication app for kids with autism are numerous and you can find many of them in this app.
The research-based pragmatic vocabulary consists of over 15,000 pictures (Symbolstix) with a variety of high-quality voices that a communicator, regardless of their ability, can tap to form sentences quickly.
With a wide range of personalization and customization options, you can make Avaz AAC your own in just a matter of minutes.
| Avaz AAC Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Great customization | Not very intuitive |
| Good hierarchy of levels | |
While many children often find “What? Where? Why? Who?” questions difficult to understand, they can be even trickier to learn for kids with autism.
QuestionIt focuses on teaching children language concepts through sorting and matching questions with correct answers. Using familiar words and illustrations, QuestionIt provides color clues to make it easier for young users to match the right pictures.
There are not many apps for kids with autism to learn the answers to WH questions and this app stands for it!
| Avaz AAC Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| No ads | Weak customer support |
| No location data required | |
Meet one of the most effective math apps for kids with autism: Sushi Monster! A game to practice, reinforce, and extend math fact fluency is completely engaging and appropriately challenging.
Strengthen reasoning strategies for whole number addition and multiplication by helping monsters make a target sum or product.
This app meets Common Core State Standards. Extend fact knowledge to support strategic reasoning and computational flexibility in addition and multiplication.
| Sushi Monster Pros & Cons | |
|---|---|
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Free | Needs more levels |
| Great music and sound effects | |
| App | Subscription Fees or In-app Purchases | Features |
| MentalUP | Regional Price |
✓ Adaptive Learning ✓ Customizable ✓ Curriculum-Based ✓ Online Play X Sharing/Community |
| Proloquo2Go | $124.99 |
X Adaptive Learning ✓ Customizable ✓ Curriculum-Based ✓ Online Play X Sharing/Community |
| Autism iHelp | $2.99 |
✓ Adaptive Learning ✓ Customizable X Curriculum-Based ✓ Online Play X Sharing/Community |
| Endless Reader | $29.99 |
✓ Adaptive Learning ✓ Customizable ✓ Curriculum-Based X Online Play ✓ Sharing/Community |
| Otsimo | $9.99 |
✓ Adaptive Learning ✓ Customizable ✓ Curriculum-Based X Online Play ✓ Sharing/Community |
| Miracle Modus | Free |
X Adaptive Learning ✓ Customizable X Curriculum-Based X Online Play ✓ Sharing/Community |
| Language Therapy for Kids | Free |
✓ Adaptive Learning ✓ Customizable X Curriculum-Based ✓ Online Play X Sharing/Community |
| Avaz AAC | $9.99 |
✓ Adaptive Learning X Customizable ✓ Curriculum-Based X Online Play ✓ Sharing/Community |
| QuestionIt | Free |
✓ Adaptive Learning X Customizable ✓ Curriculum-Based X Online Play ✓ Sharing/Community |
| Sushi Monster | Free |
X Adaptive Learning X Customizable X Curriculum-Based X Online Play ✓ Sharing/Community |
There are several considerations when choosing an autism app for your kid. Remember that just because an app is high-quality doesn't necessarily mean it's responsive to your child's needs.
MentalUP offers all the kids who are in different age groups and levels a safe learning space. You can find 150+ fun educational games and 240+ physical exercises that will develop their focus, concentration, logic, and memory. 🎮
Keep in mind that you can also check out detailed reports of skill analysis and compare your kids with their peers. So, when you need a boosting source, you can always prefer MentalUP which is approved by pedagogues. 🎈