Betsy's Go-To Special Education Apps
(always in progress!)
The iPad and Android apps listed below are the ones that I rely on for Occupational Therapy sessions, frequently recommend to IEP teams at Assistive Technology consultation meetings, present during Assistive Technology workshops and use with my own children (Or sometimes myself.) For my long time readers, some of them may be familiar with the apps listed because I have reviewed them in the past.Note many of the apps apply to more than one category or can be used in multiple ways. I listed both lite/full/pro/subscription versions as well for both Android and iOS links when applicable.
Many of the apps are not free, I recommend using a website called app sliced to set alerts so you can get them for free or at least at a discounted price. Fair warning, some apps below never seem to go on sale. Other apps require a subscription to use their free app or to get the full version.
You can follow me on app sliced!
@ehawkins
Disclaimer: Download at your own risk!
What might be my go-to app, may not work for you, your child or student. Make sure to test it first for quality and pop up ads. I also recommend that you don't put full student information in the apps (create fake email and persona if necessary). Just in case... free may actually mean "I'm going to sell your information".
PICKS and REVIEWS!
Early Childhood
Finger Paint with Sounds by Inclusive Technology
Free for iOS and Android
iTunes
Google Play
Finger Paints with Sounds is a fun cause and effect, music/sound effect based finger painting app that you can use with students with multiple disabilities, students who need a relaxing sensory break or an interesting way to practice handwriting. If you don't want the music or sound effects you can turn them off. My favorite is you can select multi-touch or single touch so you can move your whole hand over the screen. If you use multi-touch, make sure to use guided access or turn off gestures if you want to use this feature or you will accidentally change apps or exit it.
ABC Ninja by Innovative Investments
$0.99 (It used to be free...sigh.)
iTunes
*No Android version yet
ABC ninja incorporates the style of fruit ninja where you slice letters or letter sounds. Use the app for drilling letter identification or for Occupational Therapists, work on swiping, visual discrimination, and processing speed.
MyPlayHome by Playhome Software
Lite, $3.99 for iOS and Free, $2.99 for Android
iTunes Lite
iTunes Full
Google Play Lite
Google Play Full
Amazon Lite
Amazon Full
I used this app during my OT sessions at summer school. I can't tell you how many kids (both boys and girls), loved this free version of My Playhome. It reminds me of colorforms where you get cling paper dolls to put in a visual scene. Just add cause and effect animation and sound effects! Occupational Therapists can work on finger isolation and dragging skills. Speech Language Pathologists can work on language skills like vocabulary and categories.
Fine Motor/Visual Perceptual/Pre-writing
Cut the Buttons by Open Name
$1.99 iOS (No Android version yet)
Apple
This is a great app that works on pincer grasp. I have personally used this in Occupational Therapy many times. It can be difficult for some younger kids so I would not rely on this initially work on pincer grasp but is great for practice and working on stamina. It has several modes: single and multi-player and it has classic and arcade. I prefer the arcade version which is timed and is more forgiving. The classic mode the game is over after so many mistakes.
Ready to Print by Essare
$9.99 iOS, $7.99 Android
iTunes
Google Play
Amazon
One word to Elementary School-Based Occupational Therapists and Kindergarten teachers everywhere: invaluable.
In fact, I bought this app twice so I could have it on both my iPad and my Android tablet. You can clearly tell this app was created by an Occupational Therapist. It works on exactly what I work on as a therapist: visual motor and visual perceptual skills. Activities start with touching items using finger isolation, then in order, and then dragging items, etc. After this app, your student is ready for all those great tracing apps. Not only are the activities in developmental order and stinking cute, it takes data. There are also companion worksheets available on their website.
Pinch Peeps by Everplay
Free iOS
iTunes
It looks like just a game, but it's really fine motor and matching! Little animated guys float on the screen in pairs by color/shapes. You have to avoid obstacles and bombs so there is some accuracy involved. This is great for Occupational therapists working on pincer grasp, fine motor stamina, and visual perceptual skills. There can be pop-up ads so you will need to monitor your student's use and/or try using guided access to keep students from exiting to the app store.
RowCol by Goldzone Applications
Free iOS
RowCol is an early childhood/kindergarten matching game that is in a matrix formation for teachers working on basic preschool skills and for Occupational Therapists working on visual perceptual skills and finger isolation. The app consists of matching colors, shapes, visual combinations of colors and shapes, and numbers. What I like about it is it has five levels of difficulty so your student can use the app for awhile. Additionally, I like that it gives cards that don’t belong on the matrix at all, so it is not errorless. It is very hard to figure out what a student knows in many of these early childhood apps when they can’t make a mistake. It does give immediate feedback with an emoji for correct and X for wrong. What I don’t like is you can’t pick the items in each of the levels and you can’t turn off the sounds. I have some students who like the sound for the wrong answer and would not progress in the app because of that, so I would have to turn all the sounds off for that student. Also it doesn’t give data reports for you.
Typing
Typing Class for iPad by Permeative Technologies
$4.99 iOS (No Android version yet)
iTunes
This app is only for typing practice (not touch typing instruction). I have used this app many times during OT sessions when a student completed a typing lesson as a way for fun independent practice. Make sure you test the game first, sometimes typing games can be too difficult for beginners. The app also includes practice words and practice typing. The words are on graph paper which is great for kids who struggle with eye tracking (visual perceptual skills) while typing. What I don't like about the app is the practice words/paragraphs break the words apart when it reaches the end of the line which can be confusing for some kids who want to read the words as they type. I also don't like the music it uses. No big deal, just go into settings and turn it off or give the student a set of headphones.
Type Defender - An Educational Spelling & Typing Game for Kids by SparkNET Interactive
$1.99 iOS
iTunes
Mix up your typing practice with a fun game where you are defending your castle from cute little animals with typing words hovering above them in a word bubble. As you type words correctly, you earn coins. The reason to download this app is you can track several users' progress and you can make custom word lists. Meaning your student can use this app after every typing lesson! Make typing nonsense words like ffgjh fun! Have a great set of word lists? You can go on their website typedefender.com for easy sharing. I liked this app so much that at an AT National Conference I got up in front over 100 people and presented it during the App Smackdown!
Handwriting
Writing Wizard by L'Escapadou
$4.99 iOS; Lite or $3.99 Android
iTunes
Google Play Lite
Google Play Full
Amazon Lite
Amazon Full
This is one of my absolute favorite apps that I use consistently with my OT students and have used in the past with my own children. You have the options to work on pre-writing strokes, upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and words. It comes with a couple of sample word lists but you can add your own word bank (I have used it for name writing, spelling lists, vocabulary, and sight words). What a lot of users don't know about is that this app takes data called tracing history, so you can see how your student is doing and customize their next handwriting session. The reports can be exported by email or printed. There are also tons of setting options such as selection of font (Handwriting without tears, Zaner Bloser, D'Neilian, UK, and Scandinavia), left-handed mode, time limits, letter size and you can customize the difficulty levels, reward activities, prompts, models and hints given. If I needed to give it a rating on a 10 point scale, it goes to 11.
Little Writer by Innovative Mobile Apps
$0.99 for iOS (No Android yet)
iTunes
This tracing app works on upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, shapes and words. It provides dots (well animals, fish) to trace, breaking it into separate strokes. It gives feedback if you trace in the wrong direction. What I like about it is if the student start to go outside the lines, it stops where they left off. Other apps make the student start tracing from the beginning, which can be extremely frustrating for some kiddos. You can also add your own word list and unlike other free handwriting apps, you get more than just a few letters to trace. What I don't like is you can't set it to different handwriting fonts (Zaner Bloser, Handwriting Without Tears), it's in comic san serif which isn't what students learn in handwriting instruction. If this is important to you, then I suggest the Pro version that gives you that feature.
Customized Storybooks or DIY Electronic Storybooks
Story Creator by Innovative Mobile Apps
Free iOS (No Android version yet)
iTunes
Story creator allows you to make your own electronic storybooks. You start a project, add drawing, picture or video, add text and record your voice and you are done! The interface is easy enough for students to use. It is an excellent teacher tool as well. You can make social stories, step by step instructions for self-care or pre-vocational skills (a.k.a. video modeling) or end of year classroom "scrapbooks". Easy and excellent, what more can you ask for?!
Reading:
Phonics Awareness by Bug Brained
Free iOS and Android
iTunes
Google Play
Amazon
Bug Brained has a whole set of reading apps to work on reading and math Pre-K to 3rd grade. Most of the apps are around $1.99, but this phonics awareness app is one of their freebies. It works on segmenting, blends, and vowels. It's interactive, cute and takes data. The one thing I don't like is I can't pick which words are in the activities.
Written Expression
Inspiration Maps by Inspiration Software
Lite or $9.99 iOS (No Android version yet)
Apple Lite
Apple Full
This is one of my all time favorites apps. It's an easy to use, graphic organizer that has both a software and an iPad version. You can use one of the pre-made templates or start out with a simple bubble in the middle of the page to start your brainstorming. Once you are all finished, you can email your work to yourself.
There is a full version of this app for $9.99, so you are limited to a few documents and most of the cooler features are not available. Yet this lite version is still pretty powerful.
Sentence Creator by Innovative Investments Limited
Free iOS (No Android version yet)
iTunes
This app is great for early elementary students who are learning the concept of creating sentences with pre-made word cards. You are given a picture prompt and then word cards that are scrambled. You either drag to the sentence window or just tap to build the sentence. What I really like about this app is that you have the option to put the punctuation mark is its own card so it doesn't give the student the extra hint on word order. You also have other options to turn on/off hints, put in distractor cards and set the number of sentences the student is working on (and several other options). I love that it allows you to make your own sentences and it takes data! It's made by the same folks who makes Bitsboard, so if you have experience in creating activities in this app, you will already be familiar with the layout and settings.
Co:writer by Don Johnston, $34.99
Co:writer Universal, yearly subscription
iTunes (Co:writer stand alone app)
iTunes (Co:writer Universal)
Chrome
Co:writer is hands down the best word prediction tool out there for learners. It supports students who spell phonetically where spell check is stumped, for students who struggle with forming complete sentences because its prediction includes syntax support and it supports students who are 1-2 finger typers, speeding up their typing speed. It allows you to add topic dictionaries, to increase the accuracy of the words in the prediction window. It also provides text to speech both for the words in the prediction window as well as their writing, to increase a learner's independence. I refer to Co:Writer as my "Best seller" (even though I don't sell anything). Co:writer can be life-changing. I'm not kidding. I have provided Co:writer and a child who refused to write, who was having daily melt downs, is now typing paragraphs and turning in all their homework. It started as a software only tool and then branched out to a stand alone app called Co:writer. The newest version is Co:writer Universal, which is an iPad app, downloadable software and Chrome app and extension. Co:writer Universal is a yearly subscription price, which is harder for my organization to manage, but it does mean you will always have the newest version available for you, no more upgrades!
Clicker Sentences by Crick Software
$32.99 iOS; Subscription, Chrome
iTunes
Chrome
Clicker Sentences is a child of Clicker 7. Clicker 7 is a gigantic piece of multi-media, literacy software that supports students Pre-K to grade 5. The software developers took 4 of their activities and made iPad and Chrome apps. I love all of them, but I'm starting with sentences. Just cuz. Clicker sentences is word bank writing that provides the all the words for a student to build a sentence. You as the teacher (with the student if feasible) create the word banks and the student "clicks" the cells to write. You can have a picture prompt, text model, audio model, pop up text model or no model. It provides text to speech support. Thanks to cloud sharing, you can create activities on your teacher computer using the full software and then push out those activities to iPads and Chromebook users alike. This means teachers can collaborate! Crick software also has online activity resource called Learning Grids where you can download hundreds of pre-made activities ready to go.
Elementary Math Tools
SchoolKit Math by Scott Glickman (ages 6-8)
Free iOS (No Android version yet)
iTunes
This is not an app with problems to solve, but a manipulative app that you use alongside your math activities. This is great for students who need manipulatives regularly or have fine motor difficulties that prevent them from using traditional objects. It includes 24 different tools (examples: fraction kit, number line, bar graph, clocks). You create a homepage with up to 10 tools on it is easy for students to find what they need.
Long Division Touch by Regular Berry Software
Lite or $1.99 iOS; Free Android (Google Play only, not available on Amazon yet)
iTunes Lite
iTunes Classroom/Full
Google Play
This math app is a supplementary activity that covers long division basics, place value, remainders and decimals. The app provides step by step written instructions with visual models and then then student interacts with the problems by dragging down numbers and tapping plus and minus to add digits. student drags down numbers and selects numbers. The free version provides a small set of problems, the full version have unlimited problems. The only thing I would change is I wish the instructions could be read out loud, either within the app or using the speak screen option.
Time
Tell Time Little Match Ups by Innovative Investments
Free iOS (No Android version yet)
iTunes
Tell time works on matching two pictures of clocks, one analog and one digital. The student drags the items on the left to the matching clock on the right side. The app is easily customizable, you can select what time increments are tested, the number of items on a page (from 2-8), change game sounds and most importantly, the ability to add additional pictures and record your own voice. This way you can take pictures of clocks in your school or community environment to make sure your student can apply their knowledge to their own world. The only thing I don't like is it only has an errorless learning mode, so there is no way to receive data. You will need to use a different app for this purpose.
Worksheet Annotation
Snap Type by Brendan Kirchner
Lite or Pro version is $4.99 on iOS
iTunes
SnapType is a picture annotation app where you snap a picture of a document and then you can type on top of it. It's a must for students with illegible, slow or laborious handwriting. You can save it in a folder in the app or share it as a pdf or image. The font size is super easy to change and you can also hold and drag the text boxes to where you need them. The pro version has unlimited number of documents available and advanced photo editing, but most of my students get what they need from the free version. The app isn't perfect. I wish there was a way to have a pen tool to circle or highlighter. I also wish I could sync it to Google Drive and Dropbox. Remember to consider copyright law when taking pictures of documents!
Claro PDF Accessible PDF TTS Reader by Claro Software
Lite, $6.99 iOS (No Android version yet)
This is an app for your student if he/she needs both text to speech to read your worksheet questions AND you need to annotate it! There is a lite version which honestly, I have not tried yet. The downside to the app is that it comes with OCR credits, meaning each time you want to turn a picture into a PDF, you need to make sure you have enough money to spend. I think it's a little complicated to get started and the OCR credits is a little annoying.
$6.99 iOS; Free Android (Google Play only, no Amazon version yet)
iTunes
Google Play
This on-the-spot OCR, text to speech reader is a great tool for iDevice users with visual impairments or those who are reading below grade level. It can't get any easier..just take a picture and then run your finger across to hear the text. You can highlight a whole section of text or line by line. I noticed that it doesn't do as well on curved pages (like on a book), but works well on flat surfaces like worksheets. I haven't tested this feature yet, but it works with several languages. Note you need at least a 2 mega pixel camera on your device for it to work. This means it doesn't work on my ASUS android tablet :(
Visual Supports/Visual Schedules:
Choiceworks by Bee Visual
$6.99 iOS (No Android version yet)
iTunes
This is hands down the best elementary school aged visual schedule and visual supports app out there. It has 3 parts to it: schedule, waiting visual supports and feelings visual supports. The schedule allows you to make a custom vertical schedule that the student can drag to the done area by just swiping. Each task can have a visual timer associated with it. At the end of the schedule you can place the activities they can do when they are finished. You can press a play button to hear your entire schedule if you like. The waiting gives students a visual timer with a choice of two activities/strategies that they can do while they are waiting. The feelings board is similar. They give two areas for strategies and then activities they can do when they are ready. It comes with a set of line drawings, but you can add your own photos with recordings. I have a visual schedule for everyone of my students, even my older students working on pre-vocational skills.
Homework Planners/To-do lists:
MyHomework by myhomeworkapp.com
Lite (Premium is $4.99/year)
iTunes
Google Play
Amazon
MyHomework is a homework organizing, device agnostic app. When I say device agnostic, it means its available on iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, and Chromebook. You start by starting a free account, then adding your classes and then homework. It syncs to the account in the cloud, so you can use this on your school computer, public library, chromebook, phone, whatever! The great part is you can set reminders and categorize your assignments/projects by priority level. There are a bunch of other features, but honestly, I focus on the basics for my Special Education students.
Google Keep by Google
Free iOS, Android, Chrome
iTunes
Google Play
My favorite apps are ones you are guaranteed that it follows you everywhere and is free! The purpose of Google Keep is to have notes and to do lists arranged in a sticky note arrangement. You can add photos, check boxes and audio recording to the sticky notes. My favorite application to this app for students is to use it as a homework organizer. I have many students who use the strategy of taking the picture of the board instead of copying their homework into a planner. The problem is it becomes all mixed in with their other pictures. Can you find your history assignment between selfies? Hmmmm. Using Google Keep, you can snap a picture of the board right into your sticky, add text or recording and then file it in a category, using different colors if you like. It also includes reminders, both traditional time related and location (if you have location tracking on your device) and the ability to share it with someone else in your address book. You could also use it as a low tech choice board and probably 20 other ways I can’t think of right now. A new features is you can open your Google Keep into Google Docs. I used this feature to save a to-do list with some notes. I wish you could add a recording after you make a note. Instead you have to do the recording first and then add text and/or photos. Also, I wish that when you transfer it to Google Docs, it keeps the check boxes (they turn into bullets).
Multi-Subject
Bitsboard by Innovative Investments Limited
This is a customizable flash card app that allows you to add photos and recordings that also takes data. Once you make your flashcards (bits), then you turn it into the games that it will take data on: matching, receptive identification, spelling, word finds, etc. I can't live without this app. Really, I'm not kidding. It is great for all ages and cognitive levels (if you use photos it doesn't look too babyish) You can do a lot with the free version. the full version has some additional features worth it for a hard core user or for those who do not have time to make their own activities. (The full version allows you download activity sets, to add multiple users, use dropbox, have a web image search and better tech support and updates.)
Last Updated: 4/13/17
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