App

Autism iHelp – Language Concepts

Curated and Reviewed by Lesson Planet

A parent of a child with autism, and a speech-language pathologist together developed this language-intervention app to be used with students with severe to moderate autism. 

Pre-K - 3rd Special Education & Programs 2 Collections 206 Views 56 Downloads
App Overview

This app is one within a series of five apps which use an ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) platform.

It offers two levels of learning games.

Level 1:

  • There are six games, the first set is free
  • The first two sets of games involve matching an adjective to a picture, such as hot to a picture of hot coals
  • In the third set of games, the objective is to identify what does not belong

Level 2:

  • Concepts are more advanced than Level 1
  • The user matches a word, such as dog to a picture of a dog house
  • In the second set of games, the learner places an object into a group of similar objects to form a group
  • The third set presents a word, such as fruit and the user has to identify all the fruit pictures  

 Skills Addressed:

  • Sorting
  • Organizing
  • Visual discrimination 
  • Short-term memory practice
  • Vocabulary building

Features:

  • Real-life images
  • Six learning games
  • Progress report
  • Options to customize audio type, answer sets & text, and more
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Instructional Ideas
  • Use this app to supplement a language-based learning disability therapy either as a therapy tool or practice homework for the student 
  • It can also be used in group speech and language therapy sessions
Classroom Considerations

Transitioning to the next sequence within a game is a bit slow. Also, the words under each picture card do not match with the picture. This aspect of the tool will not help build a site vocabulary, make word-to-picture connections, and may foster a misconception of words to image correlation. Additional games beyond the first free set must be purchased at $1.99 for each level. 

Pros
  • Clean interface
  • Real-life images
  • Customizable features including choosing speaker to be male or female
Cons
  • Slow transitions from sequence to sequence within a game
  • Pictures do not relate to objects names
  • The ABA used does not adhere exactly to traditional ABA practice