best speech apps for autism

A parent’s guide to the best Autism Apps in 2023?

When it comes to choosing the right Apps for Autism, a little bit of investment may go a long way. Both iTunes and the Android app store have heaps of Autism apps for parents, children and even Autistic adults. In this guide, we will take a closer look at some of the most popular Autism apps (both free and premium ones) and how they can help your child, you and your family.

12 Top Apps for Autism – That actually CAN make a Difference!

The list below contains  popular apps for iOS and Android across varying range of sophistication and price (while some apps are free, a few of them can stretch you budget beyond $400). While each of us may differ in terms of our affordability, the importance we place on the development of our children is second to none!

12 Free or Premium Autism Apps:

Lets start our handpicked list of apps available via both iOS and android. These apps are finely tuned to address unique strengths and considerations, focusing on specific areas where autistic individuals may shine their brightest.

AUTISM 360™ App

The all-in-one platform Autism 360 App is our Editor’s choice!

Focus Area: Parent Training, Assessments, Community and Therapy Support (Speech, OT, Behavior, Social & Communication skills)

Platform: iOS, Android

Devices: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android Devices

Ease of Use : Easiest to use among all Autism apps

Price: In App Purchases >> Start your Trial

About: Autism 360™ is a brand new entrant in the Autism apps marketplace and is the only all-in-one comprehensive Autism platform available today. Autism 360 goes above and beyond high quality digital therapeutic support. It has created a thriving community of parents and caregivers who work together to support each other. Autism 360 takes a holistic look towards Autism support with an aim to empower families and provided them targeted support – based on exactly what their child needs.

Key Features :

• On Demand Access to Licensed Therapists – No waitlist needed
• Access to Netflix-style high quality courses – from Speech and Social, to managing Behavior and Emotions, and even Cognitive and Intellectual support
• Live Workshops –  where experts hand-hold parents through practical parenting challenges.
• 360 Assessments – From social, all the way to play skills and learning or sensory needs
• Large Library of 1000+ Autism resources, accessed on-demand
• Hundreds of Visual aids
• Real time support from 10,000+ autism parents – No more feeling ‘lonely’ on your Autism journey.

That said, if you want an app to provide specific support to a very niche problem, Autism 360 may not be the right option for you. But for parents who want to feel truly supported across the 360-degree needs of their client, while being able to take care of themselves, Autism 360 is their perfect digital companion.

2. Proloquo2Go ($249)

Ease of Use: Hard Devices: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

Price: $249.99 or $449.99 for Essentials Bundle. **School discounts available.

About: Proloquo2Go, an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app for Autism, uses this strength to counteract a child’s speech problems by teaching them how to construct simple sentences through the use of pictures and symbols. It is designed to assist individuals with autism in expressing themselves. It boasts a library of over 14,000 symbols and words, customizable to each user’s specific needs. The app facilitates effective communication by using pictures and symbols to construct sentences, making it a valuable tool for overcoming speech impairments.

Additional Features:

• Support for British and American voices and pronunciations
• Text-to-speech conversion
• Customisable vocabulary
• Word predictions for enhanced communication
• User-configurable interface

3. Autism Tracker Pro ($12.99)

Autism Tracker Pro – One of the most popular Apps for Autism

Price: $12.99 

About:   Autism Tracker Pro assists parents and caregivers in monitoring and tracking behaviour among individuals with autism. The app enables users to record behaviours, moods, and medications, generating comprehensive reports to be shared with healthcare providers. This tracking helps identify patterns, triggers, and stressors, aiding informed treatment decisions.

Autism Tracker is a life changing app for families having kids with Autism. This app helps you track the elements that matter to the development of your autistic child. You can use multi-item graphs, visual calendars, and discussion patterns to help you organise a day in the life of a child with autism. Also, available is the free Lite version for trial use. Though fully customizable, Autism Tracker Pro has a range of preset options to address the special needs of your special child.

Some preset startup screen already available are:

• Mood: Stress, Happiness, Hyperactivity, and Weather
• Behaviour: Aggressive, Oppositional defiant, self-injurious, Destructive, Tantrums
• Diet: Casein and Gluten-free, Colourants, Caffeine, Homoeopathic
• Health: Sleep, Autism medication, BM Textures, Bowel movements
• Reports: Activity and Progress monitoring

4. Choiceworks ($19.99)

Choiceworks – Yet another App for Organizing an Autistic Child’s Life

Price: $19.99

About: Choiceworks is designed to help individuals with autism comprehend consequences. The app employs visual schedules and social stories to aid users in making choices and learning from them. Users can establish schedules for daily tasks, fostering a sense of accomplishment and independence. Social stories provide guidance on appropriate behavior in various situations. The Choiceworks app is beneficial for children who require assistance in the following areas:

• Planning: It aids in developing a structured approach to achieve goals by creating visual schedules for tasks and routines. This helps children proceed through activities step by step.
• Self-Awareness: Choiceworks helps children manage emotions by redirecting them from tantrums. It encourages self-monitoring of emotions and prompts breaks to calm down, providing solutions for addressing everyday challenges.
• Time Management: The app cultivates efficient time use through timers and visual schedules, guiding tasks like reading and morning routines. It facilitates self-reward for effective time management and concentration.
• Incorporating visual aids and interactive features, Choiceworks empowers children with practical tools for planning, emotional regulation, and time utilisation.

5. Autism iHelp ($0-$74.99)

Website: Autism iHelp Focus Area: Social Skills Rating : Platform : iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch Devices : iOS, Android

Price: Free or $74.99

About: 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.Sounds integrate auditory and visual stimuli. It emphasises connecting images with their accompanying sound. Autism iHelp offers 200+ lessons on social skills, including identifying facial expressions and body language, initiating conversation, and more. Users customise profiles and difficulty levels while tracking progress. Parents access detailed reports to monitor performance and identify areas needing support. User reviews suggest it be better for younger children. 

• Vocabulary teaching aid developed by a speech pathologist and by parents of a child with AUTISM
• Real world photos based on established expressive language milestones
• Learning enhancement activities presented in game like format with progress reports to track child’s gains

6. Grace ($33.99)

Website: Grace Focus Area: Wellbeing and Stress Management Rating : Platform : iOS Devices : iPhone, iPad, iTouch

Price: $33.99

About:   Grace is one of the Autism apps that are built with lived experiences. Created by the mother of two autistic children who experienced difficulty communicating complex ideas with words. The app allows autistic children to form complex sentences using images that are universal and easy to understand. Rather than a learning app, Grace aims to be a useful tool for autistic children to rely on in everyday situations. It can also help autistic children build the communication skills needed to speak more efficiently on their own. Grace caters to individuals with autism managing anxiety and stress. The app features guided meditations, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques. Sensory experiences offer visual and auditory stimuli to promote relaxation. Users can journal mood and progress for self-awareness and coping strategies.

7. Goally ($0-$249.00) – New player is the world of Autism Apps

Price: Partially free. Or $6.99 per day, $24.99 per month or $249.00 per year. 

About:   Goally supports parents in implementing therapy strategies at home. The app assists with routines, charts, and checklists for daily tasks. It emphasises making parenting easier and more effective by integrating therapy techniques seamlessly. Features included:

• Visual Schedules
• Behaviour Tracker
• An Integrated Token Board System
• AAC Talker app
• A Kid-Friendly Game Center
• Weather App
• Visual Count-Down Timer
• 9-1-1 Calling Ability
• Digital Safety ID card
• Reporting system

8. Otsimo Speech Therapy ($29.99- $399)

Price: 7 day trial . $29.99 per month, $174 annually or $399 for lifetime

About: Otsimo is one of the popular autism apps and is tailored for children, fostering their educational journey through an array of engaging activities. This app is thoughtfully designed to cater to the unique needs of those with autism, offering a variety of educational games to nurture essential skills. The interactive experiences encompass tasks like object matching, letter recognition, and shape comprehension, promising boundless enjoyment.

At its core, this app is dedicated to imparting fundamental knowledge to young learners with autism. Its curriculum spans a comprehensive range, encompassing vocabulary, alphabetic proficiency, numerical understanding, emotional awareness, color recognition, animal acquaintance, and vehicular knowledge. These captivating games are meticulously crafted with the intent of providing both entertainment and skill development, and they are masterfully curated with the specific needs of children on the autism spectrum in focus.

For individuals facing speech-related challenges, Otsimo extends support through Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC), facilitating speech therapy, promoting autism-related communication, and aiding special education initiatives. This remarkable application also doubles as a tool for enhancing linguistic and cognitive development.

 9. Speak Easy Home Speech Therapy ($0-$119.00)

Website: Speak Easy Home Speech therapy Focus Area: Speech Therapy Rating : Platform : iOS, Android Devices : iPhone, iPad, iTouch, Mac

Price: 7 day free trial, $9.99 per month when billed annually ($119.99) or $19.99 per month when billed monthly. There is also a free version of the app. 

About:   SpeakEasy helps your baby, toddler, pre-schooler, or kindergartener talk!

They bring the power of speech and language learning into the home with the SpeakEasy: Home Speech Therapy app. They deliver their activities in a mobile app so that at home language learning is accessible and easy to follow. With the SpeakEasy App, you get:

• A personalised Language Journey for their child
• Speech Sets explaining language-teaching techniques to use when interacting with their child
• Fun and effective activities, written by a speech language pathologist, that will accelerate their child’s speech and language development

Full access to the app requires a SpeakEasy Unlimited subscription.

10. The Autism Helper (Free for basic app)

Website: The Autism Helper Focus Area: Social Networking Rating : Platform : iOS, Android Devices : iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac

Price: Free

About:   At The Autism Helper, Inc., they are committed to supporting people who care for individuals with Autism. They offer tools, resources, and ways to measure success. Their goal is to help teachers, parents, clinicians, and administrators. They share easy strategies on their blog, podcast, and training videos. They also provide detailed training in their CE Courses, live events , and Professional Development Membership. They create helpful academic materials and curriculum for students of all ages. Their aim is to bring value by focusing on positive behaviour changes, having high expectations, and using information to make good choices. The Autism Helper is one of the few Autism apps that provide resources and community support for those striving to create the best life possible for individuals with autism.

When you join The Autism Helper community you gain access to:

• Training on evidence based practices in a way that is easy to access and easy to implement
• The ability to enroll in evidence-based courses on behaviour change, literacy, and executive functioning skills
• Free weekly downloadable tools and materials to work on academic, functional, and communication-based skills
• An exclusive community of like-minded professionals ready to collaborate and share best-practices
• Live Q&As with Sasha Long, MA, BCBA to get your questions answered
• Access to dedicated sub-groups for speech language pathologists, parents of autistic children, special education teachers, and more!

11. Autism Parenting Magazine ($52.99 annually)

Price: $52.99 per year

About:   Autism Parenting Magazine provides practical articles, videos, and resources for parents and caregivers. It offers solutions to common challenges faced by parents of individuals with autism. The app encourages connection through discussion forums and social media. However, this is typically one of those autism apps that offer a lot of information without much guidance.

The magazine is dedicated purely for people with Autism for all ages and offers comprehensive support that allows parents to create contextual visual environments in order to accommodate a wide range of abilities for individuals that are just beginning to communicate to those that are verbal and using visual support to promote independence.

Some key visual supports include:

• VSDs (Visual Scene Displays)
• Video Modeling
• Content Sharing
• Predictive Keyboard
• Grid-Based AAC Full Sentence Builder
• Content Library
• Visual Stories
• GPS Capability
• Social Network integration

12. Language Therapy For Kids- MITA ($0- $199)

Website: Language Therapy for Kids Focus Area: Language Therapy  Rating : Platform : iOS, Android Devices : iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac

Price: $0 – $199 per year

About:  Language Therapy for Kids-MITA is an app that offers a wide range of activities and games designed to improve cognitive and motor skills in individuals with autism.   The app includes over 60 different activities that are tailored to the user’s specific needs and abilities. These activities are designed to improve skills such as memory, attention, problem-solving, and fine motor control. Each activity is presented in a fun and engaging way that encourages users to stay motivated and focused. One of the standout features of Autism Therapy with MITA is its customisation options. The app allows users to create their own profiles, set goals, and track their progress over time. This can be a helpful tool for parents or caregivers who want to monitor their child’s progress and identify areas where they may need additional support.

Overall, Autism Therapy with MITA is an excellent tool for individuals with autism who want to improve their cognitive and motor skills in a fun and engaging way.

With its customizable features and evidence-based approach, this app can help users make meaningful progress towards greater independence and success in daily life.

Which one to pick among these Autism Apps

In summary, if you are looking for lightweight or some specific support (be it behavior, organization skills, etc) you can choose any of the able apps based on their applicability and your budget. However, if you have limited support at hand and are looking for a comprehensive solution that addresses all your needs (from potty training to sensory, speech, emotional and learning needs), then Autism 360 iOS or their Android version will be among the best autism apps for you.

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One app for android out if the list?? Not helpful. Any advice or opinions about subscription apps for android. I’ve seen ABC Mouse and a few others. Just curious of any has helped with learning preschool concepts. I have high functioning 4yr old. She struggles with numbers and letters.

This is a great list and really helpful for parents with special needs child.

We’d also like to add Socky App by Ola Mundo. SOcky is communication app that helps families communicate remotely with kids with ASD through illustrations and multiple choice questions. It’s free and is available for both Android and iOS.

Follow us on Facebook or Twitter, and we’d love to answer any questions you might have. We also share inspiring stories and helpful information to the ASD community. Thank you and see you there! 🙂

My son uses an android app called Autism myCommunicator. It works great for him. Helps him communicate with me and my husband. http://bit.ly/1NAk7PJ

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We will review the app and update this post. Also, if you want to share a small paragraph on your feedback with this App, we would greatly appreciate the same. Please note that we include only Autism Apps that are either reviewed by us or by esteemed readers such as yourselves.

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Leeloo AAC - Autism Speech App 4+

Nonverbal autism communication, designed for ipad.

• 3.7 • 65 Ratings
• Offers In-App Purchases

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Description.

Leeloo is an app that helps non-verbal kids to communicate with their parents, teachers and friends. Leeloo is developed with the AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) and PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) principles. Which is strong techniques for autism treatment and autism therapy in communication. In this app, there is a card for every word that your kid might need to use in daily. And every card is matched with an definitive vector image about the phrase or word your kid trying to communicate. Leeloo also has text to speech voice capability. Every card pressed will reveal options of phrases, and the chosen phrase will be read by a text-to-speech robot. Leeloo designed for kids suffering mental, learning or behaviour disorders mostly Autism and is suitable for but not limited to; - Aspergers syndrome - Angelman syndrome - Down syndrome - Aphasia - Speech apraxia - ALS - MDN - Cerebral pally Leeloo has pre-configured and tested cards for preschool and currently attending school kids. But can be costimazed for an adult or a later age person who is suffering similar disorders or in the spectrum mentioned. The functionality of the Leeloo AAC is free and will stay so. Additionally we offer Premium Assistive Card packs you can add to your AAC board depending on the user's areas of interest, you can access this premium packs by unlocking "Leeloo Premium". We offer; 1 Month from $6.99/month 1 Year from $4.99/month (Billed yearly from $59.99/year with 3-day free trial) Lifetime from $149.99 For exact prices converted to your country of residence and currency, please see your App Settings > Subscription. Additionally we might offer discounted prices for countries with less purchasing power. Where 1 month and 1 year plans are subscription-based and Lifetime plan is a one-time purchase. If you upgrade to Leeloo Premium, payment will be charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription-based plan purchase will be applied to your iTunes account on confirmation for monthly and at the end of the trial for yearly plans. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime with your iTunes account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial will be forfeited if you purchase a subscription. For more information, see our; Terms of Use: https://dreamoriented.org/termsofuse/ Privacy Policy: https://dreamoriented.org/privacypolicy/

Version 2.7.6

Bug fixes on voice list. Store listing iPad screenshot fixes. Added ability to remove your and your child's data.

Ratings and Reviews

This app is one of the only ones I found that could cater to my needs! I am an autistic teen and go through periods of being nonverbal due to stress, anxiety, or I’m purely incapable. This app is a bit more child oriented and would be a lot better if it had adult options. Another thing is the fact it has other available packs, but they cost money. Not all of us have the support system or the ability to pay and it sort of hinders me from communicating fully what I need. I use this for school, around friends and my boyfriend, and sometimes struggle to find the correct phrase. Other then that this is a wonderful app!

Great support team - Great app!

My son is speech and developmentally delayed. That being said, we work with a few different ways to communicate and an app like this was suggested. I downloaded over my cellular network, and I had no audio. I went home and deleted the app and re-downloaded on WiFi and the issue resolved. I did contact support between problem and resolve and they were SO kind. Never, ever had support like this and I work for one of the biggest tech companies in the world! While this app is a little advanced for my three year old, we’re only on day two and he’s starting to catch on! It’s wonderful to see his eyes light up as the board says what he is thinking/wanting and it helps clear some of the frustration. Thank you LeeLou!! Amy

Kid oriented..

I noticed upon immediately opening the app to set it up, that this AAC app is VERY child-centric. I’m an Autistic Adult looking for AAC for the days I go nonverbal. I personally find that to be the flaw with a vast majority of these apps. They are all CHILD centered. Those autistic children do grow up. They turn into autistic adults and teens. They still need these apps for those accommodations, and making them only have the option of child-like avatars, parental settings for the account, and “cutesy” really really deters us from using the things that we need. I’m not trying to be rude at all, I’m just asking, like so many others, that the creators of this app stray away from the infantilism of autism and the stereotypes of who needs these apps. We aren’t all 8- year old boys. I kindly and hopefully suggest making another app, or even adding another mode option to this app in particular so that is adults and teens can use it without feeling like we are being looked at like children. I really have not found a single AAC app marketed toward Autistic Adults. It would be SO AMAZING if we could find or make one.

Developer Response ,

Hello, thank you for the detailed review, as you say this is an app made for kids. But currently we have an ongoing project to make another AAC app for adults.

App Privacy

The developer, DOYBLS , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

• Contact Info
• Identifiers
• Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

English, Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish

• Leeloo Monthly Premium $6.99
• Leeloo Yearly Premium $59.99
• Leeloo Lifetime Premium $149.00
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Giving a voice to autistic and non-verbal people

app2vox is a free AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) app designed to help autistic and non-verbal individuals communicate with the people around them.

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Simple communication

Our smart phrase builder and sophisticated, extensive library of cues allow those with limited communication skills to interact with friends, parents and carers.

Text to Speech

Our text to speech app is a game changer in the world of speech therapy apps for nonverbal people as it is one of the only autism apps developed with the aim of helping nonverbal children and adults to interact better with other people.

Tap an icon to add to phrase bar

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Designed to enhance the everyday lives of non-verbal people, with a focus on children and adults with autism. Learn more about the app2vox features.

You may get in touch with the app2vox support team using the form below:

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Autism and speech devices: Helping kids advance skills as they mature

“Our son is 6 years old, minimally verbal and on the spectrum. We’ve seen him make progress with a speech-generating device – a touch screen with pictures that produce single words. How can we use this approach to keep him making progress and meet his changing needs as he gets older and becomes more independent of us?”

The following information is not meant to diagnose or treat and should not take the place of personal consultation, as appropriate, with a qualified healthcare professional and/or behavioral therapist.

Today’s “Got Questions?” answer is from Oliver Wendt, Purdue University assistant professor and a researcher in the university’s speech, language and hearing sciences and augmentative and alternative communication programs. In addition, Dr. Wendt co-founded SPEAK MODalities, which develops software to help nonverbal and minimally verbal kids with autism improve their communication, speech and language skills. 

Thanks for your question. Speech-generating devices and apps have become popular augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) options for nonverbal or minimally verbal children and adults with autism.

Learning to ask for objects and showing interest in things are often the first skills that children – or adults – master when they start using a speech-generating device. This involves learning to activate symbols on the device screen to indicate a desire or interest. For example, your child might want “juice” or a “cookie.” Or perhaps he wants to indicate his delight in seeing a “plane” overhead or a “dog” across the street.

You, as a parent, provide a powerful reinforcement for this skill when you respond – either with your attention (“Yes, I see the plane!”) or by giving your child the requested item.

Ideally, we like to see the learner progress from single-word “utterances” to simple sentences. This is done by combining symbols or words. For instance, “I want” or “I see” with the symbol for the item or object of interest.

I’m inferring that your son may have mastered the one symbol requesting skills. So the next step is to move from single “word” expressions to multiple-word communication. This is important for a maturing child so that he or she can convey different types of communication – such as rejecting something, labeling something and commenting on something.

Research tells us this is easier said than done. Many users of speech-generating devices do not move beyond single-word utterances.

The good news is that researchers in our field have developed a number of promising instructional strategies to overcome this challenge. They include matrix training and aided language modeling . Matrix training uses graphic symbols and words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.) to teach word combinations and messages. For example, the image above  shows a matrix to teach combinations of actions with objects.

Language modeling strategies rely on the principle that the child can observe and mimic a trainer who is using correct symbol responses and combinations. The modeling process teaches the child how to combine and recombine graphic symbols.

Shared story reading using speech device

We’ve found it works best to make these training strategies fun, for example by introducing them during play or storybook reading activities, as in the video below.

For someone with autism, it’s also important to use these activities in social situations. After all, you want to encourage your child to gain a sense of himself as someone who wants to use language in meaningful social interactions.

As generated messages become more complex and the speech-generating device or app is used for different communication purposes, it’s essential that the technology “grow” with the learner. It needs to provide the graphic symbol vocabularies the maturing child needs. These vocabularies should go beyond pre-stored messages, and not be limited to nouns and descriptors.

Ideally, AAC technology contains “core vocabulary.” This includes a core set of graphic symbols applicable to many situation, locations and communication partners. It also includes user-specific vocabulary that reflects the learner’s life and interests, such as favorite movie characters and beloved toys.

To maximize the benefits of a speech-generating device or app, I encourage you and your entire family to get involved. Though training sessions with a professional therapist are important, the skills he learns need to be used throughout his day during a variety of real-world situations.

It doesn’t sound like you are concerned that intensive use of a speech-generating device will hinder your child from developing his or her own natural speech. That’s good. As you may have read on this website, a growing amount of research suggests that augmentative and alternative communication actually encourages the development of spoken speech – even in children who aren’t talking when they enter grade school.

The following video clip shows an example of what I mean:

To sum up, I encourage you to remember the following when helping your child advance his skills with his speech-generating device:

• For your child to take full advantage of a speech-generating device, he will need instruction from someone who is versed in a well-researched and effective approach such as the two I mention in above. It’s not enough to just put a device in front of a child. Where to find a speech-language therapist with AAC background here .
• There is no single best speech-generating device or app for autism. Individuals with autism vary greatly in their needs and learning profiles. Work with your child’s speech-language therapist to develop individualized solutions for your child.
• Whenever possible, choose devices and apps that are supported by research evidence and have documented success. 
• Encourage your child to use his device outside of training sessions with his therapist. This should involve you and other communication partners and take place throughout the day.
• Have a back-up means of communication for your child! Remember, batteries run down and electronic devices break down. This can be as simple as a communication board or picture exchange book.
• Devices and apps can quickly become outgrown and outdated. Regularly review your child’s changing needs and new technology options – ideally with your child’s therapist or another expert.

Learn more about visual supports and download the free Autism Speaks ATN/AIR-P Visual Supports Tool Kit .

Thanks again for your question and best of luck as you embark on some fun and engaging communication activities with your child!

For more on augmentative and alternative communication, I highly recommend https://praacticalaac.org .

Got Questions for our behavioral and medical experts?

Send them to [email protected] .

Additional Resources & Tools

Best Speech Therapy Apps for Autism

Speech therapy has been shown to improve communication skills, social interactions, and overall quality of life for people with autism. While some speech therapists may use a variety of apps in their work, others may not be as familiar with them.

Autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, is a developmental disorder that affects communication and behavior. While there is no cure for ASD, there are treatments and support systems that can help mitigate some of the challenges associated with it, such as speech therapy.

Speech therapy typically involves working one-on-one with a therapist to help with issues such as pronunciation, articulation of sounds, and language use. But your child doesn’t need to work with a speech therapist in person to benefit from the techniques used in a traditional speech therapy session.

There are several apps available for iOS and Android devices that can help your child improve his or her language skills from the comfort of home—and many are free!

Here are some of the best speech therapy apps for kids on the autism spectrum:

• Proloquo2Go 

This app allows users to build up their vocabulary and sentences using pictures or text.

• Language Rx 

This app is designed to help people with autism learn language skills by providing them with an interactive environment where they can practice using different words and phrases.

• LAMP Words for Life 

this app teaches users how to read using a combination of letters, sounds, and images to spell out words that they want or need in everyday situations (e.g., “I want water”) without having any verbal input from an adult helper or caregiver.

• TalkRocket Go 

This app helps children build their vocabulary by speaking into a microphone and then listening back as if they were talking directly into someone’s ear; it also lets users record conversations so that they can revisit important moments later.

Autism is a developmental disorder that affects how an individual communicates, socializes and learns. For an autistic child, it can be difficult to understand the world around them and communicate what they are feeling. Speech therapy apps for autism can help children with autism learn to communicate better.

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) may work with individuals on the autism spectrum to help improve their speech and language skills—for example, using apps to help improve their social communication skills or fluency.

There are countless apps for the iPad and iPhone that are intended to help children with autism learn to speak. These apps can be helpful tools for parents, teachers, and therapists working with children on the autism spectrum who need assistance with verbal communication. Autism apps can help improve speech sounds, vocabulary, verbal expression, word-finding, and more.

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9 Autism Apps to Support Parents With Autistic Children

B eing a parent is hard. Every stage comes with its own set of challenges, whether it’s switching from two naps a day to one, transitioning your big kid into kindergarten, or coaching your teen through friendship troubles. As parents, we’re always searching for ways to support our kids and connect with them while giving them the space they need to learn and grow as people.

A crucial part of being able to effectively connect with our children is learning how they communicate and identifying their learning styles. Children with autism can find it more difficult to communicate and need additional support to build up confidence in their learning environment to reach their full potential. Here are nine of the best autism apps that can aid you as a parent and help your child thrive.

1. Autism 360

Autism 360 is a one-stop-shop autism-specific app that you can tailor to your child’s exact needs, supporting you both through every challenge, from understanding sensory needs and building emotional skills to potty training and learning social skills. The iOS and Android-supported app was developed to celebrate neurodiversity while helping autistic children ages two to 15 express their needs and build skills for life.

Within the app parents can find extensive support, including rapid assessments and on-demand chat with licensed therapists; live workshops and downloadable resources such as reward charts, interactive how-to guides, and worksheets; evidence-based strategy videos; and a parent-to-parent support network with more than 10,000 members.

Sign up now for an Autism 360 annual subscription and receive a free one-to-one therapist session.

2. Avaz AAC

If you’re looking for ways to support your child with complex communication needs, the Avaz AAC app can help them express themselves and learn, building their confidence along the way. The picture- and text-based app uses three different levels of adaptive vocabulary that can be personalized to the communicator.

Beyond being a communication tool, Avaz AAC also helps develop and grow communication strategies with mini games, conversation starters, and uses analytics to help you measure your child’s progress.

3. Proloquo2Go

Proloquo2Go is an iOS-supported augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app that can be used as a daily communication tool and a way to build language skills. Your child can express themselves using the symbol-based communication board, which is fully customizable and designed for a range of fine motor and visual skills.

The text-to-speech uses real recorded speech and lets you choose from 100 voices, ranging from friendly adult voices to genuine children’s voices. And beyond just communicating, Proloquo2Go uses its Progressive Language feature to gradually reveal vocabulary words, helping your child develop.

4. Kloog Social Skills

The Shine Centre for Autism developed the award-winning Kloog Social Skills app to help improve the lives of children, teens, and young adults who need more confidence and comfort in social situations. Users must help Kloog, an alien who has crash-landed on Earth, understand social rules and make his way through interactions with humans to get what he needs to fly his ship back home.

Through fun and meaningful gameplay, users are confronted with the nuances in communication and social interaction by introducing the concepts of context sensitivity, social consequences, and emotional recognition.

If your toddler or child needs help with their speech development, the MIOGYM app transforms speech therapy exercises and training into exciting and visually engaging games. This autism-friendly app contains 100 levels of progressive games developed in consultation with speech therapists to help improve the speech skills of children with communication difficulties.​​​​​​​

6. Speech Blubs

Speech Blubs is a language-therapy autism-friendly app that helps kids boost their speaking abilities through fun and engaging educational games. By using kids as teachers in the app, your child is motivated to copy and repeat after them, learning numbers, colors, shapes, animals, and more.

Speech Blubs also includes a Parents’ Academy, with bite-sized video tips that will help you support your child’s speech journey.​​​​​​​

7. SpeakEasy

The SpeakEasy home speech therapy app uses evidence-based language techniques and at-home activities to boost your child’s language development. You’ll have access to customized daily activities tailored to your child’s current language level so that you can support them from preverbal to first words to more advanced speech. ​​​​​​​

8. Goally Therapy Suite

The Goally Therapy Suite is a collection of apps that come on a dedicated tablet designed to support kids and teens with disabilities with their daily activities. The Goally tablet has no social media or web browsers, providing a distraction-free environment of apps for your child to rehearse real-world skills.

Every aspect is parent-controlled from an app on your phone, so you can decide which apps your child has access to and which skills they work on.​​​​​​​

9. Otsimo Special Education

Otsimo was founded by Zafer Elcik when he was looking for ways to help support his autistic brother in learning new skills. Otsimo offers a speech therapy app featuring fun activities designed to build speech and language skills using scientifically proven peer modeling plus voice and speech recognition.

The Otsimo Special Education app uses games to provide accessible learning opportunities and to help children with disabilities reach their full potential.

This is a sponsored post. The product choices and opinions expressed in this article are from the sponsor and do not reflect the editorial direction of MakeUseOf or its staff.

Mental Health for Autistic Adults: Finding the Best Provider

Why accommodation matters and how to find the right fit..

Updated March 19, 2024 | Reviewed by Ray Parker

• What Is Autism?
• Find a therapist to help with autism
• Services at the intersection of autism and mental health are lacking but essential to better life outcomes.
• Mental health accommodations go beyond sensory support, including communication tools and a strengths focus.
• Psychology Today directories can help families identify autism-informed providers.
• Factors in choosing a provider may include individualized care, family resources, and a strengths focus.

By Eric Levine, Ed.D with Becky Shipkosky

Autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, refers to a neurodevelopmental difference with which about 1% of the world’s population (World Health Organization, 2023) and 2.2% of US adults are diagnosed (Centers for Disease Control, 2023). ASD is accompanied by comorbidities in 50 to 70% of autistic people (Hours et al., 2022), many of which are mental health and behavioral disorders, including:

• Anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety (GAD), social anxiety , and obsessive-compulsive (OCD).
• Bipolar disorder (BD).
• Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD).
• Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).
• Depression .
• Eating disorders.
• Suicidality .

In and of itself, autism is not a condition to be cured or recovered from, but certain aspects of life, including mental health, can be made easier and more manageable with proper support. Recent research indicates that mental health services are a tremendous piece of the support puzzle for autistic adults (Chan, Doran, 2023), and access to such services is woefully limited but growing (Maddox, Gaus, 2019).

Why Is Autism Accommodation in Mental Health Important?

At the most basic level, as Maddox and Gaus (2019) articulate, “Untreated psychiatric conditions in autistic adults are associated with a host of negative outcomes, including adaptive functioning impairments, difficulties with employment and independent living, and poor quality of life.” This unequivocally makes the case for helping autistic adults address mental health concerns, but it doesn’t get to the heart of why it’s so important to provide integrated and individualized care.

Carol Maher, Cooperriis’ neurodiversity coordinator, explains that an integrated approach provides opportunities for program participants to embrace their strengths and adapt. The key to this approach lies in the understanding that autism is an integral part of who a person is, and without space to express their full being, including autism, mental health recovery is not possible. No aspect of an individual’s self can be set aside in the recovery journey.

What Does It Look Like to Accommodate Autism in Mental Health Recovery?

While sensory toys, noise-canceling headphones, and quiet rooms are excellent steps in the direction of accommodating autism in a recovery program setting, Maher lays out some tangible communication and support tools for deeper, autism-informed accommodations (Maher 2023):

• Affirmations help reinforce strengths, successes, and efforts to change.
• Advice or feedback when appropriate, and after asking and receiving consent, can contribute to new self-awareness.
• Open-ended questions encourage participants to share their experiences and thoughts and better understand their preferences and limits. (“What was that like for you?”)
• Reflective listening, or paraphrasing a person’s feelings or words back to them, helps in building empathy and self-awareness.
• Simple encouragements, such as "You can do it" or “You’re awesome,” can have a positive impact.
• Direct, immediate commands or statements may sound rude to neurotypical people but can match an autistic person’s communication style well.
• Restricting choices to two options can prevent overwhelm.
• Encouraging individuals to consider their personal needs and the effects of their actions can provide perspective.
• Establishing a sleep and rest routine promotes recovery and better internal resources.
• A solution ladder is a helpful visual guide, detailing the first, next, and last steps to solving any problem.
• Knowing one’s own triggers and building a toolkit for coping can help any neurodivergent person thrive.

Choosing a Program With the Right Accommodations

Given the limited mental health services available to autistic adults, how can you find programs and choose the best fit for you or your loved one? Psychology Today has robust directories for both therapists and treatment centers . Upon visiting either of these pages, select your location and then select autism under the Issues tab.

Next, how do you know if something is the right fit for you or your loved one? Start with a list of therapists or residential programs who list autism among their areas of experience, and then sort for location and any insurance needs. From there, begin to call to find out if the provider is accepting new clients. At this stage, you can finally begin to screen for fit. Here are some points to consider in your search (Hansen, 2024) (Maher, 2024).

Choosing General Mental Health Services

When you’re seeking a therapist or other non-residential mental health service, consider the following:

• Autism-informed providers: Anyone who works with autistic individuals in a mental health setting should also have a comprehensive understanding of neurodiversity to provide knowledgeable and empathetic support.
• Personalized care: Support should be flexible enough to be tailored to individual needs.
• Strengths-based empowerment: Look for providers who help clients identify and leverage their unique abilities and contributions rather than concentrating on correcting perceived deficits.
• Clear and nonjudgmental communication: Look for providers who know how to engage in open, straightforward verbal communication that is free of judgment and unnecessary nuance.
• On the spectrum: While not a requirement, therapists who are themselves autistic come with a built-in understanding of what it means to be neurodivergent in a neurotypical world (Hemachandra, 2024).

Choosing a Residential Treatment Program

If you’re looking for an autism-friendly residential mental health program to help yourself or a loved one, the following qualities may also be important:

• Sensory considerations: A facility should have sensory-friendly spaces, such as areas to be alone and dining accommodations away from the noisy kitchen.
• Dietary flexibility: Whether or not you or your loved one need(s) it, a program catering to specific diets or sensitivities is a promising indicator of their commitment to comprehensive accommodation.
• Family resources: Specialized resources for families often include education and support for the all-important transition of leaving the program.
• Inclusive living model: If it’s appropriate, such as for high-functioning autistic residents, a residential program that provides a fully inclusive model can dramatically improve clients’ real-world outcomes.

While the intersection of autism and mental health is lacking, as are so many such intersections, there is hope for ongoing improvement. Advocates are working to raise awareness at the government and community levels, and autistic adults and their families can help in big and small ways by educating their community, contacting legislators and governing bodies, sitting on advisory boards, or even simply signing petitions. The Autism Self Advocacy Network is a helpful entry point for anyone looking to get involved (Hemachandra, 2024).

Autism . World Health Organization. (2023, November 15). https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/autism-spectrum-disord…

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, April 4). Data & statistics on autism spectrum disorder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html

Hours, C., Recasens, C., & Baleyte, J.-M. (2022). ASD and ADHD comorbidity: What are we talking about? Frontiers in Psychiatry , 13(837424). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.837424

Chan, D. V., & Doran, J. D. (2023). Mental health counseling is rated as most helpful by autistic adults: Service perspectives in adulthood. Autism . https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231197446

Maddox, B. B., & Gaus, V. L. (2019). Community Mental Health Services for Autistic Adults: Good News and Bad News . Autism in Adulthood , 1(1), 15–19. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2018.0006

Maher, C. (2024, March 1). Neurodiversity Accommodations in Mental Health Recovery (B. Shipkosky, Interviewer) [Personal communication].

Maher, C. (2023). Tools for Success in Working with Neurodiverse Adults. Staff training document.

Hansen, C. (2024, February 21) Neurodiversity Accommodations in Mental Health Recovery (B. Shipkosky, Interviewer) [Personal communication].

Hemachandra, R. (2024, March 7). Intersection of Autism and Mental Health (B. Shipkosky, Interviewer) [Personal communication].

CooperRiis is a non-profit residential healing community for adults with mental health challenges.

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