A Serious Note....
There are many strategies for working with students with autism spectrum disorders out there. There are people who are praying on parents looking for a miracle and getting quite wealthy at the expense of the child and parents. Before expecting a new technique to cure your child with autism, please read the National Standards Report from the National Autism Center. Please research the efficacy of any promise to cure your child of autism thoroughly.
Writing Applications
Students with ASD often have difficulty with fine motor. These are my favorite applications that help students writing. These applications have are transferable to handwriting if used with a pencil shaped stylus.
1. My Name. This application is from injini. They make nice applications that are visually appealing and generally expensive. This application was only $1.99 when I bought it. My students love the application, because they like the chimes that let them know they are doing the right thing. One of my students calls it princess music. I like the application because I can customize my own words or student names by creating the text and adding the spoken name of the word.
I do not like that there are not separate accounts or names for each student I have use the application. I do not like that the application does not keep data on how the student does other than a check as they do each letter or word.
2. Pocketphonics. This application is from Apps in My Pocket Ltd. It comes in a lite/ free version and $2.99 full version. This application is my favorite handwriting application, not my students'. This application lets me create different players and it keeps track of how my students perform during their session. It also has a password locked parent zone and settings. I have the option of Zaner Bloser, D'Nealian or cursive in lowercase or uppercase. You may also adjust the difficulty from easy to hard. I also like that the app prompts the student to make the sound as they write the letter and gives positive as well as negative feedback.
3. Dora's ABC's. This application is made by nickelodeon and chewy software. This application is like walking into an episode of the popular television show. Multiple students can log in separately and there is a grade card to show how the student is performing. The levels are uppercase, lowercase and both upper and lowercase. After the student traces over a series of acorns with an airplane, the student is given a game of tilting the iPad to make the acorns from like letters to make a secret image that starts with the letter. This activity uses gross motor skills that may be more difficult than the fine motor of writing as acorns that bounce speed up faster and faster.
