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In today’s age and time, technology is found to offer diverse tools to help children with special needs learn more effectively. It provides individually-tailored personalized intervention along with the IEP’s to help children with physical, sensory, cognitive, and social challenges to accommodate and adapt better to the surrounding environment.
Provided below is the list of different technological apps or software that can be used to address various challenges faced by children with special needs and support them better.
Who can it help? It can be used by children with visual impairments, learning disabilities, dyslexia, or any other impairment that affects their ability to read.
What does it do? It scans the print and reads the word in a synthesized voice to children and highlights parts of texts which helps in better retention. It also provides text to speechwriters along with proofreading texts written.
Who can it help? It can be used by children with visual impairments and low vision.
What does it do? It is an smartphone app which connects the blind or visual impaired individuals to an agent who will objectively describe the surroundings the blind or visual impaired individuals are in , and or assist with tasks they might call in for.
Who can it help? Children with learning disabilities, dyslexia, or any other impairment that affects their ability to read.
What does it do? It supports the reading of children within the age range of 10-16 years where it can convert any texts either written or scanned into a visually comfortable font system to make reading more easier
Who can it help? Children with Learning disabilities like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and challenges in reading/literacy.
What does it do? It offers a range of features like magnifying texts, picture dictionary/visual graphical representation for 40,000 words, synthesized voice reading in 18 languages and dialects, and assistive writing in terms of essay writing, spell-checker and idea generation/organization, etc.,
Supported by both Mac and Windows OS.
Who can it help? Children with Learning disabilities like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and challenges in reading/literacy.
What does it do? It is a writing assistive tool that breaks the writing process into 3 steps in terms of outlining, note-taking, and draft editing along with a spell checker.
Supported by both Mac and Windows OS.
Who can it help? Children with Hearing impairment, especially sensorineural hearing loss, auditory processing disorder, developmental delay, or sensory integration disorder.
What does it do? It uses Radio broadcasting technology which consists of a microphone and receiver where the individual can tune in according to his/her need/preference by eliminating background noise and capturing a particular sound.
Who can it help? Children with Hearing impairment, especially sensorineural hearing loss, auditory processing disorder, developmental delay, articulation disorder, or sensory integration disorder.
What does it do? It uses a microphone and speaker that captures the sound of the speaker accurately by eliminating distance and distractions.
Who can it help? Children with gross and fine motor difficulties, motor and mobility challenges.
What does it do? It is a sip-and-puff software with switches that can be controlled by mouth, cheeks, etc., which can be used for drawing or controlling an electronic device.
The application is supported by Linux, Unix, Mac, and Windows OS. It is also supported in Android and IoS.
Who can it help? Children with Learning disabilities like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and challenges in reading/literacy.
What does it do? The app identifies the grammatical errors in writing, word prediction, sentence rephrasing, and text to speech synthesizer to read what the child has written, and provide practice sessions to the child based on his/her past mistake.
The application is supported by Linux, Unix, Mac, and Windows OS. It is also supported in Android and IoS.
Who can it help? Children with Learning disabilities like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and challenges in reading/literacy.
What does it do? Identify the grammatical errors in writing, word prediction, sentence rephrasing, and text to speech synthesizer to read what the child has written, in-built dictionary, and provide practice sessions to the child based on his/her past mistake.
Who can it help? Children with Learning disabilities like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and challenges in reading/literacy.
What does it do? This is a free online dictionary where children can look up words, their meaning, and their association with other words or concepts.
Who can it help? Children with Learning disabilities like Dyscalculia, Motor Disorder, Gross and Fine Motor Difficulties, and Visual Impairment.
What does it do? It helps in performing simple math calculations from prealgebra to Ph.D. level maths, where the child can read the math problem to the microphone and the computer using the software would perform necessary operations. It also provides an electronic math worksheet for children to practice by organizing, aligning, and practicing sums on-screen through assistance.
Who can it help? Children with Learning Disability like Dyscalculia and Math Challenges
What does it do? It helps children to visualize math concepts and problems and helps children to understand the problem better.
Who can it help? Children with Learning Disability like Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia and Math Challenges
What does it do? It provides a virtual graph paper for children to place math problems legibly and provides a free pencil tool for practicing arithmetic operations.
Who can it help? Children with Learning Disability like Dyscalculia and Math Challenges
What does it do? It is a learning engine app, which adapts according to the level/pace of the child and throws questions or math problems based on the child’s ability. It is devised for children between the age range of 6 to 14 years and covers topics from numerical operations to algebra.
Who can it help? Children with ASD
What does it do? It helps in tailoring the daily schedule of your child using a visual and empowers children to keep track of his/her scheduled activities.
Who can it help? Children with cognitive deficiencies and cognitive challenges like poor attention span, memory, reasoning, perception, etc.,
What does it do? It helps the child with his/her cognitive profile which highlights the area of his/her cognitive strengths, possible cognitive deficiencies, and provides a personalized brain training regimen or suggestions for improving cognitive skills.
Who can it help? Children with Special Needs
What does it do? It uses social narrative, visual support, video modeling to provide technology-aided instructions for exercising and provide reward/reinforcement to the child on successful completion of the fitness regime.
Rapid advancement in technology has provided numerous opportunities for parents, teachers, and special educators to help/support children with special needs. In the coming years, we would witness more such advancements in technology to support and help children with special needs.
Source:
Assistive technology for students with Learning Disabilities. Retrieved from: https://www.ldatschool.ca/assistive-technology/
Assistive Educational Technology: How eLearning helps students with disabilities. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/assistive-educational-technology-elearning-helps-students-disabilities
15 Assistive Technology Tools and Resources for Students with Disabilities. Retrieved from: https://www.teachthought.com/technology/15-assistive-technology-tools-resources-for-students-with-disabilities/
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