For many students with autism, communication can be a struggle. Luckily, finding tools to help has become easier as educational apps rise in popularity. To help, we’ve compiled 3 of our favorites that are designed to help strengthen your students’ communication skills and their ability to read and express emotions.

Here are 3 free iPad apps for children with autism.

1. Autism iHelp

• Cost – Free
• Great for: Tracking student progress

Autism iHelp is a vocabulary teaching aid which was developed by a speech-language pathologist and the parents of a child with autism. Inspired by the need for specific language intervention tools for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Autism iHelp focuses on the unique strengths of the students, as well as the difficulty they have with expressive vocabulary.

With two game-like activities, and audio and labeling options to best meet the needs of your student, you can track your student’s gains through progress reports.

Users of app state that it’s “fantastic for increasing both expressive and receptive vocabulary.”

To download, click here.

2. Emotionary by Me.Mu

• Cost – Free
• Great for: Encouraging students to recognize and express their own emotions

Emotionary is an emotion diary tool designed for therapists (primarily speech-language therapists) teachers, and students. Using Emotionary, students can practice “extracting relevant contextual information from their own lives” to help them gain a deeper understanding of their emotions and the emotions of others.

With Emotionary, students can record and listen to their own voice, take and use pictures to express how they feel, and write in the journal, all to keep a record of their own emotions.

3. ABA Flash Cards and Games

• Cost – $ 0.99
• Great for: Creating your own word cards that go beyond emotions

ABA Flash Cards and Games is a fun, simple, and easy way for children and students with autism to learn how to recognize emotions. Loaded with over 100 different emotions and 500+ flash cards and interactive games, students can strengthen their ability to read emotions. Like Emotionary, this app combines audio, voice, and the written word, however, ABA Flash Cards and Games allows you to create your own pictures, creating your own word cards that go beyond emotion.

From one user review, “I love this app. You can customize all the flashcards with your own voice plus add your own. My daughter loves it and her older siblings had so much fun recording their voices to the animal flashcards along with silly animal sounds.”

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