Apps for Literacy and Learning

A tool that encourages kids to reflect on and manage emotions. Users plot their moods on a color-coded chart filled with words describing feelings. After browsing the plot and selecting a mood, users describe, in 150 characters, what caused that mood. Next, they choose Stay Here, which records the feedback and ends the exercise, or Shift Here to browse strategies that might help shift their mood.

Helps kids identify and name emotions, facial expressions, and body language. Four images of real people appear on the screen and a voice says an emotion such as “frustrated.” Kids tap on the image of the person they think looks frustrated.

Time Timer is a productivity app that can help kids focus on timed tasks, as well as manage transitions or waiting. The customizable timers act as clear, colorful visuals to help kids understand concepts of time – such as when there is a limited amount of time to complete something or they need to wait for a certain amount of time.

Expressive Builder is designed to help children improve sentence ideation, sentence formation, and receptive and expressive language. Extensive use of audio clips promotes improved auditory processing for special needs children with autism spectrum disorders or sensory processing disorders. Auditory playback of child’s voice offers reinforcement for language development.

Flashcards that promote learning and language building. Clear audio and text for auditory and visual learners. You’ll find more than 200 flash cards with images for kids to practice connecting visual emotion cues like body language and facial expressions to written and spoken words. The app allows users to create their own cards to add to the stock cards and to record their own voices on the cards.

A simple picture exchange system allows children to communicate their needs by building sentences from relevant images. While created with and for people with autism, it can be used by anyone with a speech disability or delay. The app is designed to be easily updated by each child, with minimum support from adults.

Create pictures, flashcards, storyboards, routines, and visual schedules. Record custom audio in any language. Converts words with text to speech. Utilize as audio visual prompting tool or AAC device.

This app is designed to help children learn the facial expressions that correspond to happy, sad, angry, afraid, surprised, and disgusted. The game is highly customizable to meet the needs of children with varying skills, ability levels, and learning styles.

SnapType is a no-frills annotation app that helps students keep up with their peers in class even when their penmanship holds them back. Students can easily complete school worksheets with the help of an iPad or iPhone.