In 2020, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention evaluated that 1 out of 54 children were identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is also registered as 4 times more common among young boys than girls.Also, 1 in 6(17%) children with the age between 3-17 years are reported with developmental disability by the parents during the 2009-2017 study. These developmental disabilities range from autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, blindness, and cerebral palsy, & more. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html
Reasons for Children to Have Autism
One of the major responsible factors for children to be autistic is Genetics. Also, parents with already autistic children develop a 2-18% higher risk of having a second child with the same disabilities. Researchers have studied a lot about Autism in children, hence also underlined that parents with twin children(identical) with one autistic symptom will affect the other child with 36-95% autistic symptoms. Also, parents who plan to have children in their late 40s or so tend to have autistic children. One of the myths that many carry along about autism is vaccination. Advanced research shows that vaccines do not cause any symptoms or do not provoke autistic genes in the human body.
Catch the Symptoms Beforehand
Unlike the early ages, autism can be diagnosed quickly and easily in today’s time. Few of the symptoms can be judged by the parents of autistic children, which also helps them in the early treatment of it. As per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder-V, the indicators of autism are –
- A child of 16 months or so might speak two words or phrases or none.
- You might see a weakened or diminished conversation sustenance with others.
- You may also find a weakened ability to make friends.
- You might find diminished interest or unable to focus.
- Self-absorption with a particular object or subject.
- Non-adherence to the daily routines or rituals.
- You may not find your kid to babble even at the age of 1.
Parents must diagnose their child’s activity since birth, for instance, any disturbance in their behavior, delayed speech, inappropriate interaction, abnormal tone, or facial expression to acknowledge the disorder.
What is Affected the Most in an Autistic Child?
An autistic child has cognitive dysfunction. Parents must not confuse the cognitive function with learning ability. Autistic children have delayed speech or learning due to spectrum disorder. Not all have the same dysfunctioning as this disorder may range from mild to severe.
- Only 1/3 of the autistic children had IQ levels less than 70.
- Among girls and boys, 7% of the girls than the boys’ ratio tend to have an intellectual disability.
- 24% of autistic children are likely to have borderline IQ, i.e, 71-85.
However, specialized doctors, nurses, and caretakers devote their maximum effort and time to assisting autistic children, enterprise software development companies have jumped in to aid and assist the parents of autistic children to enhance their child’s cognitive ability. These mobile apps are crafted with the amalgamation of the right technology stack to empower social cues, repetitive behaviors, eye contact, and poor motor skills.10 Best Autism Mobile Apps for Children to Learn and EnjoyHere, we will share the list of applications that will work on a specific area, whichever you want to focus on and enhance.
Gaming Apps for Kids & Babies to Enhance Their Visual Stimulation Capabilities
- Infant Zoo LITE
An educational-based entertainment application that can influence the infant’s attention, and develop natural curiosity. The mobile app is absolutely free to use. The high-quality illustration, captivating sounds, and engaging as well as stimulating bubbles targets the brain cells connection.
- MouseTrail
This free fun and educational app speeds up responsiveness, corrects receptive language, and playfully enhances concentration. The different modules within the app allow the kid to identify and choose animals, clothes, numbers, color, shapes, food, and much more.
Behavioral Gaming Apps for Autistic Kids
- Autism Tracker Pro: Track and Analyze ASD
The app focuses on magnifying functional skills and behavioral intervention. Moreover, it is also a health tracker that helps you to track and observe the patterns in a kid’s behavior and keep a record of it. You can segregate the behavioral issues into mood, health, food, and behavior and the report can be created on a daily/monthly/weekly basis.
- I’m On It: Focus Timer for ADHD & ASD
Another superb application crafted to inflate the concentration and focus of a kid. This app is specially designed for kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD or ADD) and ASD.
Functional Life Skills Enhancement for Kids With Autism
- Daniel Tiger for Parents
This app is a composition of multiple activities, such as cooking, storing, and other daily tasks that are difficult for an autistic kid to streamline each day. This app helps children to learn & develop new skills with emotions through the assistance of a guardian or parent.
- Aiko & Egor Animation 4 Autism
A family sharing app is recommended for kids and parents to watch and learn together. The app offers simple yet interactive characters, which the kids can observe and imitate. The application is more focused on underwater character learning and is best recommended to watch and imitate with assistance.
Autism Communication Apps for Autism
- Proloquo2GO – Symbol Based AAC
A well-known application to enhance social skills and verbal skills in an autistic child. The app is integrated with natural-sounding voices and speeches that can be generated by tapping a few buttons, symbols, and words. This application is not free unlike others, however, is value for money that amplifies well-being, behavior, and communication.
- Autism & PDD Comparatives/Superlatives Lite
Another gaming and educational app that assists in increasing responsiveness. With captivating and intuitive animations as well as soothing narrations, the app can help children with autism to comprehend and answer the questions related to ‘what’, ‘when’,’ where’, and ‘who’. This also enhances their language and communication skills as well as literacy.
Math Apps For Autistic Children
- Dino Tim Full version: Basic Math for Kids.
Maths is the foundational study for most kids. A two-year-old autistic kid can learn basic maths in a fun way. The app is featured with geometrical shapes, consonants, and vowels in the form of puzzles, which makes learning engaging. This multilingual app let children learn new languages and improve their grasping power with the help of an adorable character, Tim.
Social Skills Enhancing Apps for Kids
- I Create…Social Skills Stories
A brilliant social skill enhancer for kids dealing with autism for both, young and adults. The major problem faced by autistic individuals is development delays, hence this app focuses to improve it. The platform gives you the space to organize photos and pages in a book, which then needs to be recalled in the same order as organized. The daily exercises within the app can improve social skills and help in adapting them quickly.
Extensive Applications Empowering Social, Educational and Awareness
- Autism Education (AutEdu)
An app that is equally helpful for parents with kids dealing with autism. This app helps parents assist their children to eradicate real communication issues with teachers in a harmonious way. The app amalgamates the child’s behavioral data, which later assists teachers in crafting new ways to improve them.
- Look In My Eyes Train Engineer
Eye contact is not simply an autistic child’s fear. Average people also lose confidence during eye contact and speaking. Hence, this entertaining and learning application can help reduce the stress and anxiety of the children while assisting them to have eye contact and speak freely. The application has fun exercises that aid in mastering social skills and have better communication with all.
- Autism Read & Write Pro
Learning to read and write is always a struggle and it is even challenging when the kid is autistic. This application lets the autistic child learn to read and write at its pace and way. Moreover, it increases the brain activity of the child, which helps in identifying objects in the home, school, or other social space.
- Otsimo – Autism Education
An application that helps in understanding Autism and spreading awareness about the disorder. A child-friendly and ad-free app educates kids on the fundamentals of autism. The stunning app enables the child to learn matching, object finding, letter identification, and learn shapes in a fun way. Moreover, the app offers speech therapy and ways to enhance mental development.
- Chronaly: Powered For Autism
A brilliant health manager app dedicated for parents to keep track of their child’s health. You can set a health goal, manage time through the scheduling feature, check status, and progress report to evaluate the improvement. The report can be shared with healthcare professionals and teachers too for any assistance.
- Autism Parents Social Network
Parents seeking emotional support can have this app for free. Parents can connect with other parents with autistic kids, share practical ideas, tips, make real friends, and help each other deal with any relatable problems. A well-known fact that has turned into a habit for most, that today’s generation has become dependent on mobile phones and apps. Even though traditional learning is matchless, the wrath of COVID has pushed the corners of these legacy open learning systems to small & compact virtual systems.In critical scenarios, where parents have to deal with their autistic child amid a pandemic, these apps can assist a child’s better development while building confidence and deal with daily routine tasks seamlessly. Simultaneously, these platforms can offer emotional support to the much-needed parents for continuous motivation and patience to aid their children. Author’s Bio:Scarlett is a technical content writer and is associated with A3logics for over a couple of years. She has a keen interest in professional IT services and is often found hustling for her upcoming projects. She is often found discussing the latest developments with the technical team. When not working on any of her writing projects, she is either reading any of the Agatha Christie mysteries or busy gardening.
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