Sunday, April 2 is annual World Autism Acceptance Day, which kicks off Autism Acceptance Month. On the celebration of this month, Apple has launched new Field Trip at Apple stores in the UAE.
Starting in April, Apple Mall of The Emirates and Apple Yas Mall will offer two new Field Trip sessions with a powerful, fun and inclusive music interface for iPad that opens up a world of music to everyone.
During Field Trip sessions, teachers and students will participate in a creative, collaborative, and memorable learning experience which is inclusive of children with disabilities. These sessions are simple, intuitive, and keep kids engaged—while giving them the confidence to express themselves.
Parents and teachers or anyone interested in learning more can reach out to their local Apple Store and request a Skoog Field Trip. http://www.apple.com/ae/retail/fieldtrip/ These new sessions are in addition to accessibility workshops already offered covering: vision, hearing, physical motor, and literacy and learning topics.
Autism Acceptance collection
Apple also launched an updated section on the App Store with Special Education collection, which include some great apps like Proloquo2Go which help non-verbal children and adults communicate. A selection of those apps is available below after the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMN2PeFama0
Communication Apps
The go-to award-winning symbol supported communication app, provides a voice to over 150K individuals who cannot speak.
Proloquo4Text
Proloquo4Text is a text‑based communication app that gives a voice to people who cannot speak.
*(Announced 50% discount on Proloquo2Go, Proloquo4Text, Pictello and Keeble April 2 – 4).
:prose
:prose is an intuitive gesture powered AAC app that enables users to speak and display phrases aloud with gestures as simple as a single tap or swipe. (Save $100 for the month of April or 85% off/$100 value, offer ends April 30)
Social Skills/Life Skills
Autism Core Skills
Autism Core Skills offers both academic and social skill development tools for autistic children in preschool through first grade, including customizable themes like animals, trains and sports to help make the learning process fun and engaging.
Children With Autism: A Visual Schedule
A Visual Schedule is the first wearable picture-based scheduler designed with children and adults with autism in mind. Has an easy to understand icon and progress bar, to help empower people to independently keep track of scheduled activities.
*(Special limited time discount on “Kid In Story Book Maker” and “Children with Autism: A Visual Schedule” from Apri 1-8 to support Autism Awareness Day
Kid in Story
Kid in Story was specifically designed to benefit children with autism and other special needs by making it fun and easy to create visual stories to support learning, social modeling, and early literacy.
*(Special limited time discount on “Kid In Story Book Maker” and “Children with Autism: A Visual Schedule” from April 1-8 to support Autism Awareness Day)
Pictello
Pictello is a simple way to create talking photo albums and talking books. Each page in a Pictello Story can contain a picture, up to five lines of text, and a recorded sound or text-to-speech using high-quality voices.
Games, Play and Music
Hopster
Hopster offers on-the-go games for preschoolers to help build essential skill development in memory, literary, mathematics and more. The app’s latest update, set to go live April 2, also includes a digital playroom hub called Sense, aimed to help kids — particularly those with autism — sharpen their sensory processing skills and is focused on accepting and tolerating differences.
Injini: Child Development Game Suite
Collection of learning games that offers meaningful play to young children with cognitive, language, and fine motor delays.
The Skoogmusic Skoog 2.0 Tactile Musical Interface is a tactile cube that enables children with disabilities experiment with music-making without having to pick up an instrument. In combination with the Skoog app and GarageBand, Skoog lets kids press and squeeze the cube to obtain acoustic feedback that plays on iPad.
Bloom HD
Bloom HD makes music creation accessible to all — combining instrument and composition capabilities to allow users to easily create patterns and melodies with the touch of a screen.
Learn economics and mental math as you buy ingredients, design pizzas, set prices, and serve customers in this delightfully delicious simulation game.
