Special Software for Special Kids 

Autism Coach offers an extensive selection of high quality software for children within the autism spectrum from the U.S., England, Canada, Australia, and France. 

Some Autism Coach software titles have been selected because they help a child strengthen key cognitive and sensory areas such as:  processing incoming auditory and visual input, improving core memory, organizing and building mental relational maps that help the child make sense of the outside world, and multi-tasking to help a child's systems of sensory processing work better together.   Other programs have been chosen because they help children develop or expand spoken language and language comprehension.  Additional programs help a child better understand concepts in the outside world, starting with basic objects and actions.  As the child advances in age and ability, there is software to address academic and socialization needs.  Many children in the autism spectrum learn easily from the computer, making software an ideal teaching tool.  

To view a detailed description of the software listed by category or to place an order, click on a software title listed in one of the tables below.  The categories of software are listed alphabetically:  Ages 2-6, Art and Design, Cognitive Development, Geography, History, Language Development/Non-Verbal, Math, Music, Reading/Writing/ Spelling, Safety, Science, Social Skills, Software from England, and Technology/Junior Programmer.

Ages 2-6

ABC CD, Albert's House, Freddy Teddy, Jemima, Leaps and Bounds, Musical Leaps and Bounds, Reader Rabbit, Sequences, Speaking for Myself, Sound It Out Land, and Spider in the Kitchen address the needs of young children.   Sound It Out Land teaches beginning phonics to children through songs and games, ages 3-6.  Bucket and spade teaches geometrical concepts and provides visual/spatial challenges, ages 5-8.

Kidspiration is a wonderful and powerful visual tool for writing, organizing and categorizing information visually and is applicable for children ages 4 through 7.   It allows you to enter your own pictures and text and also has speech capabilities! 

Art and Design

Community Construction Kit allows children ages 8-13 to design, printout and construct 3-D paper cut-outs of historical and contemporary buildings.  Diorama Designer allows children ages 8-13 to design, print and assemble 3-D diorammas.  Junior CAD/BoxIt provides programs to facilitate 3D design and visualization, for children ages 7-14.  

Cognitive Skills

BrainBuilder and Thinkin' Things are programs designed to strengthen core cognitive skills such as short-term memory, mental processing speed, multi-tasking and  auditory processing.  Strengthening these basic abilities can lead to widespread overall improvement in others areas, as all learning and comprehension is dependent upon the ability to process incoming information.  BrainBuilder benefits children at a wide ranges of ages, all the way from 4 years old through adolescence and adulthood.   Our whole family, including adults, plays ThinkFast.  Thinkin' Things strengthens auditory processing, memory and other thinking skills for ages 4-13.

Geography

Neighborhood MapMachine enables children to create, navigate, and print maps of their own neighborhoods, other communities, or imaginary places using objects such as roads, trees, buildings, and parks. Ages 6-11, with parental guidance.  As children map out their towns, they learn essential geography skills such as direction, distance and scale, grid coordinates, and symbols.

History

Time liner can be used by teachers, parents and high functioning kids to create multi-media time lines of historical events and other sequential using pictures, text, audio and video clips.  Comes with over 180 time lines covering a diversity of subjects applicable from Grades K-12.  Great for increasing comprehension and adapting information that is complex and/or sequential for visual learners.  Subjects that could be placed in a time line include history, science, story mapping, hobbies and other areas of interest.  It could also be used to create a sequential picture schedule of events for non-verbal learners. Over 400 pictures included or use your own text, pictures, audio and video clips.

Language Development / Non-Verbal

These titles include those which are appropriate for non-verbal children, children who are just beginning to acquire language, and children who have some language but need help expanding their ability to comprehend spoken language and communicate.  Leaps and Bounds does not use spoken language.  Speaking for Myself introduces basic words.  Smart Alex shows demonstrates different facial expressions and also has simple spoken language.  Some of the other titles on this page below may also be appropriate, depending on your child's age and receptive language skills.  Sound Beginning is an innovative new title that has a character that actually acts out specific words the child speaks into a microphone.  Touch It and Leaps and Bounds Switch are touch screen and switch compatible.

Macintosh Compatible Titles

The following titles are both Macintosh and PC compatible:

Math 

These programs make learning math a fun, positive experience.   Calculating Crew teaches math concepts in a fun super-hero theme for children ages 8-12. Carnival Countdown teaches math concepts in using a carnival theme for children ages 5-7.  DoIt Bumper Pack introduces math concepts in a visual way for children ages 3-11.  MathMaster helps children learn to associate the symbols associated with numbers and the actual quantities the numbers represent while teaching practical math-related skills such as counting money and managing time.  Talking Clocks is an excellent program for teaching time and learning to determine the amount of time between intervals.  What's the Time Mr. Wolf teaches young children to tell time.

Music

Children in the autism spectrum often have an affinity for music and may actually learn better when music is involved in teaching.   Software that builds on the processing of musical patterns can be used to develop the ability to process and comprehend spoken language.  Musical patterns (tunes) overlaid with words can help children make the cognitive leap from processing music to recognizing patterns in language.  First Class Music is for older and higher-functioning children with an aptitude for music - a phenomenal music education program.  Ages 8-13.  Award-winning MusicBox tackles encourages children to explore sounds, chords, percussion and composition by 'painting' on the screen.  Ages 5-15.  In Musical Leaps and Bounds  children turn on The Moody Jukebox, Let's Dance, and The Singing Blobs in this new CD-ROM from the highly popular Leaps and Bounds series. Ages 4 and up.

Reading/Writing/Spelling

Sound It Out Land teaches beginning phonics, ages 3-6.  Wellington Square provides a structured reading course for children ranging from under six years old up to 8+ years.   Kidspiration builds organizational skills and categorization of ideas for children, ages 4-7.  GrammarTrainer is a wonderful program to teach children who have some verbal ability to speak grammatically correct and in more complete sentences.  ScanIt Plus helps children to take in more information and read with greater comprehension, for ages preschool-adult.   Secret Writer's Society is the best program I have seen for teaching the pragmatics of writing for children, ages 8 and up.  Spelling Games is a simple, wonderful program that's lots of fun and really works to help your child become a better speller, ages 4-adult.  Grammar provides a fun format to teach children the basics of grammar,  punctuation, and sentence structure - ages 8-15.  Writing Focus provides fun writing activities, ages 8-12.

Safety

SafetyTots teach children how to safely react to situations they may encounter in 35 scenarios.  The information is presented in a clear, straightforward manner with attractive visual representation of each scenario. 

Science

All About Ourselves introduces parts of the body, the senses and how we grow.  Builds self-awareness.  Fun activities for ages 6-8.  Appropriate for children who are non-readers and those with receptive language.  Also terrific for children with expressive language.

Social Skills

Albert's House can be used to facilitate problem solving in a house with a mouse and a ferocious cat for children, ages 3- 9. Just Like series includes four stories and allows children to share their feelings, ages 7-14.  Choices, Choices series helps children think about the consequences of their actions, ages 7-14.   My School teaches the routines and social pragmatics of school through video clips, ages 6-15.  My Community teaches children appropriate social behaviors, interactions, expectations and safety precautions with various peers and adults within their community, ages 5-15. Smart Alex helps children become familiar with different facial expressions and learn to read people's faces, it also provides means to have simple conversations with Alex, for children ages 5 and up.

Software from England

Autism Coach offers a wide variety of high-quality software titles from England for children of all ages and levels of ability.  

Technology - For the Junior Programmer