Great Apps for Autism: "Scene Speak" Review

http://autisminterventions.org/210/apps-for-autism-review-scene-speak/
Here is a great iPad application that can help children with autism learn to associate basic language with people and things in their own world.

Hi, I'm Jason from Autism Interventions

and today I want to show you a really cool iPad app.

that we are using with our son...

our 5 year old who has autism.

and we have seen some really cool stuff happen with this.

One of the things about autistic kids that is common

is they learn really well from digital media.

So, our son will go around copying lines from Toy Story or Despicable Me

or something sometimes far more annoying than that.

So he is learning to say words but they are out of context

and they are not the right ones we want him to learn.

So, we got this great app on the iPad 2.

It's called Scenes Speak. So we want to review Scenes Speak today.

This is an app we got from the app store...$14.99 I think.

Here's the cool thing about Scene Speak.

You can make your own visual and audio books...so to speak.

very easily. It comes with a library of pictures and things. Like you've got one of your bedroom here

and you choose an area...for example we can click on computer

and actually say the word "computer."

so then when my son is cycling through he can hit it and hear that.

Let me show you one that we use all the time.

And, this is where it gets great when we look at family or things we want him to learn.

So, here is a picture of our family right here.

So, he can look at this, he can flip through the pages, as they call them...

and he sees all of his family members.

So, then he can click on himself and this is what he'd hear.

[app speaks] This is me. I like to run on my Dad's back.

So, he's learning, hopefully, things in context, or even more appropriately

[app speaks] My name is Jack. I am 5 years old.

This is really, really helpful because, if he's going to learn things from media anyway

he might as well learn to say things that are true...

rather than things like, you know, "my name is Lightning McQueen" or something.

So, here's an example. It's very simple.

You can have all sorts of things push all over the screen.

And, it's very accurate. So he can push on "mama"

[app speaks] Sam

Oops, he clicked on his brother's head here.

And, he hear's mama [app] "mommy'

Or me [app] "daddy"

Or, himself [app] "Jack"

So, he plays with this all the time. The cool thing is

You know, is he still learning my rote? Yeah he is but,

it's cool because, not only is it in context, and he's saying the right things but

he's actually learning them in the real world.

So, he ran up to his mom the other day and said "this is my mommy."

Or, we were all sitting in the living room and he came in and said "this is my family."

So, it's pretty exciting. He's starting to learn basic vocabulary that we take for granted

unless you're a parent of an autistic child then you know how much you long

for that just simple little breakthrough...him saying your name.

[app] I love to smile. I love to smile.

[Dad] Say I love to smile.

I love to smile.

So, we highly recommend this app. Again, it's called Scene Speak.

Be sure to check back.

We are going to be reviewing all kinds of iPad apps in the future.

Thanks!