5 Great Free Apps for Young People with Additional Needs

Touchscreen technology has revolutionised how we use computers and made them more accessible to people with additional needs. It has certainly enabled James to access educational and fun apps and to be able to spend time occupying himself. An additional bonus is that many apps are free. Here are 5 free apps that we have been enjoying trying out.

Gravitarium

This is a screenshot from the Gravitarium app using only the free options – there are extras that can be added but I love it just as it is. The options along the bottom of the screen are not on view all the time – you swipe them up – so you can set up the app for someone and then let them enjoy it without the worry that they might touch an option and loose their setting.

Using the ‘resume/pause’ and ‘draw/flow’ options you can make a difference to the results when you touch the screen: on ‘Flow’ there is constant movement on the screen, if you touch it the lines radiate out from your finger, if you drag you get a trail of lines flowing out behind your finger which disperses if you remove your finger from the screen. If you select ‘Draw’ nothing appears on the screen until you touch it but what you create by touching and dragging remains when you let go. The colours change automatically as you interact with the screen. The ‘resume/pause’ button allows the lines to either keep moving or to pause when you let go then carry on when you touch again – like fast forwarding through a TV programme. The program has gentle music that it plays through but you can turn this off. There is a photo option which I haven’t been able to work but I have successfully taken screen shots on my iPad as you can see. This makes it ideal for creating art which can then be printed and displayed.

Visage

Visage requires more in the way of fine motor skills to have an effect on the screen with the user having to touch in certain places to have the most noticeable effects. These places are marked by white circles, 2 at the top and 4 at the bottom, which are more obvious on some screens than others. Touching the dots causes the faces to change shape, change colour, the background to change colour, faces to flow from the top of the screen to the bottom, the number of faces to change, the eyes to open and close or the faces to move. Touching any of the 4 bottom buttons results in a sound. Touching anywhere else on the screen causes a subtle change to a face, perhaps a wink or a little movement. You can also touch on a face and drag it around the screen but I found this harder to follow as there are so many faces which look the same – though the one you are dragging does look a bit startled with his mouth in an open ‘o’ until you release him 😮. There is no sound that goes alongside this program other than that of touching the buttons. I personally found the screen visually very busy but it is certainly appealingly bright and colourful.

Sensory Room

Sensory Room, developed by Inclusive Technology, is a simple cause and effect program which tells the story of a visit to a sensory room. It can be set to access via one switch or just used with a touchscreen. Although there is a play button which appears in the centre of the screen to prompt the user to touch at each step of the story, the screen can actually be touched anywhere to make it work. The sound effects are appropriate to what is happening in the story. Initially you here the sound of the wheelchair rolling along, the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ of the girl in the story as she explores the sensory room, then the sounds of the bubble tube and the music. The screen images are simple, depicting just the elements of the sensory room and replicating the experience of being in a sensory room with the changing colours and the movement of the disco ball. The program itself is very quick to work through but once you get to the end you can just easily start all over again simply by touching the screen 😀.

EDA Play Toby

This game describes itself as helping to train vision and motor skills. It would be great to use in an educational context as well as being a fun activity for young people with complex needs. It is easy to access to set up and to alter the settings during its use.

There are 4 levels of game play for the user: watch what’s happening, touch and make something happen, touch and find out what’s happening in the dark, touch and find out what’s hiding in the box. Each game level has accompanying sounds appropriate to the images. There is a baa-ing sound which accompanies this sheep who pokes out his tongue, then there is laughter after he has delivered his droppings! The sound effects can easily be switched off.

Settings and controls can be easily accessed using two touch buttons which are situated in corners of the screen. You have to touch and hold the buttons which minimises the risk of the user accidentally accessing the controls. Via the setting you can see info about the game, how to play it and there is also an interesting section on visual disorders with a simulator which gives you an idea of the effect of those disorders (it requires access to the camera on your device) which could be useful for staff training.

In the task overview you can turn tasks on and off so the user can focus on one level of the game or you can set it to repeat a preferred task or avoid one that is less interesting. All in all there is a lot to this free app !

Same Same

This is James’ type of game. He really likes matching activities and he is very good at them. The default setting of the game requires the user to be able to drag an image across the screen to match identical items, however there is also a an option available in settings which means the user can tap the item which is the correct answer and the object to be matched will move to it.

There are 20 different screens covering a range of themes including shapes, clothes, animals, colours, vehicles, insects and emotions. The images are bright and appealing, though they are ‘busier.’ Once the correct made is made a voice identifies the item e.g. ‘bananas.’ You can turn this off or record your own voice for the voice overs. The default voice uses American pronunciation and the occasional less familiar term e.g. bathing suit, so it may be useful to record your own words.

A settings button at the side of the initial screen requires you to complete a simple sum before giving access to the controls. There you can turn on and off preferences about how the game functions including sounds, what happens at the end of a level and assistance prompts. If you set it to go back to the Home Screen at the end of every level then the user can choose what they want to play next. Have fun!

If you find this blog useful you might also like our other posts about free online activities: 5 Fun, Free Easy-To-Use Online Art Programs and 3 Great Free Sites for Online Colouring.