New Apps Support Teachers in the Classroom and Parents in the HomeTeacher applications for Special Educators for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and Android devices. Parent applications for the home.
Mobile devices are increasing in usage in the field of education. With the steady increase of iPhones, iPads, iPod Touch and Android devices, the demand for quality applications is increasing as well. Special Educators have been right there with the trend. Many applications, or apps, as they are often called, are developed to teach students information or to help students perform tasks easier. A resourceful Special Education website owner has put a spin on the student-centered app by creating two apps for the instruction of the Special Educators and one app for parents delivering home instruction.
The new “Classroom Set Up” app is a mini-book version of AutismClassroom.com’s book How to Set Up a Classroom for Students with Autism: a Manual for Teachers, Para-professionals and Administrators. It details the beginning steps in creating an effective and productive self-contained Special Education classroom or autism classroom. “The app is intended to give teachers, student teachers, parents, professors, para-educators and administrators a peek inside the book before they purchase it for their school system, for trainings, or for personal use,” said S.B. Linton, creator of the app. She suggests that the user “Just ask yourself these questions, Do I teach in a self-contained classroom? Do I have students with special needs in my room? Do I need to set up a classroom for students with intensive needs?” If the answer is yes to any, then this app is for you. The app gives excerpts from various chapters in the book, step by step instructions about creating a class, updates from the AutismClassroom.com website, and mini-trainings with videos (videos unavailable on Android devices) and podcasts on managing the classroom, sensory issues, conducting lessons, and more.
Linton’s first app, AutismClassroom, is also for educators and families who have children with autism in their lives. The AutismClassroom app is intended to provide a wealth of easy to understand information that allows teachers, para-professionals, administrators, related service providers, parents, family members, babysitters, and in-home support providers, quick access to ideas for sparking meaningful lessons and activities which foster joint attention, fine motor, social skills, communication and more in young children with autism. The app has behavior tabs to help users to critically think about their current behavior interventions, while highlighting over 100 strategies and solutions for some common challenging behaviors for children and teens with autism. Additionally, the app includes a brief Autism Classroom Checklist to give administrators, teachers and parents a starting point to evaluate a classroom that educates students with autism.
Linton’s third app, Autism at Home, provides ideas for creating learning spaces in the home for young children with developmental disabilities and autism. This app highlights parts of AutismClassroom.com’s book “How to Set up a Work Area at Home for a Child with Autism” as well as some pages from the AutismClassroom.com website and the AutismSpaces.com website. The information is for parents, family members, in-home support providers, babysitters and educators. It boasts environmental modification ideas for various parts of the home to bring out language, social skills and play skills.
The three of these groundbreaking application tools provide information that is practical in nature and that assists adults in creating environments that increase positive outcomes for children with autism and related special needs.
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