iAutism

Interventions based on ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) are the most common nowadays to treat children with autism, and much of ABA programs use flash cards with pictures or drawings that the child has to match, associate with sounds, etc.

Kindergarten.com offers free 15 simple applications, each with between 26 and 60 different flash cards, which are accompanied by a text and its pronunciation in English and allow viewing them one after another.

Functionality

ABA Flash Cards operation is quite simple. After passing the initial presentation screen, we see a flash card consisting in a photograph or a drawing with text above that can be the name of that image or a simple sentence using that name. Simply by touching the image or a vignette icon below you hear the pronunciation of the text -in English-. Two cursors allow you to move forward and backward across the list of images, and an information icon sends you to the application configuration screen.

Typically, the user will be watching flash cards and listening their associated reproductions. Every few cards, some mobile musical notes appear on the screen and about eight seconds of music from Mozart, Beethoven or Tchaikovsky sound as a reinforcement.

The application options allow you to define if the flash cards are to be shown in sequential or shuffle mode, if there will be these musical reinforcements, if you will hear a chime sound every time you move on to the next card and if the audio playback will work or will be disabled.

15 editions

There are 15 different editions of the application, each focusing on a theme. “Alphabet” has only 26 cards, one for each letter of the English alphabet. “Emotions” has 50 cards divided into 10 groups –one for each basic emotion, such as “surprised”- with 5 cards per group.

The other 13 editions has each one between 50 or 60 cards with different elements associated with each of the subjects: Actions, Earth Science, Famous Places, Fruits & Nuts, Musical Instruments, Shapes, Sports, Things You Eat, Things You Play With, Things You Wear, Vegetables, Vehicles and Zoo Animals.

Some editions show only names, other phrases. Some are based on drawings and others on photographs, which in some cases are not exactly very explicit. There is enough variety to choose from and for practice. In iTunes you can find descriptions of each application, but if you are interested I recommend you download them all and look to decide if you’re really interested. In addition, there is a bug in the iTunes descriptions in “Shapes” and “Earth Science”, which are the “Emotions” description.

Rating

ABA Flash Cards, with its musical reinforcements and colorful pictures, can be used as an autonomous and simple game. It can also be used as support to review vocabulary, to help reading or even to practice oral expression or imitation if the child is accompanied by a therapist, just as an alternative to keep looking for paper cards, to give some use cases. The author recommends the application in case of speech or language delays, autism, ADD/ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia among others.

The application is designed for iPhone and iPod touch, so it can operate in the iPad using the “2x” mode, but at the cost of seeing the images a bit pixelated.

Obviously, I love to see a version in Spanish, or having a version –even a non free version– including all the about 750 cards scattered among the 15 editions, and even having a richer functionality, including the option to add cards as well as a more complete Web, … but the 15 applications are free!

-Francesc Sistach

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ABA Flash Cards 1.0

Editions (15): Actions, Alphabet, Earth Science, Emotions, Famous Places, Fruits & Nuts, Musical Instruments, Shapes, Sports, Things You Eat, Things You Play With, Things You Wear, Vegetables, Vehicles, Zoo Animals

Web: http://kindergarten.com/

Developer: Kindergarten.com

Languages: English.

Functions: 15 suites of flash cards with images, text and audio.

iPhone/iPod touch version: Yes

iPad version: No.

Price: Free.

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This post is also available in: Spanish