Children often have language and speech problems that parents do not like to admit even to themselves. These children need extra help and special instructions.

Today, we have apps that can help children with speech and language problems. Some of these apps support Indian languages too.

Though there are specialists and special schools that deal with this kind of disorder, you may not have access to them. These apps for computers, tablets and smartphones give a child access to effective tools to help them. The apps work through games and are a fun way of receiving therapy. Practising at home with parents or people they trust may make the child feel secure; children learn best in their comfort zone.

Avaz

Around 2005, a small group of inventors from IIT Madras was responsible for bringing AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) to India. A line-up of images is known as AAC. It was, at first, a tablet to be used by special needs children and called Avaz, meaning voice. In 2010, Avaz was rewritten as an app for Android and was sold bundled with a tablet. It became an integral part of special education and therapy and the inventor, Ajit Narayanan, got the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities that year. The iOS version of the app was introduced about six years ago.

Avaz is a free communication and learning tool for children with speech disabilities who can use it to express themselves. It also teaches concepts. Avaz adapts itself to the needs of the child as their vocabulary grows. Over the years, using the same app, the child can move forward from using pictures to keyboards with audio output. Avaz is also available in Bengali in Google’s Play Store.

Leeloo Autism Speech

The Leeloo AAC Autism Speech app is meant for nonverbal children. A child may have a disorder where they are not able to say what they want to. Leeloo could help them communicate with parents, teachers or friends.

Leeloo uses AAC with the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). The app has a card for every word the child may need daily. And every card is matched with an image about the phrase or word the child is trying to communicate. Leeloo has a voice too. When the cards are pressed, the chosen phrases will be read out by a text-to-speech robot.

Many older people also lose their power of speaking at times because of a stroke or accident.

The Leeloo app can help them communicate. Leeloo is available for free at the Google Play Store and in Apple’s App Store.

MITA language therapy

Language Therapy for Kids —MITA, is an app that can be used for free on Android and iOS devices. MITA stands for Mental Imagery Therapy for Autism.

Clinical trials have shown that children with language problems who have used MITA have bettered themselves by 70 per cent since the initial evaluation. It includes unlimited language and cognitive exercises. Parents and teachers can use this app to help their children improve at home.

It starts with simple vocabulary and progresses towards higher forms of language. For example, in one of the very first lessons, your child is presented with two separate images of a butterfly’s body and wings, and a choice of complete butterflies. The task is to find the correct complete butterfly and place it in the empty square. Unfortunately, this app does not support any Indian language.

LetMeTalk

LetMeTalk is a free app available in the Apple App Store as well as Google’s Play Store. It makes you line up images in a meaningful way to read as a sentence. It has a huge database of images. You can also add images of your own from your device. You do not need an Internet connection to make LetMeTalk function. There is a tutorial available at https://bit.ly/2KaGZMd.

Otsimo

Otsimo Special Education is another certified and award-winning educational game app that has been developed for individuals with learning disorders. It is available for both Apple and Android devices. Assistive games in Otsimo teach fundamental education and concepts such as vocabulary, numbers, emotions, music, colours and so on.

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