Using the iPad to develop fine motor and handwriting skills
This app by L’Escapadou will help develop fine motor skills by tracing a variety of shapes, patterns, letters and numbers. It can be used with either a finger or a stylus. It is designed to maintain motivation and is fully customisable. It allows you check progress through a system of reports and profiles. (£ inexpensive)
There is also a cursive version. Once tracing is complete, children can interact with 4 games that animate letters. You can also enter your own words , which can be accompanied by audio recordings (£ inexpensive)
Using a chunky stylus on the iPad gives opportunities to develop a good pencil grip. This stylus has a good weight and ridges to encourage a tripod grip. (£ moderate)
Very chunky and made the tip is made from a material which that is responsive and glides effortlessly over the glass screen. Its rubberized exterior is soft and grippy, yet waterproof, and durable.. (£ moderate)
The chunky shape makes it easy to hold (£ moderate)
Placing the iPad on a slope can often encourage a good posture when working. (£ inexpensive)
Tip: When exploring apps for fine motor support, try alternating between using a finger and a chunky stylus.
*All details accurate at the time or writing – please note that app prices do change, apps do get removed from the app store and iOS updates can stop apps from working correctly.
Using the iPad to develop reading
Teach Your Monster to Read
An interactive game where you create a monster and teach it read as you progress through the game. Covers the first 2 years of learning to read, from matching letters and sounds to reading simple, short books. Supports Phase 2-5 of Letters and Sounds as well as other synthetic phonics programmes. Useful ‘Practice’ mode allows you to target specific letter-sounds to focus on (once a monster has been created). 3 starting levels to choose from, with suggestion as to where to start). (£ inexpensive)
Busy Things Story Bundle
A selection of traditional tales performed by 2 characters. You essentially ‘watch’ the story being told with on screen controls. The creative way in which stories are acted out may encourage younger readers to be more imaginative in their story telling. (£ inexpensive)
Libby
An app that allows you to borrow eBooks and Audiobooks from your library using your Devon Libraries card. It gives you access to eBooks and audiobooks from your local library. You can borrow them, instantly, for free, using just the device in your hand. It has a variety of books that many readers would most likely enjoy reading or listening to. (£ free)
Signed Stories
Children’s stories performed in British Sign Language. Download the free app from iTunes, get your free book and visit the bookstore: Books available from just 99p. Helps to increase your child’s vocabulary with the BSL dictionary. Sign language, subtitles and narration can be turned on and off as your needs change. (£ inexpensive per book)
Tip: The iPad has lots of interesting built in functions – try exploring the ‘Accessibility’ area in settings.
*All details accurate at the time or writing – please note that app prices do change, apps do get removed from the app store and iOS updates can stop apps from working correctly
Using the iPad to get organised
Microsoft To Do
This task management app that makes it easy to stay organised. Focus on what is important to you each day with My Day and Suggestions and personalised day planner tools. A more complex organiser aimed at older students. (£ free)
Todoist
Allows you to easily organise and prioritise your tasks and projects so you will know exactly what to work on next. You can set daily and weekly goals. A more complex organiser aimed at older students. (£ free)
Trello
Trello is a collaboration tool that organises your projects into boards. It is like a white board, filled with lists of sticky notes, with each note as a task. A more complex organiser aimed at older students. (£ free)
Kids ToDo List
Visualising your tasks is important to work on them in order. With this app, you can easily create your task list by simply arranging the picture cards. All picture cards support voice sounds. In addition, you can create your original picture cards with your own pictures and voice recordings. For younger children who benefit from picture support. (£ free)
Remember the Milk
This app gives you reminders and allows you to share lists and syncs with other devices. Organises the way you want to with priorities, due dates, repeats and lists. You can search for your tasks and notes, and save your favourites as Smart Lists. A more complex organiser aimed at older students. (£ free, with upgrade options)
Evernote
Helps you focus and prioritise on tasks Input typed notes or scan handwritten notes. Add to-dos, photos, images, web pages, or audio. Organise notes in a way which suits you and share with anyone. A more complex organiser aimed at older students. (£ free)
Classroom Timetable
This app allows you to manage your timetable, organise your tasks and your day. Gives you reminders, is colour coded and very clear and easy to use. Good for secondary school students. (£ free)
Choiceworks
A useful tool for helping children to complete daily routines, manage feelings and improve waiting skills. 4 boards: Schedule, Waiting, Feelings and Feelings scale. Large image library or you can add your own. Can print boards or save as a pdf. (£ inexpensive)
Choiceworks Calendar
This is a picture based calendar that helps children organise their lives and understand sequencing and time. You can plan out a daily schedule quickly and easily. Has a large picture library but you can also add your own images to it. (£ moderate)
Tip: Keep your iPad safe with a protective case – it will pay off in the long term.
*All details accurate at the time or writing – please note that app prices do change, apps do get removed from the app store and iOS updates can stop apps from working correctly
Using the iPad to manage behaviour and sensory needs
Litelico – Mouse Timer
A visualised timer for children who have difficulties understanding the length of time. The app expresses the passing of time by showing a mouse eating an apple (1 bite per second). It measures from 1 minute up to 60 minutes. (£ free)
Wait Timer
A visual and audio tool to help teach waiting. The timer is colour coded and the wait time can easily be adjusted. Also includes a social story that can be skipped. (£ inexpensive)
Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
An interactive resource to help children problem solve, develop self-control and plan what to do in future. It has a series of activities aimed at helping build resilience and manage stressful situations. (£ free)
Mind Shift
Uses CBT based strategies to help take charge of anxiety. Includes tools to support Worry, Panic, Perfectionism, Social Anxiety and Phobias. (£ free)
Stop, Breathe and Think Kids
Features a number of mindfulness activities for many situations: Sleep, Over Excitement, Stress & Worry, Disappointment & Sadness, Caring & Connecting. (£ SUB)
Heat Pad
Simulates various surfaces that react to the touch of your hand / fingers. A simple and relaxing app that may help to focus or calm. (£ inexpensive)
Gravitarium
A particle visualiser that responds to the touch and flows around the screen to music. Soothing sounds and visuals make this app a useful tool to support a calm mood. (£ inexpensive)
Acrobots
A physics based simulator where you control multi-legged robots that interact with one another. You can change the gravity, stickiness, speed of movement and other factors. (£ inexpensive)
Tip: Copycat apps often have the same / similar names and icons. Be sure you are clicking on the correct one before buying. Check reviews and the Developers page.
*All details accurate at the time or writing – please note that app prices do change, apps do get removed from the app store and iOS updates can stop apps from working correctly
Using the iPad to record work
Puppet Pals HD
This app can be used to create a short animated movie that looks like a puppet show. You have the option to either choose ready-made characters, or you can take a photo to create your own character. You can also choose from a selection of backgrounds or can take a picture to create your own. Once you have chosen the characters and background you can then begin making a recording. You can move the characters around to different parts of the background and can take them off stage and on stage, you can also record audio. You can pause the recording so you can do bits at a time. (£ inexpensive)
Chatterpix Kids
In this app you can take a photo of anything, draw a line for a mouth, record yourself saying something and then make the photo talk. It could be used to take a photo of a character or person from a story or topic you are looking at and the child could talk about how the person felt or what they did. (£ inexpensive)
Little Story Creator
This app lets you instantly create collages, arrange photos or get creative with videos, text, borders, stickers, videos, audio and your own drawings. Share your creations via email and view and experience them in any browser. Easy to use. (£ free)
Book Creator
This app can be used as an alternative way to record work and achievements, or to make projects and write stories. Books can easily be exported to a variety of e-book readers such as iBooks, iPads or iOS devices. You can use it to add photos taken with the iPad or pictures saved from the internet, add your own voice recordings, type in text or even annotate with drawings using a finger or a stylus. (£ inexpensive)
Pictello
This app that helps you make a social story, a visual schedule or even a slide show of pictures. Each page in a Pictello story consists of a photo or video and some text, which can be read aloud by a Text to Speech voice or your own recorded audio. (£ moderate)
Special Stories
This app allows you to easily create stories and records of work utilising photos, text and audio. You can create a digital book that includes some writing, a photo and a sound recording. (£ moderate)
Clicker Sentences
This app is designed for emergent writers, English language learners or older children struggling to with basic literacy skills. It includes the Sassoon font, speech feedback and many other child-friendly features to create an accessible and engaging environment for pupils to work in. Sentence building activities can be created on any topic, tailored specifically to support each pupil’s individual needs. Each sentence grid contains all the words required to build a sentence. Pupils click each word to create the sentence in their document, then select the arrow key to move on to the next sentence in the set, quickly building a significant piece of writing. Also comes with access to free resources. (£ expensive)
Clicker Connect
This app provides clusters of words, phrases and/or pictures to help build sentences / paragraphs. Work can include pictures to support key words. As each sentence is completed, it is spoken aloud in a child’s voice, helping to review and correct what they have written. The Sound Shift tool allows you to listen to words and phrases in the grid before using them. Phrases and words can be colour coded to emphasise sentence structure, for example, they can be created to match Colourful Semantics format. The next step form Clicker sentences. Also comes with access to free resources. (£ expensive)
Clicker Docs
Clicker Docs is word processing software aimed at helping pupils of all abilities achieve success and independence in their writing. Particularly useful for learners with dyslexia and struggling spellers. Clicker Docs includes the Sassoon font, a lower case keyboard and many other child-friendly features to create an accessible and engaging environment for pupils to work in. The Clicker Docs Predictor suggests age-appropriate vocabulary based on the context of pupils’ writing. Word Banks provide tabbed vocabulary and are speech supported. Also comes with access to free resources. (£ expensive)
Docs Plus
This app provides secondary school students with a range of age-appropriate tools to support writing across the curriculum. The predictor suggests age-appropriate vocabulary based on the context of students’ writing and students can also use the audio note creator. ‘Wordbars’, give instant access to the specific words and phrases needed. It also comes with a built in speech feedback, a mind mapping tool and a document reader that will read pdfs or word documents. It has an exam mode setting that allows users to view the question as they write their answer. Also comes with access to free resources. (£ expensive)
Widgit Writer
This app that lets you create symbol-supported documents on your iPad. Documents out loud with the iPads speech voice. If you have an internet connection, you can write in symbols using Widgit’s smart symbolisation. If the internet isn’t available then you can write using the offline symbol database. Links with Widgit Online account. (£ inexpensive)
Pages
Pages is a word processor developed by Apple Inc. It is part of the iWork productivity suite and runs on the macOS and iOS operating systems. It allows users to quickly create documents on their devices. Apple Pages is compatible with Microsoft Word. If you’re creating documents in collaboration with Word users, or if you’re sending your Pages file to a Microsoft Word user, you can save the Pages files as a Word document or export the Pages file as a Word document. (£ free)
Apple Dictation (£ free)
1.Display the on-screen keyboard, then tap the microphone. 2.Start talking. The device listens to your voice and turns it into text as you talk. Use keywords to insert punctuation or paragraph breaks as needed. 3.Tap ‘Done’ to stop dictating. 4.Adjustment text as necessary using the keyboard. (£ free)
Dragon Anywhere
This app needs a live internet connection. Dictate documents of any length, easily edit, adjust formatting and quickly share them on the most popular cloud-sharing services. (£ SUB)
Tip: Keep your iOS (operating system) up to date as new features are released frequently.
*All details accurate at the time or writing – please note that app prices do change, apps do get removed from the app store and iOS updates can stop apps from working correctly
Using the iPad to reinforce and consolidate literacy skills
Word Wizard
This app offers several unique reading and spelling activities. It has a talking Movable Alphabet that allows children to experiment with phonics and word building. It also has 3 spelling activities that increase in difficulty with a list of more than 1,400 questions and answers. Your own words can be added to create unique spelling quizzes. Progress can be monitored with detailed reports. (£ inexpensive)
Special Words
This app encourages children’s communication, language and physical development, as well as their personal, social and emotional development. Encourage speaking and help with clarity; Increase sight word vocabulary; Develop hand-eye co-ordination; Improve fine motor skills; Personalise with your own words, photos and audio. (£ moderate)
Teach your Monster to Read
This app gives opportunities to practice letter sounds and read words and simple sentences using these sounds. Game 1: First Steps – For children just starting to learn letters and sounds. Game 2: Fun With Words – For children who are confident with early letter-sound combinations and are starting to read sentences. Game 3: Champion Reader – For children who are confidently reading short sentences and know all of the basic letter-sound combinations. (£ inexpensive)
Montessori Crosswords
This app is based on the proven Montessori learning method, a fun game to develop spelling, reading and writing skills using a phonics-enabled Movable Alphabet (£ inexpensive)
High Frequency Words
A flashcard style app for practising speed words. It gives the option to learn or practice 200 high frequency words using simple flashcards (via the ‘Learn’ mode) as well as some interactive games (via the ‘Practice’ mode). (£ inexpensive)
Squeebles Spelling Test
This app lets you create spelling tests with your choice of words. You can record the words in your own voice, and choose how long your child gets to study them before attempting to spell them. You can set up different profiles so you can test each child on their own words. You can also download a range of ready-made tests tailored to your child’s age and stage, such as high frequency words and tricky words for confident readers. (£ inexpensive)
Tip: When searching for apps it is often easier to use a web search rather than the app store.
*All details accurate at the time or writing – please note that app prices do change, apps do get removed from the app store and iOS updates can stop apps from working correctly
Using the iPad to reinforce and consolidate numeracy skills
Quick Math Jr
An app aimed at developing number sense, including: What numbers mean; The way numbers relate to each other; The relationship between number and quantity; Informal number operations, such as adding to numbers or taking numbers away. The activities automatically increase in their difficulty. (£ moderate)
Monkey Math School Sunshine
A maths app that helps build and develop fundamental maths skills using numerous interactive games and activities, all of which can be adjusted in the ‘For Grownups’ option on the home screen. It adjusts to the appropriate difficulty setting as you complete activities. (£ inexpensive)
Special Numbers
Helps develop early number skills: Wide range of activities: counting, matching, ordering, comparing and selecting; Easily configured to suit different abilities and interests; Develop hand-eye coordination; Improve fine motor skills. All activities have been created to be accessible and hold the attention of children with additional needs, as well as typically developing children. (£ moderate)
Panther Math Paper
Enables you to record maths work independently without pencil and paper. A useful tool for setting out work and includes all the necessary numbers, symbols and operations needed. Easy to use, especially for those with fine motor difficulties. (£ inexpensive)
ModMath
A program to help you write and solve mathematical problems using the iPad. You can write and solve basic sums and more complex equations quickly and legibly. (£ inexpensive)
Squeebles Times Tables
An interactive way to learn and practise times tables skills. Numerous different modes and games to learn and refine skills. A dyslexia friendly mode has been added recently. Other maths based apps also available from this developer. (£ inexpensive)
Tip: Try placing the iPad on a slope to encourage good posture.
*All details accurate at the time or writing – please note that app prices do change, apps do get removed from the app store and iOS updates can stop apps from working correctly
Termly iPad Clinic/Network Meeting
A termly meeting, which will include a presentation of 5 or 6 iPad apps for different areas of education as well as a look at how to make use of accessibility functions. There will be live demos and opportunities for Q&A and discussions.
Visit our shop to book your place – new DES link required