SENspeller - The Autism Spelling App

Created by Penelope Vanderplank, a mother with a boy on the autistic spectrum. This is a useful app for teaching spelling to young learners with autism and other special educational needs. i feel that one of the main benefits of SENspeller is its low arousal interface. The developer has clearly understood the need for this when you compare the app with other more 'busy' screen spelling apps. The lack of distractions such as moving pictures and sounds allow for focus. The app does play to the strengths  of visual learners. The images are black and white but are clear and easy to understand. Once a child has correctly spelt a word, the image turns to full colour.

 

The app has several levels of difficulties for each word group. At Level 1, there are shadows of the letters, indicating where the child should drag and drop them to correctly spell the word. By Level 3, the letters are scrambled, there are no shadows, and there are extra letters not needed for the word.The audio cue is clear throughout and children enjoy hearing the cheers when they are correct. When the user is selecting the letters a child's voice sounds out the sounds and speaks the word once compete.

 

Probably the best feature of the app is its customisation ability. You can add your own images, record the sounds and add your own word lists. Especially useful for children on the spectrum where you can create  words and images based on their own interests. The built in categories 10 in all, contain 10 words each can be added to and also adapted to suit the individual. The app will also allow you store ten profiles at different levels of development and you are allowed to store 200 words at any one time. SENspeller aids you in monitoring the progress of each child’s learning, by giving you access to their gameplay history: Date last played,Topics completed, Individual topic scores, Words yet to be spelled correctly and Current stage reached.

 

Overall SENspeller is a really clever little app, I do feel that it is a little on the expensive side as there are many other less expensive apps for spelling that do a lot more, but this is a minor complaint. The apps customisable nature as well as the developers understanding of 'less is more' in interface design and the autistic spectrum is a real bonus. Well done Penelope!