Monday, January 25, 2010

There's an app for that

Anyone who knows me well knows that a) I've never met a gadget I don't like, and b) as far as I'm concerned, God must have created the iPhone.

I've found a couple of great autism-related apps at the iTunes store, and was pleased to see that quite a few more are available. I've had some fun playing with Behavior Tracker Pro, which I got on sale for $10. It's also available for the BlackBerry and the Google Android. If you need to keep behavior data on your kid, this is a pretty cool way to do it. I can track frequency and duration of behaviors, or do a full ABC workup, with just a few taps. But again, I'm a gadget junkie.

I also bought Is That Gluten Free?, which is exactly what it appears to be -- a database of gluten-free foods that includes national brands and some grocery store brands. It's not a perfect fit for our community -- what many of us really need is 'Is That GFCF and Maybe SF?' -- but I've always found it most challenging to ferret out all the potential sources of gluten from an ingredient list. Casein is a bit more straightforward. Also, Leah has celiac disease, which means that cheating on special occasions and compensating with a good enzyme (which I know some people do from time to time) is not an option. Although we've been doing the celiac thing for awhile, I still have to make the occasional call to manufacturers. I'm hoping this app will save me some time.

I also saw a lot of ABA flash cards in the app store. I have no experience with them, but it was nice to see them there. The flip side to the flash cards is, if you use them, you have to let your kid know what the iPhone can do. Which is sort of like opening Pandora's box. I speak from experience. Leah is quite adept at stealing my iPhone when I'm not looking and using the You Tube app to find her favorite Guinness commercials and Phineas and Ferb bits.

In fact, I think I hear her coming. Time to secure the gadget.
--Alison Hamilton

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