Stockings are sure to be stuffed with iTunes cards this holiday season, as Apple continues to release newer versions of their latest products. This Christmas, put the gift cards to good use for apps for children with ADHD. Apps we consider useful for ADHD can help curb a child’s tendency towards hyperactive and impulsive behaviors, offering up some fun and immersive ways to practice critical thinking skills. Read on for our top five apps for children with ADHD
for the holiday season.
5) Bricasso
Bricasso allows for unbridled creativity, enabling a child to use virtual building blocks to create a variety of 3D structures. There is no blueprint for building, other than the imagination of the individual. A child with ADHD will find the app particularly helpful in harnessing Self-Control, as there is no “undo” function, forcing the user to be very careful when building and planning designs.
4) Audiobooks
Audiobooks allow a child with ADHD to be flexible about exposure to literature. The various mediums in which a story can be told will enable your child to remove a narrative from traditional print, making it more appealing for a child who struggles to focus on a text-heavy story. This app features hundreds of classics to listen to, as well as premium books which can be bought individually.
3) Idea Bucket
A child with ADHD can sometimes fail to deliberate and weigh options before making a decision. The result of which can be poorly planned, thoughtless choices. Idea Bucket can help slow the decision making process down in a child with ADHD, offering different ways to weigh options and map out a course of action. The app makes it easy to take multiple factors into account, graphically presenting information and in a way that can be visually analyzed.
2) Coach’s Eye
Coach’s Eye — an app that best lends itself to sports related activities — is used to capture video of a physical endeavor, then break down the clip for closer analysis. The app helps children evaluate behaviors, and can be used to do things like perfect a golf swing, fine-tune a pitch, or develop a better basketball lay-up. Rushing or acting impulsively during sports can prove a major fault come game time — a tendency many children with ADHD stuggle with. This app makes it easy to identify areas for improvement and communicate how best to remedy them, which is especially helpful for young athletes trying to improve their form.
If there’s one drawing app that can coax a child into the Christmas spirit, iLuv Drawing: Santa HD is it. The app helps reinforce patience, creativity, and diligence, providing step-by-step instructions for recreating favorite Christmas icons, like Rudolf or Frosty the Snowman. What makes the app great for a child with ADHD is the focus it puts on achieving a quality outcome, rather than speedily producing images with less care. Each step must be completed prior to moving to the next part of the drawing process, ensuring the drawing cannot be completed in haste. Children with ADHD sometimes have trouble “staying in the lines,” but iLuv Drawing: Santa HD helps to slow the impulses a child with ADHD may demonstrate, instead modeling a thorough, step-by-step approach.
