Orange County Head Start

It was a great experience to be a part of Orange County Head Starts 6th Annual Family Festival! 

Working as a team on the committee, I was able to see and understand all of the hard work that goes into such a big event. With over 4,000 children & families, I want to thank all of the donations Beginner Blocks received. The sponsors truly made a difference and Beginner Blocks could not have done it with out your support!

Thanks again for helping support Children & Families!

'Presented to Beginner Blocks

In Honor of Your Support of Children & Families

Orange County Head Start, Inc.

6th Annual Family Festival'

22 Best Mobile Apps for kids with Special Needs

Best Assistive Communication Apps (for nonspeaking kids):

• ProloQuo2Go ($198) - Full-featured augmentative and alternative communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking. Provides natural sounding text-to-speech voices. This is a popular one with speech therapists.
• TalkTablet ($89) For people unable to communicate clearly as a result of Autism, Aphasia, Down Syndrome, Stroke or Laryngectomy. With six US English ACAPELA voices (with children's voices)

Best Visual Schedules Apps

• ChoiceWorks ($14.99) Helps children complete daily routines, understand and control their feelings and cultivate a higher threshold for patience (e.g., taking turns and not interrupting). Helps foster a child's independence while also promoting positive behavior and emotional regulation.
• Routinely ($4.99) - Build visual schedules on iPhone or iPod Touch. Helps children with developmental delays anticipate and better prepare for transitions.

Best Social Cues Apps

• Social Skill Builder (Free) Interactive videos teach key social thinking, language and behavior that are critical to everyday living. Specifically helps teach problem solving and friendship/life skills, critical thinking, emotions, and consequences.
• Hidden Curriculum for Kids ($1.99) - Apps for Children with Special Needs (a4cwsn.com) describes it as, "Real life-based entries spur conversations about the countless 'unwritten social rules' that we encounter every day and that can cause confusion and anxiety." Great for kids on the autism spectrum.

Best Language Apps

• Speech with Milo : Verbs ($2.99) Created by a licensed speech-language pathologist. Milo is an animated mouse that performs over 100 actions such as 'bounce,' 'count,' and 'play'. Great for infants, toddlers and children with language delays.
• Splingo's Language Universe ($2.99) - Children practice their listening and language skills by interacting with the images and animation on the screen to follow Splingo the alien's spoken instructions.

Best Literacy Apps

• Write My Name ($3.99) - Helps children with fine motor delays and sensory processing issues practice emerging writing skills by writing their name and tracing upper- and lowercase letters. Includes over 100 familiar sight words.
• Bob Books Reading Magic ($1.99) - Teachers your child how to make the connection between letters and sounds; sound out simple words; and spell the words they've read.

Best Early Learning Apps

• Injini: Child Development Game Suite ($29.99) - Play-based learning exercises and games that are well suited for children with cognitive, language and fine motor delays. Originally designed for and tested by children with autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome as well as typically developing preschoolers.
• Bugs and Buttons ($2.99) Teaches counting, path finding, patterns, sorting and tracking as well as fine motor skills such as pinching.

Best Math Apps

• Math Evolve (des Rochas Rosa says this one is the most fun) - ($1.99) - Children can practice math facts, number sense and mental math skills. Rosa votes this one as "most fun."
• TeachMe ($0.99, includes spelling as well) - Teaches age-appropriate math skills. Rosa votes this one as "most functional"

Best Telling Time App

• Telling Time ($1.99) Features include a free-play talking clock, a digital clock alongside the analog one, three levels of difficulty for each activity, and the chance to win prizes.

Best Fine Motor App

• Dexteria ($4.99) Therapeutic hand exercises (not games) to improve fine motor skills. Activities take full advantage of the multi-touch interface to help build strength, control, and dexterity.

Best Memory Apps

• Fruit Memory Match Game ($0.99) An interactive cousin to the classic Memory card game, using fruit.
• Crazy Copy ($1.99) Similar to the popular handheld game Simon Says of the 1980s, this memory game is "easy to learn, hard to master."

Best Apps for Self-directed Play

• Toca Hair Salon - ($1.99) - Kids can be masters of their own domain - hair styling, that is. Toca Hair Salon features six different characters with lifelike hair that kids can cut, color, comb and style. The characters make fun faces and sounds while being groomed.
• My Underwear ($0.99) Based on a popular board book by Todd Parr, kids can be as silly as they want all while playing with underwear. Hundreds of options abound including finger-painting their own underwear designs and feeding underwear-hungry monsters as briefs and BVDs fall from the sky.

Best Art Apps

• Faces iMake ($0.99) Kids have a hoot creating faces from unexpected combinations of objects like light bulbs, spools of thread and strawberries.
• Zen Brush ($2.99) Simulates the feeling of an ink brush, enabling the user to make fluid strokes. Choose from 50 style templates, three shades of ink, eraser tool, brush size adjustment slider, and undo function (1 time).