AutisMate has released an iPad app designed to act as a communication tool and therapy for people with autism. The app will let you add pictures, videos and voice recordings to it. Its goal is to help create visual scenes that promote social skills and communication.

The app was created by Jonathan Izak to help his 10 year old brother Oriel, and other kids with autism.

“The design of the communication apps that were available required too much navigation for those with the language and generalization issues often associated with autism,” says Izak, founder of SpecialNeedsWare.

The app has over 12,000 included symbols, custom voice recordings and synthesized voices to fully and easily help users to customize the app. It offers the option to set multiple phrases and it also uses the iPad's GPS to rpesent users with scenes relevant to their current location.

For instance, one time a button may say “Can I have some milk?” The next time it may say “May I have some milk please?”

“I found that parents and therapists felt the communication apps currently on the market were very limiting, over priced, and not user friendly,” says Izak.

Future updates to AutisMate are expected to bring features such as in-scene task analysis (step by step video/picture guides to accomplishing a task), Visual schedules with a reward/incentive for completing all tasks, and an In-app text to speech keyboard for users that can type. Great!

AutisMate is available here from the App Store for $49.99.