Practical Apps for Neurodivergent People

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A neurotypical or neurodivergent person has atypical neurocognitive development. One can say that their brain works differently for emotions, thinking, learning, and information-processing functions. Although they may have difficulty performing specific tasks, these individuals notably have unique strengths; they should not be considered sick.

Now, neurodivergence can encompass an umbrella of conditions, such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and TOC, among others. Below are some handy applications for people who have some neurodiversity:

Todoist

Todoist is an organizational app for managing tasks. Todoist has a straightforward interface that pleases the eye. This tool allows ordering and assigning priority to tasks while cataloging and subdividing them and tagging people into activities.

A helpful Todoist feature is that the application can reside on all your devices, use operating systems such as MacOS, Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS, browsers such as Safari, Edge, Chrome, and Firefox, wearables for Apple Watch and Android, and quickly email, with extensions for Gmail and Outlook; thus, synchronization of all user activities is accurate and efficient.

It has several interfaces and display options; one is Today, which shows all activities with a deadline for the current day. The Next interface displays a calendar for the tasks to be performed during the week.

Filters & Tags, however, show if someone has tagged you or if you have any active tags or filters. In this option, the user can create more effective filters with AI.

Todoist uses customizable Kanban–style dashboards to make the app more interactive and dynamic. It can be linked and synced with Mail and Calendar for superior organization. Another feature of this app is that you can see your productivity trends, activity history, and completed task files. Finally, this management tool integrates with Alexa, Zapier, and IFTTT.

Notably, although the tools are practical in their free version, the paid version offers the options of Reminders and Location.

Similar applications: Tick Tick, Microsoft To Do, Any.Do, and Google Keep.

Focus Keeper

Focus Keeper is an activity management application that uses the Pomodoro method to complete tasks successfully. It aims to improve productivity through concentration, motivation, and burnout avoidance. Its straightforward interface is customizable to suit how you work. An advantage of this mobile app is that it functions on both mobile phone operating systems (iOS and Android) and desktops.

In addition, Focus Keeper allows you to visualize your productivity through daily, weekly, and monthly graphs to maintain motivation and adjust or customize your goals.

Similar apps:  Engross, Pomodoro Timer, Forest, Pomodoro Timer Pro.

Cboard

Cboard is a mobile app specialized in AAC (advanced audio coding), which supports children and adults with hearing or language problems through symbols and text-to-speech. It downloads to Android, iOS, Windows, and Amazon Fire. It works with more than 40 languages and is open-source.

Similar applications: Special words, Choice Works, Avaz AAC, Sono Flex (iOs).

Otsimo

Otsimo is a certified gaming mobile app for people diagnosed with learning disorders and disabilities, such as attention deficit, autism, Down Syndrome, and Asperger’s. It focuses on children. Its comprehensive activity catalog reinforces and develops cognitive, motor, and social skills through gamification.

Similar applications: Speech Blubs, ABA Problem Solving.

Natural Reader

This app specializes in encoding text into audio using AI. It has a wide variety of languages and features. In addition, it has both personal and commercial uses. In Natural Reader, you can add files (PDFs, copied or written texts, images, web pages) and listen to them in the target language, which can be very useful for people with dyslexia.

Natural Reader has desktop versions, a Chrome extension, and availability for both iOS and Android. Its Premium and Plus options allow the choice of voices created by AI or human voices for its text-to-speech function. Other personalized options include downloading in MP3 format, text scanning, and AI text filtering.

Notably, the Chrome integration (which is free) allows listening to web pages, Google Docs, online Kindle books, and emails.

Similar apps: Speechify, Voice Dream Reader, Proloquo4Text.

GG OCD

GG OCD focuses on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety. The goal is to learn how to manage obsessive thoughts and discard them. GG OCD manages modules (such as OCD, sleep, anxiety, confidence, etc.) to personalize the experience; it has more than 500 daily challenges in each module.

Likewise, GG OCD has exercises for relaxation, dealing with mental health, and a mood tracker. It can be downloaded to Android and iOS.

Youper

Youper is a mobile app that uses an AI-powered chatbot to treat mental health. Youper relies on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to improve people’s mental health, providing personalized counseling to learn about symptoms and adjust to needs.

Youper’s dynamic involves talking to a specialized chatbot supporting evidence-based therapeutic interventions. The app has various features, such as symptom monitoring, counseling, and prominent mental, emotional, and behavioral health information to build awareness and resilience.

Youper is available on iOS and Android.

Clear Fear

Clear Fear is a specialized app for managing anxiety, using a cognitive behavioral framework to achieve goals. This app helps monitor anxiety levels; it features built-in mindfulness exercises. The only downside is that it does not support multiple languages yet; it is only available in English.

Nowadays, applications, especially mobile apps, no longer have a primarily leisure focus; thanks to the advances from developers, various tools to support each person’s specific needs are available.

It is necessary to highlight that each person is unique. Therefore, some apps may work better than others depending on the degree of personalization or preferences of a person. However, they can be part of the support network as fitting.

Translated by Daniel Wetta

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0