10 Best Apps for Occupational Therapy

Apps can be an extremely helpful tool for occupational therapists, and can serve multiple purposes. You can use apps for occupational therapy to provide extra support and reinforce the concepts you discuss in your sessions. Plus, apps allow your clients to practice and reinforce the work you’re doing in therapy in their homes and school environments. Here are 10 of my favorite apps to use as an OT. 

1. Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame
As a pediatric OT, I am a huge fan of Sesame Street. The Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame app is available for Apple and Android. This app encourages children to work on their problem-solving skills as they help a Sesame Street monster calm down. They practice taking deep breaths, and coming up with a plan to problem solve. The Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame app is also available in both English and Spanish.

2. Headspace
Research continues to show the magnitude of benefits that meditation can offer clients of all ages, from lowering stress to reducing feelings of helplessness. I personally use Headspace and recommend it to clients of all ages. The app provides guided meditations that your clients can use to navigate stressful moments throughout the day, or to wind down before bed.

3. Dexteria
Dexteria provides therapeutic hand exercises that improve fine motor skills and help clients build fine motor strength, control, and dexterity. Working on these fine motor skills can help improve handwriting readiness in children and adults.

4. Letter School
Letter School is a fun interactive app that teaches children the proper ways to form their letters. By giving clients three different ways to practice their letter formation (tap, trace, and write) clients are able to incorporate multiple senses into their learning which will help them retain skills when it comes time to start writing.

5. My First Tangrams
Tangrams are a personal favorite of mine for clients of all ages. The My First Tangrams app is a great way for both young and older clients to work on their visual motor and visual spatial skills with its colorful puzzle pieces.

6. Bugs and Buttons
Bugs and Buttons provides a suite of multiple learning activities for children including color recognition, number recognition, letter recognition, problem solving, pattern recognition, and sequencing. These skills are necessary for writing and math, and Bugs and Buttons is a fun way to work on and build these foundations.

7. CDC Milestone Tracker App
This milestone tracker app from the CDC uses illustrated checklists to help parents track their child’s development from age two months to five years. It has tips from the CDC to help parents encourage their child’s development, and information on what to do if they’re concerned. As an OT, I recommend parents download this app if they are able to, so they can track what their child is doing at home and in their community environments and to make sure their child is reaching their developmental milestones.

8. Choiceworks
Visual schedules provide a helpful structure for clients of all ages as it lets them know what their current expectations are, what they’re currently working on, and what’s next. Choiceworks is geared towards children, and its ability to take pictures of specific items and rewards and incorporate them into a visual schedule is extremely helpful. 

9. White Noise Lite 
I’ve worked with both children and adults who find it hard to focus on tasks when there’s excess noise or talking in the background. I’ve found that some of these clients respond really well to white noise to block out any background noise. The White Noise app provides a steady stream of background noise, allowing them to focus.

10. Pandora
As I’ve received more training on the sensory systems and sensory integration, I’ve become more aware of the power of music and how it can be extremely therapeutic. For some clients, music provides comforting solace and a form of expression. For others, music can help with their coordination and movement as they work on tasks and exercises. While there are many music streaming services out there, I personally use Pandora for its extensive music library full of multiple genres and different types of music.

 

These apps for occupational therapy are easy to incorporate into the day-to-day of your OT practice. Whether they become staples of your sessions or something you use just to shake things up, you’ll be able to create fun and meaningful experiences for clients of any age.

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