Alarm-Clock/Calendar app for user who can't read, that displays a picture.

[Deaks]

My adult son has Autism and a general learning dissability. His biggest hinderance is that he can't read and this is holding us back in the application of technology to help aid his independence.

What I can't seem to find anywhere is a calendar or alarm-clock that displays a chosen picture when it goes off. This would allow us to help plan and organise his week for him.

What I'd like to be able to do is set various reminder alarms on each day that also give him a visual prompt of what the alarm is for.

For example:

8.00 am - alarm sounds, and displays picture of getting up and washed.
9.00 am - alarm sounds, and displays picture of minibus for day centre.
12.00 pm - alarm sounds, and displays picture indicating lunchtime.

I can think of a number of other enhancements beyond adding the display of a picture to the typical clock/calendar functions, but just this simple addition would have a massive possitive impact on his daily life.

I've searched quite a bit for an app that does this, including the many sites featuring apps to aid those with Autism etc.. but they seem to focus on sequencing rather than prompting.

Thanks in advance if anyone has any suggestions or wants to develop something.

 

[dlhavema]

What would happen when an alarm would sound after he has seen the picture? aka, how could he dismiss it? would simply touching the picture work out, or would another icon be needed, or simply a timeout.

Good Luck,

 

[Deaks]

Thanks for your interest.

Thinking about it, he'd need to be able to dismiss the alarm but keep the picture on the screen until he dismissed that later. He's very good with technology and already uses txt to speech apps to read stuff for him etc. once he's been shown how something works.

 

[ShinySide]

Hi Deaks! I'm sorry to hear the challenges your son faces. Life's hard enough as it is. I'ma look around and see if I can find you something that may help or be of use. Hopefully I can come across something for your son. If I can't hopefully one of our other guides or mods will, I sent a little special request for some back up

 

[breadnatty08]

Welcome to the forums, Deaks! :hello:
There's a very powerful (and pricey) app called Tasker that should be able to do this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...EsIm5ldC5kaW5nbGlzY2guYW5kcm9pZC50YXNrZXJtIl0.
It can be pretty difficult to set up (I still have troubles with it). You should be able to set multiple alarms and it'll trigger those photos. You can also set it up to play a song or track or words as reminders as well.
There's loads more this app can do to help with reminders for him and much more. Let us know if you have any questions.

Edit: Hmm, just read you wanted to keep the picture on the screen. Well, this may not be the best option, but with Tasker you can have the wallpaper/background change at certain times. For example, at 8am you can set the background to be the photo of washing up, and at 9am it can change and be set for the minibus etc. Like I said, this is a POWERFUL app!

 

[D-U-R-X]

Welcome to the forums, Deaks! :hello:
There's a very powerful (and pricey) app called Tasker that should be able to do this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...EsIm5ldC5kaW5nbGlzY2guYW5kcm9pZC50YXNrZXJtIl0.
It can be pretty difficult to set up (I still have troubles with it). You should be able to set multiple alarms and it'll trigger those photos. You can also set it up to play a song or track or words as reminders as well.
There's loads more this app can do to help with reminders for him and much more. Let us know if you have any questions.

If you decide to go down the Tasker route, you should check out Tasker - Android Forums - I think you would probably find that one of our members in there would be able to help you set up the type of thing you want

 

[sdrawkcab25]

My adult son has Autism and a general learning dissability. His biggest hinderance is that he can't read and this is holding us back in the application of technology to help aid his independence.

What I can't seem to find anywhere is a calendar or alarm-clock that displays a chosen picture when it goes off. This would allow us to help plan and organise his week for him.

What I'd like to be able to do is set various reminder alarms on each day that also give him a visual prompt of what the alarm is for.

For example:

8.00 am - alarm sounds, and displays picture of getting up and washed.
9.00 am - alarm sounds, and displays picture of minibus for day centre.
12.00 pm - alarm sounds, and displays picture indicating lunchtime.

I can think of a number of other enhancements beyond adding the display of a picture to the typical clock/calendar functions, but just this simple addition would have a massive possitive impact on his daily life.

I've searched quite a bit for an app that does this, including the many sites featuring apps to aid those with Autism etc.. but they seem to focus on sequencing rather than prompting.

Thanks in advance if anyone has any suggestions or wants to develop something.

(These are all free)
This might be what you are looking for(wonder alarm) :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.longsoft.alarm4

Or (early bird alarm):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.funanduseful.earlybirdalarm&hl=en

This also might do it (photo alarm) :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.richpps.photoalarm&hl=en

 

[breadnatty08]

There's also an app called AutiPlan:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5hdXRpcGxhbi5tb2JpbGUiXQ..

And their website for further info:
Free planners for Families affected by Autism

 

[ShinySide]

Also found these that may be of help

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...sMSwxLDEsImNvbS5lYW5vdmF0ZS5hbGFybWNsb2NrIl0.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...ldC5hbGFybS52b2ljZS5hbGVydHMucmVtaW5kZXJzIl0.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/...wOSwiY29tLmJyZWFkdXNvZnQucHVuY2htZW1vcHJvIl0.

 

[Deaks]

Thanks all! Will check all these out.

 

[StangTexan]

This might be helpful as well:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.autiplan.mobile

 

[Appestry]

Dear Mr. Deaks,

We read your app request and were inspired by it. So we started working on it and finished the app this weekend. It is now available in the Google Play store - free for everyone to download:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appestry.pic_alarms

We hope your son and others with reading disabilities will find this app useful. Please let us know if you would like us to improve anything in the app. Your feedback is much appreciated.

Thank you for inspiring us.

Sincerely,
Appestry

 

[Deaks]

Fantastic! It looks perfect. I'm gonna pick up a cheap little android tab for my son over the next couple of days and put it into practice. I'll feedback how we get on.

 

[Deaks]

A quick note of public thanks to Appestry for developing this app for my son. First update has just come out with a couple of really useful tweaks.