Autism & ADHD
App Toolkit

Tappy combines on-screen fidgets with haptic feedback, sound, breathing exercises, short games, and calming “feelscapes.” It can be useful when someone needs repetitive sensory input but does not have a physical fidget available, or when a brief sensory reset helps them return to a task.

A collection of digital fidgets and satisfying mini activities, such as buttons, switches, water, slime, puzzles, and other tactile-style simulations. The variety can be helpful for finding the kind of repetitive input that feels regulating in the moment without carrying multiple physical fidgets.

Stellarium turns the phone or tablet into an interactive view of the night sky, helping users identify stars, planets, constellations, and other objects. It is not a regulation app specifically, but for people with an astronomy interest, the predictable visual exploration can be deeply absorbing and calming.

Provides a collection of virtual fidget toys, pop-its, squishy-style activities, and other simple sensory interactions. It may be useful in situations where physical fidgets are unavailable or would be too noisy, although the ads and game-like elements may be distracting for some users.

The screen reacts to touch with heat-map-like colours and moving patterns, creating immediate visual feedback as the user moves their fingers. The slow, repetitive interaction can work as a visual stim or a low-demand way to settle, and the app also includes meditation and sound options.

Creates flowing, colourful liquid-style patterns that respond to touch. Because there is no goal, score, or complicated sequence, it can be a useful low-demand visual stim for moments when someone wants movement and sensory interest without another task to complete.

Combines looping visual patterns with music, breathing, sleep content, and guided meditation. This can make mindfulness more accessible for people who struggle to sit quietly with their eyes closed and do better when attention has something concrete and visually engaging to rest on.

Provides steady ambient sounds such as rain, thunder, and ocean waves. Predictable background sound can reduce the salience of sudden environmental noises, provide an auditory stim, or create a consistent sound cue for studying, resting, or bedtime. Because several apps use this name, confirm the exact app before downloading.

Spoken is an augmentative and alternative communication app that predicts likely next words as a user builds a message, then reads the message aloud. It can support more natural sentence generation than a small set of fixed phrases and may be useful when speech is unreliable, effortful, or unavailable.

ChatterBoards allows users to build communication boards using symbols, photos, text, and spoken output. Vocabulary and buttons can be customized, which makes it useful for creating boards around a person’s real routines, favourite people, interests, environments, and communication priorities.

LeeLoo uses picture-based cards that open into phrase options and then speak the selected message aloud. The visual format can make common needs and requests easier to access quickly, particularly for users who benefit from concrete picture cues rather than typing from scratch.

Grid Player is an AAC app that speaks sentences created through symbols or text. It includes prepared grid sets and can also work with Grid resources, making it a useful option for people who benefit from stable vocabulary layouts and predictable access to frequently used language.

Emergency Chat opens with a pre-written explanation that tells another person the user cannot speak right now and needs to communicate by text. The message can be customized, and the app then switches to a simple chat screen. It is especially useful as a pre-planned backup for moments when generating an explanation would be too difficult.

This app converts typed text into synthesized speech and includes multiple voices, accents, and speech settings. It can function as a simple communication backup for someone who knows what they want to say but cannot comfortably or reliably say it aloud in the moment.

Speechify reads documents, webpages, PDFs, and other written material aloud. For people who process information better through listening, or who fatigue quickly with dense text, it can reduce the decoding burden and make it easier to keep moving through school, work, or administrative reading.

JAM stands for “Just A Minute.” The digital card can be shown to another person to communicate that the user has a disability or communication difference and may need extra time or understanding. It offers a quick, low-verbal way to advocate for support without having to explain everything in the moment.

Calm Harm organizes short coping activities into categories such as Comfort, Distract, Express, and Release, with breathing and urge-surfing strategies. It is designed to help someone get through the peak of an urge and create a little more time between feeling and action. It should sit alongside a broader safety and treatment plan when self-harm risk is present.

This app guides the user through warning signs, coping strategies, people and places for distraction, trusted contacts, professional supports, ways to make the environment safer, and reasons for living. A safety plan is most useful when it is created in advance and, when possible, reviewed with a clinician or trusted support person.

I Am Sober tracks time since a chosen substance or behaviour and can pair that streak with daily pledges, motivations, reflections, and community support. The visible progress can be motivating for people who like concrete tracking, although users who find streaks shame-inducing may prefer a less all-or-nothing approach.

DailyBean lets users log mood and daily activities with simple icons, photos, and short notes. The tap-based format lowers the effort needed to keep a journal, which can make it easier to notice patterns over time without turning reflection into another large task.

Daylio combines mood ratings with activity and habit tracking, so users can see how sleep, routines, social contact, movement, or other factors relate to how they feel. It can be useful for people who want data and trends without writing a long journal entry every day.

Finch turns small self-care actions into rewards for a virtual pet. The external motivation can make basics such as getting out of bed, drinking water, reflecting, or completing a small goal feel more concrete and less lonely. It works especially well for people who respond to warmth and encouragement rather than pressure.

Tiny Decisions lets users put options on a wheel, flip a coin, generate a random number, or use other simple selectors. It can reduce the energy spent on small decisions when several options are acceptable. It is best used for low-stakes choices, not decisions where values, safety, or significant consequences need careful thought.

MultiTimer allows several timers to run at the same time, with different labels, colours, sounds, and timer types. It helps move time out of working memory and onto the screen, which can be especially useful when several tasks are happening in parallel or when one vague block of time needs to be divided into concrete steps.

Flora turns a focus session into growing a virtual tree and discourages leaving the session to open distracting apps. The visual progress can make staying off the phone more rewarding. For people who become anxious or self-critical when a “streak” is broken, a gentler blocker or timer may be a better fit.

Instead of showing only numbers, this timer uses a moving liquid or hourglass-style display so users can see time passing. Visual countdowns can make an abstract amount of time more concrete, which is useful for transitions, “five more minutes,” short work periods, or waiting for something to end.

Opal adds friction between an impulse to open a distracting app and actually getting into it. Users can block selected apps, create focus sessions, and set recurring rules. That external boundary can be helpful when relying on willpower alone is unrealistic, especially during work, study, or bedtime routines.

Tiimo combines a visual schedule, to-dos, routines, timers, and planning support in a format built for ADHD and autistic users. It is particularly helpful when a plain list is not enough and someone needs to see what is happening now, what comes next, and how long the current task is expected to last.

Structured places tasks, routines, and calendar events on a single visual timeline. This can reduce the mental work of repeatedly asking “what happens next?” and helps users see whether a plan is actually realistic once travel, transitions, meals, and other in-between time are included.

Habitica rewards completed tasks and habits with experience, gold, items, pets, and game progress. It can make repetitive or low-interest tasks more engaging by giving them an immediate payoff. It tends to work best for people who enjoy game mechanics rather than those who find streaks, penalties, or lots of app setup stressful.

Todoist is a flexible task manager rather than a game. It makes it quick to capture something before it disappears from working memory, add dates or recurring schedules, split projects into smaller tasks, and organize home, school, and work responsibilities in one place.

A pros-and-cons tool can move a complicated decision out of working memory and onto the screen, where factors can be listed, compared, and sometimes weighted. This is most useful when the problem is cognitive overload rather than a lack of information. Several apps use similar names, so confirm the developer before downloading.

Goblin Tools was created with neurodivergent users in mind. Its tools can break a large task into smaller steps, rewrite a message in a chosen tone, estimate time, organize a messy brain dump, explain a concept more simply, or help compare options. It is especially useful when the barrier is “I know I need to do this, but I cannot find the entry point.”

dubbii provides body-doubling videos and live sessions so the user can complete a task while another person is doing it alongside them. Tasks are broken into small steps, which can reduce the activation energy needed to begin and help sustain momentum through boring or overwhelming jobs.

Medisafe externalizes medication timing with reminders and tracking rather than relying on memory alone. It can be particularly helpful when doses happen at different times or when a user regularly has the “did I already take it?” problem. Medication changes and clinical decisions still belong with the prescriber or pharmacist.

Pokémon Smile turns brushing teeth into a short game in which consistent brushing helps rescue and catch Pokémon. The immediate visual reward can make a repetitive hygiene task easier to start and can provide a clearer beginning and end to the routine.

Plant Nanny links drinking water with caring for a virtual plant. The app gives reminders and turns hydration into something visible and rewarding, which can help when thirst cues are easy to miss or remembering to refill a drink repeatedly falls out of working memory.

Owaves’ BodyClock tools show the day as a 360-degree clock rather than a standard list or calendar. That visual format can make the limited space in a day easier to understand and can help users notice whether sleep, meals, movement, work, and recovery are actually fitting into the plan.

Sweepy organizes cleaning by room, task, urgency, and schedule. It can reduce the executive load of scanning an entire home, deciding what matters most, and remembering recurring chores, and it can also distribute tasks across household members when several people share the space.

Sleep Cycle tracks sleep-related patterns and provides summaries that can help users notice relationships between routines and how rested they feel. The information can be useful for self-observation, but an app cannot diagnose sleep disorders or replace medical assessment when sleep problems are persistent or severe.

Fortune City turns recording expenses into a city-building game. Each entry contributes to the virtual city, creating an immediate reward for an administrative task that otherwise has very little payoff in the moment. It can be a good fit for people who like gamification but still want useful spending categories and summaries.

Otter creates a live transcript of spoken conversation and can turn meetings into searchable notes and summaries. This can reduce the pressure to listen, process, remember, and write at the same time. In classrooms or workplaces, make sure recording or transcription is permitted and that other participants know when required.

Fabriq lets users choose important relationships, set a preferred rhythm for reconnecting, keep notes, and receive reminders when it has been a while. It can help when caring about someone and remembering to reach out are two very different things, although it will not suit everyone who dislikes quantifying relationships.

Google Earth and Street View can help users look at a destination, surrounding streets, building entrances, landmarks, and routes before arriving. Previewing an unfamiliar place can make the experience more predictable and reduce the amount of new information that has to be processed in real time.

Kaboose is a neurodivergent-focused community and learning platform for adults, with interest-based connection, short “Neuro Nuggets,” events, and practical resources. It may reduce isolation for people who want peer connection in a neuroaffirming space. As with any online community, users should still use ordinary privacy and online-safety judgment.