Update: Apps helping children with disabilities

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) -- New iPad applications allow children with disabilities to work on cognitive and motor skills in many different types of environments.

Michelle McClanahan is one of many parents nationwide caring for a child with special needs.

"In the past, the things that he likes to play with always requires an extra hand," says McClanahan.

Her son Riley developed a brain bleed at just two weeks old, paralyzing him on one side of if his body.

"He is severely developmentally delayed," says McClanahan.

Riley attends therapy one day a week, and the rest of the time you could probably find him in front of the iPad.

"He does the matching game. That helps him with memory and memorization. It helps with his fine motor, so that he can push the button himself instead of using his whole hand," says McClanahan.

The device offers several applications the 12-year old can utilize, including books that read aloud and verbal applications that help teach him sentence structure.

A website called snapps provides more than 30,000 apps. Easter Seals has teamed up with SNApps to provide parents with guidance on which one best fits their child.

"I'm seeing more interest and drive in those kids when they have something to work for like using the IPad," says Speech Pathologist Brooke Harris of Easter Seals.

Harris uses applications involving animal and environmental sounds to help her patients connect.

Mcclanahan says it's helping her son connect socially as well.

"We load our family pictures on there. When he goes to school, it opened a whole realm of friendship with his friends that he shares his family now, where in the past because he has difficulty with his speech many didn't know he had siblings at home," McClanahan says.

McClanahan says while buying an iPad is the most expensive thing about the process, she says for her child's progress it's worth every cent.