An Evaluation of a Mobile Application Designed to Teach Receptive Language Skills to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Researchers gave one group of kids with autism the Camp Discovery phone app. Another group stayed on a wait-list.

The app runs short discrete-trial lessons that teach kids to touch the picture that matches a spoken word.

After four weeks the team tested receptive language in both groups.

Kids who used the app made big gains in understanding words.

Wait-list kids did not improve.

The new skills stuck around even after the kids stopped using the app.

Han et al. (2025) pooled 25 ABA studies and saw only small language boosts overall. Camp Discovery shows a large gain, hinting that a focused digital tool can punch above the average.

Hesami et al. (2024) also tested a tablet game for receptive words. Their boost faded after two months, while Camp Discovery held steady. The difference may be daily use versus every-other-day play.

Romanowich et al. (2013) proved that face-to-face discrete trial works for language. Novack et al. now show the same method still works when the teacher is a phone screen.

You can hand a family an evidence-based app tonight and start receptive-language trials while they wait for clinic hours. Run a quick probe each week; if progress stalls, layer in live teaching. The tool is free, so it’s an easy win for home programs.