Skill Tracker Pro, much like it’s sister app Behavior Tracker Pro, is chock full of features. Also, like Behavior Tracker Pro, it has a steep learning curve for parents. If you aren’t accustomed to using the terms associated with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) this autism app is gonna be difficult to use and understand. As such, I only recommend this app to parents who really want to dive in deep. As for professionals – they should absolutely love Skill Tracker Pro!

When I began using this app I first found myself needing a refresher course on the ABA terminology used within it. Liz Maher, the wife side of the husband and wife team who developed the app, helped me in this department. A ‘Mand’ is a request, such as a demand or command. ‘Intraverbal’ indicates a conversation, answering a question, responding when someone else talks. ‘Echoic’ is repeating what someone else says, i.e. echolalia. ‘Tact’ is labeling, or saying, “It’s an airplane” for example when you see an airplane.

That’s just a start. You’ll also need a healthy grasp on Cold Probe for Skill, List. Resp., Daily Pass Threshold, Retention Failure and more. I don’t know what a cold probe is, but it doesn’t sound like something I want to experience. And I won’t even approach a hot probe.

In order for Skill Tracker Pro to be useful for parents I’d love to see it feature a “Parent Mode” that transforms it into a parent friendly app with parent friendly terms. Now don’t get me wrong; This is an incredible app, but as it is now it’s almost strictly for professionals.

One thing I noticed is that when I go to Cold Probe for Skill I cannot select the date. This app only accepts data for TODAY. If you forgot to put in the data from yesterday, but you’ve written it down, there’s no way to get that data into Skill Tracker Pro. That makes for incomplete data.

If you read my review of Behavior Tracker Pro, many of the same features are packed nicely into Skill Tracker Pro. You can export data. You have deep graphing capabilities. You can add phase changes. You can record a video if you have a video capable iPhone or iPod Touch. Add new clients or observers whenever you like. Even the interfaces are similar.

Unfortunately, Skill Tracker Pro has no password protection. On the other hand, it also doesn’t have that ugly gray graph like Behavior Tracker Pro. And I really like how some of the settings are placed in the iPhone’s own settings area, outside the app. More app’s should do that. It should be standard. And Skill Tracker Pro should probably place more of its settings there, rather than placing them directly in the app itself. But I believe this practice is much more important with app’s that are meant to be in the child’s hands, so kids with autism can’t accidentally make changes and jack up the settings of the app. But, clearly, this isn’t one of those app’s where you have to worry about that. Kids aren’t going to have fun playing with Skill Tracker Pro.

Bottom line; If you’re in the field of behavior analysis Skill Tracker Pro is undoubtedly an awesome tool to have in your arsenal. If you’re just an autism mom (or dad), wait for parent friendly mode.