Creating a specific tablet app for people with autism

Abstract

“Autism” refers to a wide variety of disabilities, with numerous possible clinical signs and heterogeneous origins. Nevertheless, beyond those diverse clinical signs, a consensus exists concerning the necessity of interventions, particularly educational interventions, for people with autism . In a society such as ours, turned towards digital technologies and tactile devices, (e.g. ), it is important to question the use of these technologies with people with developmental disabilities. Especially as some authors pointed the utility of these devices for teaching skills . Various theoretical corpuses and elements of the scientific literature were taken into account and integrated to develop the LearnEnjoy applications, created initially for children with autism. These facts and knowledge, linked to the peculiarities of people with autism, to the functional approach of language, to the fundamental principles of learning, to an ABA approach, were integrated from the first stages of the development of the applications, to create tools having solid scientific foundations. This way, the LearnEnjoy apps give the users (i.e. the “teachers”) the possibilities of teaching in a progressive and coherent way, different skills such as language (receptive, expressive), imitation, play and motricity, cognitive, academic skills or even independence skills. They also allow the progress in each area to be shared with the parents and the whole team, a necessary feature for the implementation of global and coordinated interventions. Finally, and maybe more importantly, these applications were created so as to specifically foster the contact between the person with autism and the “teacher”. This way the apps, at the same time, reduce the risk of pervasiveness of the tactile tablet, while favouring, just as much for the person with autism than for the accompanying person, the development of a positive, structured and structuring social relationship.

Disclosure of interest

Olivier Bourgueil is an employee of LearnEnjoy.