Hi Everyone, Need your Help for new App!

[jamesb]

Hi Everyone,

My son James is severely autistic and lacks language, he is close to his 7th birthday and very few sounds make it as expression kind words. In order to help him and understand him better I have built a communication App that is friendly and customizable so he can express his needs, feelings and wants, it came out so well and useful that I have decided to make it available on the Android App store soon. My son has been able to use it intuitively and has made communication so much easier during daily activities.

After months in development, it is almost complete but need your help in suggesting more icons for autistic children to communicate.
Be aware that this is a PECS style board and not a full communication interface with vocabulary and grammar. I may update it in the future to do that or build a whole new application for that purpose.

You can see how the application works in this preview video if needed: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e1Opirf5E8

I will let everyone know when the app is available for download in the future.

Thank you all for your help!

Here is a list of what is already included in the application:

ACTIONS (23 icons)

1. Yes
2. No
3. Wash Hands
4. More
5. All Done
6. Shoes
7. Socks
8. Brush Teeth
9. Bathroom
10. Tinkle
11. Potty
12. Clean Up
13. Go
14. Stop
15. Trim Nails
16. Bath
17. Shower
18. Shirt On
19. Shorts On
20. Dress On (girl) / Pants On (boy)
21. Put Glasses On
22. Turn On
23. Turn Off

PLAY (26 icons for boy, 27 for girl)


1. Read Book
2. Music (plays sound)
3. Piano (plays sound)
4. Puzzle
5. Draw
6. TV
7. Drum (plays sound)
8. Play
9. Play Outside
10. Walk Outside
11. Bicycle
12. Tablet
13. Jumping
14. Skateboard
15. Scooter
16. Swing
17. Car Ride
18. Go to School
19. Teddy
20. Dragon
21. Play Ball
22. Bubbles
23. Tickles
24. Robot Toy
25. Car Toy
26. Train Toy
27. Dolls (girl only)
28. Toys


NEEDS (22 icons)

1. Help
2. Diaper
3. Cold
4. Hot
5. Bed
6. Tired
7. Hurt
8. Go Home
9. Tummy Hurts
10. Head Hurts
11. Throat Hurts
12. Tooth Hurts
13. Scratch
14. Headphones
15. Hungry
16. Happy
17. Sad
18. Excited
19. Angry
20. Outside
21. Open
22. Close


FOOD (24 icons)


1. Breakfast
2. Lunch
3. Dinner
4. I'm Full
5. Zippy Cup
6. Milk
7. Juice
8. Water
9. Cereal
10. Snack
11. Fries
12. Carrot
13. Candy
14. Waffle
15. Chocolate
16. Grapes
17. Orange
18. Strawberry
19. Sandwich
20. Pear
21. Apple
22. Banana
23. Steak
24. Chicken
25. Rice
26. Pasta

 

[JayLapointe]

I'll think on this and try to get back to you. Just wanted to say though that I am very impressed with what you have put together to help your child understand and be understood. I wish more folks would make that effort towards better communication. I really wish you the best of luck with your future development plans, I hope that it does become a widely used tool.

 

[jamesb]

Thank you Jay, I will try to update it as often as I can and from cues that my child shows me he needs. It has been a long process to get here but it is paying off to see his smile every time the board speaks and gives him a voice. Can't imaging how frustrated he feels not being able to vocalize.

 

[Rodafina]

That's awesome, @jamesb. Good on ya for putting in the effort to give your son such a useful tool.

I would strongly recommend making the "dolls" choice under the Play category available to boys, too. We are well past the age where only girls play with dolls. Give boys the chance to ask to play with dolls, too.

 

[RemyZee]

I think this is a fabulous idea and well put together--even for some of us who struggle to find words some of the time but aren't considered non speaking, and it would be an interesting idea how this could be adapted for adults, or for people considered as having lesser support needs, but at times just can't get the words out. My only suggestion would be for the "more" icon--the other visuals don't require the participant to know sign language to understand the meaning.

 

[Alexej]

You might want to look at this page.
It seems to be a similar idea.

Talking Mats | Improving communication, improving lives

 

[717]

this is my feedback:

Get rid of the boy and girl thing... the only part where you actually use it is for the pants and dress... the doll for girl only is... controversial.

I don't like most of the food either... instead of giving you a list of my favorite foods, you maybe want to consider let the user created their own cards, like I can take a picture and add the name of what it is. Like I can create my own groups and my own cards inside those groups... even sub-groups lol

 

[jamesb]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I have included a Play Room Icon that has boys and girls toys combined including dolls, dinosaurs, soldiers, cars, castles, unicorn etc... This fixes the toy problem by gender. Thanks Rodafina!

We have the binary gender selections because we started the app with two dozen types of kids from all genders ethnicities and backgrounds and it became so bloated and complicated and expensive to develop and prone to crashes that we resorted back to boy and girl as a starting point otherwise woe could not have completed the project. The app has been tested in an Autism therapy center with the feedback of the instructors for some weeks and so far has been a great success with lots of fixes here and there. We will continue to improve it with feedback from everyone.

Thank you everyone for their feedback, it is very valuable to improve the application in future updates. We are working with school boards to and will get their feedback as they test the application in their settings and see which improvements are most needed. We are in a the validation phase at the play store and if it goes live this year I'll let you all know.

Good day!

 

[jamesb]

We have added typical American food choices like Pizza, Hamburger and Hotdog to the food items as it was requested by the teachers. We omitted them because we wanted to focus on more healthy selections but now we realize many Autistic kids have very narrow food selections. On the works is peanut butter and crackers which we never thought about but were requested. We are unsure where the food selection will end but it will be improved with time. Our kid in particular is not so picky about foods except mushy stuff so the board already is covering him in a good way.