Autism is a complex lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person can communicate and interact with other people. Millions of people across the world are affected by it and these are special people in need of help. There are a few apps in existence but most of them focus on instant communication and are rather expensive. We thought we could build something better to help kids with Autism and hence Autista.
The Process
More than 15 months of work has gone in the ideation and development of Autista. The iPad was selected to be the most effective device for such a solution and the main thing kept in mind while developing the application is the long term learning (see demo).
Our team has worked with the kids extensively and support from Communication DEALL (an early intervention program for children with developmental language disorders) has been immense. Learning in depth about the disorder, building paper solutions for it and then translating them to an app, Autista has undergone the full cycle.
Associations
We’ve been fortunate to have the guidance of some of the prominent personalities in this field. Their support helped us arrive at a much more informed solution.
Prof Matthew Belmonte: A professor at the Autism Research Centre, Professor Belmonte’s research centres on connecting abnormal deficits and abnormal superiorities in a range of cognitive capacities in autism, from lower-level perceptual and attentional skills to higher-level social cognitive skills. He approaches this problem from the perspective of neurophysiology. More about his work here.
Dr. Pratibha Karanth: A Speech Language Pathologist with nearly 40 years of experience in several national institutions in India. She has had a long standing interest in language disorders, both in children and adults. More about her work here.
The Reach
After the efforts we’ve put in to building Autista, the app is ready for use. We’ll be working with individuals and organizations all over the globe to take the app to as many Autistic kids as we can and will be continuously improving the app as well.
Do support us in spreading the word and get in touch with us @madratgames for anything related to Autista.
Press coverage: The Indian Express
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