Making Great Apps for Kids With Autism, Kids Like Leo

I'm going to be spending all today at HP's App Hackathon, the IRL manifestation of their HackingAutism.com project. You can check out the Hacking Autism idea gallery to see apps people have suggested, and you can still add your own thoughts. As you might imagine, I have a few app ideas of my own -- how about a game based on Stephen Shore's excellent Using a Public Bathroom video? Leo would love it, and it would be fun, educational, and appeal to not just Leo but ten-year-old boys the world over.

I was initially invited to the Hackathon to give a talk, but apparently the developers decided at the last minute that they don't want to hear about why they should be hacking -- they just want to get to the hacking! So I'll be there as a parent resource and as a blogger.

But because I already wrote up the slides for my talk, I'll slap those bullets up here. This is what I want the Hackathoners to know about developing apps for kids like Leo:

How Apps Expand Learning and Leisure Opportunities for People With Autism

• Independent learning and leisure can be a challenge for kids like Leo – and he deserves to play! 
• Apps are motivating and dynamic: they have audio, visuals 
• Great content and ideas are useless without a straightforward user interface

Why Apps Work for Leo 

• No cursor analogy - direct touch screen
• Fine motor ease: stylus, mouse not required
• Replace backpacks and cupboards of activities
• Learn independently, or with support
• Incidental, interstitial learning 

What Helpful Apps Do

• Simplify, focus – break learning down into discrete chunks 
• Support literacy but don’t require it 
• Avoid nested, cluttered, text-heavy interfaces 
• Use reinforcing audio, visual cues 

Ideal App User Interfaces
(Adapted from Injini.net's results from beta-testing their very recommended Injini app suite with children with autism)

• To keep children with autism engaged, apps need:
• Consistency 
• Predictability 
• Simplicity 
• Visual cues, structure 
• Clearly defined, consistent beginnings and endings:
• Support learning
• Ease transition anxiety

 Elegant does not mean perfect or polished! It means simple and straightforward.

Collage/art app Faces iMake: one of my very favorite, easy-for-Leo-to-use UIs

Apps, iPad Workshops, & HackingAutism.com

photo (c) 2010 Kelly Nicolaisen

I have a guest post up at SupportforSpecialNeeds.com, on iPads for kids with special needs in general, and a short list of great apps specifically. Here's how the post starts:

If you’re like me, you’re determined to find ways for your child with special needs to demonstrate what they know, better communicate what they want, and feel like the cool kid you already know they are. The iPad may not be the perfect match for every one of our kids, but for those kids it does suit, the results — the learning, the leisure, the independence — can surprise everyone in their lives, including parents. Including teachers. Including themselves.

Read the rest at SupportForSpecialNeeds.com.

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If you live in the New York City area and would like to talk about all things iPad while helping to support a great Brooklyn school for kids with autism, please come to my June 5th iPads & autism workshop in Soho. And if you can't come yourself, spreading the word is always appreciated.

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Hewlett-Packard has started what looks to be a nifty new venture, HackingAutism.com. Check out their mission statement, which emphasizes several of my favorite points about what iPads and iPad-like interfaces mean for kids like Leo:

When touch-enabled computing was introduced to the world, no one could have anticipated that this technology might help open up a new world of communication, learning and social possibilities for autistic children. Yet it has.


Hacking Autism doesn't seek to cure autism, but rather it aims to facilitate and accelerate technology-based ideas to help give those with autism a voice.

And hey: They're looking for developers!

Can't wait to see where this project goes, really hoping it takes flight. We need more and better apps tailored to our kids' needs -- and we need to facilitate communication between the autism professionals who can provide great content, and the developers who can design excellent interfaces. TALK TO EACH OTHER PLEASE.

HP: counting on you to make it happen.