AutisMIND is an app that helps autistic children improve social thinking.
Although autistic people can be very sensitive to other people’s feelings, they sometimes struggle to understand social and emotional cues. AutisMIND helps autistic children put themselves in other people’s shoes by understanding their feelings, perspectives, thoughts, etc. It guides them to process context so next time they find themselves in a similar situation, they know what to anticipate and how to react.
The app doesn’t promote sheer memorisation of tips, but the development of strategies to understand what’s happening in a situation by interpreting body language and analysing context. It helps reduce levels os social anxiety in potentially confusing situations like anticipation of an event or demanding social interactions.
The app focuses on the development of basic skills, so the target age range would be from 3 to 8 years old.
AutisMIND contains 1000 images organised in different topics:
The child can choose their own avatar that evolves as they progress within the app, which is designed be fun and motivating.
AutisMIND has had more than 10.000 downloads in one year, and now it’s available in English for iOS devices.
You can try it for free, and there are some in-app purchases to allow its creators to maintain and improve the app.
The team is now working on a second version, with more complex situations which will feature videos instead of photos! It will be ready in about one year!
Read ASDTech’s previous blogpost about AutisMIND
Have you tried the app? How did it work for you?
with thanks to Alex Escolá Serra