Learning tool designed for autistic kids.
JENNIFER FORESHEW
From: The Australian
October 04, 2011 12:00AM
A COMPUTER-BASED interactive tool is providing parents and therapists of autistic children with high-performance early intervention learning capabilities.
A team from Curtin University's Institute for Multi-Sensor Processing and Content Analysis has developed the Toby Playpad software, which could also be used as an early stage learning tool for any child under 10.
Institute director Svetha Venkatesh said typically an autistic child would need about 30 hours of therapy a week. Professor Venkatesh said. "In order to prepare the materials for therapy, the parents have to spend another 30 hours, so it is horrendous in terms of time and effort,"
The software, which runs on an iPad, essentially allows a parent to do early intervention learning with their child at home.
The tool is unique in its advanced performance-based tracking and reporting functions, which save therapists and parents valuable time that they would otherwise spend manually evaluating and recording a child's progress. "Your child is diagnosed at two, you have got until four to fix this and you can't see a therapist until three, so there is this gaping hole," Professor Venkatesh said. "This will have a profound impact on the lives of families."
The institute has partnered with Autism West, based in Western Australia, to produce the tool, which was developed by Professor Venkatesh, Stewart Greenhill and Dinh Phung.
The software's other features include a multi-touch interactive platform allowing simultaneous interaction between the child and therapist, as well as a reward-based learning platform tailored to the learning styles of autistic children. "If you are in a classroom and the teacher is teaching 30 kids, they are basically gearing the lesson to the average in the class, but this is actually geared to you."
Professor Venkatesh said the software will be released in WA in February next year and in the Australian App Store by April, with the US and Britain to follow in October.
"It is about teaching the child to be what they should be by the time they are four or five," Professor Venkatesh said.
She said the app was expected to cost about $100 and would be available by subscription.
"The potential for this is far beyond autism really," Professor Venkatesh said.
"Early learning itself is early literacy and numeracy and that is kind of the most exciting part because the framework is for any learning paradigm."
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