Social Affairs
launches a smart app for
children with special needs
The Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) has
taken the leadership in launching smart
application and services for autistic, men-
tally challenged and sound children be-
low seven. The application was launched
through iOS platform for iPads.
The application is the first-of-its-kind smart
service for children with special needs
across the country, and contains 20 social
and educational stories aimed to develop
skills of autistic and mentally disabled chil-
dren and improve their interaction with the
society.
The application is meant to help these cat-
egories steer away from improper behav-
iour, and impart good conducts to them in
a series of situations they have faced or
are expected to go through. It also aims
to improve kids’ social behaviours, ex-
pose them to change and prepare them
to adapt to it.
The app is the first smart service in Ara
-
bic with visual illustrations targeting autis-
tic children. It is based on visual learning
through pictures and presents several
educational, behavioural and social situa-
tions that kids can improve.
While developing the app, the series of
stories were carefully chosen, studied and
interrelated; all set to impart specific so
-
cially accepted impressions and visions in
the kids’ mind.
The stories are suitable for autistic chil-
dren and kids with other mental disorders,
and even for sound children below seven.
All kids can benefit from the easy interest
-
ing application, based on the story that
suits each of them.
With the new application, kids can turn
pages of the stories on iPads, apart from
the sound attached to the pictures. This
helps kid’s self-directed learning rather
than depending on the teacher or family in
reading the story.
Considering that autistic children tend to
follow systematic actions, the pictures in
the 20 stories are designed to help these
kids remember the routine time of the as-
signments they need to do at home and
within the family, such as eating, brushing
their teeth, sleeping, and play times.
The smart application contains cartoon
packages that make it easier for the child,
teacher or mother to search for the right
picture for the proper situation, rather than
carrying a large number of pictures that
may form a burden for the child.
The ministry is also working on a smart
educational application to help autistic stu-
dents communicate through pictures, and
hence overcome their linguistic problems
and better express their needs and feel-
ings by choosing the right picture.
The application comprises many pictures,
each of which represents different social
situations that the autistic kids may expe-
rience, and different educational practices
that might be done at school, home and
society. It contains as well a collection of
pictures reflecting practices done by the
child or other people in the community.
Once ready, the application will contain
pictures representing the kids’ daily prac-
tices and routine assignments enabling
teachers at school or mothers at home to
organize the educational and social envi-
ronment for the kids and set out their daily
picture-based schedules.
The app contains 20 social
and educational smart sto
-
ries to develop behaviours of
autistic children
25
February
2014
