Paper #2

Autism Children’s App using PECS

Nareena Soomro and Safeeullah Soomro

Abstract: Since autistic children suffers from learning disabilities and communication barriers, this research aim to design, develop and evaluate an Android based mobile application (app) providing better learning environment with inclusion of graphical representation in a cost effective manner. This research evaluate various supporting technologies and finds Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to be better choice for integrating with the app. Evaluation results reveal that the inclusion of PECS helped the children suffering from Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to better communicate with others. The study included autistic children who do not speak, who are unintelligible and who are minimally effective communicators with their present communication system. The evolution results showed encouraging impacts of the Autism App in supporting autistic children to adapt to normal life and improve the standard of their life.

Keywords: Autism; Language Learning; Learning Disability; Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS); Android; Mobile Application (apps).