iAutism

My Healthy Smile falls into the category of preloaded social story apps, in this case focused on oral health and the dentist office. Undoubtedly, these are two aspects that are particularly difficult for any child, and even more for a child or even a youth or an adult with autism.

11 stories

Once started, My Healthy Smile shows a scenario with a dentist office and a house.

By touching any of them, you move on to a menu where you can choose the social story that interests you. If you have selected “at home”, there will be five social stories, as you can see below.

In the case of the dentist office, there are six social stories.

After selecting the story, a second menu appears where you can select the “level” of that social story: beginner, intermediate or advanced. My Healthy Smile actually includes 19 social stories for the 11 themes, which indicates that in many cases only one level is available.

Curiously, the menu appears even if there is only one choice. I would have preferred that the three options appear always, although in practice some of them lead to the same story. This way, each user would know which level to choose in any case easily.

Inside a story

Once the level is selected, the social story begins by showing a presentation of between 5 and 12 slides in the beginner level, and up 20 in the advanced level.

Each slide includes an image (generally a photo), a descriptive text that My Healthy Smile reads aloud and the typical buttons to move back and forward, pause and exit.

Images and text are very illustrative. Thus, for example, those relating to the dentist show in detail all phases of dental cleaning, including the typical articulated seat, lights and instruments.

In the case of the dentist’s equipment, My Healthy Smile also reproduces the typical associated buzz. Yes, that sounds so unpleasant for many of us. I find it very useful to have them included, in order to familiarize the person with autism with them and do not have so many surprises in the dentist office.

The higher the level chosen, the more detail you get, in the form of more slides and more detailed texts. For example, in the beginner level, My Healthy Smiles will tell you to brush the front teeth, and in the intermediate it will tell you to do it for 10 seconds.

Or, in the social history about the fall out of the milk teeth, the intermediate level will invite you to leave the tooth under the pillow so that the tooth fairy can leave some money in return.

Rating

My Healthy Smile does that and nothing more. The only option is whether the app move from one slide to the next one automatically or not. Fraser, the developer, is a company that provides services for people with autism and also sells a CD version of My Healthy Smile (PC and Mac) and QuickCues, another social stories app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

In their website, they also offer other products, including books and flashcards collections. It has caught my attention, and I recognize that has touched me, the T-shirt “I Love Someone with Autism”. I think I’ll buy one and use for the first time on April 2, the World Autism Awareness Day.

My Healthy Smile is only in English. Obviously, the slides are equally valid for non-native English speakers, but obviously too the texts and audio clips are not.

In any case, My Healthy Smile can be a good help to reinforce the oral health daily routines and, especially, to help children with autism to become familiar with the dentist. Details such as the inclusion of the buzz and others no doubt will help to get prepared to go to these so common and sometimes unpleasant visits.

-Francesc Sistach

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My Healthy Smiles 1.0

Web: http://www.fraser.org

Developer: The Fraser Institute

Languages: English

Functions: 11 social stories focused on oral health and the dentist office.

iPhone/iPod touch version: Yes.

iPad version: No.

Price: $4.99 / €3.99

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This post is also available in: Spanish