iAutism

“Smile at Me” allows the child to practice the social skill of smiling. For some children, especially for those with difficulties within the autistic spectrum, it is difficult to recognize situations where smiling is appropriate or, conversely, inadequate. Smile at Me presents different scenes and helps the child to interpret social signals for recognizing whether smiling is appropriate or not. The purpose of the application is therefore that children learn to analyze situations and this will help them in their social responses.

Smile at Me has been designed by Fizz Brain. They are a group of experienced teachers in special education, aiming to facilitate the learning of social skills, as well as expanding the children’s creativity.

Functional Description
When entering Smile at Me you will see a “main menu” with three options on the right of the screen.

The first option, “Play”, allows you to start the activity. When you first enter the application you get a screen with instructions on how to use it. At the end of those,  the link “Play” is again available. When selecting the option you get a black screen, an orange bar on the right with several options and in the bottom four stars in dimmed colors. The purpose of this screen is that the child see his/her face and, therefore, his/her facial expression. Just after that the child will see an image to which he/she will have to respond.

The options available in the orange bar to the right of the screen are the following:  back to the “main menu”, a smiling face picture, a sad face picture and the “prizes” option that displays the score.

When the image appears, you will hear the following sentence: “What should my mouth looks like?” After that the image is dimmed so that the child can see his/her facial expression. The child must then select the right option in the orange bar, that is, smiling face or sad face depending on the situation that has been previously presented.

If the child responds correctly the scene is displayed again and one of the stars in the bottom of the screen lights up. A text box pops up displaying a written congratulation message accompanied by a verbal congratulation and the “Continue” option which allows the child to resume playing with a new image.

If the child selects  the wrong answer the scene is displayed again and the text box displays a message informing the child that the answer is not right. The voice explains to him/her the error. As before the “Continue” option is available and after clicking on it a new image is displayed.

If the child does not give an answer in 3 seconds the image is displayed again accompanied by a brief noise similar to a squirrel or a verbalization, and the screen is dimmed again expecting an answer. This will repeat until the child gives an answer.

When the four stars are lit up, that is every four correct answers, the screen changes to a shifting landscape, a virtual animal that makes an action when clicking on it, a virtual child who speaks upon clicking on him, and a top bar with several options.

On the top bar and from left to right there is a picture of a smiling face which displays three different options upon clicking on it. In the first option, “Conversation”, you hear the voice of a child asking a question to which the virtual child responds.  In “Compliment” a childish voice compliments the virtual child and he responds. In “Share” a childish voice offers to share an object with another child. When the object is moved to the virtual child he picks it up and say thanks.

If these options are selected they will not be available again upon clicking again in the smiling face picture. However the scroll down menu will display a message.

In the top bar the score is displayed and it cumulates with the scores obtained in previous games. The “Game” option allows you to resume the game.

Again in the “main menu”, the next option available in the right side of the screen and just beneath “Play” is “Direction”. This option anticipates what the child will be encountering during the game.

The last option available in the “main menu” is “For parents”. This option explains the objective of this application and provides the address of a website where you will be able to check other applications made by the same designers. At the top of the screen, the “Menu” option brings you to the starting pont.

Assessment
Smile at Me has been designed with the final goal of helping children with difficulties located in the autism spectrum to interpret whether smiling is appropriate or not. The designers of Smile at Me recommend their use for children from 3 years to primary school.

The use of Smile at Me is facilitated by keeping the same lay out in the different screens and having the same presentation structure within the different exercises.

In general, the images are very clear and easy to interpret. As an example, a child falling out from a bicycle or children playing in the park. Although, some images may be difficult to interpret by very young children, such as girls pointing and laughing at another girl.

The exercises are organized in short blocks (4 consecutive responses) and this is good to prevent the child getting tired or distracted due to lack of focus. Moreover the child knows at all times how many exercises are left before earning his/her final reward.

It is also noteworthy the fact that upon a correct answer the child gets a visual and a verbal congratulation at the same time that a star lights up at the bottom. In the case of incorrect answers, even though a verbal explanation of what should have been the right choice is displayed, the child should have been led to the same image to ensure that the feedback has been effective.

In situations where the child does not respond, Smile at Me offers help to display the image again accompanied by a sound drawing the child’s attention and allowing him to answer. In the cases where the child still does not respond other visual aids could be included such as highlighting the right answer.

Although Smile at Me is an application in English, it can be useful for non-English speaking children as its main goal, to help identifying social situations, can be done without the use of language.

-Sílvia Sáez (Clinical Coordinator at Fundación Planeta Imaginario). Translation by Sergi Angelet.

This post is also available in: Spanish, Catalan