In celebration of St Patrick’s Day, this week we’ll be focusing exclusively on interesting businesses and entrepreneurs from the island of Ireland, both North and South.
Grace, Wicklow
Inspired by an advertisement displaying the graphical interface of an iPhone, a Wicklow-based mother of two, Lisa Domican, has launched an iPhone application designed to help autistic children develop their communication skills.
The application (named Grace after Lisa’s daughter) is similar to the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) which is frequently used in teaching autistic children and those with other learning difficulties. Children uses pictures to build up sentences, and as they learn more words these are added to their ‘books’ mirroring their growing vocabulary.
The iPhone app brings added portability (PECS is usually delivered on a board game style or velcro board), makes communicating progress between parents and teachers (and vice versa) simpler and makes it easy to add new words over time.
It was built in conjuction with developer Steve Troughton-Smith (with the support of Telefonica O2 Ireland) and has already been trialled in a local school for autistic children – and in Lisa’s own home.
“As the mother of two children with autism, I know it works, I’ve seen the positive impact it has had on my own children, and therefore I can confidently recommend it to other parents and tutors of children with autism.”
The app is available via the iPhone App Store at €29.99 for up to five users, allowing family members to access the app.
Source: SiliconIreland
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
great stuff, looking forward checking it out.
sounds great. Check out developing ability partnership. com . You might be able to do something with them. They have online programmes in this area.