Autism News & Update: Video Game App Helps Children With ASD

There's a new video game that will help in the learning of autistic children. Anne Ozdowska from the Queensland University of Technology has created a specially designed video game application aimed to help autistic children learn in mainstream classes. 

According to ABC Online, Anne Ozdowska was motivated to design the video game app after witnessing the difficulties experienced with learning by her own 8-year-old son Conrad. The application uses a video game design and incorporates strategies to reduce anxiety for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Anne Ozdowska said that for her son, just the act of writing is really hard, but he will learn much easier by using technology in class. For this reason, she also included writing in the video game.

One of the biggest problems encountered in schools is that autistic students are not included in all activities because teachers don't have the right tools. Ozdowska hopes that the new video game app can help address this problem.

A lot of children with ASD could improve their outcomes and produce a better quality of text if they are more motivated to write. But when asked to write a persuasive text, autistic children and those with other learning difficulties often feel overwhelmed.

Ozdowska said that teachers face a lot these issues. For students with ASD, simply holding a pencil can be too hard since they don't only have difficulties with the conceptual elements of writing but also with their motor skills. 

To overcome these issues, the video game app makes the exercise fun. The application could be also used by the whole class. This way, students with autism do not need to be moved to special classes and feel isolated.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism is funding the project to develop the new video game app. To ensure that it is autism-friendly, students from Autism Queensland's Studio G participated in developing the application.

Five schools will take part in a trial of the new application in May. The new video game app will be released later this year in September. The results will be published next year. Previous studies already suggest that video games show promise for children with autism, according to Science Daily.