There are over 60 million people around the world that have autism. Usually, children with autism struggle with making eye contact with others and displaying social skills. However, recent studies have found that autistic children love technology, especially smart devices. Keeping that in mind, Samsung, with the help of various psychologists, psychiatrists and designers has developed a free Android app that helps children improve their ability to make and sustain eye contact and interpret facial expressions.
The free app “Look At Me” uses the camera app of the phone and consists of seven interactive and engaging missions that make kids remember faces, understand a person’s mood, and also lets them take photos of themselves exhibiting various expressions. Through this app, children are expected to learn diverse ranges of emotions like happiness, fear, and surprise. The addition of sound effects, point system and rewards along the way keep kids motivated.
Over a period of 8 weeks, 20 children, used the app daily for 15 minutes, and it was noticed that 60% of the children showed improvement in making eye contact.
If you know a child with Autism that may benefit from this app, head to Google Play to download and use this free app.
The “Look At Me” project is also donating 200 tablets with this app preloaded to families in Canada so they could share results and help the community. To know more or to join this project, follow this link.