Parents of twins with autism create app

Marc and Tina Zimmerman learn that their identical twins Jason and Jared had autism.

In order to try to help their children socialize, the couple created an app called The Social Express. “It was very difficult because all of our nieces and nephews are highly social and have always had a lot of friends and play dates,” Marc said. “Our kids never had many play dates and if put into a social situation, they would just go sit alone in a corner.”

The app allows users to identify their feelings by selecting an emotion and a corresponding coping strategy.

The app includes the characters Zack, Emma, Sam, and Katie as they solve social problems. It includes interactive lessons, which target different skills children need to learn in order to develop meaningful relationships and successfully navigate the social world. It provides a safe and controlled environment for the users to become more socially competent.

The Social Express includes interactive lessons, progress reports, allows flexible teaching and offline activities.

Some of the potential benefits claimed are the development of the ability to identify feelings in others, understand the importance of 'eye contact', read non verbal social clues, identify appropriate coping strategies and learn how to start a conversation.

The app is based on best practices and programs that feature cognitive behavioural techniques and visual strategies.

Overall, The Social Express helps kids learn how to read emotions, empathise and react in social contexts. “They would sit down to use the program and engage with us,” Marc says. “That was the tough part – getting them to engage. Once they were engaged, we saw them speaking more to each other and acting more comfortable in social situations.”

Jason and Jarod are now teenagers and have made great improvements.

Since the app’s launch in 2011, it has been adopted by 70 different countries and in hundreds of schools in the USA. “We get emails from around the world from parents telling us about how it has helped their kids,” Marc says. “It’s just incredible to see how something we created to help our own kids has had such a bigger impact than we would have ever imagined.”

The app is available at the Apple Store and has won several awards.

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2Z7xRty
More info: https://socialexpress.com
https://apple.co/2TDSqwy