Aawn: An Interactive Mobile Application for Improving the Communication Skills of Arab Children with Autism

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes challenges in communication and social interaction. Since there is no single treatment for autism, autistic children need extra attention from their parents or caregivers to overcome their linguistic deficiency. Scientific studies have shown that technology-based educational methods are effective and can lead to a significant improvement, especially for autistic children. In recent years, an increasing number of mobile and multimedia applications have been developed to enhance autistic children's verbal communication, emotions, social behavior, and interaction skills. However, many of these systems are either in English or in local autistic children’s native languages. Others are designed to promote specific knowledge, i.e., emotions, or are limited in their features. This paper designs and implements a prototype for Arabic mobile application, called Aawn, to help and improve Arab autistic children's, in their own language, communication and emotions, as well as educational and organizational skills. Aawn is integrated with various supporting technologies based on the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and augmented with graphical features. The system is built and developed using Android Studio and various cloud-based tools. The system can be extended by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.