Apps for autismApps for autism
All In The Mind
Researchers are finding new clues to early identification of autism, and computer games to help autistic kids unlock their true potential.
28:50•14 Aug 2016
Apps for Autism: Games Helping Kids Connect and Thrive
Episode Overview
- Early social and developmental signs in babies as young as nine months may indicate autism and can be monitored with professional support.
- Applied behavioural analysis remains a key early therapy but is often expensive and difficult to access for many families.
- The Frankie and Friends tablet game is designed to train attention to faces, emotion recognition and joint attention through simple, language-free play.
- Initial trials suggest the game can quickly shift some children’s attention towards faces, hinting at potential real-world social benefits.
- Autism acceptance and focusing on children’s strengths, rather than trying to make them neurotypical, is central to Rona Bolger’s advocacy work.
“We want a society that accepts our kids for who they are and doesn’t try to make them neurotypical, understands that they are perfectly autistic just the way they are.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? Here, the focus shifts from addiction to autism, but the core theme is the same: how science and lived experience can reshape lives. This episode of *All In The Mind* spotlights Dr Gail Alvares, an autism researcher at the Telethon Kids Institute, and parent advocate Rona Bolger, who shares the story of her children Alyssa and Lachlan.
You’ll hear how early signs like loss of language, lack of imaginative play and not responding to their name led Rona to push for assessments, and how the process was slowed by long waitlists and high therapy costs. Gail explains current research on earlier identification of autism, including subtle social behaviours in babies as young as nine months and links between prenatal hormones and facial features.
She stresses that autism is a spectrum, summed up in the phrase: “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” The heart of the episode is a fresh take on therapy: a simple tablet game called *Frankie and Friends*, built with developer Liam Hunt and designed for children across the autistic spectrum. The game trains skills like attention to faces, emotion recognition and joint attention through swipe-based play and star rewards.
One child proudly reports, “This is day four and I’ve done 292 stars, and I’m really proud of myself,” showing how engaging the game can be. Rona’s family trial the app at home and see it as “just a fun tool”, not formal therapy. She also champions autism acceptance through Alyssa’s Autism Acceptance Project, arguing that autistic children are “perfectly autistic just the way they are” and that their strengths should be valued.
If you’re interested in how technology, science and family experience can work together to support neurodivergent kids, could this be the episode that gets you thinking differently about autism and potential?
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