Background

Currently, one out of eighty-eight children in US suffers from autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASDs suffer from several deficits e.g. poor communication and social skills. Some of them also show reduced attention to others ’ faces, and hence have major difficulties in recognizing and responding to emotional and mental states in others ’ facial expressions [1]. Such difficulties if persist when they become teenagers hamper their abilities to acquire job skills or live more independent lives. Purpose The emergence of powerful smartphones, tablets e.g. IPAD and Google Nexus 7 allow developers to produce many useful applications to help autistic children to develop their language or social skills. However, many existing applications target younger children and are not quite suitable for teenagers. In our project, we aim to develop mobile applications targeting autistic teenagers which are customizable to help them acquire some skills that can improve their quality of life. Specifically, we focus on three particular applications: (a) Emotional Recognition Training (ERT) Tool, (b) Conversational Simulator (CS), and (c) ATM Simulator. The ERT application aims to improve autistic children’s emotional recognition skills while CS helps to improve their conversational skills. The ATM simulator is being used at Centennial School (a special education school) to teach autistic students how to use ATM machines to deposit/withdraw money. The ERT application will be made accessible to others once we complete our user studies with a special education school and an autism center. The other tw