Color In is a fun app developed for children with special needs to help them engage in expressive behavior and also understand the synchrony of natural colors. Bright colors leave a healthy impression on the pliant mind of young children, inspiring positive thinking and constructive activities. The app has two parts – training and play.
The app, with the aid of assistive technology for autism spectrum disorders, asks the user to apply colors to images of animals such as cat, dog, elephant, horse and lion. Built on the discrete trial part of applied behavior analysis aka ABA, it includes colorful audio-visual prompts and a highly interactive gameplay environment.
In the training part the child is shown how to fill colors before he or she is asked to do it himself or herself. The number of color inputs required to fill each image varies according to the intricacy of the sketch (the animal and background). At any point during an activity, the child can undo an input without losing on the count of steps remaining to complete filling all required colors and proceed to the next image.
Each screen features a Help icon that tells the child the built-in color scheme for the corresponding image. However, the child is free to pick any color from the list of colors given with each image. An animation is played on successful completion of each step. This technique is based on the rule of positive reinforcement.
Parents, teachers or caregivers can set time and sequence of activities from the ‘Settings’ part of the app. The default time to complete applying colors to an image is 1 minute.
***About WebTeam Corporation***
Incorporated in 2005, WebTeam Corporation is a Somerset-based mobile application development firm that has pioneered the development of an autism management program comprising screening, assessment and intervention apps. WebTeam’s ABA-based autism apps help parents, teachers, health care experts, researchers and other stakeholders worldwide efficiently manage the entire life-cycle of autism from infancy to adulthood and employment.
By developing apps for autism intervention, WebTeam replicates individualized autism services on mobile devices, thereby making these necessary services available to the under-served population globally, especially in countries that lack the expertise necessary to tackle autism efficiently and in a cost-effective manner.
WebTeam’s innovative idea backed by proprietary technology, which was awarded by Verizon in the 2013 Powerful Answers Award competition, lets caregivers collect and share data efficiently to foster effective collaborations that will ultimately solve one of the world’s largest and growing developmental disorders.