An Engaging Android App for Arabic-speaking Autistic Kids

• Published in: 2023 IEEE 8th International Conference on Recent Advances and Innovations in Engineering (ICRAIE) pp. 1 - 6
• Main Authors: Sweidan, Saadeh Z., Darabkh, Khalid A., Khawaldeh, Aya M., Hamed Salameh, Shaym K.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 02-12-2023
• Subjects: Arabic apps; Artificial intelligence; ASD; Autism; Chatbots; Educational apps; Mobile application; Oral communication; Task analysis; Technological innovation
• DOI: 10.1109/ICRAIE59459.2023.10468378

Autism spectrum has been noticeably extracted in the last few years. This has led to rising the world awareness about this syndrome. As a result, many institutes were established around the world in order to serve people diagnosed with Autism. In the same context, the high technology sector has shown an interest in this area by presenting a number of smartphone applications (apps) dedicated to help the autistics to merge in their communities and to accomplish daily life tasks efficiently. Motivated by that, this work aims to present MOLHEM as an Android app that comes with an interactive chatbot. The proposed system in general tries to enhance the Arabic autistic children's different social and academic skills. In addition to that, the system presents a chat system in order to create real life conversations in Arabic or English with the child. Moreover, the parents will be able to control the child's usage of the app. MOLHEM was tested by a group of possible users for one month and the feedbacks were very positive. Finally, as a part of our futures plans, we aim to add new features like creating an IOS version of the app, adding new languages, and including artificial intelligence techniques.