Brampton, Ontario – A group of grade students at an area school are in the process of creating an app to assist pupils who are on the autism spectrum to learn math more effectively.
Sir Isaac Brock Public School students opted to take it upon themselves to develop an application that will utilize auditory, kinetic and visual prompts to help children with ASD correctly answer mathematical questions. Students involved in the assignment reveal that they were inspired to work on the project due to seeing fellow classmates struggle to learn in class. Priya Joshi, one of the developers, says of a student:
“In math class he looked really confused. So then he was our inspiration and we asked him some questions and that’s how everything started.”
The project will also serve to benefit youngsters like Anuram Thavarasa, a grade 3 pupil with the disorder who admits to finding it difficult to learn grasp the material taught in class and says that he finds mathematics “extra hard.”
Although the app is still in the initial stages of development, it has already garnered accolades in its field. The app won a team award at an international science and technology competition for youngsters and its young developers are scheduled to compete in a province-wide competition in Waterloo next month as well.
Source: On the CBC News Toronto new website: Sir Isaac Brock students make autism math app