Autism skills app gets Net Visionary nomination

Life
Lord Mayor of Cork Councillor Des Cahill, left, with Denis Collins, chairman, Smarter Senses, Shine Ireland (Image: Shine Ireland)

7 October 2016

An application developed for Shine Ireland, the autism support group, that helps children to learn, develop and communicate more effectively, has been nominated for an Irish Internet Association Net Visionary Award in the Best Innovation in Technology for Learning category.

The app is part of the Shine Ireland Smarter Senses Project, a three step programme, started in 2010, with the aim of developing the Shine Centre for Autism in Cork into a world class support centre. The Social Skills app was conceived as a way to make autism support capabilities more widely accessible and available to all.

The project around the application was also won a Chambers Ireland CSR Excellence Award in the Excellence in Community – Partnership with Charity award, with the Bon Secours Hospital. Both parties were received at a special reception by Lord Mayor of Cork Councillor Des Cahill, in recognition of their achievements.

The app arose from an initiative by the chairman of Smarter Senses for Shine Ireland, Denis Collins, in 2010.

Collins’ vision was to build a “coalition of the willing” across industry, government, public sector and academia to collaborate and drive an array of commercial, social, and academic results for Ireland Inc, to have a positive impact for children with autism and their families.

“When one does this effectively,” said Collins, “it becomes very powerful, sustainable, organic, and the sky is the limit.”

The Smarter Senses Project is aligned to the Shine Centre for Autism in Carrigaline, Co Cork, that has been working in the area of autism for more than 15 years. Since 2010 this collaboration has achieved tangible results on multiple projects involving large multinational companies, SMEs and start-up companies.

The app is based on input from children with autism and Shine’s home-grown classroom based programme ‘Personal and Life Skills’ (PALS) led by Laura Crowley that helps children and teenagers learn and understand about the social world that surrounds them.

Through the work of the Smarter Senses Project this programme has been transformed into a free app and is now available across the autism community throughout the world and currently has in excess of 35,000 global users, said Shine Ireland.

The app was developed by Shine Ireland and designed by SME company Doodle Creative, with funding from the Bon Secours Hospital Community Initiatives Programme.

“The app project demonstrates the perfect model of cooperation and innovation for social impact and most importantly, it is also making a tangible difference on the lives of children and families with autism who need it the most” said Collins.

 

 

TechCentral Reporters

 

 

 

Read More:


Back to Top ↑

TechCentral.ie