School Simulator: An Autistic Preschool Training App

Supporting Inclusive Education and Future Integration

School Simulator, designed by Xinyue Liu, Huicong Hu, and Shumeng Hou, is an innovative app that supports parents, teachers, and therapists in giving preschool training to children with autism spectrum disorder. This app focuses on four categories of training: self-care, instruction understanding, interpersonal interaction, and one day in school. By addressing these areas, School Simulator aims to enhance the future integration of autistic children into inclusive classrooms.

The app offers a unique platform for preschool training and community communication. Autistic children can engage in interactive training lessons, where they are encouraged to make choices, communicate with cartoon characters, and display specific facial expressions based on the context or cues. The app utilizes built-in algorithms for speech recognition and facial expression recognition, providing quick and accurate feedback to the child's responses. If a wrong response is detected, the training part will be automatically recorded, encouraging the child to redo it until they get it right. Users can also view training history with accuracy records and make notes at any time.

One of the strengths of School Simulator is its adaptability to individual training needs. Each autistic child may face different challenges in their daily lives, requiring a variety of content and intensity. The app addresses this by offering a range of lessons within the four training categories, allowing users to choose according to their child's specific needs. The lessons are designed to be concise, interesting, and interactive, catering to the limited attention span of young children with autism.

The development of School Simulator involved extensive research and collaboration. The design team conducted desk research, field studies, focus group interviews, and consumer journey mapping to understand the needs and challenges of autistic children in inclusive education. They also consulted experts in autistic research to ensure the effectiveness of the training approach. The interfaces and training lessons were iteratively designed and evaluated with the input of preschool autistic children and their preferences for colors and cartoon characters.

School Simulator was developed using Figma, Adobe Photoshop, and Illustrator, and is designed for the iOS system. The project started in October 2021 and was completed in January 2022 in Shenzhen.

This innovative app has received recognition for its design and impact. School Simulator was awarded the Bronze A' Design Award in the Education, Teaching Aid, and Training Content Design category in 2022. This prestigious award acknowledges designs that demonstrate creativity, resourcefulness, and a commitment to improving the quality of life. School Simulator stands out for its incorporation of best practices in art, science, design, and technology, making it a valuable tool for supporting inclusive education and the future integration of autistic children.