After 7 years of experience in working with children with autism and their families, Help Autism Association is taking a new step in supporting the process of recovering children with autistic spectrum disorder by launching the innovative application for psychotherapeutic support, ABAKIT "I Learn About the World Through Images ".

Autism affects the normal development of the brain in the areas responsible for the functions of communication, social interaction and cognitive functioning. For this reason, children with autism need educational materials specifically created for them, which take into account the way they can learn. In order to facilitate recovery activities within the therapeutic programs, the Help Autism Association, together with the Association for Applied Behavioral Therapy, has developed, since the year 2013, the teaching material kit "I'm learning about the world through images - ABA materials", the first of this kind in Romania.

After 4 years in which the kit served as the mainstay of therapy for children with autism across the country, its implementation in the form of a mobile app comes to increase the attractiveness of this type of activity, given the interest shown by children with autism for electronic devices. In addition to providing support for specialists in the therapy sessions, the accessibility of the educational materials also encourages parents' involvement and continued application of therapeutic practices and principles at home, thus contributing to the acceleration of the learning process. In this respect, upon the recommendation of the coordinating therapist and respecting the individualized intervention plan, the IT application can be easily accessed using a tablet, mobile phone or computer.

ABAKIT aims to be primarily a support tool for the work of ABA therapists and therefore home use is only recommended under careful guidance. Another innovative element is the possibility to generate progress reports directly from the application, the coordinating therapist having the possibility to track the progress of each child even after working at home.

The application contains a set of online exercises based on the ABA kit, 1200 images that correspond to ABA programs and the therapeutic level, respectively the age and abilities of the child.

In the same manner as the ABA Kit, developed in physical form by the Help Autism Association and ATCA, http://ahaprint.ro/products/kit-materials-aba/, the application contributes to stimulating and developing the cognitive and verbal skills of children with TSA, based on therapeutic goals:

Developing responsive language;

The development of expressive language and communication through description and storytelling;

The development of the observation spirit and the use of descriptive language;

Identification of facial expressions and simple emotions;

Identifying social rules and complex social situations.

Access to the ABAKIT Application "I'm learning about the world through images" will be provided free of charge to the beneficiaries of Help Autism Association as well as to the beneficiaries of the Mihai Center, belonging to the association Autism, Therapy, Sports and Arts Argeş, partner of the Association.

At this time, the app is available for download, both in Romanian and English, on Android, IOS and Windows devices.

The application can be purchased on distinct modules, grouped according to the degree of difficulty or in full version: ABAKIT Starter for the beginner level - contains 5 programs; ABAKIT Medium for intermediate level - contains 10 programs; ABAKIT Advanced for advanced level - contains 14 programs. Also for familiarization of the users with the tools provided by the application, before purchasing the complete package, a free version is available for installation.

The money raised from the sale of ABA therapy materials both in physical and electronic format are directed to support the recovery therapy for the 485 children with TSA beneficiaries of the Help Autism Association.

The ABAKIT application "I learn about the world through images" was developed within the project "Establishing centers providing innovative services of psychotherapy", co-financed by a grant from Switzerland through the Swiss Contribution to the enlarged European Union and has a total budget of CHF 277,761.25. The grant is CHF 249,985.12, and co-financing provided by the project partners is CHF 27776.13. For more details on the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme, please visit http://www.swiss-contribution.ro and www.swiss-contribution.admin.ch/romania.