Information technologies have been widely used for entertainment and learning purposes by children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Nonetheless, learning objects aiming at specific skills development in children with ASD require both a well bounded learning domain and a user-centered design process, considering skill levels of the users and the local geographical context and language. “Proyect@ Matemáticas” is a multi-touch based app designed for developing pre-calculus and functional mathematical skills in children with ASD, according to the Chilean regulations of learning goals for children with special educational necessities. This paper presents the User-centered design process conducted in order to develop the learning object, which included the evaluation by 15 experts in special educational needs, testing by 10 ASD-diagnosed children with different functional levels, and a multidisciplinary development team that also included a graphic designer diagnosed with ASD of high functionality. The development process yields to a validated learning object in terms of interactivity, design, engagement, and usability, from the point of view of the experts, and successful usage tests with ASD diagnosed children in terms of performance and achievement of learning outcomes. The application is currently available for download in the Google Play store for free, and currently has more than 15,000 downloads and an average rating of 4.2 out of 5 points.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is the name of a group of neurodevelopmental disorders which affect social skills that should be developed at an early age. For this reason, they may hinder the development of other basic skills such as the cognitive ones related to logical and mathematical thinking. The development of these skills is a primary goal for special education initiatives on a permanent basis as they allow the acquisition of knowledge that is used in everyday life. These skills may also facilitate social inclusion and a future insertion in the labor market. In Chile there are no Learning Objects available that potentiate the development of mathematical skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. For this reason, a Learning Object for multi-touch devices was developed in order to support therapeutic and co-therapeutic initiatives for the development of math skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Learning Object is currently available at Google Play and had more than 15,000 downloads.

El autismo o Trastornos del Espectro Autista es una condición del neurodesarrollo caracterizada por una disminución en la interacción social, comunicación, creatividad, imaginación y organización de las actividades diarias de aquellos que tienen esta condición. La función ejecutiva es un conjunto de procesos mentales que ayudan a conectar las experiencias pasadas con una acción presente. Las personas la utilizan para desarrollar sus actividades tales como planificar, organizar, poner atención y recordar detalles, como también para gestionar su tiempo y espacio. Actualmente en Chile, no existe soluciones que apoyen o mejoren estas habilidades cognitivas en niños con trastornos del espectro autista, tomando como ventaja las características de los dispositivos multitouch. Por tal razón, este trabajo describe el proceso de desarrollo de una aplicación que apoya el desarrollo de la función ejecutiva en niños y niñas con trastornos del espectro autista. La aplicación propuesta, sobrepasa las 10.000 instalaciones en la plataforma Play de Google.

Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by a decrease in social interaction, communication, creativity, imagination and organization of daily living activities of those who have this condition. Empathy is a skill related to understanding the feelings of other people, which is an important element of social relationships. Currently in Chile there are no software applications that support the development of empathy in autistic children by taking advantage of the characteristics of multi-touch devices. For this reason, this study presents the development of such software. Due to the specific characteristics and needs of the target user, the User Centered Design methodology was used to guide the design process. This article presents the stages of the design process and describes the developed application. We also discuss the lessons learned during the process.