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I'm a front-end developer / artist / father. I'm trying to make a software application for families common in my situation. I have an 8 year old daughter who is

I'm a front-end developer / artist / father. I'm trying to make a software application for families common in my situation. I have an 8 year old daughter who is very autistic and there is a huge lack in tools I feel that a family and kid can communicate with. To that end - I am trying to make a communication board tool. In my mind think of Trello board but there's not much in the way of words only symbols. Right now I have mockups and am evaluating whether to do this in unity 2d or Web/JS. Throw everything you know of UX and common UI frameworks out the window this is for kids the world keeps turning it's back on to enable them to participate.

toddmorey 5y ago
Also a father: 11 year old son who's very autistic. In process now of creating better visual tools / schedules to help him understand & have agency in his day. Have thought a lot about this space, too, and identified similar needs. Please connect via email in profile.
- kraig911 5y ago
  I don't see your email. I put mine in the about box.
nivethan 5y ago
This is quite interesting and important. Do you have anything I could follow or some literature about the topic? I'm not even sure what to search for as I never thought about alternative modes of communication.
- kraig911 5y ago
  A quick google as an example but this is from healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/communication-board https://www.healthline.com/health/communication-board I'll ask my wife who is a BCBA to share any studies related. The premise is symbols to help a kid reach from using symbols to letters/words. Right now they print a ton and velcro them to a board and communicate a complicated topic. There are apps out there but they kind of are lacking IMO and hard for a kid to figure out.
pkdpic 5y ago
Cool sounding project, are you thinking of this as a hardware project or something that would run through a browser or as a stand alone app? Also what kind of art do you make? Im an artist working as a dev as well. I know we're out there but we're a bit rarer than I was expecting.
- kraig911 5y ago
  I'm thinking it'd be an app running on android/ios atm. Kids typically seem to gravitate to an 'app' and something running in a browser could lead to unexpected consequences if a parent wants to protect their kids from the greater web. I'd like for it to run in a browser if needed but it'd be easier for a kid to manage as an app. Look at youtube kids app as an example. As for art I love watercolor, gouache, ink and brush. I trained professionally to be an animator so I love cartoons.
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johndetloff 5y ago
This sounds like a really cool project. I'm an iOS developer, if you end up needing native iOS contributions please feel free to reach out at the email in my profile.
sylvansson 5y ago
I don't know what your family's needs are specifically, but there are several fantastic Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools out there that are open source and in active development. The community is very friendly and they always welcome help from experienced software engineers. I personally contribute to Cboard (https://www.cboard.io https://www.cboard.io) and a few others but check out the OpenAAC website (https://www.openaac.org https://www.openaac.org) for additional resources :-)
- kraig911 5y ago
  Yeah I'm thinking of contributing to and taking from Cboard. Basically I want to great an interface that uses the symbols to help a kid not just interact with peers to talk to them but also say write and send a note.
  - weeb 5y ago
    You might also want to look at other apps that use the OpenBoardFormat: https://www.openboardformat.org/partners https://www.openboardformat.org/partners I contribute to Optikey and was involved in OpenVoiceFactory in its first incarnation. Optikey is primarily QWERTY based but does supported the Communikate pagesets - more general OBF support would be a welcome PR! Coughdrop is probably a better fit for your needs, and is open source so free to self-host, though they do offer hosted plans for $. https://github.com/CoughDrop/coughdrop https://github.com/CoughDrop/coughdrop
  - smoyer 5y ago
    If you'd like to cook with your daughter, here's a site with pictorial recipes - https://accessiblechef.com/ https://accessiblechef.com/ Disclaimer: yes, I'm affiliated :)
    - kraig911 5y ago
      She'd love this.
lkxijlewlf 5y ago
Just wanted to jump in and say this sounds like an amazing project and I hope the best for you! Make sure to do a Show HN when you get it far enough!!!
- KaliaGelman 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
surajs 5y ago
skyde 5y ago
I am a programmer and also a father, and working on using AI to revolutionize how we teach kid how to read. I noticed that a very simplistic LSTM neural network model is able to learn very quickly all the rules of pronunciation ex: - grapheme "EA" in “please” or "heat" is pronounced one way - but grapheme "EA" in « death » or " bread" is pronounced in a different way - but grapheme "EA" in "great", "steak", "break" is also pronounced in a different way In fact the neural network is learning the rules and able to guess the pronunciation of word it have never seen before. This made me try to see 1- what is the minimal number of example the Model need to be trained with to learn all the rules. 2- What is the optimal sequence that rules must be learned ... This can all be discovered and measured easily and accurately by training the model with different training set. I believe this have never been done before, because experimenting with real kid is too slow. We make the assumption that is something is easy to learn by an LSTM model it will also be easy to learn by a human. (turn out to be true) There is a lot of design decision that need to be made about how to visually display "grapheme" and let the kid interact with them. This is just a side project for now but I am in strong need of a UI programmer to partner with!
- ianbicking 5y ago
  A concept I've thought about in this same area is some kind of color coding of words to help children learn how to decode words at the level of syllables. So for instance "please" might be "plea" and "se" – avoiding the sounding of of "pa la eh ah [no, they go together as an ee sound] sa eh? [silent e]". Lots of vowel insertion that makes it very hard to actually assemble those sounds into a word! But in another way this could be a kind of overlay of information. Maybe it shows how words are split, maybe it's to disambiguate different pronunciations of "ea", ... I'm not sure what's the most important added information. But overlaid on the words it might be a kind of scaffolding that makes it easier for kids to successfully read words and gain the practice that makes it possible to remove that scaffolding. There's a lot to think about there when it comes to reading (not to mention a ton of pedagogical knowledge)... I'm not sure I have the space to be a solid collaborator, but I do find this stuff interesting to talk about sometime...
kidproquo 5y ago
Definitely interested in collaborating. My skillsets range from web (NextJS, React), React Native, native iOS, native Android, embedded systems (firmware and hardware). I have a 12 year old autistic son. He attends ABA therapy. I am also looking to create tools and apps that can help him communicate better. Also, he's very musical, so I am looking at better ways to help him learn piano (he loves Simply Piano but I want something that let's me define a custom lesson plan based on MIDI files of songs he loves).
kirso 5y ago
Can I invest?

toddmorey 5y ago

Also a father: 11 year old son who's very autistic. In process now of creating better visual tools / schedules to help him understand & have agency in his day. Have thought a lot about this space, too, and identified similar needs. Please connect via email in profile.

kraig911 5y ago
I don't see your email. I put mine in the about box.

nivethan 5y ago

This is quite interesting and important. Do you have anything I could follow or some literature about the topic? I'm not even sure what to search for as I never thought about alternative modes of communication.

kraig911 5y ago
A quick google as an example but this is from healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/communication-board https://www.healthline.com/health/communication-board I'll ask my wife who is a BCBA to share any studies related. The premise is symbols to help a kid reach from using symbols to letters/words. Right now they print a ton and velcro them to a board and communicate a complicated topic. There are apps out there but they kind of are lacking IMO and hard for a kid to figure out.

pkdpic 5y ago

Cool sounding project, are you thinking of this as a hardware project or something that would run through a browser or as a stand alone app? Also what kind of art do you make? Im an artist working as a dev as well. I know we're out there but we're a bit rarer than I was expecting.

kraig911 5y ago
I'm thinking it'd be an app running on android/ios atm. Kids typically seem to gravitate to an 'app' and something running in a browser could lead to unexpected consequences if a parent wants to protect their kids from the greater web. I'd like for it to run in a browser if needed but it'd be easier for a kid to manage as an app. Look at youtube kids app as an example. As for art I love watercolor, gouache, ink and brush. I trained professionally to be an animator so I love cartoons.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

johndetloff 5y ago

This sounds like a really cool project. I'm an iOS developer, if you end up needing native iOS contributions please feel free to reach out at the email in my profile.

sylvansson 5y ago

I don't know what your family's needs are specifically, but there are several fantastic Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) tools out there that are open source and in active development. The community is very friendly and they always welcome help from experienced software engineers. I personally contribute to Cboard (https://www.cboard.io https://www.cboard.io) and a few others but check out the OpenAAC website (https://www.openaac.org https://www.openaac.org) for additional resources :-)

kraig911 5y ago
Yeah I'm thinking of contributing to and taking from Cboard. Basically I want to great an interface that uses the symbols to help a kid not just interact with peers to talk to them but also say write and send a note.
- weeb 5y ago
  You might also want to look at other apps that use the OpenBoardFormat: https://www.openboardformat.org/partners https://www.openboardformat.org/partners I contribute to Optikey and was involved in OpenVoiceFactory in its first incarnation. Optikey is primarily QWERTY based but does supported the Communikate pagesets - more general OBF support would be a welcome PR! Coughdrop is probably a better fit for your needs, and is open source so free to self-host, though they do offer hosted plans for $. https://github.com/CoughDrop/coughdrop https://github.com/CoughDrop/coughdrop
- smoyer 5y ago
  If you'd like to cook with your daughter, here's a site with pictorial recipes - https://accessiblechef.com/ https://accessiblechef.com/ Disclaimer: yes, I'm affiliated :)
  - kraig911 5y ago
    She'd love this.

lkxijlewlf 5y ago

Just wanted to jump in and say this sounds like an amazing project and I hope the best for you! Make sure to do a Show HN when you get it far enough!!!

KaliaGelman 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

surajs 5y ago

skyde 5y ago

I am a programmer and also a father, and working on using AI to revolutionize how we teach kid how to read. I noticed that a very simplistic LSTM neural network model is able to learn very quickly all the rules of pronunciation ex: - grapheme "EA" in “please” or "heat" is pronounced one way - but grapheme "EA" in « death » or " bread" is pronounced in a different way - but grapheme "EA" in "great", "steak", "break" is also pronounced in a different way In fact the neural network is learning the rules and able to guess the pronunciation of word it have never seen before. This made me try to see 1- what is the minimal number of example the Model need to be trained with to learn all the rules. 2- What is the optimal sequence that rules must be learned ... This can all be discovered and measured easily and accurately by training the model with different training set. I believe this have never been done before, because experimenting with real kid is too slow. We make the assumption that is something is easy to learn by an LSTM model it will also be easy to learn by a human. (turn out to be true) There is a lot of design decision that need to be made about how to visually display "grapheme" and let the kid interact with them. This is just a side project for now but I am in strong need of a UI programmer to partner with!

ianbicking 5y ago
A concept I've thought about in this same area is some kind of color coding of words to help children learn how to decode words at the level of syllables. So for instance "please" might be "plea" and "se" – avoiding the sounding of of "pa la eh ah [no, they go together as an ee sound] sa eh? [silent e]". Lots of vowel insertion that makes it very hard to actually assemble those sounds into a word! But in another way this could be a kind of overlay of information. Maybe it shows how words are split, maybe it's to disambiguate different pronunciations of "ea", ... I'm not sure what's the most important added information. But overlaid on the words it might be a kind of scaffolding that makes it easier for kids to successfully read words and gain the practice that makes it possible to remove that scaffolding. There's a lot to think about there when it comes to reading (not to mention a ton of pedagogical knowledge)... I'm not sure I have the space to be a solid collaborator, but I do find this stuff interesting to talk about sometime...

kidproquo 5y ago

Definitely interested in collaborating. My skillsets range from web (NextJS, React), React Native, native iOS, native Android, embedded systems (firmware and hardware). I have a 12 year old autistic son. He attends ABA therapy. I am also looking to create tools and apps that can help him communicate better. Also, he's very musical, so I am looking at better ways to help him learn piano (he loves Simply Piano but I want something that let's me define a custom lesson plan based on MIDI files of songs he loves).

kirso 5y ago

Can I invest?