SociEmoti(social+emotional):game changer for people with ASD

Game app helps individuals with Autism make friends in school & gain/retain employment afterschool by reinforcing socioemotional & communication lessons. 

Because there’s no cure for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the fastest-growing developmental disability in the world, individuals with ASD are 3 times more likely to be bullied than neurotypical individuals, and almost 42% of Americans with Autism never worked for pay in their early 20s. (UK study by National Autistic Society generated similar statistics) Making friends and communicating were the top 2 skills desired by parents of children with Autism whom we surveyed nationwide. Survey results and interviews also validated our falsifiable hypothesis that current resources allowing individuals with ASD to develop their cognitive abilities are inadequate.

• 90-% of the parents of children with Autism had not found a game that helps their children make more friends. 

• 80+% said they want their kids to try our game   

A tool is needed to empower them with words to use to connect with others. Knowing experiential learning reduces the leap to real life application & interactive feedback is essential, a game is the proper channel.

SociEmoti (fusion of “social” and “emotional”), a global award-winning interactive game app, aids teachers, psychologists, and speech pathologists to reinforce social, emotional, and communication lessons. Like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, individuals with ASD select  an adventure and skill level (Beginner: Yes/No answers; Intermediate: Multiple Choice answers; Expert: Fill-in-the-Key-Words - like on tests), choose an option to their characters’ dilemma in real world situations, and learn the outcome. 

Our 5th iteration of the “Hallway Locker” adventure at the Intermediate skill level teaches students what to do when a schoolmate blocks their locker. If the player decides not to say anything and chooses A) “Walk away”, the game shows the player dropping his books and a message will appear on the screen saying “People will help you if you ask.” If the player chooses B) “Squeeze in front of schoolmate,” then the angry schoolmate with a red face will say, “Next time ask to move over and I will.” A message will also appear on the screen saying, “People will help you if you ask.” If the player chooses C) “Say, ‘Excuse Me,’” then the classmate blocking will step aside and his happy yellow face will be smiling. The life cycle of adventures beginning with making friends to retaining employment has been approved by Autism focus groups, psychologists, special education teachers, & speech pathologists. 

SociEmoti relies upon game programming software like Unity for the first 2 skill levels and needs AI-like programming for the 3rd skill level (based on consultations with several professional developers).

78+M worldwide struggle making friends and gaining/retaining employment because they have trouble reading nonverbal cues & facial expressions and are unprepared with the appropriate words to say in social situations.  Because most people cannot detect someone with ASD based on their physical appearance, neurotypicals’ initial reaction to his/her behavior is avoidance. Therefore, these neurodiverse  humans crave friendship (beyond their immediate family) and companionship most of their lives.

 Their struggles have only heightened due to the pandemic. 86% of Parents with children with Autism who responded to the national SPARK survey reported the Service disruption and online services severely impacted their children’s social and language skill delays. Also, the unexpected change in routine due to the loss of structure produced increased anxiety and meltdowns.     

Once Americans with autism graduate from public high school, they’re ineligible for many state and county resources providing vocational training. Consequently, many of those remain isolated at home and rely upon their parents for support because almost 60% neither work nor continue their education the first year after graduation.    

Through gamification, SociEmoti will act as their secret friend. They can access their comfort blanket whenever they need assistance.

We have experiences, skillsets, connections and resources to change the game for Individuals with Autism.

Experiences

• LLC established 2019

• Kristina’s 1st business at seven-years-old had 100% profit & profited $5 within three days

• Stephen and Kristina, Young Entrepreneurs Academy graduates

• Stephen maintained income statements

• Kristina attended Google Analytics, Setting Social Media Goals, & Creating Masterful Social Media Images, US Chamber of Commerce conference

Skillsets

• Arya and Stephen coded through 2nd year college-level CS class 

• Stephen and Kristina took Video Game Design classes. Arya took Unity game development course.

• Stephen researched Special Education and Adolescent Cognitive Development. Kristina attended a training about working with special needs youth and taught them robotics.

• Leadership: Stephen and Kristina partnering with State Representative on legislation. Arya & Kristina elected to Student Government, 6 years & 4 years, respectively.

Connections 

• Entrepreneurial Parents: Arya’s dad’s company provides enterprise architecture solutions

• Stephen and Kristina’s parents: Finance and Marketing experts from Top 15 MBA Programs

• GiftPocket app CEO: Kristina’s mentor  

Free Resources

• Entrepreneurial Business Law Clinic: organizational contracts, trademark & wordmark searches, Terms of Conditions, Privacy Statements, disclaimers, End User License Agreement 

• Coding bootcamp: web-based prototype (http://www.sociemoti.fun/), shared internationally

• Designer: logo & sprites

• SBDC: business training

• Accountants 

Wins

• $12+K in prize money to date

• “America’s Next Top Young Entrepreneur,” 1/53 semi-finalist groups from 23 states, China, & India, Saunders Scholars Competition 

• Education Industry Winner, National Invention Convention

• Congressional App Challenge winner

• 1/20 semi-finalists from 30,000 teams in 86 countries, FLL’s Global Innovation Award.    

• 1/32 global semi-finalists, Diamond Business Pitch Challenge (U of Delaware)       

• 3 USPTO provisional patents     

Each of us brings different strengths to the team too: 

* Kristina is an award-winning speaker who won the Ohio Afterschool Network’s High School Pitch Challenge

* Stephen brings his journalism and editorial experience and connections like digital designer, speech pathologists, and contacts at an Autism school

* Arya brings his access to design software.

Because none of us are diagnosed with Autism, we relied upon primary and secondary resources before we developed our solution. 

We consulted a Director of Special Education, Autism nonprofits, parents of children with autism, books, and online resources to learn about autism. We learned many with autism like predictability, process information literally, and struggle applying theory to real-life. Thus, hands-on learning methods using direct messages and patterns needed to be employed.   

These resources also helped us conclude gamification was the best avenue to deliver social, emotional, and communication lessons to our users. Over 70% of the parents we surveyed allow their kids to play games on an app compared with 11% for tabletop games & console games & 4% for internet games so we eliminated the less popular ideas. In addition to our nationwide survey, research from the Gates Foundation indicated a majority of teachers use digital games at least weekly and 55% of teachers stated special education students benefit the most from digital games. These resources also convinced us an app was the best gaming vehicle. 

Feedback from individuals with Autism spanning different age groups (elementary, middle & high school students), special education teachers working in various school settings (public & developmental disability schools), speech pathologists in public and charter schools, practicing psychologists, a founder of an autism school, and clinical speech pathologists and psychologists from The Ohio State University Nisonger Center educated us about ASD and improved our app solution. We learned Incorporating their advice, we simplified the words said by the characters, added 2 more skill levels, color coded the speech bubbles, and added game objectives & diverse adventures.

Engaging with additional experts has also helped strengthen our idea. We learned from market researchers how to enhance the 4 types of surveys we distributed. Advice from a Wharton MBA with 25 years experience marketing consumer products motivated us to broaden the scope of our impact.

SociEmoti is the only app incorporating skill levels and faces changing color to highlight emotion. 

• Behavioral analysts requested skill levels be added because Americans with autism have a range of ability levels. Sociemoti has 1) Yes/No; 2) Multiple Choice; & 3) Fill-In-Key-Words levels so beginners play Level 1 and the repetition of answer choices aids progression to Level 3 where words to use in social situations are recalled.  We chose these answer type choices for the skill levels because individuals with ASD prefer predictability and these mirror answer choices on school tests. 

• Because a Director of Special Education mentioned individuals with Autism may have                                                                                                        trouble reading facial expressions, characters' faces change color to make emotions obvious (e.g., blue face signifies sadness).  Colors representing different emotions were based on Pixar’s “Inside Out”

Also includes features dictated by MVP survey rankings: Realistic adventures; Concise dialogue; Tracks progress; Voiceover; Explanation about faces changing color & adventure’s objectives (All Business-2-Business & Business-2-Consumer competitors are missing 2+ of above features.)

Google, Amazon & uspto.gov searches showed no direct Business-to-Consumer competition & trademark and wordmark searches conducted by a Law School Clinic produced similar results. Closest competitors on the App Store are apps teaching either social or emotional skills and apps only for job interviews. However, these competitors are missing at least 2 of the features derived from our MVP survey. 

Alternatives include mainstream tabletop games which are inconvenient because they require another player.

When individuals with ASD rely on our game to navigate social situations and interview for jobs, then SociEmoti will have succeeded. 

SociEmoti will level the playing field for millions with this developmental disability. It will help 1) curb bullying (22% of US children ages 12-18 experienced it) by supplying words to use in situations. This product will also 2) decrease the labor shortage by helping individuals with Autism prepare for an interview in order to fill some of 10 million US job openings. More importantly, employees with ASD will be empowered. Working will provide them 3) opportunities to feel valued and respected. 

It will be sustainable because content will be updated and game characters will be customized to resemble players from a menu of physical features & attire. 

Eventually, we’d like to expand and become a lifestyle app for the autism community by gamifying health & wellness content. 

We also plan to develop another version catered to neurotypical individuals.

Uses game software to make SociEmoti engaging and interactive

After we launch, we want our app to be a global product for all within 5 yrs. We’ll launch in 99-K public school districts 1st because they reach the greatest number of individuals with Autism, then 48-K psychology practices, and lastly App Stores so 4.3M verbal students & adults have access. Once the game’s words are translated into other languages, individuals with ASD outside of the US will benefit from SociEmoti. (ASD is prevalent at a higher rate in Japan, UK, Sweden & Denmark. China & India have more children with ASD than US). 

When individuals with ASD rely on our game to navigate social situations and interview for jobs, then SociEmoti will have succeeded. 

SociEmoti will level the playing field for millions with this developmental disability. It will help 1) curb bullying (22% of US children ages 12-18 experienced it) by supplying words to use in situations. This product will also 2) decrease the labor shortage by helping individuals with Autism prepare for an interview in order to fill some of 10 million US job openings. More importantly, employees with ASD will be empowered. Working will provide them 3) opportunities to feel valued and respected. 

It will be sustainable because content will be updated and game characters will be customized to resemble players from a menu of physical features & attire. 

Eventually, we’d like to expand and become a lifestyle app for the autism community by gamifying health & wellness content. 

We also plan to develop another version catered to neurotypical individuals.

Technical & financial barriers have limited our impact. Creating the Fill-in-the-key-word skill level is beyond our programming capabilities. Hiring professional programmers is beyond our budget and we haven’t anyone willing to work pro-bono either.

We’ve been partnering with UA Lutheran Church who’s funding part of the development of an improved electronic prototype. They supplied us with a mentor with an administration background in traditional and career tech schools. 

Small Business Development Center has offered to advise us as well as help us test our prototype statewide.

Because variable costs are negligent and fixed costs are minimal, SociEmoti will annually make a donation equal to 5% of its sales to nonprofits like the Autistic Self Advocacy Network that  advocates equality for autistic people to enlarge the impact for people with ASD further.

To maintain low fixed costs and remain self-sufficient, a part-time programmer will be contracted for tech support and to develop new adventures, updated monthly. The number of contracted programmers will increase as SociEmoti’s customer base grows. Profits equal to 10% of sales will be reinvested into research and development and 5% of sales will be funneled into marketing initially to B2B segment (augmented by B2C marketing the following year). Advertising will target industry groups like the National Association of Special Education Teachers and American Psychological Association. Lower cost marketing tools like garnering endorsements from social media influencers with Autism and PR will also be employed.  

To date, we can support the app through winning pitch competitions ($12K) and relying upon free help.

By continually adding new content, we hope to motivate multi-year subscriptions from school districts, psychology practices, and families of individuals with autism.