Candice Taylor, an Australian mother of a child with autism, has developed and released “Let’s Go Shopping!”, an app to encourage autistic children to explore and integrate themselves into a supermarket environment at their own pace, whilst making sense of their own thoughts and feelings.
It gradually introduces children to the sounds, colours, and experiences of a supermarket, by giving them complete control of their environment. It is an application where children are able to see, and hear the sounds over and over before entering an environment, so they are prepared to cope with the incoming stimulus of sounds and noise.
This application gives children ownership of their learning working towards shopping being a calm and pleasurable experience for the whole family. “All children definitely have their own unique way of looking at the world, and experiencing it their own way. It is our responsibility as parents, carers and educators to foster and support their abilities, strengths, and interests to grow in confidence to explore and learn, whilst helping them to overcome everyday challenges”, affirms Taylor.