socialStory

For many autistic children, a doctor's visit, a haircut or a first day at school is hard not because of what happens, but because they don't know what will happen. Social Stories, short and literal stories that describe an event before it happens (developed by Carol Gray), are one of the most widely used ways to prepare. But a good one takes a parent or teacher hours to make, so most children only get generic ones. socialStory makes a personal one in minutes. The parent talks: one question at a time, read aloud, answered by voice. The app builds a profile of the child (what's hard, what helps, how they read) and an outline of the event from a template, with a photo to-do list and a letter to show staff. Photos of the real doctor, the real comfort toy, and the real rooms are cut out and used as references, so every illustration looks like the child's actual world. Spark writes the story to Gray's criteria, a checker reviews it, and the parent edits and approves every word before the child sees anything. The child reads it in a calm, installable tablet app: the same layout on every page, nothing that flashes or plays on its own, a calendar and clock for when it happens, read-along with each word highlighted, tap-a-word help, and a "Who's Who" to meet everyone first. No scores, streaks or timers, ever. It adapts to the child, never the other way round: reading level, detail level, picture style, communication (including nonspeaking children), and sensory settings are all the parent's to set. It never stores a diagnosis. Live: https://play.newmythology.net (the child's app, open) and https://app.newmythology.net (the parent's app; passcode: 912365886429).