Autism Software Wins First Place at SIIA Ed Tech Summit

Our autism software, The Social Express won first prize today at The Ed Tech Summit!

The Ed Tech Summit is an an educational tech event!

If you’re on Twitter, here is the Summit hashtag, #ETIS12

Our autism software was named: Most Likely To Succeed Educational Technology Product or Service

It was so exciting yesterday at the SIIA Summit in San Francisco! The photo above is me pitching yesterday during the Summit’s Innovation Incubator after we made it to the finals.

Double bonus. We also won Second Prize – Most Innovative Ed Tech Product or Service – Runner Up. We are so honored and enjoyed meeting all of the other companies and speakers at the event.

Social Learning Software Submitted

A few months ago, we entered our social learning software, The Social Express, in the Innovation Incubator. The SIIA stands for the Software Information Industry Association.

The SIIIA Education Division supports innovation in the ed tech industry (education technology) through the Innovation Incubator Program. The Incubator Program is an initiative that raises awareness of the most innovative ed tech products and services. We entered in our social learning software using our company name, The Language Express.

Autism Software to Help Your Child Make Friends

The whole reason my wife Tina and I started our company was to help both our twins with autism and the larger autism community. We know firsthand how many challenges there are for families with children diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Especially when it comes to helping your child with autism make and keep friendships with other children.

It was seven years ago when our boys were first diagnosed on the spectrum. I was wondering what to do to help them. They weren’t very social. And I am, on the other hand, very social. That made it very difficult for me, especially.

I really wanted to help them improve their social skills. Things like making and keeping eye contact and knowing the right distance to stand from others.

It was important to help them to develop and work on other basic social skills. Like, recognizing other kids’ facial expressions. That would be key for my boys to make friends. Especially when they left special education and joined the mainstream classroom.

I looked long and hard to find a social learning software program that would help them. But I couldn’t find any kind of autism software to help them with social skills.

Then I had an “aha!” moment one day when the therapist was at our house working with the children. She took out a laptop. They were interested at first. But the autism software  on the laptop was old, outdated and it didn’t hold their attention for very long.

That’s when the idea for The Social Express began. I wanted to make social learning software for children and young adults that was really fun. Animated. Interactive. My main goal was to develop social learning software that would hold their attention.

It took us about three years from the time we came up with the concept for our autism education software. But now it’s finally out in the world.

Winning the Innovation Incubator awards is a wonderful honor.

But helping your kids with autism to improve their social skills so they can make friends. That’s why we get up every day and work to bring The Social Express to the global autism community.

Thanks to everyone for your support and well wishes!

– Marc