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This Video Game Is Helping Kids with Special Needs

Marc Zimmerman created Social Express to help his autistic twin boys understand the world around them. Now the game is helping kids all over the world.

by Jessica Toomer

Software helps special needs children

Musician Marc Zimmerman had been disappointed with how schools handled his twin autistic boys for some time. As a result of autism, his third-grade sons needed extra help developing social and emotional skills. Zimmerman tells Guideposts.org:

“[Teachers] would send home a worksheet and [ask you to] plug your son’s name into this story [as if that would help the kids better relate to the story]. I was like, ‘there is no way that this is going to sink in.’”

In 2009, Zimmerman had an idea.

As he was dropping his sons off at school, a song idea popped into his head.  Its lyrics were all about his third-graders and how they could (and couldn’t) relate to their peers. He dubbed the song “Brighten Learning.”

Inspired by the song idea, with the help of his wife, Tina, and a host of academic researchers, a speech pathologist and a behavioral therapist, Zimmerman created an interactive software program called Social Express, geared specifically towards children and young adults who, like his sons, needed more than just a piece of paper to help them relate to the real world.

Social Express takes users through different sets of experiences, called “webisodes” in the program, that help them learn how to think and manage many kinds of social situations.

Each webisode is designed to take the user on a journey, letting the child (and their parent) decide which action to take. In one episode, a girl wants to sharpen her pencil and is told no by her teacher; the child and parent get to choose, what should the girl do next? How would the interaction with the adult make her feel? Each choice holds positive or negative consequences for the user, which explain how certain actions are interpreted in a social setting.

The program also works on a scale, meaning children build upon the skills they learn. If, for instance, a child completed the webisode featuring the girl and her pencil – titled “No Means No” – they would graduate to a new webisode. In many ways, Social Express is just like any other video game children play, except instead of beating the bad guys or winning the race, the way for users to get to the next level is to understand how and why social interactions impact others.

Zimmerman admits getting his brainchild off the ground was no easy task. The family contributed their life savings and persuaded angel investors to put a stake in the program. They were able to recruit some of the best animators in Hollywood – think Pixar-level – to donate their talents.

Still, convincing parents and educators that his game could actually help their children and students more easily learn social queues was difficult.

“A lot of people were like ‘how is a computer program really going to change a kid? I want my kid interacting with others; the last thing I want them to do is be spending more time on their computer,’” Zimmerman explains.

It was his own experience, sitting down with his sons to play the first episode of the program that convinced the businessman he had a project worth fighting for.

“We were sitting on the couch,” Zimmerman recalls. “Our legs were touching, our arms were touching, they were engaged and they were conversing with me,” he says, a rare experience for them, because of his children’s autism. “I had a feeling like ‘okay this is bigger than just them.’”

The Social Express is now in more than 100 schools in Encinitas Southern California school district and Zimmerman hopes to soon reach more than 15,000 schools across the country.

The father, who struggled with his children’s autism diagnosis in the beginning, says he and his wife have been able to have a fuller perspective on the disorder, thanks to this program.

You have to shift your whole focus of what your expectations [for your kids] were and now what your reality is,” Zimmerman says of parenting children with autism. “We prayed. We tried to be spiritual and know that there is a bigger plan and maybe now we know. Through this experience with our kids we’ve been able to bring a program to the world and leave a legacy.”

He wants that legacy to help parents desperately searching for ways to connect with their own children.

“My hope for the Social Express is that I can provide parents a tool to be able to feel like they are contributing to their son or daughter’s well being. That they can actually do something outside the therapist; that they feel empowered.”

He also hopes his family’s personal journey can change the way we view autism and children who suffer with social and behavioral disorders.

“It’s not a death sentence,” Zimmerman says of getting an autism diagnosis. “From my perspective it has taught me to understand that people have strengths that are unseen. To harness those strengths, [just] love people, whoever they are, whatever their problems may be, for who they are.”

https://www.guideposts.org/positive-living/this-video-game-is-helping-kids-with-special-needs/page/0/1

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Parents of Twins with Autism Open Up About the App They Created to Help Kids Develop Social Skills: It’s ‘Incredible’ to See Its Impact

By Tiare Dunlap @tiaredunlap

04/29/2016 AT 01:50 PM EDT
Shari Grande and her husband call the day their two-year-old son Elijah was diagnosed with autism “the day of nevers.”

“His physician told us he’ll never talk, he’ll never interact, it was just one ‘never’ after the next,” Grande, 49, tells PEOPLE.

Eleven years after his diagnosis, Elijah has gone on to accomplish much of what was deemed impossible. The Sunnyvale, California, teen even attends a mainstream public high school.

Grande, a clinical social worker, credits her son’s success to a number of interventions, including the learning app The Social Express.

Keep up with your favorite celebs in the pages of PEOPLE Magazine by subscribing now.

Created by parents Marc and Tina Zimmerman, whose identical twins Jason and Jared have autism, The Social Express is an interactive software that helps kids with autism learn how to read emotions, empathize and react in social situations.

Parents of Twins with Autism Open Up About the App They Created to Help Kids Develop Social Skills: It’s ‘Incredible’ to See Its Impact| Twins, Autism, Medical Conditions, Real People Stories

The San Diego, California, couple invented the app as a way of giving their sons the tools they needed to ease the social isolation they experienced every day.

“It was very difficult because all of our nieces and nephews are highly social and have always had a lot of friends and play dates,” Marc tells PEOPLE. “Our kids never had many play dates and if put into a social situation, they would just go sit alone in a corner.”

However, after seeing how their sons responded to technology and cartoons, the Zimmermans enlisted experts to write a software program that could model social situations with engaging animation. The parents took turns sitting with their sons as they watched the animations, and helped them talk through their decision-making process when asked how a character on the screen should react.

“They would sit down to use the program and engage with us,” Marc recalls. “That was the tough part – getting them to engage. Once they were engaged we saw them speaking more to each other and acting more comfortable in social situations.”

Parents of Twins with Autism Open Up About the App They Created to Help Kids Develop Social Skills: It’s ‘Incredible’ to See Its Impact| Twins, Autism, Medical Conditions, Real People Stories

Now 14, Jason and Jared are best friends attending a mainstream middle school, earning straight As and playing in a band. “They’re different kids than they were when they were diagnosed,” Marc reflects.

The twins’ case is not unusual. Since its launch in 2011, use of The Social Express as a teaching tool for kids with social differences has been adopted in 70 countries and in hundreds of schools around the U.S.

“We get emails from around the world from parents telling us about how it has helped their kids,” Marc says. “It’s just incredible to see how something we created to help our own kids has had such a bigger impact than we would have ever imagined.”

Parents of Twins with Autism Open Up About the App They Created to Help Kids Develop Social Skills: It’s ‘Incredible’ to See Its Impact| Twins, Autism, Medical Conditions, Real People Stories

That impact is not lost on moms like Grande, who says the program helped her son to open up and fit in.

“He’s just a nice, open and bubbly kid and he has become my greatest teacher,” she says.

http://www.people.com/article/social-express-california-couple-creates-app-social-skills-twins-with-autism

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Social-Emotional Apps for Special Ed

index
November 2, 2015

Photo credit: Jayne Clare

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence, as these abilities do not come naturally for some special education students. Children in special ed settings need to have their confidence, courage, and emotional awareness nurtured in order to successfully play, work, cooperate, and be productive in their studies. We have all heard that technology can be a great playing-field leveler in a classroom with diverse learners. It can also assist in providing social and emotional skills. Let’s face it — the digital lifestyle is here to stay, so using digital technology to enhance SEL makes perfect sense.

However, I have yet to encounter research that focuses on the effectiveness of using apps designed solely to enhance the social and emotional health of children. Researchers and educators have only begun to closely investigate the impact of these technologies on SEL. For special ed teachers, that research can’t come soon enough.

Young children acquire and utilize their initial social skills mostly in the context of play and shared activities. Through play, they form their first interpersonal interactions and develop important social skills related to empathy, cooperation, conflict resolution, and self-control, which will be used throughout life to maintain healthy relationships with others.

9 Skill-Building Apps

Several apps can be used in the classroom or at home to assist in reinforcing social and emotional learning while also helping kids cope with the pressures that we all face. These apps can help teachers and parents in addressing students with special needs, and many are also available in a web format.

    1. Breathe, Think, Do (Sesame Street) teaches children to keep calm and carry on by introducing three possible strategies for working through problems. It touches on familiar emotional challenges such as problem solving, self-control, planning, and time on task. Intended for very young children, this simple app gives players different scenarios in which the Blue Monster character needs to regulate his or her emotions using the breathe-think-do technique.
    1. Touch and Learn — Emotions (Innovative Mobile Apps) is chock full of wonderful photographs representing four different feelings per page. The child is prompted to match the verbal cue with the appropriate photo. This app focuses on helping kids read body language and understand emotions by looking at pictures and figuring out which person is expressing a given emotion.
    1. Avokiddo Emotions provides opportunities for younger children to explore a wide range of feelings through several silly characters and a plethora of props. This app incorporates activities to help children understand the subtle cause and effect of facial expressions. The main idea is exposing young children to a variety of feelings and helping them grasp emotional connections with those feelings.
    1. Emotionary (Funny Feelings) is designed to give a wide age range of kids the tools and skills to express themselves well in our world of emoticons. The app has become a popular resource for the special needs population. This collection of emotions and funny feelings now allows users to draw their own emotionary “selfie” to match how they are feeling.
    1. GoNoodle is a wonderful web-based way to get younger kids out of their seats and moving. These short physical activities provide brain breaks that can help keep them focused throughout a long day. Studies have shown that physical activity increases blood flow, which increases concentration and attentiveness. This enhances students’ ability to acquire and recall information. These activities make them cross the mid-line of the body, engaging both sides of the brain. GoNoodle provides teachers with fun, interactive ways to get kids moving and feeling good about themselves.
    1. IF. . . The Emotional IQ Game (If You Can) promotes teamwork and collaboration, accentuating how to be in touch with our own feelings and the feelings of those around us. With this app, kids (recommended ages 9-11) learn to listen, make friends, and deal with bullying in an adventure story/game format. IF’s motto: “Play Learn Grow: Succeed at school with friends in life!” This pretty much says it all.
    1. The Middle School Confidential series is a powerhouse of SEL lessons by tween/teen expert Annie Fox. The book/app series for ages 8-14 is a graphic novel sequence focused on making stepping-stones out of stumbling blocks on the road to becoming a teenager. Readers follow the adventures of a group of seventh-grade friends trying to navigate the ever-changing drama of their friendships, families, and school. Excellent resource!
    1. Stop, Breathe & Think (Tools for Peace) promotes mindfulness, meditation, and compassion for middle and high school students and adults. Research has shown that people can develop kindness and compassion by focusing on them through mindfulness and meditation practices. You can cultivate your frame of mind in a very short timespan with simple meditation.
  1. I would be remiss if I didn’t include the The Social Express in this collection of apps. Its quality content keeps students engaged and on the path to mastering healthy social and emotional skills. Research-based webisodes give kids the exposure necessary to develop meaningful relationships and become more socially competent in all realms of life. This program covers the gamut from preschool through high school with a robust SEL curriculum.

The Puzzle of Tech Use

Most students with or without disabilities can and do benefit from SEL-focused technology in the classroom. Incorporating these tech tools should increase student incentive to learn through individualized lessons, especially when tailored to a student’s specific needs. When done well, tech not only reinforces key SEL skills that children need to learn, but it can also drive student enthusiasm and promote self-assurance.

This topic may seem like an oxymoron since we want children to learn how to focus during “real time” and how to live with less tech. A wonderful TED Talk addressing this conundrum is Sherry Turkle’s “Connected, but alone?”

Do you know of any digital SEL resources for special education students? Please tell us about them in the comments below.

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Social Express named in Common Sense Media Power Up Special

Common Sense Media has officially launched its updated Power UP Special Needs and Learning Difficulties Guide for Kids; and The Social Express II is included!

Being featured in this guide is a meaningful milestone for us. The Common Sense Media team spent months diving deep into research, interviewing experts and educators, and testing products with families and field leaders. Their goal? To identify high‑quality, thoughtfully designed tools that can genuinely support kids who benefit from learning in non‑traditional ways.

We’re proud that The Social Express II was selected as one of those standout resources. It reinforces our mission to help all learners build the social‑emotional skills they need to thrive through engaging, interactive experiences that make skill‑building feel natural and fun.

If you’d like to explore the full guide, it’s available for free on Common Sense Media’s website:
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/guide/special-needs

At Brighten Learning, we’re committed to creating tools that meet diverse learners where they are. Being recognized in this guide motivates us to continue innovating and supporting educators, parents, and,most importantly, kids.

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The Social Express App Now Available for Windows 8

Expands Opportunity for Educators to Help Autistic Students Learn Social Skills

San Diego, CA (PRWEB) May 16, 2014

Windows ProductsBrighten Learning®, makers of engaging, online interactive programs for students learning social skills, is pleased to announce The Social Express® App is now available in the Windows Store. Social Express software is designed to teach children and young adults with high functioning autism and other special needs how to manage social situations, helping them to develop meaningful social relationships and succeed in life.

The award-winning program has recently expanded its content and moved to an online SaaS subscription model. As with its original release, The Social Express uses relatable characters and video modeling to provide a visual model of targeted behaviors and skills. The Social Express aligns with Common Core Standards and supports educators who are teaching K-6 children how to think about and manage social situations with tools and reports.

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“Our approach at The Social Express is to leverage technology to create digital content and curricula that is easy-to-use, fun and engaging,” said Marc Zimmerman CEO/Founder of The Social Express. “We are truly proud of this collaboration with Microsoft, as our new app will increase our reach to additional Windows 8 devices, integrate fully with Office 365, and make it easier for educators to help their students learn social skills.”

“Microsoft has long been committed to developing innovative accessibility solutions for students of all ages and all abilities which is why we are excited to support The Social Express app that will allow educators to create a truly immersive, personalized learning experience for students with autism,” said Margo Day, vice president, U.S. Education, Microsoft Corp. “We know that communication is the most in-demand skill for jobs of today and in the future and this app will enable students with the inter-personal skills they will need to communicate effectively and succeed in the future.”

Since launching in November 2011, The Social Express has received supportive testimonials from across the globe. Hundreds of stories of progress and success have poured in from Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs), behaviorists, educators and parents.

For third quarter, 2014, The Social Express will expand its learning content to include e-books, workbooks for educators as well as additional Webisodes addressing social skills.

About Brighten Learning, Inc.:
Brighten Learning®, founded by parents of autistic twins in 2011, is a privately held company based in Encinitas, California. The company develops The Social Express® and other interactive social skills software and learning management systems. The company’s mission is to help special needs children with social-emotional deficits to improve their lives. The company’s video modeling social skills learning programs help children with ADHD, Autism, Asperger’s, and related disorders to improve their interactions with others. Visit the company at http://thesocialexpress.com/

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Social Skills Learning Software Aims to Reach Children with Autism

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This article about our social skills learning software was published in the Greater Wilmington Business Journal

Unhappy with the quality of software games available for children with autism, a team that includes a Leland resident set out to make its own.

The software developed by The Social Express uses animation to help children on the spectrum learn to interact with others in a more typical manner.

Identifying feelings in others, being part of a group and figuring out the hidden rules of social interaction are some of the social skills the software teaches, said Jon Cornick, president and COO of The Social Express.

“One of the big deficits of kids that are on the spectrum is identifying non-verbal social skills. All of the areas are targeted with our program,” said Cornick, who is based in Leland. “We are combining the best practices to create our lesson plans.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines autism spectrum disorders as a “group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges,” and according to a CDC study last year, an estimated 1 in 88 children in the United States has been identified with an autism spectrum disorder.

While scientists do not have a clear understanding of what causes the disorders, parents have found that software can help children learn valuable social skills, Cornick said.

Cornick said that he came to the company after a career of producing movies, joining the founders Marc and Tina Zimmerman when the software launched in 2011.

“One of my dearest friends is Marc Zimmerman, who had this idea to create The Social Express. He needed animators and engineers. I was in between films in 2011, and I came on at the launch,” Cornick said.

The Zimmermans have autistic twin boys and found that they responded well to software used by after-school therapists.

“The children were mainstreamed in their local public school, and the behavioral issues were in check, but their social and emotional skills were a real deficit,” Cornick said.

Marc Zimmerman, a software entrepreneur and professional musician, sought to design a better alternative to the software available for children with autism.

Today, the software is used by more than 200 school districts, Cornick said, and is available on Macintosh, PC and iOS (iPhone and iPad).

The 2.0 version of the software is due out soon and will shift to a web-based, subscription version with new features. Cornick said the web-based model would allow for more frequent updates and more lessons and would include a special protected social network for children who use the program, called the Club House.

“One of the real problems is that most of these kids have few or no friends,” Cornick said. “We have created the Club House to have a way for kids to connect.”

Websites used by children under 13 are required to follow special guidelines outlined in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and the software requires parents to approve their children’s access.

“Because the parent’s email is attached to the child, we have a parent portal, and they can see every conversation their child is having. Children have the option to flag inappropriate conversations, and both parents are notified,” Cornick said.

The Social Express has offices in Leland (with Cornick) and California (with the Zimmermans) and employs between 12 and 17 people depending on workload.

“We have 16 lessons with 30 interactive scenes, and we are animating 10 more now,” Cornick said.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Teachers with Apps Includes Our Social Learning Software in 12 Best Special Needs Apps of 2012

We’re so excited that our social learning program is included in the Teachers with Apps Reviews The Social Expresslist of 12 Best Special Needs Apps of 2012! The post is by the Teachers with Apps team on their website.

We love being included with some of our favorite programs for special needs children. We’ve used learning programs by Conversation Builder and think that they build great programs to help children with language skills.

Here’s what Teachers with Apps had to say: The Social Express “Uses engaging scenarios to teach users, with high functioning Aspergers or other similar conditions, how to think about and manage social situations so that they are better prepared to develop meaningful social relationships and succeed in life.”

You can click here to read the full review.

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Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism & Social Learning Startup Donate to Schools with Autism Classes

The Doug Flutie Jr Foundation for Autism Partners with The Social ExpressSan Diego, CA and Framingham, MA—(PRWeb) October 23, 2012—The Social Express™, creators of new interactive social skills programs for special needs children, has partnered with The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism and donated copies of its program to schools who teach children with autism.

“We’re very proud to donate The Social Express learning program to The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism,” said Marc Zimmerman, CEO and Founder of Brighten Learning. “After using our program, teachers tell us that students are extremely receptive to its social skills lessons like ‘talking about what others like to talk about’ and ‘being part of the group’.  Many ask to use the program everyday.“

Zimmerman added, “Educator feedback also tells us that The Social Express characters engage students so well, they’re able to begin learning tough social concepts. We’re excited to share the program with more schools!”

The importance of technology to enhance children’s learning in the classroom is widely accepted. For children with autism, laptop computers are especially helpful but are out of reach for many schools with autism specific classrooms.

The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism has long recognized this fact. In 2000 the Laurie Flutie Computer Initiative was created for the purpose of donating computers to underprivileged families of individuals living with autism as well as to schools with autism-specific classrooms.

Chris Chirco, Program Director at the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism, stated that, “The Flutie Foundation is excited to partner with The Social Express.  Computer technology has become a key component in the education of many individuals with autism spectrum disorders and The Social Express offers a very visually stimulating and engaging interface that is sure to appeal to children on the autism spectrum.  Learning social skills can be critical for an individual with autism to succeed independently.”

Computers are given to schools with autism-specific classrooms that could not otherwise afford to purchase them. To date the foundation has distributed close to 500 computers to families and schools in New York and New England.

In its initial phase, The Social Express is a 16-lesson interactive video-modeling social skills learning program. Parents, professionals, and educators of special needs children like the high-quality, Hollywood-style animation that holds their attention without over stimulation and the scenes that reinforce the best choices for kids to make in social situations.

Children with autism, ADHD, Asperger’s, and other social-emotional deficits find the characters engaging and many ask to use it every day. Learn more about The Social Express by visiting the website: http://thesocialexpress.com/

About Brighten Learning, Inc.:

Brighten Learning™, founded by parents of autistic twins in 2008, is a privately held company based in Encinitas, California.  The company develops The Social Express™ and other interactive social skills software and learning management systems. The company’s mission is to help special needs children with social-emotional deficits to improve their lives. The company’s video modeling social skills learning programs help children with ADHD, Autism, Asperger’s, and related disorders to improve their interactions with others. Visit the company at http://thesocialexpress.com/

About The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism:

The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism, Inc. was established in 1998 by Doug Flutie and his wife, Laurie, in honor of their 20  year old son, Doug, Jr. who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three. The Flutie Foundation’s mission is to support families affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder. The Foundation is committed to increasing awareness of the challenges of living with autism and helping families find resources to help address those challenges. We provide individuals with autism and their families an opportunity to improve their quality of life by funding educational, therapeutic, recreational and advocacy programs. For more information on The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism, please contact Maria Baez at the Ebben Zall Group at (781) 449-3244, or visit www.flutiefoundation.org.

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Autism Plugged In: The Social Story Application You’ve Been Dreaming About

 

A big thank you to Jack Kieffer of Autism Plugged In for a great review of our social skills learning program. Jack says The Social Express “takes kids through social skills with ease“. Check out Autism PluggedIn for more reviews of learning programs and apps.

Autism Plugged In reviews our social skills learning program

The Social Express: Social Story Application You’ve Been Dreaming About

The Social Express Takes Kids Through Social Situations With Ease!

One of the things that might stand out about The Social Express app for iPad is the price tag – at a whopping $89.99, this app isn’t something that you purchase without researching.  Having used the autism app and experienced it for myself, I can assure you that the program is worth the cost if you have a child who needs to build effective social skills!

The Social Express app is full of beautifully detailed animations which take users through countless different social Read more

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Speech Language Pathologist Recommends New Social Learning Software

We were so honored that our social learning software has been recommended by another Speech Language Pathologist!  Angela Desideri, M.S.,CCC-SLP finds that The Social Express helps some of her students with perspective taking skills, among other improvements. Here is more of our interview with Angela Desideri.

San Diego-CA (PRWEB) August 30, 2012

Angela Desideri, a Speech-Language Pathologist, calls The Social Express (TM) an essential social learning software program that can be a useful tool for many teachers and SLP’s.

The Social Express is an interactive social skills learning program, which consists of 16 lessons and 30 interactive scenes. Developed for children between five and 12 years, the software is based on best practices and programs that feature cognitive behavioral techniques and visual strategies. The lessons adhere to California State Board of Education Content Standards and the Common Core Standards.

The program uses video modeling, socially valid dialog, original characters, and Hollywood-movie quality animation. Children with autism, ADHD, Asperger’s and other social-emotional deficits find the characters engaging and many ask to use it everyday.

Angela Desideri uses The Social Express on an iPad with some of her students diagnosed with high functioning autism, Asperger’s, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and with those who have social language deficits.

When asked to describe the progress she’s seen in her students after using The Social Express, Desideri explained four Read more

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