Indra and the Universia Foundation have awarded 19,000 euros to the Anticipa-TEA project of the researcher from the Public Health Department of the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche, Manuela García de la Hera. The project of the professor and researcher from the Nutrition Epidemiology Unit (EPINUT) of the UMH, García de la Hera, intends to develop a mobile application, which is personalised and modifiable, for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), whereby everyday scenarios with their real sounds, are simulated interactively.
This app aims to anticipate new situations and facilitate the adaptation of children and reduce the stress that the real situations could cause, which would prevent or reduce the risk of potentially conflictive scenarios
The researcher of the EPINUT Group, led by UMH professor, Jesús Vioque, has secured funding from Indra and the Universia Foundation, as part of the IVth Call for aid for research projects in Accessible Technologies for people with hearing or visual disability, or ASD. This is a competitive public tender which attracted more than 300 proposals from more than 100 research groups from public and private universities in Spain, of which only 4 groups were awarded funding.
This app aims to anticipate new situations and facilitate the adaptation of children and reduce the stress that the real situations could cause, which would prevent or reduce the risk of potentially conflictive scenarios. The application would also help to restructure the routines of people with ASD, whereby it could similarly be applied in the employment sphere to facilitate the adaptation to the workplace of people with this disorder. The funding secured would allow one disabled person to be contracted to collaborate and participate in the technical development of images and sounds.
Also taking part in this research are the researchers from the UMH EPINUT Group and ISABIAL, Laura María Compañ Gabucio and Laura Torres Collado, as well as Javier Gómez Sastre and Pedro Rodríguez Expósito, from the ANDA Association. The UMH Anticipa-TEA project is supported by the Association for disabled, girls, boys, young people and adults of Alicante (ANDA), a non-profit making body whose headquarters are in San Vicente del Raspeig.