The parents of two autistic twins have pioneered a computer learning program aimed at improving language skills for people living with autism.

Story by Gerry Foley & UTV Ireland Staff, Dublin

Working with researchers in California, the Dodd family have developed technology that remixes Disney and Pixar movies to help children associate visualisations with language.

Enda and Valerie Dodd, along with their teenage sons Conor and Eoin, are helping to transform the lives of autistic children worldwide.

They have developed a new computer learning programme which uses animated clips and games in order to improve their communication skills.

“Autistic children typically have difficulties communicating orally, communicating in speech, and as a result can become isolated and almost disconnected from our world. On the other hand, they tend to be very perceptively intelligent which means that they think and process in pictures,” the twin’s father Enda explains.

Speaking about the programme, Valerie says: “They are actually learning and they are not even realising it, you know. And it’s, as I said, the family can do it with them and it can be done anywhere any time. If the child doesn’t feel like doing it today, they don’t have to, they can do it tomorrow because it’s in their own home and they have unlimited access to it, you know.”

Both Eoin and David have made huge improvements since they began to utilise the programme – Eoin is now attending a mainstream school in Athenry, and while Conor’s verbal skills are not yet as advanced, he goes most days to the NUI Galway Business Innovation centre which is nurturing the growing of businesses.

“The nature of developing language in a child is really complex. It’s a mixture of visual stimulation which is what Disney has provided to us in spades and they have advised us and helped us,” Enda added.

For this family business, it’s all about helping other families, who have also seen improvements in their own children: “The parents just talk about the day they first managed to bring their child swimming in a swimming class, the day that their child was mainstreamed in a local school. The day that they were able to go to their cousin’s birthday party.”