Parity - II

Parity -II, developed for the behavioral intervention and cognitive development of Intellectually Disabled (ID) children of Pakistan. It is the first android application of Pakistan established upon rigorous research studies including field evaluations conducted at three Special Education Institutions of Lahore.

Intellectually Disabled children often face difficulties in social situations, daily routine and self-help tasks due to their poor communication and learning skills. Our study found that repetitively using social stories depicting culture, norms and language (Urdu) can develop adaptive behaviors and further early intervention in ID children. Literature supports that smart phones and tablets are effective medium through which these social stories can be presented effortlessly. So, by wrapping Urdu into animated social stories introducing varying concepts such how to respond different social situations and encouraging them to perform their daily life routines, we have taken a first step towards developing applications meant to be used by intellectual children of Pakistan in enhancement of their different skills.

Salient Features:
• Learn to understand and respond to various social situation
• Jigsaw Puzzles, Shadow Match and Height Comparison for cognitive development
• Coloring and Free Hand drawing for development of eye hand coordination and sensorimotor development
• Tracing of Urdu and English Alphabets to improve eye hand coordination
• Counting 1-10 for learning development and recognition
• Simple menu easy User Interface tested with real participants

Parity; “equality”, is the first application in this series of applications developed on the vision “It’s Different-Ability not Disability”. This community project is led by Ms. Tahreem Yasir, a dedicated Faculty Member from University of Management and Technology (Lahore Campus) to provide parents of ID children a platform for effective engagement and early intervention with ease from home. The social stories have all been designed with the help of Subject Matter Experts (SME) and the dialogs and sound have been especially worked on. For designing the interface and icons, literature for developing effective user interface and current practices have been used.
Note to Parents and Teachers: We hope that this application would help you in to develop adaptive behavior and provide effective engagement to your disabled children. Nevertheless, we would welcome your feedback for improvement in future versions. Kindly contact at following:
Email: tahreemyasirr@gmail.com , Tahreem.yasir@umt.edu.pk
Website: http://sst.umt.edu.pk/cs/Academics/Faculty/Tehreem-Yasir.aspx