Nine-year-old schoolboy creates app to help non-verbal autistic children communicate

A nine-year-old schoolboy has created a groundbreaking app that helps non-verbal autistic children to communicate.

Sean Porter, from Southport, came up with the idea for the app after he was asked to create a game for a school project. However, he decided to go one step further and design something that could help his six-year-old brother Adam communicate.

Adam was diagnosed as autistic at the age of two and has always struggled with his speech and communication – but now, thanks to his brother’s app, he can communicate a number of basic messages with just the tap of a picture.

Speaking to ITV News about his app, Sean said: “I knew that if I didn’t develop this app, then I don’t know anyone who would think of it.

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“It feels absolutely amazing – I feel wonderful.

“People generally don’t think about other people. They think ‘if I make this amazing invention I am going to be epic and famous and have loads of money.’

“But they don’t focus on anyone else and how it affects them.”

Sean and Adam’s father Liam Porter said the app has helped Adam’s speech and communication skills to develop faster, saying: “Him asking for food, telling us he was hurt, asking to go to the toilet, it was basically guess work.

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“This app has opened up more choice for Adam after we created the app he has asked for more things and is developing faster.”

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, the boys’ mum Kirsty added that Sean wants to work more on the app and eventually make it user specific for each individual child. 

She said: “At the minute it’s just ‘I want a drink’, ‘I want some food’, ‘I need the toilet’ and in order to make it more specific. Children with autism have specific drinks they want, you can’t just say to them ‘what drink’ they want that drink they are used to having.”

According to Autismspeaks.org, an estimated 40% of people with autism are nonverbal, meaning they may never speak more than just a few words.