Autism is a disorder that starts in childhood, affecting children’s ability to communicate and form relationships. Over 60 million people in the world are autistic, and in the United States alone, 1 in 68 kids are diagnosed. While there is a spectrum to the condition, the developmental disability affects not only the autistic children themselves, but also their families.
In this video, we meet 11 year-old Jong-Hyun and his mother, as we see her try and struggle to connect with her autistic son and understand his world. Jong-Hyun was one of the first kids to try Look At Me, a new Samsung app designed to improve socialization skills for autistic children. The free Android app gamifies interactions and aims to help autistic kids improve their ability to read people’s moods, remember faces and even express themselves with facial expressions and poses. As part of the test group, Jong-Hyun and 19 other autistic youngsters played Look At Me for 15 minutes each day over an eight-week period. Samsung reports that from the study, 60% of the children showed improvement in making eye contact and were able to more readily identify emotional expressions.
This innovative app is another step towards bridging the gap between technology and people – creating a useful tool to bring people together.

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