WHY AUTI
Children on the autistic spectrum find it difficult to understand social behaviours and find it hard to learn to interact in ways that other children can relate to. One aspect of the difficulty is that they often do not understand how they should control their voice and body. Their extreme behaviours scare other children away when they are trying to make friends.

For children it can be incredibly isolating and confusing - imagine, as a kid, if you were talking to someone you really wanted to make friends with; then suddenly the child you are talking to bursts into tears and you have no idea why.

For parents, it can be an incredibly painful process to see their children struggling in this way. Moreover, its very difficult for them to know how to help their autistic child to develop these social skills when such skills are usually learned intuitively and not explicitly taught.

Auti takes a few aspects of social interactions, and puts them in a safe environment where, through play, these interactions are repeated and learned from.Therefore, children learn positive play behaviors without social risk.

WHAT IS AUTI
Auti is a fluffy, interactive toy to help kids to develop positive play skills. He is a fluffy, round ball with four, smooth, white paddle legs. He is nice to hold and feel, with a strong contrast, both visually and texturally, between the fluffy body and the smooth legs. While animal-like, Auti does not look like a real animal; and, therefore, there are no expectations on how a child should play with him.

He has sound and motion sensors to tell when someone is talking or shouting. He can tell when he is being patted or stroked and if he is being thrown around. He can respond to his sensors by moving his legs in different ways to generate engaging behaviours: he can walk, sit and stand, he can wave his legs around like a turtle on his back, and he can perform various dances. When nothing is happening, he will walk for a short while, then turn off. He responds to gentle input - talking and patting - with constantly changing selections from his possible movement behaviours. When treated roughly or shouted at, he pulls in and shuts down.

HOW DOES AUTI HELP
Auti teaches speaking, touching, and collaborating skills. He quickly responds with happy movements to patting or speaking but will stop in response to negative behaviour such as hitting or screaming. Auti can be adjusted to respond to each childs individual characteristics, making him immediately compatible with the child.

There is plenty of research evidence that this type of positive and negative reinforcement works to change challenging behavior. We all have experienced it in our lives. Most of us crave praise, respect and rewards, and we hate being reprimanded or disciplined. Auti has also been developed with input from experts in education psychology and teaching.

There are a lot of challenges when nurturing autistic children and any way that we can make a difference is hugely rewarding.

Auti is currently still in development and not yet available for purchase.