Sue Doku

 

Warning: shameless self-promotion ahead.

I love sudoku: the strategy is simple, but game play can be challenging. During stressful times (we know about those, right?), the focus sudoku requires helps take my mind off things.

Most sudoku apps, however, are ugly, with distracting graphics. So my friend Jamie and I recently launched Sue Doku for iPhone and iPad.

Sue Doku features:

• Simple, minimal design
• Thousands of beautiful game layouts
• Four challenging levels
• Light and dark modes
• Helpful hints
• Note mode
• Stat tracker
• Optional floating keypad (iPad)

Best of all, it's just $0.99 on the App Store. If you don't know how to play sudoku, check out the rules on our site.

I hope you'll give Sue Doku a shot. If you like it, please rate it and write a short review; better yet, tell a friend!

Thanks for reading.

Questioning Autism? App is Available!

I’m proud to announce that our iOS app Questioning Autism? is available in the App store!

Questioning Autism? is an iOS app designed to help concerned parents understand the signs and symptoms of autism, and to convey their observations to their pediatrician. The app features 12 simple questions, and the ability to share the observations with notes via email. Parents and caregivers can track a child’s progress over time, and save their observations for multiple children. Also included are helpful resources and the ability to share the app socially.

Questioning Autism? was inspired by our own difficulties explaining our concerns to our pediatrician, and the delays in getting help for our son that ensued. My hope is that this app can help some other parents avoid these problems. The app was built by Netsoft-USA in collaboration with one of their long-standing clients, Active Health Management. Ideally, Questioning Autism will be built for other platforms, in multiple languages, and possibly include a Web-based version as well.

So far, feedback on the app has been incredibly positive, with some parents saying they wish an app like this had been available before they got their diagnosis, others suggesting it would be a great tool for friends and family to help them understand what their child is going through. An ABA therapist even mentioned that the app could help raise awareness among clinicians and doctors in other countries who are unfamiliar with the signs of autism.

If you are curious, or know someone who might be having concerns about their child, I'd be grateful if you'd share the app with them. And, if you can take a moment to rate or review the app, even better!

//

Let me know what you think on Twitter: @1asddad

October 2012 Links

I'd hoped to post these before October was over, but Hurricane Sandy slowed me down a bit. Nonetheless, here are some interesting links I've run across in the past month.

• An amazing 60 Minutes video showing how apps have transformed communication for people with severe autism.
• Fear of flying with a child on the spectrum? Here's a New York Times piece that offers some very helpful information. (We have yet to fly with C.)
• Infrared Sauna Therapy: the latest fad 'treatment' for autism with almost no science to back it up.
• A father comes to understand that his ASD son does have an imagination, even though it's different than what's typically considered 'imaginative.'
• The new DSM-V criteria may leave children behind; the author posits that it may be time to move beyond labels.
• Regression may mark one-third of autism cases. We experienced it; did you?

In other news, we've received final legal approval for our autism app designed to help parents understand signs and symptoms. Hopefully it will be available in the iTunes store later this month (for free, of course).

App Update

I can't reveal too many details, other than to say that after a few setbacks, we're making great progress on our autism app, and generating interest in some very exciting quarters. Thank you to everyone who has helped along the way. More soon...

My Autism App: A Setback

Unfortuantely, my plans to develop a simple Web- and app-based autism evaluation tool for concerned parents has hit a snag: the American Psychiatric Association denied my request to use their DSM criteria for autism as the basis for the tool. However, hope is not lost: I have some ideas about how I might incorporate other diagnostic criteria into the tool, and in the process make it an even more robust and interesting experience. It's not back to the drawing board, but onward and upward.