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A COMPANY BASED in Ireland is developing technology that uses Disney and Pixar films to help educate children with autism or language disorders.
It was announced earlier this week that the company, Animated Language Learning which is run by Irishman Enda Dodd, will create 100 jobs in Ireland.
While this is obviously positive news for the Irish economy, Dodd explained to TheJournal.ie that this technology could hugely improve the lives of children with learning difficulties and their ability to communicate with the world around them.
“People who are diagnosed as autistic or with language disorders are highly intelligent individuals – they can see the structure of things and organise visual thought and idea much like an architect or a surgeon,” he said. “Their problem is that they lack language so they can’t communicate this.”
Dodd was inspired to look into this kind of technology by his own two sons, Eoin and Conor, who are both autistic.
“When I looked at my own two children at four and five-years-old it looked like they could need institutionalisation,” Dodds said. “They were so severe that we had to go to California to find a solution.”
After Dodd and his family moved from Galway to California, he worked with a number of researchers on trials to test this type of language learning technology with his own children taking part in the first case study.
“We were lucky, I was an engineer so I was able to transfer that and when we’re designing something for your own children it really does give you an insight,” he explained. “It’s all about taking a child’s natural strength and educating them based on those strengths.”
Animated Language Learning
The new technology on trial uses Disney and Pixar movies that are remixed to help children associate visualisations with language.
“What we do is we break the movies into short segments of 40 or 50 seconds with some event or concept,” Dodd explained. “In Toy Story, it could be as simple as Andy playing with his toys or as complex as Woody pushing Buzz out the window and what happens after that. Children understand almost intuitively what has happened.”
We then connect text to those films so children learn how to label emotions, actions, names of characters. These children who range in age from three to 16 are basically building literacy around very complex concepts. As they build the literacy and reading and writing, speech attaches to that.
The types of films chosen are deliberate as Dodd said that children “feel comfortable and safe” with the characters created by Disney and Pixar.
“They just have wonderful, socioemotional stories which really captivate children,” he said. “They use concepts and language which is so useful in the child’s daily life and the underlying stories are wonderful for presenting concepts you want children to understand and put language to.”
The technology runs online so parents can use it with the children in the home and make it part of their normal routine. “I knew it had to be something that could be used easily with no travel involved and at no great expense,” Dodd said.
“We’ve had a number of families using it now where this is the start of parents being able to communicate with their children at all,” he added.
Dodd said his own two boys, both aged 16 are now “doing brilliantly”. One is literate at and above his years and the other is now reading and writing at a 12-year-old’s level and speaking in sentences.
“We see the path forward and we know what we need to be doing with them to provide them with what they need,” he said.
Families are being added to the pilot daily and the company sets up an interview to discuss a cases and determine if it is likely that a family will benefit from the study. Anyone who is interested can contact Dodd through the Animated Language Learning website.
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He sounds like an inspirational man.
A talented engineer with a great cause.
Always a recipe for success.
I wish Enda and his team, the best of luck.
Well done to Enterprise Ireland for backing them.
Excellent idea. Hope he publishes his data. In terms of language use here, it would be preferable to say ‘children with autism’ rather than ‘autistic’.There is so much more to these children than just their diagnosis.
Typical Irish we’d find something wrong in everything, even a good news story like this. Very cynical of you to assume people fail to see the child beyond the diagnosis. It is what it is, I don’t think worrying about how it’s put is up there on the list of priorities. And yes I have an autistic family member.
By that logic it would be preferable to say human of lesser years rather than children.
Richard, you make a lot of assumptions there. I’m a child psychologist and am very enthused about this project as I stated in my comment. As I work extensively in the area of special educational needs, it is common place to refer to children as such. You may disagree, but I know that some professionals, families and children themselves prefer less categorical descriptions.
Sounds like he knows his stuff, can’t fault anything he said.
I’m also delighted children with language disorder are also included.
It is factually incorrect to say that all children diagnosed with ASD or language disorders are highly intelligent individuals. This program costs €100 per week and its efficacy is unproven by proper research and evaluative studies…
He did not say ‘all’ children. Straw man.
He left it to the common sense of the reader to determine the meaning. A dangerous assumption, with respect, to the miserati Irish.
The program costs €100 per week. And?
It’s a company. It has to charge to make a profit, to keep it in business. Jesus wept.
It’s a company that has convinced enough people to invest in it, with their results and the possibility of results.
They are constantly researching which is where results come from. It’s where all engineering and scientific progress begins with.
Now, to go back to bed, son.
Read back on your comment David and ask yourself should you have really posted such a moronic response.
You find it acceptable for a company to convince people to invest in their programme, ( nay, in the future of their children), because they need to make a profit!….?
” The program costs €100 per week. And?It’s a company. It has to charge to make a profit, to keep it in business. Jesus wept. It’s a company that has convinced enough people to invest in it, with their results and the possibility of results. ”
They have NO EMPIRICAL RESULTS whatever as to the efficacy of the program.
You say, “They are constantly researching which is where results come from. ”
I suspect that you’re a low-life trollix, or an investor in said company.
Before I go back to bed as you suggested, I’d like to inform you that I’ve been deeply involved in the welfare and education of children with ASD for the past fourteen years and have learned during that time to view ALL ” sure cure programmes” with a very jaundiced eye.
I personally would be very reluctant to pay €100 per week for a program, not shown by proper research to be in any way effective, the sale of which is based solely on the assurance by the CEO of the company that it helped his children.
Basing a business on the hopes and dreams of people who struggle to cope with ASD and its impact on their daily lives, without proof of success, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I have expertise in this area…what do you have, “son”?
You cannot even get the basics right.
1. It’s €100 per month, not per week. You were corrected already.
“You find it acceptable for a company to convince people to invest in their programme, ( nay, in the future of their children), because they need to make a profit!….?”
Another straw man. 2 in the one article. Maybe you are just confused.
1. Consumers don’t invest, they pay a price for a product/service.
2. Investors, invest, to make a profit or else they invest to make a loss. Anything else is charity. Profit is the indication of efficiency. It’s what pays the wages and brings the product to the market.
“I suspect that you’re a low-life trollix, or an investor in said company.”
Ah, the Irish use of the word, Troll. i.e for anyone whose points, you cannot refute.
I am not an investor in this private company although I wish I was.
‘Jaundiced eye’ means bias. You are taking an opinion before appraised of the facts. Page one of the scientific method. You have made statements that you have no evidence to back up. You know nothing about this company yet have already condemned it.
Pixar have put their name behind it. Whose due diligence is better, yours or theirs.
Enterprise Ireland have put money into it but you know better.
“ot shown by proper research to be in any way effective, the sale of which is based solely on the assurance by the CEO of the company that it helped his children.”
Gee, if only EI and Pixar had thought of that.
More supposition. Do you understand the difference between a commercial product and a scientific experiment? I have an Iphone and Imac, not backed by peer review, yet for some strange reason, they perform excellently. I can see they perform excellently hence I buy them.
Their product and their internal tests are empirical results. What you mean is that they have not been independently peer reviewed(even that, is only an assumption) Stop using words that you don’t understand.
‘Without proof of success…’
Why the did Pixar, EI invest then?
“I have expertise in this area…what do you have”
12 HL Languages, 5 Assembly languages and years of successful product implementation.
Anything else?
No, well get out of the way then and let the engineers go to work, making the world better.
Ireland. Unbelievable sometimes.
Rather than waste time pointing out the multiple inaccuracies in your response I will merely remark that your whole view of this business is based on a sociopathic “greed is good” premise, showing no concern whatever for the welfare of the ASD children.
Oh, and by the way, there’s actually nothing wrong with charity. Perhaps this is where our opinions diverge…
I met this man and he is a genius.When you have a child who cannot communicate you have behaviour issues and frustration.I wish this project was there when my child was non verbal.
In starting this with my son next week and its not €100 a week, it’s €100 a month. Well worth the money considering one 45 min session with speech therapist is €65+. This is exactly what my son needs. And those with the negative comments, it’s obvious that this is not an everyday worry for you and if ye knew what it was line , you would realise this is a god send. Just think about all the proof that would of had to be given for Pixar to put their name to it.
Talked to Enda myself and he is a lovely man. A gentleman and a big thank you to him for this. He has experienced all sides of autism so knows what he is talking about.
Go Enda!!
Best of Luck, Emma, to you are your son.
It is an exciting prospect.
This is great news.
Well done to Enda Dodd, his team and Enterprise Ireland.
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