Main content

The Turkish App to Help Autistic Children Learn

Zafer Elcik鈥檚 brother is autistic and was unable to read or write but loved playing on smartphones, so Zafer created Otsimo, an app with a range of games, to help him learn

There are an estimated 350,000 autistic children in Turkey, but only 20,000 to 30,000 of those children are thought to be in education.

And because of stigma around the condition, many parents are reluctant to get a diagnosis.

Zafer Elcik鈥檚 younger brother is autistic and was unable to read or write. But Zafer noticed that while his brother鈥檚 attention span was usually very short, he would happily spend an hour playing on his smartphone. So Zafer created Otsimo, an app with a range of games, to help his brother read and write. Now Otsimo has 100,000 users in Turkey, the US and Canada.

Otsimo says it鈥檚 鈥渄emocratising education鈥 for people with special needs. But can an app really make much difference?

Presenter: Nick Holland
Reporter: Vibeke Venema

Image Caption: Alper and Zafer Elcik
Image Credit: 大象传媒

Available now

23 minutes

Last on

Tue 22 Jan 2019 21:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Tue 22 Jan 2019 03:06GMT
  • Tue 22 Jan 2019 06:06GMT
  • Tue 22 Jan 2019 07:06GMT
  • Tue 22 Jan 2019 14:06GMT
  • Tue 22 Jan 2019 15:06GMT
  • Tue 22 Jan 2019 18:06GMT
  • Tue 22 Jan 2019 20:06GMT
  • Tue 22 Jan 2019 21:06GMT

People fixing the world on YouTube

Watch stories of people changing their world on the World Service English YouTube channel