This version of our Foni SoKo3 App has been designed and adapted specifically for the English-speaking world.
Confident, social skills will greatly improve a person’s capacity for constructive, positive communication and interaction. Our Foni SoKo3 App can help you to gain a deeper understanding of social and communicative rules, thus increasing your motivation to get in contact with other people. It’s important to understand that an individual’s motivation for getting into a conversation with others might be different from what is conventionally expected, and could possibly be considered atypical. In fact, using a person’s motivation as a clue to understand their actions and reactions is usually easier and more reliable than using their actions as a key to their motivation. This is why we invite users of our app to think about and discuss their choices. When asking “Why did you choose that option?”, we open up a space for conversation and reflection. Sometimes, the motivation underlying an action can differ from what you would expect. Thus, an autistic person might help others not for altruistic reasons, but in order to turn a situation back to its original state. When asked for their reasons, they might explain “I help you solve your computer problems so that everything is back to normal, and processes are no longer disturbed”. Getting in touch with others and sharing thoughts and experiences is important, as it speaks to us on an emotional level. In fact, in order to understand complex forms of interaction and communication, access to the emotional level is a key factor. Sometimes, autistic individuals are not really aware of the function of language, and thus, the acquisition of communicative skills can be quite difficult for them. Language is important to transfer information, but also to express desires and needs, and to build human relationships.
Using bright, accessible cartoons, the Foni SoKo3 App offers its users an opportunity to train their social interaction and communication skills. The App allows its users to work towards a long-term goal, which is divided into six individual sections. Each of these sections comprises an individual short-term goal.
The cartoons represent generic situations; users are encouraged to apply them to their own daily lives, and thus enabled to generalize their lessons on social communication. If a training remains restricted to the “lab” or the classroom, with no opportunity for application in the “real world”, its effects are likely to be very limited. Our practical approach is designed to bridge this gap.
Social and communicative skills are key competences to navigate the world, and participate in social life and community activities. With its accessible cartoons, our app helps autistic individuals to approach and navigate social interactions and different forms of communication.
We recommend that autistic individuals training with our Foni SoKo3 App should be supported by a professional therapist or teacher, a coach, or a parent or guardian. For each situation, users can choose between two possible answers. After making a choice, they are asked a follow-up question: “Why did you select that option?” The question encourages them to reflect on their choices and to get into a conversation about them. Such a dialogue can also help to address possible misunderstandings, which may have arisen with regard to the meaning of a cartoon.
Foni SoKo3 - Positive social conduct
• Being considerate
• Being responsible
• Being fair
• Attentive listening
• Checking your own behaviour
• Making good conversation