Bitstrips Comics for  Autism/Asperger’s syndrome

For those of you wondering why all of your Facebook friends have suddenly turned into cartoon avatars, Bitstrips is a mobile and Facebook app that allows you to design cartoon version of yourself and create comic strips featuring you and your friends. Bitstrips has over 10 million downloads worldwide and recently became the No. 1 free app in the App Store and in Google Play. We also can’t help but feel proud as Jacob Blackstock, CEO and Co-Founder of Bitstrips, is Dr. Edward Blackstock’s son.

Besides being a fun app to update your Facebook status with, Bitstrips has proven to be an effective teaching tool. In fact, Bitstrips for School is licensed by the Ontario Ministry of Education as an educational tool for all public schools in the province. Bitstrips is also a wonderful tool for children with Autism, Asperger’s syndrome, and certain Learning Disabilities.

Here is a wonderful collection of Bitstrips comics that explains how Autism/Asperger’s syndrome affects individuals. The comics were created by Jo Redman for Anna Kennedy Online – a charity that supports people with Autism and Asperger’s syndrome.  Jo Redman is a World Kickboxing champion and is autistic herself. The original album of comics can be found on her Facebook page.

Comic Strip Conversations for Autism

Carol Gray (1994) created the concept of comic strip conversations for individuals with autism to develop a better understanding of social situations. Comic strip conversations are simple visual representations of various elements that take place during a normal conversation. One of the difficulties that individuals with autism have is the ability to understand ‘abstract’ concepts of social interaction, such as feelings and emotions communicated through body language and facial expressions. Comic strip conversations therefore help make these abstract concepts more concrete and easier to understand.  Hallenbeck (1976) further supports that comic strips are useful in helping students with learning disabilities understand humour, learn to read, and decipher fact from fiction.

Bitstrips can help children with autism express themselves through comic strip conversations in a fun and interactive way. It can help them develop awareness of basic emotions by assigning facial expressions to the action presented in the comic, and use text elements to show what people are thinking, feeling and saying in a particular situation or conversation. For students with dyslexia, the comic strip panel structure of Bitstrips can help support the left-to-right flow in reading. Bitstrips can also help students who may be having emotional or behavioural problems express themselves.

 

Gray, C. A. (1994). Comic strip conversations: Illustrated interactions that teach conversation skills to students with autism and related disorders. Texas: Future Horizons.

Hallenbeck, P. N. (1976). Remediating with comic strips. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 9(1), 11-15.