EDINBURGH RESEARCH AND INNOVATION HELP TIGERFACE GAMES BRING
NEW MOBILE APPS TO ENHANCE SOCIAL SKILLS OF YOUNG CHILDREN WITH
AUTISM
Edinburgh, Scotland; 26th September 2013; FindMe, a games app created by Tigerface Games, an
award-winning education games company based at the University of Edinburgh, is proving to be a
runaway success in helping young children with autism practice simple social skills.
Now, the university’s commercialisation arm, ERI - Edinburgh Research and Innovation, has awarded
further licenses to the games developer to create a suite of three games to expand the range of apps
that aim to improve the social skills of autistic pre-schoolers.
To date, FindMe has attracted over 85,000 downloads. Seeking to expand beyond collaborative
learning games, Tigerface is using these licenses to realise their vision of making social skills easier to
learn and practise with tablet based applications.
FindMe is the brainchild of Dr. Sue Fletcher-Watson, a Chancellor’s Fellow within the Institute of
Education, Community and Society at the University of Edinburgh. She led a team who developed
the research-based apps for young children with autism in a Nuffield Foundation Project.
Sue Fletcher-Watson comments:
“Research tells us that early intervention is key to helping children with autism develop good social
and communication skills. We also know that a lot of autistic children have a preference for using
computers. The iPad apps we’ve developed with Tigerface Games represent a unique comingtogether of these two findings in a way which we hope will be of benefit to the community. I’m
thrilled that there has been such demand for the FindMe app as it is so important to me to maintain
the relevance of my research to the real world.”
For its part, ERI - Edinburgh Research and Innovation extends its association with Tigerface Games
following the success of the FindMe app. This helps Tigerface further enhance its product pipeline
for early stage developmental mobile applications.
Ian Murphy, Head of Strategic Marketing – ERI, commented;
“This is a great example of credible knowledge exchange across three areas of the University of
Edinburgh to bring about a cutting-edge approach to interactive learning for very young children
with autism.
We’re delighted to help Tigerface Games bring these new products to the market and assist them in
enhancing their education apps portfolio.”
Kate Ho, managing director of Tigerface Games commented;
"These licenses will enable us to fulfil a rapidly growing demand for games designed to help children
with autism. We believe that games designed from the rigours of academic research will provide
parents with games that they can trust."
Ends
About Edinburgh Research and Innovation
Edinburgh Research and Innovation (ERI) is a UK leader in commercialising research and
entrepreneurship. As the University of Edinburgh’s commercialisation (technology transfer) office,
ERI seek to promote the University’s world-class research and commercialisation expertise to
potential funders, collaborators, licensees or investors. A recent economic impact report revealed
that this activity contributes over £164 million annually to the UK economy and supporting nearly
3,000 jobs.
To find out more information about ERI, please visit www.research-innovation.ed.ac.uk
Follow ERI on Twitter @EdinLicensing
About Tigerface Games
Tigerface Games specialises in tablet-based games that support collaborative learning and foster
problem solving skills for home and the classroom. Our games use the multitouch interface to
enable 2 children to talk and work together to solve a puzzle using the same device. We develop for
iOS, Android and SMART Table platforms. Our learning games are influenced by games and
education in equal measure. Tigerface Games is based in Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
For further information, please contact Kevin Dorrian at Acumen on 0131 661 7027 or email
kevin.dorrian@acumen-pr.com Twitter – @acumenpr