The Human-Animal Bond (Mini-Stories):
Our Games for Change Project: the story of the Human-Animal bond is a mini story that was made on the platform, Scratch, is about how animals help people with autism. Our story also suggests that communities and countries can benefit or become a better place with animals like pets for people. Pets like dogs or cats or fish, can have a lot of impact on people and can benefit them a lot as well as towns in general, like the economy, when buying pets. The story begins with a boy named Auggy who is diagnosed with autism. Then, Auggy expresses how he is affected by having a pet and how he begins to feel more comfortable. The point of our story is to bring awareness to people about children with autism and how it can affect or benefit them in different ways. Some children with autism find it hard to socialize, therefore if you give them time to think about something, it can change their perspective and make the world a happier place with more cheerful people. Auggy, who is the main character in our story, struggles with talking to people outside of his family. Throughout the story we see how Auggy becomes more socially aware and feels more comfortable with associating and talking to people. After getting a pet dog, Auggy starts talking more to other kids, which leads him to make some new friends in school. All in all, having a dog or any pet can help people who struggle with illnesses such as autism, be more confident and even helps them be more responsive to others.
Link to our story: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/371252215
We added a slide show to demonstrate the process we went through and the actual description of our program that we designed. We also added a link to our program.
Emoti-Con 2020 has ended and leaving new reactions is now off.
Your project helps to encourage understanding and acceptance, such an important topic. Thank you for choosing this. I enjoyed learning about your process through the great slide deck you created and I had fun learning about how pets can help people.
I like the inclusive approach that you took in highlighting the experience of a person with autism. I wonder if you go further with your concept by finding a case study by researching case studies of real people's experience with autism and therapy animals and then illustrating their stories? One last thought, is that I might be careful about describing autism as an "illness". Another word that you might could use would be "neurodiversity"(a difference in how the brain works), which can help to emphasize the rich differences, abilities, and strengths individuals with autism have. Good job on exploring a topic that could really help deepen people's understanding!
Nice concept and thoughtful presentation of your process. Your use of Scratch to tell a story with characters is creative. When designing a website, in particular for social good organizations, I often have to think about how to use the tools of the web to tell a story. This is an important skill that blends visual design, text, and interactivity and is something that you definitely explored here. Keep on designing!
Project was successfully entertaining/artistic/playful. This project attempts to address a social need.
Good concept, but needs more research
This game does a great job shining a light on how helpful animals can be on our social and emotional health. Thank you for sharing!
