What is observed at home can be shared with the school and with professionals
In a country where autism diagnosis and specialized care remain out of reach for many families, a clinical psychologist from Porto Alegre has built a quiet bridge across the fragmented spaces where children with autism actually live. Paola Rocco presented AutiGames to Rio Branco's city council in June 2026 — a digital platform that turns therapeutic play into a shared language between parents, teachers, and clinicians. At its heart, the tool asks a simple question that Brazilian healthcare has long struggled to answer: what if everyone caring for a child could finally see what everyone else sees?
- Across Brazil, families of autistic children navigate a system where home, school, and clinic rarely speak to one another — leaving children to fall through the gaps between them.
- AutiGames enters that silence with therapeutic games like 'Emotion Map' and 'Calm Lab,' measuring not right or wrong answers but the arc of a child's growth over time.
- The platform's three-version architecture — for families, professionals, and educators — feeds into a single shared record, dissolving the isolation that has long made coordinated care so difficult.
- Launched a year ago in Rio Grande do Sul, the platform is now pushing nationally, with Rocco's June presentation in Rio Branco marking the expansion beyond its regional roots.
- Professional access opens free in June, and family subscriptions run at R$23.90/month — a deliberate attempt to lower the barriers that keep specialized tools out of underserved regions.
On a Tuesday afternoon in June, clinical psychologist Paola Rocco stood before Rio Branco's city council and presented something she had spent years building. AutiGames is a digital platform designed to help children with autism develop social, emotional, and cognitive skills through therapeutic play — but its deeper ambition is structural: to connect the people who care for these children across the disconnected spaces where they actually live.
Rocco, trained in cognitive-behavioral therapy and neuropsychological assessment at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, framed the platform not as a game but as a bridge. Tools like 'Emotion Map' and 'Calm Lab' are grounded in developmental research and track growth rather than performance — a child plays, and the system records what unfolds without scoring right or wrong.
What makes AutiGames architecturally distinct is its three-version design. Families, health professionals, and teachers each have their own interface, but all connect to the same underlying record. A parent's observation at home, a therapist's note from a session, a teacher's account of a classroom moment — all become visible to everyone involved. The fragmentation that has long defined autism care in Brazil begins, in this model, to dissolve.
Rocco built the platform in response to a concrete failure: many Brazilian regions lack reliable access to diagnosis and specialized care, and the professionals who do exist often work in isolation from one another. The app runs on phones, tablets, and computers, targets children aged four to twelve, and costs families R$23.90 per month. During June, professionals can access the platform free.
Already forming partnerships with schools across Rio Grande do Sul, Rocco and her team are now expanding nationally. The Rio Branco presentation was a signal that what began as a local solution may be reaching toward something much larger — the quiet, persistent isolation of families and clinicians supporting autistic children across an uneven country.
Paola Rocco walked into Rio Branco's city council chambers on a Tuesday afternoon in June carrying something she'd spent years building: a digital platform designed to help children with autism learn while they play. The clinical psychologist from Porto Alegre had come to present AutiGames, a tool that does something deceptively simple but practically difficult—it connects the people who care for autistic children across the fragmented spaces where those children actually live: home, school, the therapist's office.
Rocco holds degrees in psychology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul and specialized training in cognitive-behavioral therapy for children and adolescents, along with parental guidance work. Her practice has centered on evaluating and treating children, teenagers, and families, with particular focus on learning processes and neuropsychological assessment. When she described AutiGames to the council, she framed it not as a game but as a bridge. The platform uses therapeutic games—ones with names like "Emotion Map" and "Calm Lab," built on scientific research about social and emotional development—to track how children acquire skills in real time. A child plays. The system records what happens. But it doesn't score right or wrong. Instead, it measures growth.
The architecture matters. AutiGames exists in three separate versions: one for families, one for health professionals, one for teachers. All three connect to the same underlying record. When a parent notices their child managing frustration better at home, they can note it. When a therapist sees the same child applying that skill in session, they can add their observation. When a teacher watches the child navigate a social situation in the classroom, she documents it too. Everyone sees what everyone else sees. The fragmentation dissolves.
Rocco explained that the idea emerged from a concrete problem: many regions of Brazil lack reliable access to autism diagnosis and ongoing specialized care. Children fall through gaps between systems. Families struggle to communicate what they're seeing to professionals. Professionals work in isolation from each other. The platform was designed to address that specific failure. "What is observed at home can be shared with the school and with the professionals following the child," she said. "This makes monitoring easier and helps build more effective strategies for development."
The app targets children aged four to twelve, though adolescents can use it too. An adult always supervises. It runs on phones, tablets, and computers, accessible through Google Play and the App Store. For families, the monthly cost is 23.90 Brazilian reals. During June, professionals—psychologists, speech therapists, educational psychologists, therapists, private teachers—can access the professional version free.
Launched roughly a year before this presentation, AutiGames has already begun forming partnerships with schools and institutions across Rio Grande do Sul. Educators have been requesting access. Rocco and her team are now working to expand nationally, moving beyond the region where the platform first took root. The presentation in Rio Branco was part of that expansion, a signal that what began as a solution to a local problem might address something much larger: the isolation that families and professionals experience when supporting autistic children across a country where resources are unevenly distributed.
Citações Notáveis
The platform functions as an integrated medical record. What is observed at home can be shared with the school and with the professionals following the child.— Paola Rocco, clinical psychologist
Our concern has always been to create a solution based on scientific evidence. Now we are expanding the platform's reach through partnerships with schools and institutions working with autistic children and other neurodivergent populations.— Paola Rocco
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does it matter that parents, teachers, and therapists all see the same information?
Because right now they don't. A child might show a therapist one version of themselves, a teacher another, and be completely different at home. The adults are all working with incomplete pictures. When they can see what each other sees, they stop duplicating effort and start building on what actually works.
The games themselves—are they just entertainment, or is something specific happening?
They're designed around research about how autistic children develop social and emotional skills. "Emotion Map" isn't a puzzle game. It's structured to help a child recognize and name feelings. "Calm Lab" teaches regulation. The games are the delivery mechanism, but the architecture underneath is therapeutic.
You mentioned the system doesn't score right or wrong. Why is that distinction important?
Because autistic children often internalize failure. If a game tells them they're wrong, it can shut them down. Instead, the platform tracks evolution—what skills they're acquiring, how they're progressing. It reframes the entire experience from performance to growth.
What problem was Rocco actually trying to solve when she built this?
Access. In much of Brazil, families can't get diagnoses. They can't find specialists. Even when they do, those specialists don't talk to each other. A child might wait months for an evaluation, then the therapist and teacher never exchange information. The platform collapses those barriers.
The free month for professionals in June—is that a marketing move?
Partly. But it's also recognition that professionals are the gatekeepers. If teachers and therapists don't adopt it, families won't either. Getting them to try it free removes the barrier to discovery.
Where does this go from here?
It's expanding out of Rio Grande do Sul. Schools are requesting it. The partnerships are growing. The real test is whether it can scale nationally while staying grounded in the science that made it work in the first place.