LearnBright

AI learning companion that bridges the 5 days between therapy sessions — built specifically for children with autism.

Comment

"1 in 36 children has autism. Therapy costs ₹2,500 a session. LearnBright is what happens the other 5 days."

Inspiration

Autism therapy in India costs ₹800–2,500 per session. Most families can only afford 1–2 sessions per week. But therapeutic gains require daily, consistent practice — which means children spend 5–6 days with zero structured support. Parents want to help but don't know how. The gap between clinic and home is where progress dies.

This isn't an education app problem. It's a care continuity problem.

1 in 36 children has autism. I built LearnBright because every autistic child deserves daily support — not just on therapy days.

What it does

LearnBright is a full AI learning platform built specifically for autistic children, their parents, and their therapists. Every design decision is grounded in autism research — predictability, visual supports, sensory awareness, and positive reinforcement.

LEARN TAB

  • Type any topic or upload a textbook photo → AI generates a calm, structured lesson
  • 3 adaptive levels: Beginner, Growing, Explorer
  • Emotion check-in before every lesson — if upset, breathing exercise comes first
  • Lumie the AI mascot reacts to everything the child does with voice and animation
  • Step-by-step card mode — one sentence at a time, child sets the pace
  • Read Aloud with natural speech
  • Translate lessons to Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Spanish, French instantly
  • AI quiz with realistic educational options, confetti + sound on correct answers
  • Personalized Social Story Generator — turns any lesson into "My name is Arjun. I go to school..."
  • 8 preset life scenario stories: going to the dentist, making a friend, taking the bus
  • Printable worksheet with sensory break reminders
  • First Then Visual Schedule board

EMOTIONS TAB

  • Learn mode: tap any emotion, hear it explained simply, get an AI tip
  • Quiz mode: read a scenario, identify how the person feels
  • 8 emotions, 8 scenarios, instant audio feedback

AAC BOARD

  • Picture-based communication board for non-verbal children
  • 6 categories: Feelings, I Want, Actions, Places, People, Yes/No
  • Tap pictures to build sentences, speak them aloud

SOCIAL SKILLS SIMULATOR

  • Practice real conversations in a safe space
  • 5 scenarios: greetings, asking for help, joining a game, apologizing, sharing
  • AI plays the other person with coaching tips after every message

SCHEDULE TAB

  • First Then Visual Board — tap to set activities, celebrate completion

PARENT DASHBOARD

  • Live stats: level, XP, topics completed, day streak
  • Milestone badges
  • AI-generated weekly progress report

THERAPIST DASHBOARD

  • Assign exercises remotely: lessons, social scenarios, emotion quizzes, breathing
  • Mark exercises complete
  • AI-generated 5-day learning plan based on child's progress

ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES

  • 🌙 Calm Mode — larger text, softer colors, no distractions
  • 🔊 Read Aloud on every screen
  • Dyslexia-friendly Inter font
  • No time pressure anywhere in the app
  • Muted, low-stimulation dark theme

How we built it

  • Frontend: React + Vite + Tailwind CSS
  • AI: Groq API with Llama 3.3 70B (text lessons, quizzes, social stories, translations, reports) and Llama 4 Scout 17B (image vision for textbook photo upload)
  • Speech: Web Speech API (Lumie mascot voice, Read Aloud, AAC board)
  • Animations: Pure JavaScript Web Audio API (sound effects), CSS animations (confetti, XP float, bounce)
  • Storage: localStorage for XP, streaks, progress, assigned exercises
  • Deploy: Vercel

Every feature was grounded in autism education research:

  • Predictability over novelty → consistent UI, step-by-step cards
  • No time pressure → child controls pace
  • Sensory awareness → dark theme, calm mode, no sudden sounds
  • AAC integration → full picture communication board
  • Visual supports → emoji-rich lessons, step cards, First Then board
  • Positive reinforcement → XP, streaks, confetti, Lumie celebrations
  • Care continuity → bridges the gap between therapy sessions

Challenges

  • Getting Groq/Llama to return consistent JSON for lessons and quizzes required extensive prompt engineering — especially preventing silly quiz options like "toys" and "blocks"
  • The breathing exercise timer had a phase-ordering bug (inhale → hold → exhale kept scrambling) — fixed using a fixed sequence array instead of state-based transitions
  • Lumie's mascot mood kept persisting between sessions due to React state batching — solved by separating the mood logic from useEffect dependencies
  • Image upload vision required switching to a separate Groq vision model (Llama 4 Scout)
  • Building 20+ features solo in 7 days while keeping the UI polished and bug-free

Accomplishments

Built a complete autism learning platform solo in 7 days with 20+ features:

✅ AI lesson generator with image upload ✅ 6-language translation (Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Spanish, French, English) ✅ Lumie AI mascot with voice, mood reactions, and animations ✅ Emotion recognition game (Learn + Quiz modes) ✅ AAC picture communication board ✅ Social skills conversation simulator ✅ Social story generator with child's name + 8 life scenarios ✅ First Then Visual Schedule board ✅ Parent dashboard with AI progress reports ✅ Therapist dashboard with exercise assignment + 5-day plan ✅ Breathing exercise triggered by emotion check-in ✅ Step-by-step learning cards ✅ Calm Mode for sensory regulation ✅ Confetti + sound effects + XP float animations ✅ Printable worksheet with sensory break reminders ✅ XP gamification with persistent progress across sessions

This app replaces GoTalk (AAC), iCreate (social stories), First Then Visual Schedule, and Speech Blubs — all in one free platform.

What we learned

  • Autism UX is fundamentally different from general UX. Predictability, literal language, and sensory awareness aren't nice-to-haves — they're the product.
  • The therapist is the real distribution channel. If therapists recommend it, parents trust it and children use it.
  • Care continuity is the real problem — not the therapy session itself, but the 5 days in between.
  • AI-generated personalized content ("Arjun learns about volcanoes") is meaningfully more effective than static content for autistic learners.
  • Sound and animation matter enormously for engagement — Lumie's voice reaction to correct answers makes quiz feel like a celebration, not a test.

What's next

Go-to-Market:

  1. Partner with 3–5 autism therapists → they assign to patients → word of mouth
  2. Autism parent WhatsApp/Facebook groups — extremely active in India
  3. Special needs schools — Hyderabad alone has 40+

Phase 2 (next 3 months):

  • Mobile app (React Native) for tablet use
  • Personalized social stories using child's actual school and friends' names
  • Speech analysis — detect pronunciation clarity, flag for therapist review
  • WhatsApp parent nudges (critical for Indian market)

Phase 3 (6 months):

  • Camera-based emotion detection (with clinical validation)
  • School IEP integration
  • Sibling/peer interaction scenarios

Business Model:

  • ₹499/month family subscription (freemium: 5 sessions free)
  • ₹1,999/month therapist clinic plan (up to 20 child profiles)
  • School/NGO bulk licensing

One-line pitch: LearnBright bridges the 5 days between therapy sessions — giving every autistic child daily AI-guided support and giving therapists visibility into what's happening at home.

Privacy Commitment: Your child's data is never used to train AI models. All progress is stored locally on your device. No accounts, no tracking, no ads.

Built With

  • groq-sdk
  • javascript
  • llama-3.3-70b-versatile
  • meta-llama/llama-4-scout-17b-16e-instruct
  • react
  • tailwindcss
  • vercel
  • vite
  • web-audio-api
  • web-speech-api
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