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Virtual Expert Clinics is on the leading edge of software developers creating educational resources for children with autism.

"Children with autism don't learn the same way as other children," said president and founder Cynthia Howroyd.

"They learn in little steps and they get frustrated more easily because each of those steps can be such a challenge. So the teaching strategy for children with autism has to be different."

Virtual Expert Clinics has created AustismPro, an Internet database of more than 5,000 lesson plans for teachers who work with autistic children.

"There's no such thing as a recipe or packaged approach to coming up with the best teaching method for each child," she said. "So what we decided to do with our product is develop extensive content and a variety of lessons so people can use them for their specific plan."

Donna Lagacy, a resource support teacher in School District 2, said these plans are important because children with autism need a routine in order to reach their peak in the classroom.

"Children with autism benefit from a regular daily schedule," Lagacy said. "They often need extra time to switch to a new subject or activity."

She said many autistic children learn best through visual aids.

Howroyd said there's more awareness about autism in the classroom, mainly because it's a growing concern.

Thirty years ago, one in 10,000 children was diagnosed with autism. But now, that number has jumped to one in 150.

"It's very concerning," she said. "And as these incidents increase, there's a lot of pressure to deal with it, to have a certain quantity of services.

"But we also have to remember to have programs that are flexible to each child's needs, so that we have the quality of programs needed."

She said as children that use AutismPro grow older, Virtual Expert Clinics will have to update its programs to help them face the challenges they will encounter as adults.

"A lot of our resources are for children 12 and under, but we get requests from older clientele for software for them," she said. "And as our current clientele ages, they'll want to keep up with our resources. That's a need we'll have to meet."

Virtual Expert Clinics has clients in the U.S. and Belgium, and it's looking to expand internationally.

However, that creates the challenge of translating the content in AutismPro to dozens of other languages.

"We have more than 10,000 pages of content - that's like 100 books," Howroyd said. "And translating costs for that will be enormous."

However, she said no cost is too high, because autism is a growing problem everywhere and many countries aren't able to address it on the same level as teachers in North America.

"So many countries are just beginning to mould their education to autistic children," she said. "They really need a leg up, and we want them to use us as a resource to do that."

Forward Thinking is a Thursday feature that explores research and development, as well as new technologies in our community. Send your comments and story ideas to news@dailygleaner.com.