App developer fishdog.net has released Anatomical Dolls, an app for health and law enforcement professionals to help child victims visually communicate assault information. The app is a valuable tool for therapists to help traumatized children who lack the verbal ability to accurately describe their assault. With this app, these victims can use an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to communicate where inappropriate contact occurred.
In many cases children who have been assaulted don't have the ability or proper words to accurately describe what happened to them. While life-size anatomically-correct dolls have primarily been used to gain valuable information from a child about these crimes, those dolls are pricey and often lack distinguishing characteristics that would aid a child in relating to the doll. In addition, boys are often reluctant to work with these dolls because they feel dolls are stereotypically for girls. With this new app, Anatomical Dolls, the cost and the stigmas attached to traditional therapeutic dolls are nullified. The dolls can be designed to mimic a particular child's skin color and physical appearance, and in today's computer age, victims are more inclined to work with the app than with the traditional life-size dolls.
By tapping the colored tabs from top to bottom, one can create a doll by selecting gender, age, hair and skin color from a series of options. Clothing items from clothing tabs can also be selected to match the child's attire at the time of the event. Once the doll's look is complete, the victim can tap the camera tab at the bottom to show front- and rear-facing versions of their doll.
The child then should tap the screen to indicate the places on the body where contact occurred. A rectangle or rectangles are displayed on the screen in the location where the child taps. Pictures can then be saved to the device or emailed to the appropriate locations.
Anatomical Dolls was designed by licensed therapist Gail Sabo , who has 20 years' experience helping abused children in the Florida foster care system, and by app developer Dave Peterson , creator of apps with intuitive user interfaces for 17 years.
Anatomical Dolls is available now in the App Store or iTunes or at the app's site. The app runs on iPad, iPad mini, iPhone and iPod touch with iOS version 5.0 or higher.
