“What happened at school?” For most teenagers, it's a simple question. But for those on the autism spectrum, it involves a whole chain of complex tasks: recalling relevant events, arranging them in chronological order, and finding words for emotions. This isn't a whim or an unwillingness to talk; it's a real cognitive load that many autistic teens face daily.
This observation sparked a research project by a team from NAVER AI Lab and several Korean research institutions. The result is the Autiverse app – a tool for journaling in a comic book format, where AI acts not just as a text assistant but as a full conversational partner, helping the child build a coherent narrative about their day, step by step. The work will be presented at the ACM CHI 2026 conference in Barcelona.
Why a Regular Journal Doesn't Work
Journaling is one of the oldest tools for reflecting on personal experience. But in its traditional format, it almost immediately becomes a barrier for autistic teens.
The problem begins with the very first prompt: “Write about what happened today.” Open-ended questions without a clear structure pose the greatest difficulty for many autistic individuals. It's unclear where to begin. It's unclear what to consider important. It's unclear how to describe what they felt inside.
Furthermore, many autistic people think primarily in images rather than words. They find it easier to process and recall information visually. A text-based journal format doesn't help with this; in fact, it adds another layer of difficulty.
Meanwhile, parents and therapists need these very details: what happened, who was nearby, what preceded a conflict, and how the child felt. Without this context, it's difficult to offer the right support. And children, unable to build a coherent narrative, leave adults with the task of piecing the story together from fragments.
Comics as a Language Understood Without Words
The project's authors turned to a format familiar to many Koreans – the “Comic Diary” series by the publisher Daekyo, which was popular in the 1990s. These were short comics combined with journal entries. The idea was a perfect fit: a visual structure, a clear sequence, and minimal open-ended questions.
To give this form meaning, the researchers based it on the ABC model of behavior, which therapists use to analyze challenging situations. The model breaks an event down into three parts:
- A (Antecedent) – what preceded the event; the context;
- B (Behavior) – what happened;
- C (Consequence) – how it ended.
A fourth element was added to these three – E (Emotion). This created the A-B-C-E structure for the four-panel comic, where the child and the AI work together to “unpack” the day's events.
How It Works in Practice
One important detail: Autiverse is not a typical chatbot that can be asked any question. The AI here follows a clear script, guiding the child through a series of sequential steps.
Everything starts with selecting the location and the people involved in the event. This is intentional: instead of immediately asking, “What happened?” the app first helps establish the context, thus reducing the load on their memory. When the child selects “school” and “Yunsu,” their brain already has a jumping-off point.
Next, the AI asks specific questions, like “What happened with Yunsu at school?” The child responds in their own words, and the system structures their response according to the A-B-C-E framework, displaying the result on the screen for the child to confirm or correct. If one of the four elements is missing, the AI asks clarifying questions. The comic is filled in gradually as the story becomes more complete.
Finally, the app suggests a title for the entry – and the journal is complete.
For autistic individuals who thrive on predictable routines, this repetitive, step-by-step structure becomes a source of comfort in itself. After a few sessions, the child already knows what to expect – and that makes it easier for them to engage.
Why the Characters Are Intentionally “Wooden”
The app's visual design also deserves special attention. Although modern AI can easily generate detailed, realistic images, Autiverse uses intentionally simplified figures – stylized to look like Waldorf wooden toys.
This decision came from observing real-world therapy sessions. The study's co-author, Lee Kyeong-ah, director of the Dodakim Child Development Center, uses faceless wooden figures with no fine details in her work with autistic clients. She might arrange them on a table and say, “This is the school, and this is your friend.” This lack of detail helps the child focus on the situation, not the characters' appearance.
Experts consulted by the team confirmed this: overly detailed illustrations risk diverting an autistic child's attention from the story's content to its visual presentation. Here, simplicity isn't a cost-saving measure but a thoughtful design choice.
The AI as a Friend, Not a Teacher
The personality of the AI character is also crucial. The creators deliberately avoided casting it in the role of a teacher, therapist, or parent – any position that carries a hint of judgment or authority. Autistic teens often shut down when they feel they are being tested or evaluated.
Instead, the AI in Autiverse is positioned as a virtual peer – someone who is simply interested in hearing about their day. The character's appearance and voice can be customized to the child's preferences, allowing them to interact with a companion they find likable and trustworthy.
What the Two-Week Study Showed
The team conducted a user study with 10 parent-teen pairs, where the teen was autistic, over a two-week period. A key point: the experiment took place in the participants' homes, not in a lab. Parents were nearby for support but were asked not to intervene, so the researchers could observe the child's natural interaction with the app.
The results were promising:
- All 10 teenagers completed the full two-week study without dropping out.
- On average, each teen created 12.2 journal entries out of a possible 14.
- Four of them used the journal every single day for the entire two weeks.
- The average session lasted about 9 minutes.
The topics of the entries were diverse, covering not only school and after-school activities but also family dinners, hobbies like bowling and badminton, and even conflicts with friends.
Emotions Come Later – And That's Important
An analysis of the conversation logs revealed an interesting pattern. The teens tended to mention panels A (Antecedent) and B (Behavior) early in the conversation. This aligns with the common tendency among autistic individuals to first focus on concrete, observable facts.
In contrast, panels C (Consequence) and E (Emotion) usually appeared much later, and only after follow-up questions from the AI. Sixty percent of the statements about consequences and 86% of those about emotions were first articulated during this “refinement” phase, when the AI specifically asked about the missing pieces.
This clearly demonstrates that a simple question like, “How was your day?” doesn't grant access to these deeper layers of experience. A structured dialogue with follow-up questions, however, can.
Parents Learned Things They Didn't Know
Most participating parents were confident they knew their children's routines and lives well – after all, they drove them to their activities and communicated with their teachers. But after two weeks with Autiverse, they found themselves discovering new things time and again.
In daily surveys, more than half of the parents reported learning about daily events they had been unaware of. A similar proportion discovered emotions they hadn't suspected. One parent learned from the journal that their child's anxiety had once led them to break a keyboard. Another realized that a trip to an amusement park, which had seemed like a happy occasion, was actually a frightening experience for their child.
The Journal as a Conversation Starter
One of the unexpected effects was a qualitative shift in communication reported by several families. The finished four-panel comic became a jumping-off point for conversation: the parent and child would look at the entry together and naturally start discussing the details. A story that the child had struggled to tell verbally now existed in a structured, visual format – and that removed the barrier.
In some families, children who had previously talked only about video games began to proactively share different events from their day. Parents found new opportunities to praise and support their children. Several families expressed a desire to continue using the journal even after the study concluded.
What's Behind It All
Autiverse is not an attempt to “automate” therapy or replace face-to-face communication with a specialist. It is a tool designed to fill a specific gap: helping an autistic teen express their inner world in a format that is understandable to them and their loved ones.
Notably, the effect turned out to be two-sided. Here, the AI functions not only as a journaling assistant but also as a unique kind of bridge – one connecting the child's inner world to their family. And, judging by the results of the two-week study, this bridge is far more needed than many parents might have imagined.
