Independent Learning App
Independent Learning App for Kids with Special Needs
The Independent Learning App was the second major project I worked on during school. This initiative aimed to provide a supportive and accessible digital learning experience tailored for children with special needs. We were tasked with creating an app that helped special needs teachers help their kids get ready for state tests.
As the team lead, I guided the development process from ideation to implementation. While I contributed to some front-end components, my primary focus was on the back-end development, where I built much of the server logic and database integration.
🎯 Project Goal
We wanted to create a user-friendly educational app that:
- Supports interactive learning tailored to special needs students
- Allows teachers to track scores
- Offers engaging, accessible content with visual and audio prompts
This project emphasized accessibility, simplicity, and performance — ensuring that the tool could serve its intended audience effectively.
🛠️ Tech Stack
Front-End:
- React.js – Built responsive, component-based UI
- HTML/CSS – Structuring and styling user-facing features
- React Router – Page navigation and routing logic
Back-End:
- Django (Python) – Built RESTful APIs, handled authentication and business logic
- Django REST Framework – Simplified API development and serialization
- MySQL – Used as the primary relational database
Tools & Collaboration:
- Git & GitHub – Source control and collaboration
- Postman – API testing
👨💻 My Role
🧠 Team Leadership:
- Organized weekly meetings and sprint retrospectives
- Delegated responsibilities based on team strengths
- Ensured deadlines were met while maintaining code quality
🔧 Back-End Development:
- Designed and implemented the database schema
- Developed RESTful APIs for user authentication, learning modules, and progress tracking
- Integrated front-end requests with secure and validated responses
- Worked on data models for users, activities, and performance reports
🌐 Front-End Contributions:
- Helped build reusable components in React
- Assisted with styling and form validation
- Connected front-end components to backend endpoints
💡 Key Challenges
- Accessibility Design – Ensuring the app was intuitive for young users with special needs required continuous feedback and iteration.
- Back-End Complexity – Modeling educational progress in the database, including support for varied learning paths and user types.
- React-Django Integration – Managing CORS and aligning asynchronous data flow between front-end and back-end.
📚 What I Learned
✅ Advanced Back-End Concepts:
- Django class-based views, serializers, and token-based authentication
- MySQL optimization and relational data handling
✅ Front-End/Back-End Integration:
- Creating smooth data flows between UI components and API responses
✅ Leadership & Agile Workflow:
- Task estimation, sprint planning, and effective delegation
- Maintaining team morale and progress through challenges
🌱 Impact & Takeaways
This app gave me a deeper understanding of building software that has real-world impact. It pushed me to:
- Write cleaner, modular code
- Think deeply about user experience, especially for non-traditional user groups
- Strengthen communication with a cross-functional team
🔗 GitHub Repository
🧠 Final Thoughts
The Independent Learning App was a turning point in my development journey. It wasn’t just about building an app — it was about building with purpose. It gave me the confidence to lead, to solve meaningful problems, and to code with empathy.