I love technology. I also love my boys. My eldest son was diagnosed with Autism at 3.5, fifteen years ago last month. He is a joy and has a spark about him that I wish I could muster. Medical technology is advancing faster than ever. Soon we will have quantum computing power, which, in tandem with Big Data initiatives, means the opportunities for breakthroughs in cost of care, quality of care, and in the essential research to find cures, diagnoses, and effective treatments will advance exponentially.
As fast as those advances may come, however, autism is more common than ever. According to the Autism Society’s Facts and Statistics page, “Prevalence has increased by 6-15 percent each year from 2002 to 2010. (Based on biennial numbers from the CDC).” It is likely going to be some time before science can determine causes, treatments, and hopefully cures. There are a wide-ranging, wonderful technological resources available to assist children and adults with Autism and those that assist them. Here are the 3 resources that we’ve used the most and had success:
The most well-known Autism awareness and fundraising organization in the United States, Autism Speaks has an exhaustive wiki-style (list where anyone can contribute applications they have seen or used) list of apps for an array of devices that is enables you to filter and search. There are over 600 apps for pcs, macs, iOS, and Android. The beautiful part is that the list is constantly being updated.
Parents Magazine’s online site has an excellent article about iPad apps for children with Autism by Jeana Lee Tahnk, titled 14 Expert-Recommended iPad Autism Apps. Tahnk makes a great point in her story that just as Autism is truly a spectrum, so too do the apps and appropriateness vary tremendously, “there is no silver bullet solution when it comes to apps, and each child will benefit from different apps for different reasons.”
Apart from their devices, Apple also sponsors the Apple Distinguished Educators Program which funds the development of innovative methods, technologies and applications for all children to learn. They also have a focus on Autism, Apps for Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders.
My son has an iPhone. Among other things, this means that I will always know the score to the game, any game, and at any time because he knows how to find them and knows all too well how to text! I laugh about that when I get updates on Canadian Football and NASCAR, but it is our thing—that place where we connect and all is right. I hope this is helpful to those parents that have children diagnosed with Autism. I will try to pull together all my notes over the years and assemble a list of things we tried and liked or left. Make it a great day!