So I was checking out the NJ.com website a few minutes ago just to check on the news in my county and saw an article on the front page of the website that I really felt should have been shared with everyone here on AFF so that said here is the article


Ipad / Ipod touch may help people with autism gain independence

let me know what you think

Sounds like a scary control tool.

never understood the appeal of the ipad. not least at the prices they start from.

I'm not surprised, as technology has helped us in many ways. We wouldn't be on this forum now ifit weren't for the internet. Computers provide what is hard for us to find in other people, predictabilty and non-judgementalness.

In fact, the person who wrote Kathy's Song by Apoptygama Berzerk, said the song was inspired by his computer, which he felt knew him better than anyone else. I reccomend you download the Victoria Mix of the song by VNV Nation, it's on the single  edition of the song. The cover has a image of an old computer, with a pixelated image of a girl on the screen. That version was used in the Animatrix collection of animated shorts inspired by the Matrix.

Sounds like a good use of technology.  It's well known that some people on the Spectrum need to have visual schedules and a computer can do that well.  Sensory problems which prevent holding a pen can be avoided in some cases by touch-screen interfaces.  Saving money by using COTS hardware instead of custom stuff seems to work well in almost every case where it's tried.

Tablet type devices are the next stage in the development of computers.  PCs allowed every household to do their own computer stuff at home, laptops at prices where middle-class people can afford them allowed each person to have a transportable computer.  But cheap tablets allow everyone to have an instant-on computer for their own personal use.  Any time they want to know something or record something they can do it.

But Android is better in the long-term due to being more open.

I e-mailed Nintendo, telling them that it seems after using the Nintendo DS awhile it strengthened my hands, so that it was easier for me to write with my handwriting disability. They seem to have liked that I suggested, it may be helpful for kids in school. I hope they went ahead and suggested it might be good therapy for children with a handwriting disability, sure beats doing random exercises on a worksheet!

violet: The DS has a "game" (for want of a better term) that is supposed to slow the development of senile dementia on the theory that exercising your brain stops it from wearing out.  The game allows tracking multiple adults who can do the tests every day (or as often as they want) and it gives them scores compared to the average people in their age group "congratulations, you scored like a 55yo".  The same game can be used for teaching children (and has been used as such by people looking after grandchildren).  But a minor modification could make it into a more generic teaching tool.

There's no reason why the DS couldn't have a full suite of educational software (for NTs and for special needs kids).  It's core is a general purpose computer that is more powerful than anything you could afford to have on your desktop in the 80's.

As for the hand strength thing, other games like the Wii also promote various areas of physical development.

one of the nintendo wii fit adverts in the UK (apparently) features a woman with parkinson's, talking about how it's benefited her. personally i can fully see why the wii/DS help out people, can;t afford such things myself but i fully support them.

I can't afford it right now, but I do want, sometime, to get a tablet PC, a personal portable mini-computer of that sort would be very helpful for organizing my daily doings, future schedule, and keeping my lap notes on.


As far as handwriting goes, mine is really untidy if I use a pencil or normal ballpen, I find them quite uncomfortable to write with. I prefer fountain pens, they are really comfy to write with, and suit my cursive, slanted writing style.

Recently in Australia KMart has been advertising tablets for $150 - but they were always sold out when I wanted to look at them. Stores with stock have tablets for as little as $230 (that's the Huawei Ideos S7 which isn't a great tablet but it's OK). A bunch of new tablets are just being released with Android 3.0 so I expect that the ones running Android 2.x will start running out at low prices.

Android phones of decent spec from about 12-18 months ago have been on eBay for about $140 every time I've checked. The older phones aren't particularly good for tablet use. I have a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 phone which is better than the vast majority of phones for tablet use (because it's about the largest phone that's affordable), but it's not that cheap.

eBay has tablets for well under $100 at the moment with a short time until the auctions close, but postage could be expensive.

So tablets aren't that far out of reach and the prices will only keep dropping.

Also a Netbook is something to consider, that doesn't give you the "instant on" feature but does allow taking notes in a more effective way than a tablet does. Netbooks are less than $400 new and the ones from a few years ago (with vastly lower specs) are still quite usable - my EeePC 701 that was designed in 2007 is still working well and in many ways is better than a lot of newer systems.

I don't trust the rapid advancement of technology when it comes to the survival of our existence.  Call me a Luddite, but if the curebies exploit technological advancement, we'll become extinct.

I don't trust the rapid advancement of technology when it comes to the survival of our existence.  Call me a Luddite, but if the curebies exploit technological advancement, we'll become extinct.

See also: Project Touch forum

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthre...?tid=22775