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Sparkle (2)
My son Leo's life was transformed when a five-dollar raffle ticket turned into a brand-new iPad. I'm not exaggerating. Before the iPad, Leo's autism made him dependent on others for entertainment, play, learning, and communication. With the iPad, Leo electrifies the air around him with independence and daily new skills. People who know Leo are amazed when they see this new boy rocking that iPad. I'm impressed, too, especially when our aggressively food-obsessed boy chooses to play with his iPad rather than eat. I don't usually dabble in miracle-speak, but I may erect a tiny altar to Steve Jobs in the corner of our living room.
Irony: We hadn't even considered getting Leo an iPad. They seemed awkward and fragile to me, with oversized touch screens that looked as vulnerable as a hermit crab's exposed backside. I felt more comfortable with the sturdy iPod Touch we'd purchased just two weeks before winning the iPad, and which Leo seemed to enjoy well enough. But our boy has difficulty with fine motor tasks -- with making his fingers do small-scale manipulations like pointing and writing -- and also, as it turns out, with the tiny iPod touch screen navigation. He can use the iPod Touch, but it doesn't compel him the way the iPad does.
After Leo spent five minutes with his iPad, I realized that any assumptions I had about it being merely a bigger or a more breakable iPod touch were idiotic. It's a tough little device. And for Leo, the larger scale of the iPad makes everything he wants to interact with just the right size, and therefore totally accessible. He may have a hard time writing on paper or typing on a computer keyboard, but he is a world-class iPad swiper and tapper, and his excellent visual memory means he can use that swiping and tapping to navigate between apps and videos with precision.
Leo mastered the iPad interface within a day. He explores it, he rules it, he loves it. Example: He used to beg me to play the same video sequences over and over again on TVs or computers, because that was the only way he could feel in control of his videos. Now that the iPad lets him choose exactly what he wants to watch, he's not only comfortable watching shows in their entirety, but he keeps checking the video home screen to see if I've downloaded new ones.
He's attempting drawings like we've never seen before on his iPad, via MagnaDoodle-y apps like DrawFree. It's so much easier for him to run his finger over the touchscreen than use a pencil, pen, or even crayon. The following drawing may seem simple, but until last week he had never drawn people as anything more than a smiley face with legs. Now we have ears, hats, arms, fingers, and toes! Serious mama bear pride.
But it's the early learning apps that really let Leo shine, like the spelling program FirstWords. Leo loves this app because it's fun and easy. I love it because he's learning to spell words, and the interface makes that learning error-free. Witness how nimble he is, how engaged:
IWriteWords is another intuitively designed favorite, and includes writing as well as spelling -- both challenging areas for Leo. He adores it:
Those two spelling apps may be autism-friendly, but they're not autism-focused. The next app, Stories2Learn, is a social story maker for kids with communication difficulties who need support with excursions, routings, or transitions. Our entire family (and a friend) had a great time putting together the photos, captions, and voiceover for this social story about Leo visiting a local cafe -- the process was so easy, and fast, and Leo loves the story so much I had to have his sister demo it, as Leo likes the voiceovers to repeat several times:
Leo may have communications difficulties, but he is a visual boy and a visual schedule pro. We have started using a visual schedule app called First Then Visual Schedule. It comes with a library of stock images, though you can add your own. It took me about 20 minutes to set up Leo's exact morning schedule, from getting out
