Week 2: Communication is Key!

Technology in the classroom has been a controversy in many schools. Distraction of the students is one of the highest seen problems and finding the solution to that has yet to be found. But, what if using technology could distract a student in a positive way? Is that even possible? In the autistic population it can be.

When the iPad was invented, the main source for it probably wasn’t to change someone’s life. It probably wasn’t to help someone communicate for the first time. It was made as a luxury item to play games and go online. Schools have come to find that the iPad is much more than that. Autistic people sometimes could have problems with communicating with others because they don’t speak. The traditional way to communicate would be using a paper with the alphabet and have the student spell out each word they were saying. This is very time consuming and extremely frustrating for the student because they feel as if the other person cannot understand what they are trying to say. In the 60 Minute special on Apps for Autism, it showed a young child losing attention and crumpling up the paper they were using for learning numbers. When the student was given the iPad with a counting app on it, the student had complete focus and didn’t mess with the iPad at all. The teacher expressed that this could be because the voice was constant and it waited for the student to answer, unlike a teacher who might not wait and make them feel rushed and not wanting to continue to participate. 

Another person they showed in this video was 27 years old and couldn’t communicate with his parents until the iPad came into his life. Could you imagine for 27 years not being able to understand what your son was trying to say to you? The video showed how upset the mother was when her son would get frustrated about his lack of communication and would rather be alone and on his own for periods of time. The iPad changed everything for this family. He had an app that was able to talk in sentences and tell others how he felt and what he wanted quickly. They showed him ordering for himself at a restaurant and the joy he had when the waitress could understand him.

The final story that stood out to me was a student who was said to have an IQ of a toddler. This boy didn’t speak at all. The teacher tried the iPad technique which came to find this child had a much more extensive vocabulary that they had no idea about. The teachers all agreed that people with autism have much more going on in their brains than we can see, but the iPad is now a way to prove that. It is amazing to me how something as simple as a counting app or a picture identifying app can change the outlook on someone. The teachers didn’t even know some of these kids knew half the pictures they were identifying with. It is amazing how much technology can help someone with autism. 

In the normal classroom, technology can and will distract students. They can go on countless websites that aren’t educational or helpful for what they are learning. For children with autism, they want to be able to communicate with others and be understood. They stay focused on the iPad in a positive way. They are excited when they are correct and receive positive reinforcement from the app they are using. It is a positive distraction and this can be the way people with autism can communicate. It can be their own language and can change the lives of many people. I feel that iPads should continuously be used in these classrooms, and even if they don’t work for every student, which they won’t, it will still help a countless number of children communicate in a way they never thought they could. It could change their life.