Saturday, April 05, 2014

Autism Awareness Month: Apps for Us

Technology is balance  act, for parents of kids on the spectrum. It can help the nonverbal be expressive. It can feed their visual strengths. Be a great tool for learning.

And if your kid is like mine, they will latch onto movies or an iPad or mobile device and focus only on that for hours.

And if you are tired and sleep-deprived, like I am, at first you're all
and  

... and then um, oh. I guess that's not such a good idea, to have them obsess over something that is not a substitute for interacting with people and the world.

After six years of learning about autism, I probably let James have too much time with technology. He seems so happy when using it and being able to have iPad time is a great incentive for positive behaviours and rewarding good work. I also need a break from constantly being "on" and now, working full-time and making sure the school routines run smoothly(ish) once the kids are home. Oh, that is such an easy trap to fall  into.

However, a nice benefit of Autism Awareness month is that there are interesting, non-Angry Birds/Minecraft/Star Wars/LEGO apps that are offered for free.

I thought this one looked interesting:
Articulation Station

James actually plays math and spelling apps for fun on his iPad, so this might also be worth a try:
 Splash Math App
Splash Math
And there are websites devoted to apps for interested parents to check out. It's kind of like trick-or-teating for apps for our kids. What did you find?

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