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I remember when I was a little kid back in the nineties. All I wanted to do was play outside, ride my bike, and play hide-and-seek with my friends. We would get home from school, hurry and finish our duties, homework, eat, and out the door we went. Now, children would rather stay inside the house watching television, and playing videogames. As the new generation of children grow up, they tend to lose interest in the “old fashioned ways” to have fun. Now you can see an eight-year old with an iPhone, iPad, portable DVD players, iPod’s, etc. Parents tend to simply buy them what they want just to keep them entertained, keep them from getting in trouble, or just to keep them still. People and researchers have come to the conclusion that kids' IQ levels are lower than they have ever been because they don’t make an effort to interact with anything but a bright screen all day long. With every negative, there’s always something great that comes along with it. There’s a beautiful story about a little girl from Pakistan that was diagnosed with Autism at the age of two. In 2009, Fawad Siddiqui, father of Sharia, noticed that all she would do was stare at the television. She would not talk, interact with other children, or express any kind of sound. Even when they called her by her name several times, she would not respond, or even turn her head. As any parent would do, he took her to the hospital to see what was wrong. He simply thought it was her hearing. A team of doctors examined Sharia to see what was going on. Within five minutes, they came to the conclusion that she suffered from autism. Of course, her parents were worried , and wanted her to get the best medical attention to help her overcome this disorder. The first symptoms of Autism are: lack of social interaction, communication problems, and repetitive behavior. Her parents then took her to speech therapy. Unfortunately, it helped very little. In 2010, there was a huge “iPad boom” in our society, and Fawad, Sharia’s dad, as well as many others, got one just to see what it was about. He noticed that Sharia, who didn’t talk at the moment, was very attracted. The colors, videos, and especially the touch screen called her attention in a huge way. Fawad talked to several people. He said that before he got the iPad, the only way for her to communicate with her parents was crying for what she wanted. After that, everything became a lot easier. It gave her a sense of control that she never had before said Ayza, mother of the little girl. She knew that if she touched the screen something would happen, kind of an action-reaction thing. This helped her learn that she didn’t need to cry to get what she wanted, or to express her feelings. All she had to do was touch the screen with her little fingers. In the beginning, she would just use it to watch movies, or play games. But as she got familiar with it with the help of her therapist, she learned how to use several apps like Proloquo2Go, First Words, ABC’s, and Me and Puzzle Me. With these applications, she learned how to form and use short sentences like, “I want Dora”. AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) consists of a series of interventions utilized to help children with these kinds of communication disorders. Most of the applications for this kind of entertainment devices are designed to help children with disorders as a therapy. Studies have shown that 90% of the AAC users utilize an iPad to communicate. David Niemeijer, CEO of AssitiveWare and creator of Proloquo2Go, revealed that communication and speech skills have had a huge growth since it came out. Along with him, Assistant Professor for the Department of CSDO (Communication and Sciences Disorders) of Purdue University, Dr. Oliver Wendt, concludes that the iPad has, and still is revolutionizing the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) field. As well, Dr. Martha Herbert, Pediatric Neurologist, Neuroscientist, from the school of medicine of Harvard University explains that “Apraxia or dyspraxiais is what hinders communication. Apraxia means that even if your brain can develop the intention to do something,it is physically difficult.You want to talk, but you cannot move your lips” (Seshadri, 2012). All of them concluded the same thing: Steve Jobs (creator of the iPad) gave a voice to the ones that needed it the most without knowing it, said Phoebe Tucker, Speech and Language Pathologist and founder of the Center for Autism called Technological Assistance of Montano. Along with Sharia, there are a lot of other children in the world that suffer from these kinds of disorders, and do not get the attention, or help they need. Fortunately, for several of them, there is an accessible way to get therapy and/or help to improve their lives. If you would like to know more about this beautiful story, you can click here and learn more about it. Autism Speaks! |