AEIOU News

iPads to revolutionise the way children with autism learn and communicate

Fri, 19 Nov 10

MEDIA RELEASE

November 2010

iPads to revolutionise the way children with autism learn and communicate

The Apple iPad is emerging as a highly effective tool for children with autism, helping to develop language, social and fine motor skills with engaging applications that make learning fun.

In October, AEIOU Foundation provided an iPad to each of its six learning centres across Queensland to trial up to 12 speech and occupational therapy applications in conjunction with the Foundation’s early intervention program.

AEIOU Foundation CEO Alan Smith said the iPad is an excellent life-span tool for children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), explaining it helps children to communicate with their families, teachers and the community.

“Autism is a lifelong disorder, and it affects people in three main areas, including speech and language, social interaction and repetitive behaviour and routines,” Mr Smith said.

 “Our Nathan learning centre is the first to introduce the iPad to its program and we’ve found it to be incredibly engaging and motivating for young learners, helping children to reach new milestones. Already up to six families have introduced an iPad at home as well.”

Mr Smith said there are a variety of applications involved in the trial, many of which can be customised to suit the individual needs of each child, including the ability to create  tailored ‘social’ stories’, which are often used to familiarise children with new routines or activities.

“Apps such as Proloquo2Go help children who may have difficulty speaking and articulating their thoughts, needs or wants by building sentences and acting as a speech output device, verbalising their requests in a clear, natural sounding voice,” Mr Smith said.

Mr Smith said iPads can also help develop fine motor skills, encouraging actions such as pointing your finger and interacting with the screen, sliding and tapping.

Susan Horsburgh, whose son Nick, aged three and a half, attends the Nathan early intervention centre, said she was able to apply a Helping Children With Autism (HCWA) grant to purchase an iPad for Nick.

“Introducing the iPad at home has been amazing.  We have found that Nick is willing to share, and he plays games and teaches his dad how to use the applications now – for Nick, engaging with someone else is a big milestone.”

“From a young age, we taught Nick that learning is fun. He is very intelligent, but keeping him focused can be difficult. If he’s not using his mind, he tends to get distracted,” Susan said. 

 “Using a computer is not as simple for Nick – we often say that he’s ‘click happy’ and would repeatedly click the mouse buttons and freeze the computer. The iPad is different, he uses it with ease, it’s portable and he knows how to select the apps he wants to use.”

Susan said Nick particularly enjoys spelling and mathematical apps, and is already spelling a variety of words, and working out multiplication tables.

There are a variety of applications that have been designed for children with autism, including Grace, iCommunicate for iPad, Autism Express, Stories2Learn, Tap to Talk, and more. 

AEIOU Foundation will trial the iPad across Queensland, with centres in Moorooka, Bray Park, Park Ridge, Toowoomba and Townsville set to integrate the device to coincide with the first term of 2011.

The AEIOU Foundation encourages any family interested in introducing an iPad at home to assist individual learning plans to carry out some research first, to make sure it is suitable for individual needs.

For more information about AEIOU Foundation visit www.aeiou.org.au.

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For media enquiries contact:

Laura Daley, Communications Coordinator, p: 07 3320 7555, e: laura.daley@aeiou.org.au.