The Laptop for Autistic Kids

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http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/linda-t ... kids-learn

I wouldn't call it a laptop, more of a learning aid

Learning aid?! That is nuts! You can't call it a learning aid, that implies that the person isn't equal to us in one way or another! How dare you be politically incorrect!

Honestly though, I agree, it shouldn't be called a laptop. Learning aide (aide because languages suck) is better.

Have you SEEN that MONSTROSITY!?!?!?!?

http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/index.shtml

It's UGLY, it has things that probably INCREASE the cost, has a poor hinge, etc...

I don't think they should have had him work on either, let alone paid a penny. Besides, why did they have someone "work" just to make it WEIRD?

As for THIS one, why couldn't they use a real laptop, perhaps that ugly one, and just have software.

BTW the ABA description is phrased in such a way that it makes the child sound like a dog. And HEY, it IS how you train dogs, or ANY small kid, so it isn't that informative.

For the record though, the only goldfish I like are the kind that swim.

I can't get the images of this thing to open at the school where I teach, but I was reading about regular laptop computers being used for Asperger's/autistic children with sloppy handwriting. I had bad handwriting (still do). But this thing is supposed to be a learning aid. From what all of you have said so far---I don't think this thing is going to go over very well. But, the laptop for writing (in the article I read) I think would have been a benefit to me.

it seems like a good idea,anything that helps-harmlessly is good,has no one ever seen those vtech and leapfrog 'laptops' for children before?
they're similar,and have been going for years [especially vtech].
Also,regular 'laptops' aren't much more worthy of the name 'laptop' as they're unsuitable on laps because of the vents underneath.

that sounds a better idea,and there are quite a few 'child laptops' that do this,using windows ce [what the dreamcast used] or xp.
but,maybe it's to do with age and ability,it's common for autistics-especially children and those severely-profoundly affected,to have difficulty with understanding their hand is controlling the cursor and anything else on screen and some never gain the skill,it was probably easier to make a basic kiddy thing that than a proper notebook.

I don't think that this solution (or ABA in general) is necessarily the best thing for all children on the spectrum. Personally, if I was in elementary school, and they assumed that I didn't know what a dog was, I would have been confused and maybe insulted. And if they're doing it with REALLY young children, then how do they know that the child wouldn't have learned how to read and recognize "dog" on their own?

Either way, parents really need to consider before spending 30,000+ on expensive treatments that may just be placebos/could be easily taught by themselves. And when they do pay out that kind of money to the autism cottage industry, they complain about it and demand that the government/insurance companies pay for every quack remedy they can think of. And parents will often do this REGARDLESS of the severity of their child.

I would hate to think what would have happened if I were "caught" earlier, and my parents spent tons on intervention programs that taught me stuff I already knew, or would know through studying and observing. They would have probably bled my University fund dry.

It seems designed to be used for ABA and nothing else. It doesn't even seem like it can be used independently, which just plays into one of ABA's greatest weaknesses--the lack of a real plan to keep a child from simply copying and depending on prompts to do the "right" thing, and freezing when not being asked to do anything.

Plus, it's not sturdy enough--it needs to be something that a kid can toss off the table in frustration and have it survive. That thin plastic stuff isn't gonna cut it, and having a hinge at all is just asking for the thing to get bent backward. I don't see the point of making the thing electronic at all, actually. Just because you CAN make a thing high-tech doesn't mean you should. Low-tech solutions are cheaper, sturdier, and not made completely useless by a single loose connection.

The budding engineer in me isn't very impressed.

I could most things better than teacher in school.

I would have found it insulting to use thing like this.

Yeah, but were you able to tell them what you know? Lots of auties with language expression problems can't. It's way easier to patronize somebody when they can't figure out how to protest.