The iPad has opened a whole new world of learning opportunities for individuals
with autism and others with learning challenges.
However
it's not a magical tool.
It's important for your child view the iPad as a learning tool
and not associate it as a stemming tool.
To accomplish this
you need to choose apps that are educationally appropriate
specific to your child's learning goals...
setting recommendations
that restrict access to non-educational areas like YouTube and the internet
and promote learning.
Instruction.
Proven techniques that allow you to work interactively with your child
and a detailed plan to accomplish all of this.
Additionally, it's essential
that you are actively involved in a learning process.
With thousands of different apps, all of this can be an overwhelming process for many parents.
That's why we've created a systematic process that simplifies all of this.
Here's a brief example of an app we chose and the recommendations we provide.
The parent's goal was to have their child expand language use
specifically to learn verbs.
We provided them with specific settings to ensure the app will be used for educational purposes
and a script that provides step-by-step instructions for what to
say when working with their child in the app.
This is the My PlayHome app that was chosen.
As you can see it's a highly interactive app with various features.
This is a great app that parents can sit side-by-side with their child and work on several different verbs.
In this brief example our goal was to teach two verbs "pour" and "eat".
It was important for the child to learn that the concept of "pour" and "eat" can be used for various items.
This is how we instructed the parents to do this.
Pour the orange juice.
Pour the cereal.
Eat the cereal.
Eat the apple.
To summarize, we selected the app
to expand understanding and use of verbs.
We provided the parents with a step-by-step plan on how to use it
and we provide additional strategies to generalize the skills learned in the app
into the home setting.