#autismswareness

So this seems to be a debateable subject but here is my opinions and thoughts on the subject.

People say that too much technology is not good for a child and that too much technology is used as a way of poor parents to keep their child occupied.  I think this can of course be true but I have a difference of opinion when it comes to children with autism.  Firstly, I don't advocate hours and hours of time on technology.  I don't allow my children to spend all their time on iPad but they do use them.  Both my eldest son who is diagnosed autistic and my youngest son who is starting the process of diagnosis both have an use iPad.  This happened by chance with my youngest son.  We had a broken iPad which he would adjust use to bash as his big brother had one but then for some unknown reason it started working again and as such he uses it. 

Now, I would like to point out right now that my children have a great deal of educational apps on their tablets.  They do also have games and shows that they like to watch but when a child with is on the T.V at the time.  Believe me its not worth the meltdown that would ensue if his program that he wanted to watch at that specific time wasn’t available for a my particular reason. 

Until my son was 4 he was unable to talk.  We went through a period where we would have to guess what it was he wanted or show him a million things in the hope that one of them wold be correct.  Now bear in mind at this point we had no speech therapist and I was still being told that my son was just a boy being lazy.  We got to learn about Mr Tumbles, and I will come back to him at a later date but for now know that he really did change our lives.  We sat for 12 hours straight watching every episode he had ever made and learnt all the signs that we then taught to him.  He took to it immediately and he learnt how to communicate with us.  It was amazing.  He could tell us what he wanted and needed.  Now the difficulty is is that we then needed to try and get him to speak he couldn't.  We needed him to talk.  We knew he could but he just needed some help. 

We fell across the use of an iPad with ASD children via a grant service called Family Fund.  It showed that people who used an iPad for children with ASD did so with success and it looked like it could be some help.  We sadly couldn't afford to buy one our self but they amazingly funded one for us.  It was a lifeline.  I thank them every day for the generosity they showed us when they gave us that iPad.  They brought my son out.  Suddenly he was copying words on the educational apps we had on there.  Small words and some of complete none relevance but it helped.  Horse was the first.  He knew the sign and he knew the noise and he thought it was the funniest.  The biggest word he said, or should I say the word that meant the most to me was mummy.  He just said it out of the blue and I remember crying for days afterwards.  It was literally the best thing I have ever heard. 

Without this app my son would possibly not have spoken to for longer.  Was this down to my parenting skills?  no.  He had more attention and interaction than a lot of children and yet nothing.  The speech therapist couldn't get him to speak either just this magical electronic device.  He has learnt his numbers, his shapes, colours and other words through this.  Now he has no speech issue and yet the iPad remains a firm constant in his life.  It is the thing he goes too when he is having a bad day or he is needing to calm.  He knows where everything is on it and how it operates.  its does what he wants it to do and he can control everything on it so that appeals very much to his autistic side.  we have noticed the same patterns with the youngest and as time progresses he appears to have similar difficulties.