This week's readings opened our eyes to how technology is beneficial to people with autism. Autism is a harder disorder to understand for most simply due to the fact that not only is each person different, but their level of autism varies as well. From high to low on the spectrum, there is a huge range of people with autism who all require different needs.
What I found to be really intriguing was reading testimonials from parents who have children with autism. One mother talked about how buying her three year old son an iPad was the best decision she ever made because it allowed him to talk with a specific app and openly engage in learning he desired. This really stood out to me because it really made me start to think about how technology can be tailored to each specific learner.
The open-endedness of the use of technology really started to open my mind. For children with autism and all of their special needs and diverse personalities technology seems to be the perfect answer to a question that has been asked over and over. How can we help these students so that everyone can succeed? The answer is simple to me now. Allow each student to use technology in the way that they specifically need it.
In college I worked with autistic children every Friday at the local high school. Immediately what I noticed was how different each of them were from each other. But they all had the same disorder, so how could this be? It showed me that there is not one key to unlock this problem, but rather a different key for each lock.
Janelle, I think your comment on autism is very insightful. I wonder how many educators understand what austin is. Technology is a wonderful thing to use with many students. However, I'd advise educators and families to be cautious. Many families hear the success stories of others and expect they will get the same results. It would be best if there was a better way to trial things like iPads to see what works and what doesn't for each student.
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