Autism Speaks Official Blog

Good evening! I’m glad to be at this chat!

I like that idea

GREAT IDEA!! NEEDED!

great. video and maybe just picture with the action.

so simple and logical

I feel that would be great. Just last week my son ran out into the middle of the street and cam within inches of getting hit. He had no idea what happened just knew that I was screaming

Allowing parents to customize/add situations unique to their environments (city/suburban/rural/etc.)

I would like to see it be animated, colorful, and interactive. My step son loves seeing vivid images and that captures his attention. I wouldn’t want him not to want to use it because its dull.

what about children who can’t understand a video?

Definity the idea from Jonathan! My son would definitly connect better if he was familiar with the area in the situation!

maybe even taking picture to personalized it further.

Keep it Simple get the main idea across… don’t go over board. they dont need it to be overly stimulating to get the point acroos. I like J.Ezors idea partents can pick the isues

a capability to insert their picture and become the character in the app. “game”.

we used picture boards – that kind of thing worked great.

It would be good to have an interactive feature with some build in (or external) reward function. That is the child is presented with a situation and is rewarded for making the safe choice.

are these apps going to run on PC’s or tablets?

Yeah Like the Wii where we can create our own person! And I like age approperate too.

It could be as simple as teaching basic boundaries to start.

A reward system seems like a good idea, however, it might discourage the child if she doesn’t get a reward.

Rewards, even tokens, work great with our son. Would definitely like to see them in an app.

My son would just get mad if he didn’t get the reward and probably give up on the game. I like the idea of a wii game though, my son loves the wii and it could be like a game where you move up levels.

Is there a way to build the app so parents have a choice between vivid and monochromatic for those that respond better to more lower sensory stimuli

ref rewards. It should just build on basic ABA principles. Repetition and rewards is how we all learn, and especially our lower functioning kids won’t get it any other way.

stay active, sports,getting out in the community.

Remember that many kids on the spectrum are on special diets for whatever reason. If you’re including recipes/food lists, they need to reflect those possibilities.

for my son to engage it has to have some music or animated with relevant sounds – if it is too static or just voice over he won’t engage with it

In wii fit, more exercises are opened up as you master certain levels and my daughter finds that rewarding and she love creating mii’s for everyone she knows

Yes, have tried both of those.

Expose the child to various activities and gather info from ther on what the child enjoys. Then cultivate that passion so that it doesn’t become just for fitness purposes but also a learning experience.

I use Wii Fit, and my step son has a very hard time using programs like that and gets frustrated so I don’t use it.

My son loves the wii fit, something like that would be great.

Son can keep up for awhile, but then gets board with them.

I think it is a great idea even for a little older kids especilly for portion control , choices,and exercise !!

We have had success making exercise one of the activities on our son’s afternoon “activity schedule.” It becomes part of the routine.

ya but what about those on the spectrum that are extremely low functioning and would have to use the most simple and basic apps available…i work with 4 autistic boys, all on diff levels of the spectrum..for one of the boys, this program might work better for me as the caregiver, since i honestly dont think he would be able to grasp the idea of any sort of device as this, however the rest of the boys have already started using communication computers in school and they work fantastic

obviously very different for each child – wii is an option as at home it can be controlled with timers to limit and other visuals

Is it possible to tie a pedometer or other metering in via Bluetooth Serial Port Protocol for data gathering?

It is the difference of how functioning the child is it needs to be looked at in all ranges.

My son loves the Wii and he, too, likes making miis of everyone he knows.

I use a Wii in my classroom and the one game that I have found ALL of my students love, are the dance games…very basic movements, I have not had a student yet who has not enjoyed it. Very basic, enjoyable music, great for all levels I find.

Tasha – I think having a fitness app for the caregiver is a great idea. Especially for one’s with multiple PWD to take care of. Tracking who is eating what and exercising how must be a big challenge.

It would be great to see in an app a feature where you can set up a set amount of work time and then a set break time where it beeps to come back.

Nintendo added a Pedometer (aka Pokewalker) to Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Using it opened up levels, new Pokemon, etc. Something like that would be good.

I think the games that allow multiple students to play are best. Address social skills as well that way.

I LOVE the pedometer incorporated to a game and unlocking levels etc.!

My students also really like MeMoves – fitness/movement with music!

Go for a walk and give a child an old camera. He can take pictures along the way. Then you have something to talk about afterwards.

Our daughter works well with music if it has music then whatever it is has her att.

Austism help – love the camera idea.

In my class we use touch screen computers. They are great!! My students with autism has progressed greatly.

I love the walk idea,me and my son go hiking together it works great !

Autism help, we do the camera thing already and he loves it, and I love seeing the world from his point of view!

great idea

How about a little bell sound when it’s time to go somewhere/do something on a certain day?

would see benefits from such an app – but only if somethings had parent/carer control to be moved/deleted – my son is too good at deleting things he doesn’t liek

i would love to see this kind of app, def since my son is very digital and computer oriented

Hallelujah – calendar with spots to put pictures of whats happening each day. I used to print them out and make my own calendar!!!

I think this would be great for older children. Therefore I cannot opine. My 6 year old would have no interest in this at all. However, if proven to work, I’m sure we could incorporate it into our daily routine.

I would like to see an app like that via. voice recording ,then reminds them of it later .

yes..the ability to “lock” the app would be nice..like in Grembe’s iReward

Even the high-functioning kids need prompting during school, ideally silently. (e.g. at beginning of period take out materials; 5 minutes before end write down homework)

My daughter uses a visual schedule at school to help her know what activities comes next. That functionality in a app, tied to alarms and real times would be nice. The droid rings, she looks at it and sees a picture of what she is supposed to do next.

Also the concept of changes in schedule would be nice to have built-in

Jerry Scott – that sounds more like task analysis than a calendar

It would also be great if parents/teachers/caregivers could insert and edit reminder elements remotely, and if the app could incorporate an achievement tracker (i.e. “Did you do this? YES/NO) for both incentivizing and data collection.

Daily life skills !!!!!!

I homeschool, and I think that if I could record my voice or his grandmas voice telling him it’s time to do something, he would love it, and incorporate pictures of what we are doing that day too!

wow – sounds like the calendar question has alot of wonderful ideas!

We like the calender idea , something like that would help her understand more about days months and years than her day after day routines

There are apps out there that do some of these functionalities, but it would be nice to have one app that does it all!!

It would be nice if there was a module too for child to review/discuss their day with parent/teacher

Love it! Schedule, reminders, transition prep. all rolled into one.

My students complete a daily journal each afternoon to take home

i would implement something like this for my 3.5yr old – he is ready I just don’t know the best way to proceed – if it was on the iPad he would be more interested that wall charts etc

One thing that’s clear from this chat, and in all of these types of efforts, is that autism is not “one-size-fits-all.” Both high- and lower-functioning kids on the spectrum benefit from technology. Just not the same type.

Rachel your idea is great because the teachers are absent sometimes and if they had the voice with commands it would be better for them.

Rachel, I’m 45 and still her my Mom’s voice in my head telling me to wipe my feet before I come in the door. You are right that is the voice that gets the best results . . .

and teacher notes/communications folder in this app

LOVING the calendar idea!

It would be useful if you had activities that you wanted to achieve that the child or the parent choose from for an activity.

We should also keep in mind which devices are likely to pass district muster. Our district was still recommending Alphasmart Danas a few years ago (and for all I know still is).

My son is 19, but he is constantly asking what happens today, tomorrow or next week over and over, Calender is good

i am wondering if anyone knows how to deal with a high functioning little girl who is so high function she can manipulate anyone into anything and is sooooo good at school but when she comes home she shuts down??? and our school district wont help with a OT. she has sensory issues and i have tried everything. compression, bands, etc.

A web platform that coud work on all devices would be AMAZING

I have my daughter who is non verbal and has autism and i think this device would work wonders in her class to help her communicate and to learn the days of the week and months and time, and school has nothing to help with it..

Jeremy, I agree that would be nice – enter items from my computer and have the result on her phone.

This would be a wonderful idea and the calendar/reminder function would be really wonderful for both of our children at home and at school.

How much would this cost us :)

We touched on the different needs across the spectrum. I’d like to see some discussion on how we can identify those differences and help people know what apps would be appropriate for their kids.

Could you elaborate how the hackathon would work?

Will the ideas suggested in this chat be posted/accessable somewhere after?

I am in LOVE with the idea to have apps. Can we make sure to somehow categorize them based on levels of understanding and interaction?

How well is the developer recruitment coming along?

Are we talking about computer apps, phone apps or both?

Perhaps there could also be appt that is also connected to say a watch device. This will let you know his location at all times and can communicate back to you. Of course it’s by no means a substitute to parental supervision.

This will be live on the intenet right? So that I may hear the show? Thanks so much.

this sounds like an incredible initiative – so worthwhile. I wish you all success

Anyone know of an app that could plug into safari or IE that can be developed to read a word back? My daughter loves reading on her iPad and PC because she can adjust the font size (visually impaired too) but sometimes get frustrated when she doesn’t know a word. It would be great to just touch the word and have the device just say it back to her.

Diane: Not sure about browsers, but most operating systems (Windows for sure) have accessibility features including readback.

We have 6 kids and something like this would be a great help