Special needs computing - the iPad and the ChromeBook

Interesting developments for providing communications, work, life and cognitive support to persons with cognitive disabilities ...

Gordon's Notes: Computing for the rest of us: The iPad and the ChromeBook

.... Think about your family. If it's big enough, your extended family will have at least one person who's, you know, poor. They may have cognitive or psychiatric disabilities. Or you may have a family member who, like most of American, can't keep a modern OS running without an on call geek. These people are cut off. They can barely afford a mobile phone, and they won't have both a mobile phone and a landline. They will have little or no net access. They may have an MP3 player, but it's dang hard to use one without a computer.

By 2011 the combination of a $400 iPad (and iTouch for less) and $15/month VOIP access will start to replace a number of devices that are costly to own and acquire, while providing basic net services at a rate that other family members can subsidize. Not to mention something pretty, which, speaking as someone who grew up poor, ain't a bad thing...

We'll be able to deliver some interesting cognitive rehabilitiation services on this kind of platform.

Judo moves on an atypical mind: Plan iMac

If you told me my 13 yo's measured IQ and reading levels 20 years ago I would not have received the news well.

Among other things, I might have assumed someone like him would be institutionalized.

In reality, things are more hopeful, interesting, and challenging. Whatever level he tests at, he seems to extract the information he is interested in from printed materials -- including newspapers. His reading interests are regrettably focal, but I can work with them.

He can barely print and his hand printed spelling is very poor. On the other hand, he's oddly good at old-style dumb-phone texting. There's something about tapping out each character that helps him slow down and process words. So I've given him texting privileges, and, each day, once school is out, I start texting him from my iPhone. I loathe the high cost of texting, but as an educational aid for my son it's extremely cheap. My superficially indulgent mobile phone experiment has been a robust success.

So how did he figure out the phone? How is he able to tweak every obscure setting despite the awkward UI? How did he learn to text? I can't explain this, any more than I can explain his peculiar game skills and non-verbal visual talents. All I can do is look for opportunities to leverage his strengths against his weaknesses. The struggle feels like a cross between dance and judo.

I've just introduced a new move. The early signs are encouraging.

First, some background. For years we've had to sharply restrict his TV access because he became agitated after watching commercial TV (he does much better movies and commercial-free DVDs).

Being TV free has disadvantages. Besides the loss of the electronic baby sitter (I'd use it if I could), I suspect he could learn from selected videos; his visual processing is far stronger than his auditory processing.

For similar reasons we've had to restrict his computer time, even though he has a relative knack for computer interaction. I have been amazed by his ability to bypass my home security measures. Recently he guessed an obscure password; I suspect he intuited it through a mixture of seeing it partly typed and then coming across it in a different setting. How can someone who tests so very badly be consistently breaking my computer security? There's something there I should be able to use.

So now I've made another Judo move. After years of restricting his computer access I've seemingly reversed course and created a "Learning" account on an iMac I've moved into an area we can supervise. This account provides him and his siblings unlimited access to homework resources, educational web sites, his email and twitter, encyclopedia, educational and scientific videos, iTunes U and the like. It does not, however, give him any access to the web sites and game software he loves to use. To get to that material he will have to hack through OpenDNS and OS X Parental Controls. A good challenge.

Today I saw him playing with Scratch, a visual programming language he learned in grade school. Interesting.

I'll report on how Plan iMac turns out.

Latest sticker chart innovation: discouraging sibling torments

When one sib is verbally annoying another, the victim gets stickers for non response (self-control). This initiative is a component of our recent "politeness initiative".

On the one hand the aggressor does wish to unilaterally reward a sibling with stickers (which are exchanged at a per-column incremenet for hard cash, Amazon credits, and screen time). On the other, the sibling practices self-control.

Works well for an Asperger/explosive mix. For the moment. Of course nothing works indefinitely, so we'll rotate it in and out of the mix over time.