You all saw today what we presented in class about the Autismate
app, so I’d like to point out one of the revelations that we as a class made
about this app. During class today, we came to the conclusion that the
Autismate app may be applicable beyond just children with Autism. I originally
saw it as a great way to link spatial skills to reading and to communicating
for children with Autism; however, I never drew the conclusion that the
practice with naming could increase RAN (rapid automatized naming) in any child
on the cusp between speaking and reading. Below is a link of an interview with
Dr. Wolf (the same as the author of Proust and the squid regarding her
breakthroughs in the science of reading and RAN and her experiences with
dyslexia.
On the other side of things, I see some flaws to this app.
Although it can be useful for nonverbal kids with Autism, only 30 percent of
kids with Autism are nonverbal. Instead of putting the children in real life
situations they are stuck in the virtual world of the app. This app may
encourage more alone play which part of the problem in the first place. The
children may become too attached to this technology, and their mood may become
dependent on it. Although the app seems to be a “cool” new technology, the
majority of the class agreed we would not use it on our child if he or she had
autism.
