“My son Leo’s life was transformed when a five-dollar raffle ticket turned into a brand-new iPad,” Shannon Des Roches Rosa reports for BlogHer.
“I’m not exaggerating,” Des Roches Rosa reports. “Before the iPad, Leo’s autism made him dependent on others for entertainment, play, learning, and communication. With the iPad, Leo electrifies the air around him with independence and daily new skills. People who know Leo are amazed when they see this new boy rocking that iPad.”
Des Roches Rosa reports, “I’m impressed, too, especially when our aggressively food-obsessed boy chooses to play with his iPad rather than eat. I don’t usually dabble in miracle-speak, but I may erect a tiny altar to Steve Jobs in the corner of our living room.”
Much more information in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Chas” for the heads up.]
It’s a strange affliction it’s nice to see that some kids can be helped by any therapeutic method. Good for him!
Great news. I have a 3 year old step-grandson that lives with my girlfriend. I’ve known since he was 1 that he probably had a mild form but couldn’t test him till he was 3.
Great kid. He deserves something like this!
Chas finally gets his day in the sun!
Persistence, my son, persistence.
that is just Awesome!!!
Why is my screen all blurry after I finished watching that.
This goes to show that this device is truly magical. The ease of use is astonishing as my 4 year old can attest to.
@Mac4lfe
My cousin started using his dads iphone at 2 and by using I mean actually knowing how to unlock the phone swipe through pages and select his game and play it… I was shocked to see that.. He calls it a “Hello” Now that he has an ipad he calls it dads big hello
You should see Ava (who just turned 4) navigate the iPad, pick a game and get into it. What’s especially remarkable is to see her pick the Flight Control app, choose one of the runways, and start landing planes. She’s good!
Awesome story.
We’re going to see more and more stories like this as time goes on. People will find uses for the iPad that Jobs & Co. never imagined.
@Cubert
Thanks, mate
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I got a lump in my throat when I read this yesterday, and bless my memsahib for bringing it to my attention. I found it so uplifting and wanted to share this asap. To all the iPad naysayers out there, read this and then tell me why the iPad will fail. My answer to that is spherical and in the plural!
=:~)
Lacking any evidence and medical records (which will never be released) that confirm this kid is autistic, this is another indication of MDN’s obsessive disorder in thinking that Apple is some sort of divine entity.
LeftCoast: Dude, get a heart.
Add this to the Face Time video of the couple signing to each other, and Apple has taken another huge step in accessibility. Imagine an autistic kid dealing with a Windows tablet; first freeze or BSOD and the thing would be halfway across the room.
Apple: it just works.
After reading the full article…it hit me.
Apple’s iPad has such a head start in “Special Needs Education” and special needs apps…that Apple will OWN this market.
Magical, indeed.
Too cool for words
Ruprecht, stop banging your pots and try out this iPad…
This is not new for kids, but the age of use has come way down and the results far superior. I still recall my five year old son using MacPaint on the Fat Mac we got for Christmas 1984. He couldn’t read words but used the first letter of menu items to Print or use Mirror, his favorite. Today that would be too primitive for two year olds.
Now my six month old granddaughter bangs her way through the Alice app (literally), though I have to be there to wipe up the drool. Luckily that iPad glass is very sturdy.
It would be fascinating to see some controlled studies. It’s easy to think that new technologies solve a lot of learning problems, but it doesn’t always work that way. I think anything that helps should be capitalized on, but it’s important to see how well new techniques work in comparison to others.
Disclosure: I know the Rosa family in real life.
LeftCoastDude while I applaud your skepticism,
when you wrote “Lacking any evidence and medical records (which will never be released) that confirm this kid is autistic,”
I’m not so impressed by your research skills.
A simple search on “Shannon Rosa” “autism” “leo” gets you straight to http://www.squidalicious.com/ . This blog’s archive yields years and years of posts about the Rosa family and Leo’s autism diagnosis, their family’s approaches to remediation and treatment, and layers of evidence that yes, Leo has autism. And that Leo is continuing to learn and change.
I hung out with Leo, his mother, and the iPad on Thursday, 6/17/2010.
The deal-changer isn’t the apps, it is the size of the screen and how the much larger screen makes pre-existing apps more rewarding for people with fine-motor challenges.
For example: I watched Leo spontaneously play with an app that gives the sound of a grapheme (letter) and asks the player to trace the letter-form on the screen. Leo engaged with this app for at least 6 minutes (I started my timer but didn’t stop it) and practiced d (dog) short e (the sound at the beginning of Eddie) , and l (as in long) that I remember. He may have done more.
It wasn’t a worksheet. Nobody made him do it. Leo chose this activity and engaged in it fully. I saw him erase (shake the iPad) a letterform than didn’t meet his standards, and do it again to a higher standard.
LeftCoastDude, you miserable freakshow: Lacking any evidence and medical records confirming your humanity, one can only shrug and thank you for your contribution to the discussion.
Oh… I’m sorry… perhaps you’re autistic too. My apologies.
Great, just great! Now it’s confirmed – Steve is a God!
Pathetic…
Those videos are great! My son is 9yrs old and I love watching him play with his ipad my husband and I bought for him. We also found out about iballz- a device to protect the ipad from breaking if dropped. A must have on the ipad with our son! You can find them at iballz.info and see videos of them in action. Can’t wait to see what else come out and all the uses for this new technology.