The Ipad and Autism :)

Our family was so very fortunate in that we were donated an ipad from a wonderful local charity.  Since we received it, our lives have changed for the better.  We are able to utilize the ipad in many wonderful ways.   I just wanted to go ahead and share some of the ways our family benefits from the ipad:

1.  The ipad is a great tool for potty training.  After buying some more expensive apps, I found this free app from Huggies Pull-Ups.  It is the one Caiti smiles at when she is sitting on the potty. 

 When she goes in the potty, she gets a star.  See how good she is doing?  :)  Anyway, each row of stars unlocks a fun, but simple game.  So it is very visual and rewarding.

 Garrett was pretty much set as far as potty training goes, but then he regressed and started having accidents at home and at school after Kevin left on deployment.  I found this app called "I Earned That."  I have been using it as incentive to get him to stay dry at school.  Whenever he stays dry he gets to put a puzzle piece in which is part of the picture of the reward that he gets.

 He earned McDonalds last week for staying dry at school 6 days in a row.  So he got to go with mommy on a date.  He thought that was absolutely fun and wonderful.  Now we are working at staying dry at home for swimming.  That one's a little harder for him, but he loves to see the picture of the swimming pool coming together when he stays dry.

 2.  The Ipad is a great tool for their therapists as well as learning on their own:

Since getting the ipad, Jason's therapists keep commenting on how many more words he knows, i.e., his colors, animals, etc.  I can't really take credit for that.  He finds the ipad any time it's out, and starts playing his little educational games.  He can scroll through all the folders and games better than anyone at our house.  He's quite the expert. 

Garrett and Caiti's tutors use the ipad as an added help, and also as a reinforcer.  They are able to make the learning time funner because both kids are visual learners, and they feel like they are playing games when they are learning.  Here are some of the categories we are working on that we found ipad apps for:

 Communication

 Social apps and Schedules

 Recognizing Emotions 

 Vocabulary

 Pre-reading

3.  The ipad helps when we are in public places.  Just this morning Garrett's ABA tutor and I put together a quick social story about how to act when we are at church.  It was very helpful, because we could just point at the picture, and he would know what was expected of him. 

He did very well.  We were so proud of him.  It helped to have fun, but quiet games that he could play instead of stimming or blurting loud random things out during the service.  :)
Another great thing about the ipad is that any movies that you have saved on itunes transfer over to the ipad.  We have used it when we go to the doctor, etc.  They can just touch the picture of the movie they want to play.  It is nice because then they are also working on making a choice.

Something very helpful, and free that you can use on the ipad is called Going Places.  It shows a little social story of a child in the different social settings and the appropriate way to act and kind of what to expect.  I have used this when I took my kids to the doctor and also when I took Garrett to the Barber.  (http://www.modelmekids.com/)

4.  The ipad is a great source of entertainment for my cute kids.   

 It is always nice to see my kids enjoying doing "normal kid" things like playing video games.  Garrett really likes a Spider Man game, and he's actually better at it than me.  Not that that is hard.

 Caiti's favorite game is called Rosita Counts.  Rosita jumpropes in the game, and she wants you to jump too.  It is so cute because Caiti will prop the ipad on her bed and jump along with Rosita.  I didn't realize she understood the concept of the game until I walked in on her jumping along.  :)

Of course Jason thinks the ipad is his.  He's always trying to steal it away from whoever has it.  I think that he purposely brings me his cup so that I will get up to get him a drink and he can snatch that ipad away. 

5.  My kids are able to connect with their daddy while he is gone on deployment.

This was one of the most important parts of the ipad for me.  I was really worried about how to explain to my kids where daddy was after he left in February for deployment.  Luckily, I found an app that allowed me to do a picture explanation.  As most people know, people with autism struggle with communication, and do better with visuals.  This deployment has gone so much better for Garrett because he has the pictures to go with the words.  He knows daddy is on the ship in the ocean, but he will be back in September. 

I love putting my kids to bed because I can use the ipad to play youtube videos of their daddy reading them a wonderful children's book about deployment, called "Over There."  It is so sweet to watch them watch their daddy on the ipad.  They all go to bed so much better now that they have that routine of watching their daddy read them a bedtime story.  

So, there are just some of the reasons I love the ipad.  It is such a help for my family.  We won't even start on the reasons I love it for myself.  ;)