Say what you will about children and technology, but it has saved
our family.
Spencer plays on my phone all the time. He plays with
trains, letters, numbers, and some talking cat game (he feeds, plays with, and
puts the cat to sleep – he loves it, I don’t get it). So why do I let him play
with my phone? Well, that’s how he has learned the majority of what he knows.
They told me at TEACCH (Therapy and Education of Autistic and related
Communication Handicapped Children) that he would learn best visually and by
actually doing. So he likes puzzles, books, and all things technology. This kid
can go through my phone better than I can! It’s crazy! However, sometimes he
messes up the phone more than I can too. Yes, here’s a fun story:
So my phone has been turning itself off and restarting when
there are too many apps going, see also: when Spencer has the phone. He goes
from app to app, not properly closing each application. Anyway, sometimes when
the phone restarts it has an error message that goes something like “Samsung is
requesting to change phone to factory settings” with the only option being to
hit “Okay.” Well, most of the time I have the phone and take the battery out
and the message goes away and all is well. Spencer had the phone a few days ago
and the error message came on after restarting. I saw that he hit okay and went
into panic mode. Yep, that’s right. I lost everything, all of my apps,
contacts, pictures – gone. I’ve finally come to terms with everything. Ya
know.. I’ve stopped crying and such. We’ve moved on. I guess that’s the tradeoff
for letting a two year old play with my phone. That’s definitely the number one
negative aspect of the toddler technology. The other problems would be that my phone is
always dead because he drains the battery so quickly. There’s also the problem
that he thinks that it’s HIS to play and use whenever he pleases. Not cool,
kid. Not cool. It’s especially hard when I get a phone call. Dad and Camber can
confirm those issues. They have heard the tantrums that result after I take the
phone away from him to answer.
On the positive side- In today’s time I think it’s important
for him to be able to use technology. It keeps his attention so well, which is
hard for my little autistic boy. He won’t sit and listen as I try to teach him
words, numbers or colors. But boy will he listen to the computer say it!
How has it helped Spencer?
Spencer can now count to 20 (count being a relative term).
His “Counting” is more like “whine, two, weee, orr, iive, ix, ohh, aye, ine,
ten, ev, twel, tee teen, tee teen, tee teen, tee teen, tee teen, tee teen, tee
teen, twee twee (Yeah, try and read that!!!) He counts the correct number each
time for the teens, it’s actually pretty cute. He is also counting backwards
from 10 to 1.
He can say and recognize all of his letters, upper and lower
case. He uses a flash card app to go through and quiz himself on them.
He knows several colors (again, in his own language). Wed,
Ooonch, ween, woo, ewwo, and purl. Yeah, that’s red, orange, green, blue,
yellow, and purple for those who somehow couldn’t get that.
So what’s so special? Well, I didn’t teach him these things.
He was climbing the stairs and counted up to ten and started to come back down.
I realized that he was counting backwords. WHAT THE HECK?! He knows how to do
that? Well, yes. Yes he does, apparently. The same thing happened with counting
up to 20. I knew he could count to ten, but then he kept going. What are you
doing? Oh my goodness, he’s trying to say 11, 12, 13, etc. How does he know
that?! Then I realized that some of the games and movies that he watches count
up to 20 and backwards from 10 to 1. So ya can’t say that kids don’t learn when
they are using technology.
He’s also currently obsessed with Leap Frog shows on
Netflix, which have helped a lot. They do letters, numbers, colors, and shapes.
He really does learn a lot.
Of course there is a proper balance for the when and where
for using tablets and such. I get a lot of grief about letting him use my
phone, but it’s the best way for him to learn. I am always right there helping
him and trying to talk to him about what he’s doing. Having Autism it’s hard to
do the whole sit down and talk thing. That’s why a phone (and soon to be
tablet, thanks santa!!) help so much for the Spencey boy.
Okay, I’m getting off my soapbox. I have just heard a lot
about how awful it is to let little kids watch tv and use technology and just
wanted to show that it’s not always bad.
Love ya, Spencer boo!
