Technology

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!