Workshops/Computing for Autistic Kids

From Www.india-gii.org

COMPUTING FOR THE AUTISTIC

This workshop was organised by The Anil Karanjai Memorial Trust, headed by Juliet Reynolds, and Inspiration, an NGO that helps the autistic, from May 21 - 27, 2006. It was conducted by Arun Mehta, professor at JMIT Radaur. The ministries of IT and Social Welfare of the Government of Uttaranchal supported the workshop, which was conducted on the premises of the IT Ministry in Dehradun.

Some of the best programmers in the world are autistic. Professor Temple Grandin [1], who is autistic, believes that the mind of the autistic works in a manner similar to the world wide web. Computers and the Internet, therefore, may be very useful in drawing out people with severe communication problems. The objective of the workshop was to identify problems that the autistic have, in working with computers, so that a proper training programme can be designed for them.

The problems we identified were many: some found the glare of the monitor too much, others were reluctant to even touch the keyboard, many had problems clicking the mouse -- they would press the button, but not release it for a while. In Starlogo, the language that was taught in the workshop, this resulted in the buttons moving as the mouse was moved. Some had problems working in the small, crowded room, and frequently needed to take breaks. However, within a short time, most participants had no trouble working for hours on the machines without a break.

We spent considerable time at the workshop also teaching the care givers, so that they can continue to teach these skills to the kids under their care. The next time we do this workshop, we will try to ensure that the students have significant exposure to a typing tutor and similar software before the workshop, which should help them get over their reluctance to work with a keyboard. We would also like to prepare the kids for what to expect at the workshop. The results of the workshop were very encouraging. However, nobody should think that if you put an autistic kid in front of the computer, any kind of magic will result. Learning for the autistic is a very slow process -- it has to be seen how much impact the computer can have on this.

Arun Mehta Juliet Reynolds