June 20, 2011 - 11:42 am
After Gage Gilbert was officially diagnosed with autism, his family began using an iPad to help him communicate. The impact has been so profound that the Gilberts are starting a foundation, The Gage Rufus Foundation, to begin placing iPads in classrooms throughout Nevada, where they live. You can find out even more about their story here.
This is a beautiful story. I watched a TED talk recently by Salman Kahn who is developing an alternative to traditional lecture based teaching. The idea is to let students learn at their own pace by watching lessons online and then doing practice to show they have mastered concepts before they move on to the next lesson. I wonder if this approach might be useful for autistic children too.
Rather than waste money on ipads, I strongly recommend the Gilbert’s read “The Myth of Autism: How a Misunderstood Epidemic Is Destroying Our Children” by Dr. Michael Goldberg. Dr. Goldberg treated my “autistic” son in the mid 1990′s, today that “autistic” child is in college. ipads and behavior training (Lovass) are feel good protocols by desperate parents, I know I was one of them. Get to the root cause….