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When our son was initially diagnosed autistic, prior to receiving his SCN2A diagnosis, one of the first things we did was to ensure he was as healthy as possible. Diet & nutrition, sleep, and a healthy stomach were our initial focus areas. Along with this, I was using my background in design and marketing to figure out a good way to teach him.
We’ll cover the diet and nutrition parts in a follow up, but for this article, and something I’ve noticed recently, is the idea that our kids aren’t able to learn.
The focus of this article will be on providing examples and techniques on where we started regarding teaching our son. We’ll begin by explaining what user experience is, and how it affects our kiddos.
This topic has been covered elsewhere as many times as the day is long, so I’ll keep this short, and in my own words.
User Experience is how someone interacts with a product / how they feel about it.
User Interaction is how someone interacts with visual elements of a product. This would be how likely you will use features such as buttons, sliders, toggles, etc…
Understanding how well or not a disabled child is able to interact with a program is what allows the child to progress through the application to learn. It’s that simple.
For us, in tandem with working through Jack’s health issues, we also looked to solve Jack's educational challenges. And we did this through both digital and analog tools - the latter of which we’ll discuss the approaches we took, and things we used in a later post.
For the purposes of this one, we’ll just focus on the apps we initially used.
To understand how this works, you need to understand how we and these kiddos learn + how to encourage them to want to work through their disabilities.
For the purposes of this post, my definition of generalization with respect to receptive labeling (tacting) is as follows:
Basically what I’m saying is that by using different apps, that teach the same things, and doing this over and over, your child will better understand, and be able to choose what a “car” is, if they’re asked to spell it, point to it, and see it visually from multiple opportunities.
To help with definitions:
Ex: You show your child a picture of a car and a boat, then ask them to point to, or touch the car, in which they do this successfully.
Disclaimer… I’m not a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst), but I have taught my son using what I believe is the right terminology above. Happy to be corrected here if the terms are off a bit.
To get Jack to participate, we would do 2 things:
Regarding praise - I think all of these kids understand this. Clapping your hands, kisses, tickling and laughing, all good things to use when they get something correct.
Edibles - while this can be controversial, it just works, but - we’re strict on diet so we generally used the following, they’re low in carbs, and relatively healthy all things considered:
For all of the above, we’d only give Jack little pieces that we’d cut up, or one chocolate chip at a time while he’d work through things. He ended up loving to work with us and it was a great bonding experience as well.
When we initially started working with Jack, as with many of these kiddos, fine motor skills were not so great.
Additionally, many won’t be able to understand what’s what for a while, so helping them hand over hand may be required to both strengthen their ability to choose items, as well as help them generalize object, item, and activity labels across different mediums (apps, flash cards, etc…)
When we initially started working with Jack, as needed, I would place my hand under his, my palm up, and hold his pointer finger out, as we worked through apps.
We did this over and over until he was able to make his own choices. It went slowly, but over time, he was able to slowly direct me to the proper answers. This then transitioned into him being able to eventually make his own decisions, which was a big deal to him, and us.
Regarding everything here, it’ll take time if they don’t have the motor skills just yet, but it’ll come with work, it just takes time, and we’ve been working on this for years - so if it doesn’t happen quickly, be patient. Your kiddo will appreciate just getting the time with you in working on stuff together.
In no order - Letters:
In no order - Numbers:
On all of the above, not everything resonates, and there are some things that just won’t be possible. We did what was easiest, and most direct. Tracing & matching numbers and letters to start really built the foundation for everything else, so we used each app in this manner to start, but all of them to generalize his learning.
At this point, we’re actually teaching Jack geography, science, and a bunch of other stuff. He’s at peer level or above on many things, but it all started here. He’s still non verbal, but we found a way that he learns, and I’m of the belief that many of these kids have these abilities, we just need to find how to reach them.
Please reach out with any questions.
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When our son was initially diagnosed autistic, prior to receiving his SCN2A diagnosis, one of the first things we did was to ensure he was as healthy as possible. Diet & nutrition, sleep, and a healthy stomach were our initial focus areas. Along with this, I was using my background in design and marketing to figure out a good way to teach him.
We’ll cover the diet and nutrition parts in a follow up, but for this article, and something I’ve noticed recently, is the idea that our kids aren’t able to learn.
The focus of this article will be on providing examples and techniques on where we started regarding teaching our son. We’ll begin by explaining what user experience is, and how it affects our kiddos.
This topic has been covered elsewhere as many times as the day is long, so I’ll keep this short, and in my own words.
User Experience is how someone interacts with a product / how they feel about it.
User Interaction is how someone interacts with visual elements of a product. This would be how likely you will use features such as buttons, sliders, toggles, etc…
Understanding how well or not a disabled child is able to interact with a program is what allows the child to progress through the application to learn. It’s that simple.
For us, in tandem with working through Jack’s health issues, we also looked to solve Jack's educational challenges. And we did this through both digital and analog tools - the latter of which we’ll discuss the approaches we took, and things we used in a later post.
For the purposes of this one, we’ll just focus on the apps we initially used.
To understand how this works, you need to understand how we and these kiddos learn + how to encourage them to want to work through their disabilities.
For the purposes of this post, my definition of generalization with respect to receptive labeling (tacting) is as follows:
Basically what I’m saying is that by using different apps, that teach the same things, and doing this over and over, your child will better understand, and be able to choose what a “car” is, if they’re asked to spell it, point to it, and see it visually from multiple opportunities.
To help with definitions:
Ex: You show your child a picture of a car and a boat, then ask them to point to, or touch the car, in which they do this successfully.
Disclaimer… I’m not a BCBA (Board Certified Behavior Analyst), but I have taught my son using what I believe is the right terminology above. Happy to be corrected here if the terms are off a bit.
To get Jack to participate, we would do 2 things:
Regarding praise - I think all of these kids understand this. Clapping your hands, kisses, tickling and laughing, all good things to use when they get something correct.
Edibles - while this can be controversial, it just works, but - we’re strict on diet so we generally used the following, they’re low in carbs, and relatively healthy all things considered:
For all of the above, we’d only give Jack little pieces that we’d cut up, or one chocolate chip at a time while he’d work through things. He ended up loving to work with us and it was a great bonding experience as well.
When we initially started working with Jack, as with many of these kiddos, fine motor skills were not so great.
Additionally, many won’t be able to understand what’s what for a while, so helping them hand over hand may be required to both strengthen their ability to choose items, as well as help them generalize object, item, and activity labels across different mediums (apps, flash cards, etc…)
When we initially started working with Jack, as needed, I would place my hand under his, my palm up, and hold his pointer finger out, as we worked through apps.
We did this over and over until he was able to make his own choices. It went slowly, but over time, he was able to slowly direct me to the proper answers. This then transitioned into him being able to eventually make his own decisions, which was a big deal to him, and us.
Regarding everything here, it’ll take time if they don’t have the motor skills just yet, but it’ll come with work, it just takes time, and we’ve been working on this for years - so if it doesn’t happen quickly, be patient. Your kiddo will appreciate just getting the time with you in working on stuff together.
In no order - Letters:
In no order - Numbers:
On all of the above, not everything resonates, and there are some things that just won’t be possible. We did what was easiest, and most direct. Tracing & matching numbers and letters to start really built the foundation for everything else, so we used each app in this manner to start, but all of them to generalize his learning.
At this point, we’re actually teaching Jack geography, science, and a bunch of other stuff. He’s at peer level or above on many things, but it all started here. He’s still non verbal, but we found a way that he learns, and I’m of the belief that many of these kids have these abilities, we just need to find how to reach them.
Please reach out with any questions.
Vlad Magdalin
