All About Kyle & The Ipad…

(originally written & published on December 10, 2011)

Many on my Autism Daddy Facebook Page have asked about Kyle and what he does with his iPad, which apps/ games he likes, does he communicate with it, what kind of case he uses, etc,etc, etc

So here goes….

First off you should know that Kyle is quite severe. He is completely non-verbal and his receptive language isn’t great either. They usually place both at the 15-18 month level… and he’s 8…

He gets speech therapy at school. They dabbled in signs for awhile, but nothing stuck. They started with PECS but Kyle never got past 2 pictures, an object that he likes (Cheerios) and something that he dislikes. And even with that he’d be inconsistent. Sometimes he’d only pick the one on the left, other times he’d not care if he got Cheerios or not. As usual with Kyle, it was difficult to find a consistent preferred object, a motivator, a reward to make him do his work correctly.

Also Kyle doesn’t have the strongest point. It’s kinda all over the place. Sometimes with his right hand, other times with his left…sometimes with his index finger, other times with his middle finger. Sometimes if you asked him to point to the letter J on a book with the alphabet it seemed like he knows what your asking but points to a letter around the J (up, down, left, right). At school last year they noted that sometimes when asked to point to something, he’d look at the object, then turn his head away and then point, and get it correct…as if his hand/eye was off….

All of this to say that we were not buying the IPad and expecting miracles. We were not expecting Kyle to become Carly Fleischmann. We were not going to go out and spend $$ on a $100+ speech app like Proloquo2Go yet… We got the IPad in April and just wanted Kyle to think of it as a fun activity, to understand and grasp the touch screen functionality, and to NOT THINK OF IT AS WORK.

So we bought lots of toddler apps (Monkey Preschool Lunch Box, Red Fish Alphabet for Kids) and Sesame apps (Count TV and Elmo Loves ABCs). And we bought some episodes of his favorite tv shows (Sesame Street, Dora, Jacks Big Music Show)… And we built a YouTube “Playlist” of all his favorite Sesame videos.

And so far it has done what we hoped. No miracles, but his point has gotten ALOT better. He recognizes the icons for the apps/ games he likes and can choose them. He knows the icons for YouTube and Videos and can choose them. And then he sees the pics of his shows/ videos and can choose what he wants to watch independently. He can sit (or stand) for 20-25 minutes straight and be engaged with the Ipad in some way. This is HUGE.

So he has taken to the touch screen functionality BIG TIME! So much so, that he’s trying to touch icons on the tv. He’s always poking at it.

We have bought a few very simple inexpensive PECS apps (ANSWERS: YES/NO, VERBAL VICTOR) and he’s doing ok with these but he still sees this as work and some of his old habits come out, like always picking the picture on the left.

But so far we are EXTREMELY happy with our purchase. We send the iPad in to school with Kyle each day and they use it as a reward during some of his one on one time and as a communication device during others…

And many have asked what kind of case I bought that was strong enough to withstand the punishment that Kyle could dish out. Well I did a TON of research on this and after much internal debate I decided on the Griffin Survivor case. They claim that it was tested by the military and exceeded military standards for shock/drop, wind/rain, vibration, sand/dust. They show videos on their website of people dropping ipads off of bridges, etc. So i figured if it’s strong enough for the military it’s strong enough for my Kyle…and so far, so good… It is now on sale at Amazon!

I’ll leave you with a video that gives me alot of hope. This is Kyle correctly choosing the orange in the RedFish ABC game. What I love about this is (a) that he’s getting it right, (b) how good his point is, (c) how much he’s concentrating. For some reason this slot machine type game brings out all the best in Mr Kyle….
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If you’re gonna shop Amazon anyway, can I ask that you enter Amazon by using the link above? This way I can make a little money. This blogging thing has been awesome & life changing for me… but I must admit that it’s taking up a lot more time than I ever thought… so if I can make a few bucks it’ll make it easier for me to justify….Love you all! Thanks!!

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Frank Campagna

I’m a 48 year old neurotypical dad with a 14 year old son with severe, non-verbal autism & epilepsy. I created this blog to rant about autism & epilepsy while celebrating my son who I affectionately call “the king” :-).

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View Comments

chuey2232 says:

December 10, 2011 at 3:39 pm

Hi Autism Daddy

I'm an autism daddy too. My 10 year old sounds just like your kid. He's severe, non verbal and about the 12-15 month mental age as well. He also has CP and microcephaly.

Enjoy your posts, especially this one, since we are getting an iPad for our son for Christmas. Thanks for posting the different apps that you mention here.

We got proloquo on the iTouch now and it is of very limited use. We'll try the preschool apps you mentioned.

Chuey
Anonymous says:

December 11, 2011 at 9:11 am

My sons 9yrs old and again is on the same levels as Kyle. We too are looking into using an Ipad as Harry's lack of communication is now becoming an issue for him and hes getting very angry he cant communicate with us which is leading to meltdowns:(
Crafter Dream says:

December 12, 2011 at 10:23 am

So cool :) Thanks for sharing this with us :) And congratulations to Kyle for getting that orange so many times :) David sadly still can't do that. He used to be great at it, but it's one of the things he lost as he's slowly losing his cognitive ability again.
Rhonda says:

December 21, 2011 at 1:46 pm

I love this ipad. We use the iphone for Tommy... more portable for us. Though, he WANTS the ipad, i don't want to get it because his speech therapist has it and I fear getting one, will take the value away from the one for speech. The iphone is just fine for Tommy :)

Thanks for sharing that video!!! I love watching these kids. That THOUGHT PROCESS. He ALMOST chose the wrong orange.. then caught it. I LOVE THAT!!! Sweet! Great video. :D
Anonymous says:

December 27, 2011 at 3:39 am

Thanks for your post! My son is very much like yours. Mine has a tendency to throw items randomly and spontaneously (even much preferred items.) Do you ever have a problem with Kyle throwing or dropping his ipad? I do plan on getting the case you recommended. I had never heard of it so thanks for your recommendation on that as well as thank you for your entire blog!!
MaRy Mo!!! says:

December 31, 2011 at 5:37 pm

Hey Autism Dad,
Rando reader, who saw a post on her friend's facebook who is an Austism Mommy. You're very inspirational.
Much love and respect to you.

Have a happy, save and amazing new year!
Sandi - PDD-NOS mom says:

February 20, 2012 at 11:47 am

Thanks for posting this article again since I'm new to your site. I won an iPad over the summer and my 3 yr old (hyperlexic/PDD-NOS took control). I used it to get her to potty train (and we still aren't quite there). What I discovered is that she has a crazy video memory (like photographic memory) and can recite lengthy videos I make verbatim and applies that language to everyday life appropriately. It's wild. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why she responds (or rather, recites) my words/actions via the video so accurately and when I say these things to her directly, I get no response. I use the video to supplement her weekly speech sessions and regular ABA therapy. My point, I've heard of few cases where the iPad or even computers didn't help in some way for a child with autism. We have some of the same apps loaded. She loves the Monkey Lunchbox too and even the drums.
- Gloria M. says:
  
  June 12, 2014 at 8:43 pm
  
  It's called "scripting" and my grandson repeats entire dialogues of Calliou and Thomas DVDs....He's 10, can read but still can't hold conversations.
Shannon says:

February 24, 2012 at 10:46 pm

Thanks for posting. I love how the iPad can be so wonderful for so many different severities of autism. My sons are not as severely affected but the iPad has been amazing for them, especially my four year old. He uses P2G to communicate and my three year old has used it to learn to read. I never in a million years would've imagined.
The Gift of Autism says:

April 23, 2012 at 11:49 pm

I love using iPad and iPod with my LF non-verbal students! Not only have they learned discreet points and choosing skills, they have also learned social skills (turn taking, joint attention) and one has used his iPad skills to learn to use a regular computer. One of my higher functioning student uses his to write short paragraphs. They are such great tools
Anonymous says:

December 31, 2012 at 8:38 pm

Just want to wish you all a happy new year!
I like reading your blogs so keep it up into the new year.