Jylene Paredes
Exploratory Essay
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is one of the three forms of ‘autism’ that we have today; the others including Asperger’s Syndrome and Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Having or knowing someone who has this disorder, then it is sure that it is a complex disorder that involves different impairments. Children with ASD “characteristics are limited in their opportunity to take advantage of formal education as they exhibit a range of specificities in terms of their cognitive and communicative skills that need to be appropriately addressed”(Santos, M.I., Breda, A. & Almeida, A.M. J Autism Dev Disord , 2015). It is a disorder that will bring everyone around that person closer to them, in order to help and fulfill the holes that an autistic child carries withthem for their whole life. But another way that is proven to help those with ASD is through technology. As the years go by with the widespread of technology developments and new forms of specialized devices being made, it has become a part of the disability life and helped those in need. Assistive technology has not just been made for the common people to speed up their day and make it more efficient, but has also come in handy to those with a disorder like ASD.
Since the use of assistive technology was introduced to the those categorized with having a disorder like ASD, many forms of tech such as the LiveScribe Pen (LSP) was created. Being launched in 2008 by Jim Marggraff, this pen has a built in microphone for audio recordings, a playback speakerand more. Having a child with the disadvantage of not being able to communicate properly can implode to the child not being capable of reading in their future. Using the LiveScribe Pen, the child or parent guiding them can “use the audio to playback a sentence or two that the child might not be able to read”(Harper, Kurtzworth-Keen, Marable, 2017). This is the advantage in this form of assistive technology in having a playback speaker, because as stated, the child may not read and can find it useful that this pen can visually read the sentence that they cannot. As ASD can affect each child differently, a negative to having this disability can come from the environment around them. Although ASD puts a dent in a child’s way of communicating or acting to others, it can also cause a disadvantage to them when in public. It was revealed “that 58–79% of the children had abnormal auditory filtering, difficulty attending to auditory stimuli, were distractible or could not function in noisy environments” (Journal of Communication Disorders, 2016). This explaining the affect that ASD can not only bring a difficulty to verbal situations, but cause a heavy impact to them once on the outside. But another form of assistive technology was introduced as the remote microphone or RM. The RM was used and “included speech recognition in noise, auditory comprehension, and acceptable noise levels”, and “improved speech recognition for most children with ASD relative to no RM system” (Journal of Communication Disorders, 2016). The use of this assistive technology was shown to be very helpful because even in hectic surroundings, the remote microphone can be utilized to guide the autistic child through the identification of voices, which can very much ease the child to be able to understand what is being spoken either to them or what they are hearing around them.
With the attempt to better enhance their lifestyles with ASD or to see and understand the state of their diagnosis, there are many that take assessments; and in result of those assessments, those under “autism is 14.8%” (Barnard-Brak ; Thompson; Wei and Richman, 2014). This assessment was then given out and it was proven to show increases in many areas including “receptive communication for students with communication deficits…also to post-secondary opportunities” (Barnard-Brak ; Thompson; Wei and Richman, 2014). Although it is essentially an exam to better understand the mind of one that has ASD, these assessments came back with results that are in great advantage for someone with ASD. To come back with results that show an increase in communication for those with a deficit in that level, it helps someone with ASD tremendously. Having ASD can easily carry a delay in speech or a social anxiety that may cause someone not to speak to people or at all, so being that about 15% of those who took the assessment are autistic, there is a high chance that they are now having the courage to be verbal, or if it wasn’t for the courage, then they found their voice within them tocreate and experience a new sense. But, taking an assessment is not the only way in which children or adults with ASD can find some sort of advantage for their life. Not only would they might need assessments, but “children with disabilities need special instructional interventions that will eventually result in their improved understanding, learning function, and self confidence” (Cobb, 2011). Interventions that can take place can happen within a facility or in one’s home with a therapist who is willing to better enhance the life on someone’s child. Being that it would not only be beneficial, but it “can increase student’s enthusiasm to learn” (Cobb, 2011). If there is an increase for a student with ASD to learn, it will give a sense of a drive for the child to want to learn and educate themselves on certain things that can take a while for them to understand and apply to their lives. In the long haul however, whichever way that someone finds to familiarize themselves to help someone with ASD, the child with ASD will surely have greater chance in strengthening their disability and learning to overcome it.
Autism Spectrum Disorder is a disorder that many are challenged with because it is within them. It is not something that is 100 percent curable, but it is in fact something that can be tended to accordingly to help assure the person with ASD is not in a bad place. One of the most important things that has been added to tend to someone with ASD is through the use of assistive technology. Assistive technology has been around for many uses and causes, but has been there for been with disabilities, and someone with the disorder of autism surely benefits from it, having them want to learn more, or even raising their self confidence level to overcome or try to not give into the disability that they were born with.
Bibliography
Cobb, Aries. “Assistive Technology: Enhancing the Life Skills of Students WithLearning Disabilities.” Distance Learning, 2011, pp. 47–57.
Harper, K., Kurtzworth-Keen, A., & Marable, K. (2017). Assistive technology for students with learning disabilities: A glimpse of the livescribe pen and its impact on homework completion. Education and Information Technologies, 22(5), 2471-2483.
Barnard-Brak, L., Thompson, S., Wei, T., & Richman, D. (2014). Assistive Technology as a Predictor of General or Alternate Assessment Among Elementary-aged Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Assistive Technology, 26(2), 81-87.
Schafer, E., Wright, Anderson, Jones, Pitts, Bryant, . . . Reed. (2016). Assistive technology evaluations: Remote-microphone technology for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Communication Disorders, 64, 1-17.
Santos, M., Breda, A., & Almeida, A. (2015). Brief Report: Preliminary Proposal of a Conceptual Model of a Digital Environment for Developing Mathematical Reasoning in Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(8), 2633-2640.
