Autism, iPads and a Heavy Revelation (for some)

While talking with my dad at a recent family gathering he commented how the new technology has been very helpful for my mom who has Parkinson's disease. (She had just purchased the newest iPhone. She already had an iPad.) It (the new technology) helps to keep my mom engaged and alert, he would go on.

And then recently my wife and I were encouraged to hear how the iPad in particular has been seen as a benefit for children with autism (of which our son has been diagnosed). CBS 60 Minutes recently aired the segment: "Apps for Autism" which gave parents like us much hope when it said...

It turns out that autistic children show a real interest in the iPad with its easy touch-and-swipe screens. With specially-designed applications, or apps, these computers are helping them communicate and unlocking the isolation of [autistic] people. (To read the rest of the "Apps for Autism" segment, click here.)

We hope to get an iPad some day. (Okay, honey, it's for me, too.)

I bring up these points (about my mom and then my son's autism) just to say: Depending on where you find yourself, there can be a whole lot of dissing of the newest technology, the time people spend with it, how things never used to be that way ~ that people used to talk to each other, go outside and smell the roses, etc., instead of having their eyes and fingers glued to an iPad ~ and it's not that I don't think there aren't abuses that take place, but let's not throw out the baby with the bath water.

And maybe this is a heavy revy for some ("heavy revelation" means large awakening in your understanding). What I mean by that is maybe the next new thing (whether it's technology or not, whatever it is), maybe we can do something a little bit different than we've done before (some of us). Maybe we can be a little less standoff-ish and more embracing? Maybe we can be a little less looking down our noses or throwing up our arms (Bah, humbug!) and more childlike in wonder ~ all for the purpose of not missing out on the benefit of whatever the technology is.

Worth a try?

Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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