Assistive Technology For Autism Autism is a brain disorder that affects almost 1 out of every 150 people.  It not only impairs how these individuals react to others, it also may cause some repetitive or restricted behaviors.  In most of the cases, these particular symptoms show up before a child is even three.  Although there is no cure for autism, there are some ways in which it can be dealt with.  One of these ways is through assistive technology for autism. You might be interested to find out that assistive technology is actually defined as any sort of technology that assists people with handicaps in order to maintain or enhance their lifestyle.  Many children and individuals with autism tend to communicate and understand more in the way of visual ideas.  For this reason, many of the products that fall under the category of assistive technology for autism tend to help the individual by means of visual interaction. Another thing that is interesting about people with autism is that they tend to enjoy using technology in one form or another.  Many of them do quite well on the computer so it's no surprise that this assistive technology for autism actually has a lot to do with the computers that they use.  Some examples of this technology would be trackballs that children would use instead of the typical mouse that is drawn across the mouse pad.  This will help them to be able to position the mouse on the screen much more accurately.  Another interesting development has to do with installing a touch screen, which allows the individual with autism to point and touch instead of moving a mouse around.  Of course, you will have to make sure that the software that you use is compatible with this particular technology. As we move on into the future, additional assistive technology for autism will come to light.  Especially since more and more people seem to be developing the disease at an early age, it becomes necessary for us to take care of them in this way.  It is just one step closer to helping these individuals lead a normal life.

Autism Fact #1 Because of the special way autistic minds function, normal teaching methods don't work. Understanding how the autistic mind functions, allows you to take advantage of this functionality to provide specialized teaching that will help young autistic minds learn much more rapidly than they could with standard teaching methods.

Autism Fact #2 The autistic mind tends to function in a visual manner. Specialized teaching for autism makes heavy use of pictures. Using words to describe something is nearly useless. Providing pictures of what you are describing is much more successful. Even better though is taking the child to see the actual item or place being described.

Autism Fact #3 Take advantage of the natural skills an autistic child may have, instead of focusing on weaker points. It is interesting to note that although autistic children tend to be visual and are often very good at drawing, they can also be very good with music. Take advantage of this by creatively using music and art as part of teaching other topics.