For the first five years of his life, Reuben Boucher couldn't speak and struggled to concentrate. Diagnosed with autism at age two, he joined the Key School in Parktown. Johannesburg, where a team of dedicated teachers provide specialised education to children with autism.
Eighteen months after he was first exposed to the iPad, Reuben is now grasping skills his mother never thought possible. “After six months on the iPad, Reuben started saying words and sentences,” notes Audrey Boucher. “It's fun for him to see the pictures and he works on it with the occupational therapist and speech therapist.”
Reuben's is just one of the many stories parents and teachers tell about the iPad's impact on learners. The Key School introduced 20 iPads around 18 months ago through a joint initiative with Think Ahead, a company that integrates Apple products and learning solutions. At the time, they had no idea how it would change the children and teachers' lives.
Started by a teacher and parent in 1973, the Key School now accommodates 35 children aged two to 12, who receive intervention they wouldn't be getting elsewhere, says principal Dr Jenni Gous.
Each child has their own individual development programme, which is worked out with the help of speech and occupational therapists as well as parents. This is important, says Gous, as parents need to continue the skills and behaviours learnt at school in the home environment.
“We take children who have been diagnosed with autism and that we think we can work with. The aim is to develop them to their maximum potential as soon as possible, and address the impairments that come with autism,” says Gous. “Ideally we'd like all the children to move onto mainstream schools, although this is not always possible.”
Nonetheless, three children who attended the school have gone on to study their PhDs, she adds, “so you can never predict what's going to happen”.
It's a maxim that also held true for the school's new set of learning tools.
iPad meets Triad
To understand what makes the iPad particularly effective in teaching children with autism, one needs to take a closer look at the specific challenges they experience.
They don't think like other children, they tend to be very literal in their thinking.
Jenni Gous, Key School
People with autism usually exhibit a triad of impairments, which affect their learning and development. These include language and communication, emotions and socialisation, and 'imagination' (or flexibility of thought). In the first instance, they may find it difficult to process and retain verbal information, which results in difficulty understanding jokes and sarcasm, social use of language, facial expressions and body language. “Children are often very slow to develop speech and some of them never develop speech,” says Gous. “Around 50% of children with autism may never speak, so we have to give them alternative communication systems.”
Social interaction too, can prove challenging, and children may struggle to form friendships or play well with others. Simple things like learning to wait one's turn can often require significant effort. Thirdly, the inability to fully understand communication means changes in routine or environment can be extremely upsetting. Emotions that require seeing others' point of view, such as empathy, can also prove problematic.
“They don't think like other children; they tend to be very literal in their thinking,” explains Gous. “They're very good at learning rules, so once they've learnt a rule, they don't forget it, and beware if anyone else breaks the rule, because they'll point it out to them.”
Children with autism can also have sensory problems; so they may react badly to fluorescent lighting or loud noises and may not like being touched, says Gous. “Very often, children with autism can get very anxious because they feel like aliens in the world. They also find it difficult to understand facial expressions, so they can't read what's going on socially around them.
“All these things affect the way that we teach the children.”
About a year-and-a-half ago, Gous met with Think Ahead MD Michelle Lissoos, who showed the principal the iPad and some of its applications, which number into the hundreds of thousands.
“I immediately fell in love with the iPad because the apps on it are just so suitable for children with autism, and you have new apps coming out almost on a daily basis.” The school has been working with the iPads for about a year, and Gous says it's been wonderful seeing the children engage.
“We will use anything that brings children out of their autism or that helps them to interact with the world around them more, so the iPad is a great tool to use. Brighter children with autism are said to have Asperger syndrome and they tend to do really well on computers because they don't have to interact with other people. It's said that Silicon Valley is full of people with Asperger's.”
It's said that Silicon Valley is full of people with Asperger's.
Jenni Gous, Key School
True to their generation's form, the children at the Key School took to the iPads like ducks to water. “They're now using it on a daily basis, finding the apps they most enjoy, while the teachers use the educational apps to teach them pre-numeracy and pre-literacy skills, “says Gous. The more capable children are even learning how to surf the Internet.
“The iPad makes the world of technology and content accessible to a broad range of learners,” says Lissoos. “The amazing thing about the iPad is its accessibility, its mobility and its ecosystem of apps.”
Think Ahead donated half the tablets and the other half were bought by the school. Gous says that while the teachers did attend workshops to learn how to work the iPads, they quickly found apps suitable to their children's age groups and abilities.
The school has decided not to spend any money on applications yet, preferring to browse the extensive collection of free offerings. “We look for apps that are suitable for toddlers, kindergarten and primary school, because while our kids may be chronologically older, mentally they benefit from apps meant for younger children,” explains Gous.
These encompass everything from pre-literacy and pre-numeracy programs, to music and story apps. “The range is just phenomenal. Some of the children are even learning how to do Irish dancing.”
Parents are also positive about the tablet, and after witnessing the improvements made at school, many have bought children their own iPad to use at home. Audrey Boucher says the tablet has changed the way they communicate with six-year-old Reuben.
“For four years we tried really hard with the occupational and speech therapists, and we used to spend hours finding pictures on the Internet, like a cup with juice for example, and printing, colouring and laminating them, to use with Reuben. Now he can simply point to a picture on his iPad.”
Because there are so many apps available, it's easy to customise the tablet according to the ability of the child, notes Gous. “The nice thing about the iPad is its coolness factor; it helps children to just look normal, they look like their neurotypical peers.”
In the classroom
Pieter Wouter Kleynhans, who teaches five- to 10-year-olds, admits he was excited when he heard iPads were coming to the school: “We'd only heard good things. The first few weeks were a bit confusing, figuring out which apps to get and how the iPads work, but the students catch on so quickly - quicker than most of the teachers even.”
The tablet's multi-modal delivery system provides a powerful way to teach basic concepts, says Gous. “Children with autism are usually visual learners, so for them to see and hear something at the same time helps facilitate their learning dramatically.”
Reuben, for example, is using the iPad to learn his colours. “There's one app where when the butterfly turns blue, a voice says 'blue, blue, blue' at the same time, and the word appears on the screen,” explains Boucher. “In this way he's managed to learn colours and counting and hopefully his ABCs. It's such a fun way of learning for him.”
The iPad is something they can use on their own in their own world.
Pieter Kleynhans
Kleynhans set up a timetable to ensure all the children get a turn on the iPad, and says their eagerness to spend one-on-one time means they work harder at their table-top activities. “They are very visual people, so with all the sounds and pictures and colours, it really helps them to focus on that one device. The iPad is something they can use on their own in their own world.”
He has already seen marked improvements in some of the children since they started working on the tablets. “Two boys in my class have a problem with fine motor skills, such as grasping a pencil and using the tripod grip. The iPad's touch-screen has really helped them use a softer touch to trace over letters and numbers, which they can easily take over to using with a pencil on paper.”
Another area where the iPad proves invaluable is helping children cope with unstructured times in their schedule. “For children with autism who may not be able to entertain themselves much during their leisure time, I've always felt that computer skills were important,” says Gous. “The iPad really takes this one step further and is easier to use because it doesn't involve a mouse.
“For a child with a disability to learn how to use a mouse is quite complex and difficult, but with the iPad all that's required is a swipe, so it's much easier for the children. If they can learn to master the computer or the iPad, they will have something to do when they're on their own with nothing else to do.”
World of opportunity
Kobus van Wyk, head of e-learning at Mustek, stresses that the iPad is just one of a number of tablets available, and that the focus shouldn't be exclusively on one brand. Whatever their origin, he does believe tablets are far more than a fly-by-night gimmick.
“An increasing number of professional people are using tablets in their work and they can indeed make a significant contribution in the world of education.”
He notes that certain features make tablets particularly effective for engaging children and facilitating learning. “It can be used at the desk in the classroom, so learners don't have to go to a computer room, and the teacher can use it at any time, not only during scheduled periods.”
For Van Wyk, the greatest impact tablets will have in terms of education is their ability to serve as e-readers. “This means that e-books - many of them - can be loaded and this will encourage reading. If that is the only thing that can be achieved by means of a tablet, it would have earned its place of honour in the world of technology.”
When it comes to integrating tech into schools, Van Wyk says the greatest challenge is when teachers fail to understand how to use it as a learning aid. “In that case the tablet becomes a mere gadget.
“Teachers need time to come to grips with the concept of technology as a teaching and learning tool. The thing teachers battle with most is not learning how to operate the machine, but rather how to use it as a teaching and learning tool - that requires an entire paradigm shift.”
But when used correctly, says Van Wyk, a tablet can be an enormous aid to enhance the learning experience of students.
While all children can benefit from tablets in the classroom, Kleynhans believes it can open doors for autistic children that may otherwise have remained shut. “The main thing the iPad brings them is independence. As technology develops, more and more things will become controlled by computers and devices like iPads.
“If these kids can use them, they can do whatever they want to do without having to rely on others to support them all the time.”
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