Tablets Are Game-Changers For Special Needs Kids

theodp writes "The rise of mainstream tablets is proving to have unforeseen benefits for children with speech and communication problems and may disrupt a business where specialized devices can cost thousands of dollars. iPad apps like Proloquo2Go ($189) aim to help individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cerebral palsy, down syndrome, developmental disabilities, ALS, traumatic brain injury, aphasia, apraxia, and more. Even Steve Jobs didn't see this one coming: 'We take no credit for this, and that's not our intention,' said Jobs, who's been touched by email he gets from parents of special needs kids for whom the iPad is proving to be a life-changer. 'Our intention is to say something is going on here,' Jobs added, suggesting that researchers should 'take a look at this.' Even though they might cost significantly less than dedicated devices, SUNY speech pathologist Andrea Abramovich explained Medicare doesn't cover consumer tablets because they could be used for non-medical purposes."

Comments

Ha your great medicare

[JonySuede]

Medicare doesn't cover consumer tablets because they could be used for non-medical purposes

Some part of the medical community have this mentality that under no circumstance should a medical treatment be enjoyable even if it cost less or it is more effective...

Re:Ha your great medicare

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not the medical community. It's the bureaucratic community combined with the community that gets its panties in a bunch out of government money being "wasted" with spending on things people may not need. So they force untold billions to be spent on documentation and purpose-built equipment rather than more effective solutions. All while complaining about government waste and inefficiency.

The medical community would be fine with doing the smart thing, but when so many people want to have their input, well...stuff like this happens.

It's a collective insanity.

Which would piss off that group I mentioned earlier, because they get all upset about what they call socialist language.

True story. I once had one go off on me because I said I liked the Marx Brothers.

Just didn't believe me when I told them I was talking about the comedy group.

Re:Ha your great medicare

[codegen]

The problem is that this is not new. There have been many cases recently where custom software on a regular computer would make a world of difference and it is turned down in favour of a much more expensive custom hardware solution because the regular computer can be used for non-medicinal purposes. The inability to recognize the iPad as a fundable solution is just the latest in a sequence of such bureaucratic blindness.

Re:Ha your great medicare

[DrgnDancer]

The big problem, and it's a legit problem really, though I think it's being blown out of proportion, is that these devices are basically generally purpose computers that can do anything. Unlike a purpose built device that can really only do what it's supposed to do, there's nothing stopping you from saying you want to buy an iPad to help out your developmentally disabled child then actually using it for nothing except surfing porn.

Before they could approve it, Medicare would have to some up with some reasonable way to ensure that the device is being used to do what the government purchased it to do. Now where it gets stupid is people who will undoubtedly say that it should be used *only* for what the government purchased it to do. I personally don't see anything wrong, assuming the device is primarily being used for its stated purpose, with using for other stuff sometimes too. I'm also quite certain that many people would scream about that being "wasteful spending".

Re:Ha your great medicare

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Before they could approve it, Medicare would have to some up with some reasonable way to ensure that the device is being used to do what the government purchased it to do.

No. You totally missed the point. The problem is that the cost of this "ensurance" is too high to be practical. Something like an ipad is ~$400. But a medicare approved ipad is going to be ~$4000 (just look at hearing aids for an example - components not all that different from a blutooth headset but 10x-50x the cost). The answer is to eat the waste of misuse for low cost items because the cost of ensuring that there is no waste is higher than the waste itself.

Re:Ha your great medicare

[hedwards]

First off, the last time I watched the Marx Brothers it was just as funny as when I was a kid, and while I wasn't there at the time, I'm willing to bet that it was just as funny as it was a half century earlier.

Second off, the the Republicans are indeed for more bureaucratic inefficiency. It's what allows them to rail against the government election after election. Were there to be actual change and efficiency gains they'd have to come up with a new strategy. It's something they figured out during the Regan administration and had to wait for Clinton to be elected to put into play.

There's nothing inconsistent about it, it's a matter of self interest. While it's terrible for the country, it's been a really long time since the Republicans were making any meaningful effort to improve things for anybody else. Ever notice how there's no money for education or the VA, but always plenty of money to start another war?

Re:Icrap is kid friendly

[Nerdfest]

It would be nice if they'd allow in one to help people learn to program. As far as I know Alan Kay/MIT's Scratch app is still rejected.

Been waiting for this

[deathguppie]

My wife is a speech language pathologist. We have talked about working on projects like this but haven't gotten around to it. I offered to help in an FOSS project that would have done something like this but ended up going nowhere. The only bad thing about this is that the company that produced this app will likely not be interested in making this app available for the cheaper android based tablets, and $200 is still a lot of money for todays middle class. The android tablets would inevitably make this more available to families without the money for an Ipad, but the whole package is still going to run more expensive than a lot of people will be able to afford.

But if anyone is interested in doing the programming I'm still up for doing the artwork, if there is enough love in the community to produce an app like this for free

Re:Been waiting for this

[jelizondo]

Darn! I lost the moderation I've done to reply

Anyway, I've been playing around with Android looking for a project, I don't want to waste my time doing the upteenth "fart" app; so I something comes up about your idea, I'm game to do the programming for free.

Cheers

Bureaucrats never surprise me...

[guytoronto]

I worked at a university in Canada during the rise of the iPhone/iPod touch. Kids (young adults) who were deemed to have a 'learning disability' could apply for funds to purchase technology that would assist them. One of the qualifying technologies was "a PDA, either Palm or Pocket PC device".

I assisted a student in completing a request for a iPod touch instead of either Palm or Compaq iPaq. The students request was denied because the iPod touch "could be used to play games or listen to MP3s".

It didn't matter that the Palm or Pocket PCs at the time could do that as well. They had already been "approved" for use.

Re:Bureaucrats never surprise me...

[Trepidity]

In these cases it's rules imposed on the bureaucrats. When national medical insurance programs started covering take-home "devices", there was controversy over whether that would mean that everyone would just get their doctor to prescribe them "home computer" or something. So to avoid supposed waste, there are rules (in both the U.S. and Canada) against the government medical services paying for consumer devices that have entertainment uses.

I can see why peopled wanted the rule, but it probably costs more than it saves, given how expensive the equivalent specialist devices are.

The Good and the BAD

[zeroRenegade]

My cousin has cerebral palsy, and I am amazed at her ability as a user of her iPod Touch. She has fully integrated herself into the world of social media, and as a result has made more friends who can seem to communicate with her more easily in the social media scene, than in a subjective and judgmental school yard.

Unfortunately, she also watches completely inane news videos online, which do nothing for her development. She constantly asks others to watch these horrible news clips. Her grandmother tells her that she "plugs in" or has "plugged in", whenever she puts her headphones in and becomes dead to the physical world. She hates when her Nan tells her this, and is very impatient with her Mom, brother, and others.

Re:The Good and the BAD

[robably]

People like you rot me, who take away from the significance of a comment by pointing out the obvious without regarding specifics.

The specific examples you gave and which he quoted are exactly as he says; a normal young adult being a normal young adult. His reply was also inoffensively humourous. Get off your high horse.

Re:The Good and the BAD

[robably]

Wow, you got off your high horse and found a giraffe.

The government has tons of stuff like that

[Sycraft-fu]

I work at a state funded university, so for the government even if slightly indirectly. I'm a salaried employee and while overtime isn't a normal part of my job, I am expected to work extra when needed. Yesterday I had to stay late to video a guest speaker, for example. However I am required to complete a time card every week. If I take any time off during the regular work week, I have to report it. I don't get to report time worked on the weekend or after hours, there is no OT or anything as I'm exempt, however I've got to report time off during the week.

The reason is because they have to carefully track vacation usage and all that. Unlike many professional jobs where you are given a certain amount of vacation per year and then expected to be professional about it and sick days (like if you have two weeks and need to take an extra day that's ok) we are tracked down to as precise as we are willing to report (values are reported in hours, with 6 digits of precision behind the decimal point). We have generous amounts of time off, but it is all tracked.

Why? Well to make sure the state isn't getting taken advantage of. It is supposed to make sure that there aren't employees who just never work and bilk the system. Ok... Except that it really doesn't. Your boss signs off on the time card so you could just claim you were "working from home" or whatever and if your boss says ok, then ok. All it really does is add a massive amount of overhead in terms of documentation and processing for all this. There are people at the university who's sole job is dealing with all the time reporting shit and there's lots of levels of bureaucracy in it (your boss approves your time, the payroll person then approves their approval, that gets sent off to the administrators and so on).

It's supposed to be to protect tax payers but I suspect it does no more than just having managers that watch over things do.

Re:Nothing new here

[Overzeetop]

Wow, that was USDA Prime troll right up until those last seven words:

"It is always the software that matters."

Bingo. I'm not an Apple fan. I haven't owned one of their computers since 1980. I hate working on a Mac - short of checking stuff on a browser, I won't touch one. But, damn it, the iOS interface is very simple and easy to use. I'm going to say it's not as good as what TiVo has come up with, but it's simpler.

It shouldn't be a surprise that kids with learning challenges find it useful - it can be effectively operated with practically zero experience or maintenance. Why do you think that all those iPhone users can do all that cool shit? Most are still using the DVD drive for a retractable cup holder.

As much as I hate to admit it, the interface - and to some extent the massive price drop (compared to a full-system T/S tablet computer) has vaulted these touch screen devices beyond the specialty market. The switch to capacitive screens was the last barrier. Freeing users from a stylus wasn't enough without making the entire paradigm finger friendly. What you give up in accuracy you gain ten times over in ease of use and convenience to the untrained.

Yes, but is it dishwasher safe?

[cherokee158]

My son is autistic. An ipad with this software would probably have been very useful for him when he was younger, and possibly even now...but only if it was built with mll-spec indestructibility. Special needs kids tend to have severe behavioral problems, and violent tantrums are not unusual. They need to be either tougher or cheaper.

And despite what many people seem to think, five hundred bucks for a gadget, and another 200 bucks for software, is not a trivial amount of money for a family with special needs kids. Having a special needs child almost automatically consigns many families to a single earner lifestyle, assuming their marriages even survive the experience. It always angered me that the 'poster families' the media chooses for its talk shows about special needs cases are almost always photogenic white collar folks whose biggest sacrifice is the extra money they have to spend to let specialists raise their children. If you visit a local meeting of whatever autism or other handicap support organization is in your community, I guarantee this is NOT what you will see. You will meet families struggling to keep their homes and their sanity in the face of impossible demands on their time, health and budget.

This idea is a step in the right direction, but the cottage industry that churns out all these developmental aids need to wake up to the true economics of their prospective customers.

Re:Yes, but is it dishwasher safe?

[domatic]

I'm in the same boat and just got the lowest model iPad and Proloque2go for my son. Our iPad in an an Otter Case. It is a thick plastic shell that is installed semipermanently on the iPad and even has a transparent cover for the touch screen that still allows normal use of the screen. It has already survived being thrown down on the floor once. I don't know if it is mil-spec or not but it will definitely take more abuse encased in this thing than not. So you might want to look into that.

I can also second the bureaucratic maze around all this. We've been turned down twice by the state for the approved $7000 dollar dedicated speech device. Apparently his verified diagnosis of autism and apraxia "does not merit" his getting that device. Bottom line is he is a nine year old who doesn't talk. We had to get the iPad and our county MRDD payed for the app. Since the iPad is general purpose they wouldn't pay for that but they DID get the app. The iPad, Otter Case, and app are around $700 all told. That is still a lot but beats the dedicated devices by a factor of 10. I hope it puts them out of business and that is because I've discovered that vendors of all manner of adaptive and educational materials have us over a barrel. What I half-suspect will happen instead is some bullshit patent or other IP lawsuit now that their nasty little jig is up.

And I hear you on the single income. I'm in THAT boat too for basically the same reasons. Hopefully we see something like this for low end Android devices soon. That could cut the price by at least half. I'd like to see these dedicated device vendors choke on that too.

And I too am frustrated by all the media coverage those well heeled enough to drop 50K/yr on therapies get. I have little doubt the outcome for my kid would have been a lot better if I could have afforded it. Let's see some coverage on those us who don't have a starter castle, two honking SUVs, and 50,000 more a year to spare just for specialized therapies.

The rise of the tablets ???

[Pieroxy]

"The rise of mainstream tablets"

Why can't we call the rise of the iPad "The rise of the iPad" ?

Re:Go Fuck Yourself

[jamrock]

My eldest niece is now 25 years old and suffers from cerebral palsy. It's easy to make fun of people with special needs, but it's an insulting slap in the face to their heroic caregivers. When I think about the endless love, countless hours of attention, and enormous amounts of money my brother and sister-in-law spent on their child and the heartache they endured, to have some smug, basement-dwelling maggot going for the cheap laughs enrages me to the point that I want to rip their eyeballs out through their assholes.

Oh, and fuck you too.

Re:Icrap is kid friendly

[johnlcallaway]

My kids could do that too when they were about that age.

20 years ago. Because they had parents that read to them every night and interacted with them.

If someone is saying the only reason their kids know these things is because of iPhones, iPads, or educational apps, I feel very sorry for them....