Whilst this solution may not be feasible, just listen to my suggestion. My brother is also autistic.
When he was 9, and i 6, we moved out, to a large(r) house, in the country, on a road with only 5 other houses. There are few cars that come up the road, and we have a large(ish) garden.
We used to simply keep an eye out for him, both me and my older sister. As we grew up, he learned what was dangerous, and what not to do...As any other child would after time. Believe me, it just takes time. My brother also went to a monday-friday residential school, this helped, and he has now left to an adult placement, which he can stay at all week, even though we like to take him out on visits at the weekends.
I know that this may not be an ideal solution, but believe me, it's the only solution, nothing technological will beat it.
He now uses my computer, and he has learnt "i don't go into control panel, and i dont touch which i don;t know what they do"
Just try getting your other kids to help with him. And i know exactly what you mean by their smartness, after around a week using my computer, he discovered many things i didn't know!
I am also in school, in the uk, and my school seems very similar. They have recently started purchasing laptops for the staff. They haven't been given any training though, and few teachers know how to use them. There isn't even any software that would be useful in a classroom, no programs for taking registers, recording marks, lesson planning etc. and they run a limited account on windows XP pro, so no more software can be installed without getting one of the incredibly useless tech support staff, who spend more time downloading film trailers and wasting internet bandwidth than actually doing tech support. My mother bought her own laptop (she isnt high up enough in the school to be provided with one yet) and although she is not very computer literate to my standards, she is miles above many people in the school. A lot of the people provided with laptops never use them, and although she finds her laptop incredibly useful, she is only using horrible microsoft office software, which she (and me) have spent hours configuring to allow her to easily put a tick when a pupil is in school, setting up registers, etc. My point is this - The teachers do not have the faintest idea how to use computers - the resources are fine in the school, we have around 150 computers for 1000 pupils, and around 50 of them are new this summer, duron 1.2GhZ, running windows and office 2000.
In order for computing to be useful, the staffing needs to be better. Not the software, not the hardware but the teaching. I regularly outsmart my IT teacher...like when he was telling us the specs of the new computers, and told us that they were p4's, when they were durons, and had 256kb of ram...
well i actually am being that annoying person with only 1 pci slot free... 6 PCI slots in total, 1 with network card, One With 2nd ancient graphics card, one with modem (more than 5.5km from exchange and no cable, doh!), Tv card, and Sound Card. Also have extra USB ports over the ISA slot. I have a completely non integrated mobo (abit KT7A), so all of these are neccesary (except possibly the 7yr old graphics card, but its useful!). Not Sure if i would be too happy having to sacrifice my only free slot...and possibly overheat something...also the tv card is awfully fat...
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When he was 9, and i 6, we moved out, to a large(r) house, in the country, on a road with only 5 other houses. There are few cars that come up the road, and we have a large(ish) garden.
We used to simply keep an eye out for him, both me and my older sister. As we grew up, he learned what was dangerous, and what not to do...As any other child would after time. Believe me, it just takes time. My brother also went to a monday-friday residential school, this helped, and he has now left to an adult placement, which he can stay at all week, even though we like to take him out on visits at the weekends.
I know that this may not be an ideal solution, but believe me, it's the only solution, nothing technological will beat it.
He now uses my computer, and he has learnt "i don't go into control panel, and i dont touch which i don;t know what they do"
Just try getting your other kids to help with him. And i know exactly what you mean by their smartness, after around a week using my computer, he discovered many things i didn't know!
I am also in school, in the uk, and my school seems very similar. They have recently started purchasing laptops for the staff. They haven't been given any training though, and few teachers know how to use them. There isn't even any software that would be useful in a classroom, no programs for taking registers, recording marks, lesson planning etc. and they run a limited account on windows XP pro, so no more software can be installed without getting one of the incredibly useless tech support staff, who spend more time downloading film trailers and wasting internet bandwidth than actually doing tech support. My mother bought her own laptop (she isnt high up enough in the school to be provided with one yet) and although she is not very computer literate to my standards, she is miles above many people in the school. A lot of the people provided with laptops never use them, and although she finds her laptop incredibly useful, she is only using horrible microsoft office software, which she (and me) have spent hours configuring to allow her to easily put a tick when a pupil is in school, setting up registers, etc. My point is this - The teachers do not have the faintest idea how to use computers - the resources are fine in the school, we have around 150 computers for 1000 pupils, and around 50 of them are new this summer, duron 1.2GhZ, running windows and office 2000. In order for computing to be useful, the staffing needs to be better. Not the software, not the hardware but the teaching. I regularly outsmart my IT teacher...like when he was telling us the specs of the new computers, and told us that they were p4's, when they were durons, and had 256kb of ram...
Also, for a list of UK Cd's, There is the UK campaign for digital rights, with their list of cd's at the Campaign for digital rights
well i actually am being that annoying person with only 1 pci slot free... 6 PCI slots in total, 1 with network card, One With 2nd ancient graphics card, one with modem (more than 5.5km from exchange and no cable, doh!), Tv card, and Sound Card. Also have extra USB ports over the ISA slot. I have a completely non integrated mobo (abit KT7A), so all of these are neccesary (except possibly the 7yr old graphics card, but its useful!). Not Sure if i would be too happy having to sacrifice my only free slot...and possibly overheat something...also the tv card is awfully fat...