iPods for ASP Cebu

JCI Philippines recently donated iPods to the Autism Society of the Philippines (ASP) chapter in Cebu. The iPods donated came with the Proloquo2Go software, an assistive technology software that works in devices such as the iPod. It's feature set is specifically designed to help people having difficulty talking to 'speak' through the software's interface. User's click on the icons and the softwares speaks for them through the device. This promising piece of technology will be specially helpful to people with Autism who are non-verbal.

If you not familiar with JCI Philippines, you may know them by their more popular and longstanding name. They used to be called the Philippine Jaycees. The Jaycees have been doing a lot of community work as far back as I can remember. I'm glad to see that they are participating in the cause to help people stricken with Autism. For the full news feature, you can go here: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/community/view/20100501-267477/Autism-Society-Cebu-gets-iPod-donation.

Online Autism Conference

My wife emailed me about this online virtual conference and I'd like to share it with you.  MomsFightingAutism.com organized this conference for April 10-11, dubbed Things to Know About Autism. There will be 16 speakers who will give a variety of talks on a range of topics including new therapies, education and autism awareness.

Talking for the keynote on April 10 Temple Grandin. Dr. Grandin is a noted autistic who is an accomplished author and a valued resource speaker of the Autism community. Her works include books like The Way I See It and Thinking In Pictures: My Life With Autism. She will be talking on Teaching Through Specific Examples and The Importance of Sensory Processing Disorder. Dr. Grandin will also be sharing about her successes in life despite her autism. Dr. Grandin's life had been featured recently in an HBO film, with Clare Danes playing her.

The keynote for April 11 will be by Jeremy Sicile-Kira. He will be presenting Learning With Autism: A Personal Viewpoint, mostly about his personal experiences and therapies that had helped him. Jeremy was featured in the MTV show True Life's "I have Autism" feature. Jeremy's mother, Chantal Sicile-Kira, is also an accomplished author who's penned several books on Autism and her experiences as a parent.

To participate in the virtual conference, register at
http://www.momsfightingautism.com/virtual-autism-conference/register/. The same page also hosts a short video on what participants can expect from the speakers in the conference.

In addition, you can also download 2 free webinar episodes, Autism 101 and Effective IEP Strategies, if you sign up for the Moms Fighting Autism newsletter.

Matthew's Computer

Last Sunday, the wife and I went out to buy a computer table. I've been planning to revive an old Dell I had laying around and repurposing it to be an all-around computer for the kids. My son has simple needs. He has great fun playing the games included in Child's Play and Gcompris. Well the wife and I ended up buying a cheap computer table from Saver's Mall in Balibago.

After I got home, I immediately started working on the machine. I had a little trouble getting it to work but I eventually managed to get it booting again. After I got it working I tried a live linux distribution. These have an advantage over installed versions, since an operating system running from a CD can't be modified like one that is installed. I tried Fedora 12 Games, but it was just too slow. I tried another linux distribution, called Linux Mint 8. It booted a lot more faster than Fedora, but it still took 8-10 minutes. I could just imagine my son jumping in anticipation only to get tired before the machine had fully booted. He's a little hyper over waiting time and jumps excitedly at times. I tried another one called  DreamLinux. I had been able to run 3.1 before on this same machine and it worked okay. DreamLinux didn't have any games on the Live version so I had to install it. I used the latest version,  DreamLinux 3.5. The computer was having problems booting into it so I gave it a rest.

The next few days I spent trying all sorts of tinkering on the computer to make it work. I decided to try an old Edubuntu CD from 2006 that I had lying around. for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Edubuntu is a version of Ubuntu that is packaged with educational software with games and applications for both educators and students. Good thing is it's packaged with games even for pre-schoolers. I have to download them though because these were optional applications.

I finally had it booting but I was disappointed becaused it had too few games that would suit Matthew. The problem is the servers for this older version are already outdated so I wouldn't be able to download more games even if I wanted to. I'm now downloading the latest DVD version of Edubuntu, plan to install it, test it and download more games if there aren't that many on there by default. Wish me luck :-)

Web Browser for Children With Autism

One of the things that has always amazed me in the open source development circles is the rise of grassroots developed applications. Users who are capable of programming often develop applications because they need them to do specific tasks and behave the way they want them to. They then share them to others so these apps can be debugged or improved.

Another source of great software applications would be individuals who want to create something for their loved ones or for causes. One such piece of software would be the Zac Browser. It was created by a grandfather who wanted to help a grandchild with autism browse the web safely and independently. The Zac Browser helps autistic kids focus their attention by using a simplified interface. It protects them as well by limiting their exposure to inappropriate content, filtering out any violent of otherwise disturbing content. The sites have been pre-selected by the developer and is updated regularly. The best part of it is that it is free to anyone who would want to try it.

I discovered this little gem while browsing for news about autism. AP featured it in a news article. I posted a video featuring the Zac Browser below:





The Zac Browser can be downloaded as an installer package or a "just run" no-install package. It works with Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows 98.