One push of the icon showing a crying face, and a voice comes out of the iPad saying, “I’m sad.” Touch the icon that shows a smiling face, and the iPad says, “I’m happy.”
This and other apps featured in iPads are being used by the autistic program in the Bayonne School District to help kids to express their feelings when they might not be able to otherwise.
“Many autistic children struggle to express how they feel,” one of the visitors at Woodrow Wilson School said on Feb. 15, during a brief presentation in the school gym. At the presentation, a gift of two iPads was given to the district by the City Council and Mayor Mark Smith to help with the autistic program.
In December, when the school district began its campaign to ask the state to restore school aid to the district, several parents associated with the autistic program spoke about the need for iPads and how much they aided students who struggled to communicate and had other learning disabilities.
“When we heard the parents, we decided to get together and purchase an iPad for the program,” said Council President Terrence Ruane.
About two dozen people joined members of the City Council and school officials in the gym last month to receive the gift and to learn more about how these devices will be used.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patricia McGeehan said the district has assembled about 27 iPads that will be issued to the students for study at home and in school. These come with a special nearly indestructible frame.
“When parents speak up in favor of our program, we know that we are going in the right direction,” Dr. McGeehan said.
Autistic program runs through the school district
The program is present in two elementary schools – Woodrow Wilson and Washington Community. It’s the middle piece in a comprehensive series of programs in Bayonne that help autistic kids in pre-school to high school, and even somewhat beyond.
For pre-school kids, Bayonne has the Busy Bee Center for Children with Autism, located at Bayonne Medical Center, an early intervention program that is about seven years old. This is a cooperative effort of the City of Bayonne, the Bayonne Board of Education, and the Simpson Baber Foundation.
Autism impairs brain development in the areas of social interaction and communication and impacts 1 out of every 100 children. Symptoms could include inappropriate play, extreme social withdrawal, intense discomfort with new situations, people, or surroundings, preoccupation and fixation, or behavioral problems. Autism is a nightmare for parents, Marguerite Baber said, because children don’t follow the usual progression one would expect. Caught up in their own mental loop, autistic children do not develop in the natural way, learning lessons from experience the way most children do. They can learn and develop, but often it is a time-consuming and very frustrating effort.
“A huge feature with these iPads is being able to create a new type of learning environment for students.” – Karee McAndrew
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These iPads provide specific applications
Karee McAndrew, a technology coordinator for the school district, said, “All the app[lication]s on the iPads were selected by myself, the administration, and the teachers. Many of us have gone to various workshops where different applications were demonstrated so we were able to apply those apps to the grade/age appropriate users.”
She added, “Also, there are two applications that I found that are specifically used to help people in education find applications for specific skills and content areas. One is the Autism App by www.TouchAutism.com. Their app has a database where all apps they have selected are broken down by category such as social skills, articulation, case/effect, etc., and it finds an application for a specific skill you are looking for.”
The school district’s iPads look different from those used by the general public, because these incorporate a protective frame.
“With all of these hand-held devices, you need some sort of protective casing,” McAndrew said. “There are hundreds of products on the market that claim to protect the device from being dropped or sat on. I have tried several, but the district administration and myself felt the BIG grips option was the best for the classes at Woodrow Wilson. They are very light and colorful, so you can spot the devices quickly when children in multiple places throughout the classroom, and they are also soft and easy to grab and hold on to, which mean fewer slips, drops, and tumbles, and plenty of cushion just in case.”
These iPads also come with special desk stands, so the casing around the device fits snugly and can be held upright.
As coordinator for the project, McAndrew is the person who installs and updates the operating systems, applications, and such so that all of the devices have the same look in the field. She also trains the staff for small group instruction.
Some features of a typical iPad, such as web access and iTunes, are turned off. Teachers got a chance to work with the devices for several weeks to get used to them and to determine which apps they wanted or didn’t want.
“A huge feature with these iPads is being able to create a new type of learning environment for students,” McAndrew said. “In all areas of learning, the iPads and computers have assisted in creating a more virtual classroom. In the area of special needs, the iPad also creates a more socially acceptable way to create a communication device for children and adults with disabilities.”