Assistive Technology

One of the IDEA disabilities under the umbrella of the autism spectrum is Asperger syndrome which a high functioning form of autism. It is often difficult to diagnose this form of autism because these individuals tend to have a higher form of communication skills than the average person with mainstream autism. Asperger syndrome is also difficult to diagnose because the person also tends to be very intelligent and smart, and one might not think to investigate if they have autism at all; however, their social skills are usually lacking as is true with traditional autism. Persons with Asperger's also tend to suffer from high anxiety and depression as well as autism because of the lack of others to understand their underdeveloped social skills.

One assistive technology that may help the Asperger patient is an iPad or tablet, or a laptop computer. Like most persons with autism, computer communication is preferred to face-to-face communication. The Asperger student may wish to receive school assignments by email which may actually reduce anxiety by helping them to remember the assignments since they are in writing. Also, they may feel more comfortable communicating with teachers by computer. There is an organization based at OSU called Assistive Technology of Ohio which offers great resources for persons with this type of disability.  The website at www.atohio.org helps individuals with disabilities to get assistive technology equipment like computers and tablets at a deep discount.

There is also a very good You Tube video by a very informative young lady named Chriselle G. Ly titled, "Three Apps for Anxiety and Depression". In the video, Ms. Ly gives the names of three very helpful mobile applications that she has utilized to help with her own anxiety and depression. The link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2MH0122EXI . Mobile apps are especially good because most students have cell phones with them all of the time and can therefore utilize the applications whenever they need them. The three applications that Ms. Ly mentions are:

Pacifica
http://www.thinkpacifica.com

Buddha Board
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/buddh...

Louise Hay Affirmation
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/louis...
I feel that there will be more effective and accessible mobile applications in the future as well as improvements made with computers and tablets. Computers and tablets are being made smaller with more memory and speed.  Additionally, it is difficult to keep up with all of the different mobile applications being created. It has been estimated that 91% of the U.S. population owns cell phones, so the mobile application future looks very bright.

References:
http://businessdegrees.uab.edu/resources/infographic/the-future-of-mobile-application/
www.atohio.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2MH0122EXI
http://www.thinkpacifica.com
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/louis...
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/buddh...