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Hm. A friend of mine has an autistic son who uses his iPad, but I didn't realize there were apps like that to help autistic children! That is definitely a plus and if I had an autistic child, that makes me more interested in buying one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aklapps
my husbaand and i bought our 7 year old son an Ipod touch when he was 6 we did not buy it new we bought it off of craigslist and got a good deal on it, it was as much of some of those kids friendly ipods at toysrus, we have all the internet blocked and where he cant buy anything, so i say it is ok for kids to have that stuff but you have to put some rules down like we have that he can not take it outside if he takes it with us when we go it is always in my purse if he is not using it, and he has only one place he has to put it at home when he is done and if we find he doesnt put it back he gets it taken away, and that apps on them are great even my 2 year old knows how to work mine and loves to play all the games on there.
This is more of my mindset I guess. It's not that I'm entirely against it, but I do know people who always buy brand new devices. I by used or refurbished for myself and my daughter will get the same. BUT she will also get it when I feel she's old enough and can take care of it.
This pretty much sums up my feelings about the subject. I'm all for making use of technology, but it seems weird giving a young child their OWN iPad or computer. At least in my opinion. If you had an iPad or computer that was for the whole family to use, that would be different.
nana053, just out of curiosity, what are some of the specific apps your grandson uses? Any particular one that is the most helpful for him?
The first one we got is seriously expensive. It is called Proloquo2go. It has a lot of options and is pretty easy to use. His OT has put things on there that he has trouble with. His motor planning skills need lots of work. He can, for example, dress himself, but he has trouble figuring out when the shirt is inside out and what to do about it, so she put pictures on the app that help him with that. We also need to get him to use complete sentences and that is easy with this app as well. It cost $200, but was well worth it. There are other less expensive apps for speech, but we felt this one was the best.
He has been reading for a long time, but he always had trouble answering questions about the story (he needs to be able to do this in 1st grade), so we have some stories he can read and answer questions on. That is a free app called First Grade Reading and Read Me Stories
Then there are social story apps which help him figure out what to do - Model Me Going Places has social stories about going to the doctor, the dentist, the barber, etc. For a child with anxiety about all these places, it is great.
I already mentioned Conversation Builder which his speech therapist uses with him. That one was around $6.00
For writing, we have ABC tracer. It allows him to trace the letters with his finger in both capital and lower case. He can write most of his letters, but he has trouble with lower case. That one was cheap or free, I can't remember.
We also have Talking Roby which repeats whatever he says to it. This one is more entertainment than anything else, but he hears his words back in a robot voice.
There are lots of educational apps, but we haven't gotten many because he is advanced in academics really except that he can't communicate about it easily. There's one for telling time we have, but he hasn't really used it.
I LOVE his IPad. We do NOT, btw, have the 3G, just wifi and we don't usually go online with it at all. I get the apps by dling and buying the apps and then syncing the iPad to load them.
Our 8 and 9 year old boys have their own desktops and laptops. I wouldnt buy them their own ipads though.. but then again, I refuse to buy any apple product...lol.
This pretty much sums up my feelings about the subject. I'm all for making use of technology, but it seems weird giving a young child their OWN iPad or computer. At least in my opinion. If you had an iPad or computer that was for the whole family to use, that would be different.
nana053, just out of curiosity, what are some of the specific apps your grandson uses? Any particular one that is the most helpful for him?
I get my kids their own bike and a few other toys but everything else is shared. They can use the family computer and television but for safety reasons and just being able to know where they are, I get them tracfones.
I don't believe in promoting the cell phone addiction that you so commonly see. I see it in the workplace - more and more people are unable to concentrate on anything but their cell phones, it's like they'd go into withdrawals if they can't have their cell phones at least on vibrate so they know when they get the next meaningless text message.
Two years ago I bought my kids, then 8 & 10, cell phones for christmas. It is mainly for situations when I want to make sure they can contact me in a hurry, or simply contact me. They have a few friends with cell phones and do a little bit of testing, but most times the phones are forgotten. Kids just turned 11&13. Maybe my math is off or years off....lol.
Anyway, this summer my son mentions that one of the local private schools is going to get rid of text books and issue iPads for school instead. So my husband and I decided to do the same for our homeschooling. We have not completely done away with text books and worksheets, BUT the iPad is an incredible tool.
A year ago the kids traded in all their old nintendo games and handhelds for some brand new DS's. Four months later my son dropped his outside, forgot it for a week in the grass and rain and ruined it. So, we bought our daughter a new one and she graciously gave him her "hand me down". We did not run out and buy him a new one.
Anyway, I like being able to provide my kids with the latest and greatest, but I try for balance. The ipads have ONLY educational apps on them, and the kids have to ask us permission to use them when we aren't doing school.
Our 8 and 9 year old boys have their own desktops and laptops. I wouldnt buy them their own ipads though.. but then again, I refuse to buy any apple product...lol.
why do they need both? Can they not put the lap top on the desk and use it there?
Two years ago I bought my kids, then 8 & 10, cell phones for christmas. It is mainly for situations when I want to make sure they can contact me in a hurry, or simply contact me. They have a few friends with cell phones and do a little bit of testing, but most times the phones are forgotten. Kids just turned 11&13. Maybe my math is off or years off....lol.
Anyway, this summer my son mentions that one of the local private schools is going to get rid of text books and issue iPads for school instead. So my husband and I decided to do the same for our homeschooling. We have not completely done away with text books and worksheets, BUT the iPad is an incredible tool.
A year ago the kids traded in all their old nintendo games and handhelds for some brand new DS's. Four months later my son dropped his outside, forgot it for a week in the grass and rain and ruined it. So, we bought our daughter a new one and she graciously gave him her "hand me down". We did not run out and buy him a new one.
Anyway, I like being able to provide my kids with the latest and greatest, but I try for balance. The ipads have ONLY educational apps on them, and the kids have to ask us permission to use them when we aren't doing school.
but you still made sure he had one to play with How is he supposed to learn a lesson from that?
why do they need both? Can they not put the lap top on the desk and use it there?
Do you ever let your kids have things they don't need?
Not everyone limits their family to just the absolute essentials.
We have lots of things we don't "need". We don't need:
-music lessons
-sports camps
-cookies
-cable tv
-any computer
-a swimming pool
-a large house
-more than one car
-restaurant meals
-jewelery
-makeup
-entertainment of any sort
I would venture that most of us have more than one item on my list. Yet we don't need them, we want them. What I would like to know is whether you truly limit your family to only what you need? Or do you allow yourself things that you like and consider useful, but don't really need? If so, why question other people about what they need?
It's fine to have an opinion and to say that you don't want to have both a laptop and desktop, but trying to tell people they shouldn't have something because they don't "need" it is sort of silly. Nobody really needs a computer of any sort. Yet we have them.
Just to add my two cents: I don't think access to (expensive) technology at a young age is inherently good or bad. DS3 loves the preschool apps on DH's IPad and can already navigate his way around my laptop to have access to his Sesame Street learning games. It's actually kind of amazing the amount of learning material that is out there. I also agree that this generation of kids is going to be expected to be tech-literate at a young age in a way that past generations were not.
That being said, we don't plan to get him his own computer or IPad or whatever anytime soon, based on financial considerations and his age (we don't think he's old enough to be asked to be responsible for his own expensive piece of tech). Currently, he uses our things under supervision. As he gets older and demonstrates an ability to not lose of break electronics, and when and if a need arises (like for school work), we'll consider on a case-by-case basis. We also aren't going to park him in front of a computer or video game for hours anymore than we'd park him in front of the tv for hours. It's all about the balance.
I guess my overall perspective is moderation in all things and common sense that fits with your parenting style.
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How is he supposed to learn a lesson from that?