Treating Asperger’s syndrome in children with technology

Asperger’s Syndrome is diagnosed as a developmental and communication disorder, akin to a milder form of autism. Children suffering from this condition would usually experience delays in social reasoning and maturity, even if they have advanced intellect.  They would find it difficult to interpret emotions and exhibit the same in front of others. They would also find it difficult to make and maintain eye contact with others, often shying away from speaking to others or rambling on about a single topic even if no one wants to hear about it.

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Thankfully, technological advancements in the field of medicine have given rise to several applications that can help these children learn social cues and language as well as improve their communication skills.

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Social Stories

These are available as apps for iPads, smartphones and iPods. They are scripts aimed at helping children who have Asperger’s identify and respond to social situations effectively. The stories would help these children learn how to compliment others, how to carry a conversation forward, how to respect other people and their boundaries and how to resolve fights, conflicts, etc.

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Practice

Also available for iPod Touch and iPad, these apps would let the concerned child to practice his/her conversation skills with another simulated child. The app would mimic whatever the child says and teach him/her to ask questions in addition to also teaching him/her good conversation habits.

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Checklists

These apps are programmed to sound a beep whenever the child encounters a social situation that requires a response from him/her. The apps run on iPads and iPods, prompting the child to ask questions, be more observant or simply pay a compliment. The apps can also store information pertaining to specific slangs and expressions the child has difficulty mastering.

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Emotions

Developed by the Yale Child Study Center for Autistic Disorders in conjunction with the University of Victoria, “Let’s Face It” is a simple app designed to help children with Asperger syndrome. The app helps these children recognize face patterns and emotions in order to make and sustain proper eye contact with others. The children can play games aimed at improving face recognition skills on the app in order to understand these nuances better in real life.

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Social Connecting and Communication

Plenty of online websites cater to children with Asperger syndrome. In addition to having plenty of activities and games aimed at improving social skills, these sites would also be visited by other people suffering from the same condition. Children with Asperger syndrome can then meet and communicate with each other over the internet in order to help each other out.

Summary

Asperger’s syndrome would make it difficult for a child to recognize facial emotions. This would in turn make it difficult for him/her to act accordingly in a social situation. These technological advancements would surely help such children improve their social skills to feel accepted by the other more intuitive children around them.

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