60 Minutes Revisited

I had blogged earlier when the 60 Minutes was shown recently with the interview with Steve Jobs and then a segment talking about children with autism communicating through I-Pad apps designed for this purpose.

There is now someone talking about "another side" of this.

Bil has always been verbal (although he didn't talk until he was nearly 5) but he has never evinced an interest in computers.  I've tried to go online with him and he really wasn't interested.  I even tried taking him on the Weather Channel website.  He loves to watch it on TV but on the web - no interest.

So it is certainly a myth that all people with autism love computers.

Nor does Bil's mom have an I pad or even an ereader.

I wish there was a way to give Bil the gift of easy communication.  Although he is verbal he can't sustain a conversation for more than a few words, even on a subject  of interest. (He will basically blurt some fact like "The Mets won last night" and that's about it.)

Although-would we want to hear what he would have to say to us if he could be helped by an I Pad app?

Bil and Computers

Bil does not use the computer.  I once encouraged him to go online with me, several years ago.  I showed him the Weather Channel site, hoping it would spark interest.  Although weather is a special interest for him, he wasn't interested in any type of interaction online. 

Seems there is quite an online community of people with autism-writing blogs, journals, you name it.  Many people with autism, apparently, take to the very visual media of the Internet, with little need to worry about committing a faux pas.

I wonder if Bil has any interest in communicating like that-all I had shown him was websites.

I don't know if it is worth it to try or not, in all honesty.  It will be enough trying to work our way through all the other issues we will have to face with him (and are starting to face.)  I don't know where to start.  Or if it is worth starting.  The one computer in Mil's house is upstairs next to her bedroom.  It is territory he does not enter unless she asks him to help i.e. bring up laundry or do some other chore for her.

Then it is right back to his little room in the finished basement.  If we bought him a computer I fear it would be a new object.  We've seen how he reacts just when an old beloved clock radio or air conditioner dies and we have to replace it.  It's a major event.  So....maybe not.

We will be seeing Bil later this month, when he comes up to visit with him Mom and sister in law.  And maybe he'll be staying with his other brother next year if my mil visits family in Florida.  Maybe I will bring my laptop to one of these and test the waters.

Is it bad to want to broaden his horizons?  Is it some kind of judgment at the hands of a well meaning neurotypical in law?  Or...is there someone trapped inside that mostly expressionless shell, begging to be let out and be heard?  And no one hears because we don't know how to listen?

Maybe we will never know.

My Brother in Law, Computers, and the Virtual Weather Channel

Several years ago, I tried showing my brother in law the Weather Channel website, and some other things online.  He didn't seem to be that interested, but nothing says I can't try again one day.

I have to find some way to help broaden his horizons, so he can learn more about life and be able to make informed choices for himself.

My mother in law does use a computer but she has never owned a really good one - and her most current one needs to be replaced. So my brother in law has not had much exposure to them.

I found today a virtual Weather Channel HD studio tour.

One day I'd like to see if I can interest my brother in law in this.  But then I think about him using sites like Facebook and I shudder a little.  Introducing him to computers would be one complicated thing.

But maybe one day.

I may write about this topic of computers again sometime in the future.