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Therapy: Helping Children Play
By: Jonathan Mummolo
Newsweek
"Four-year-old Mike recently sat down with his mom to
try out a new computer game. Narrated by colorful cartoon characters, the game
teaches kids about sounds that rhyme, barnyard animals and traffic signals. But
as Mike began to have difficulty, his mother sensed something was amiss. Not
because she thought the game was too hard, but because it is designed to screen
children for autism. "It looks like he may have a mild form of it," says Mike's
mom, Nicole, who asked that her last name be withheld because of her child's
potential condition. Her son's performance on the game prompted her to have him
professionally examined (as the game company advises with a poor score). "He
hasn't been diagnosed, but the specialist is pretty interested in his case," she
says.
The computer game, produced by the Baltimore-based company Learning for Children
and released this week, is one of a spate of high-tech toys being designed to
help treat—and in this case even screen for—developmental disorders. Since
disabilities can severely stifle social development in children, experts like
Daniel Bogen at the University of Pennsylvania say that toys can act as a social
lubricant for disabled kids who might otherwise sink into isolation.
An associate professor of bioengineering, Bogen has developed musical
instruments with motion sensors and error-correction software for kids with
cerebral palsy and brain injuries. The children will soon be able to operate
percussive instruments using an array of body movements—such as tilting one's
head or blowing into a tube—that trip special sensors. Bogen hopes to have a
performance band of disabled kids assembled by next spring. "We've put together
the system," he says. "But we haven't jammed yet."
Experts caution that the games—there is also one aimed at screening children for
dyslexia—should not replace traditional exams and therapy with a clinician.
Catherine Lord, director of the University of Michigan Autism & Communication
Disorders Center, is especially concerned with the prospect of home screening
products for autism. "I think that everybody can sympathize with a family's
impulse to try to get information themselves," she says. "[But] autism is a very
complex disorder."
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