iPads May Help Boost Speaking Skills in Kids With Autism: Study | WPN World People News

Adding access to a computer tablet to traditional therapy may help children with autism talk and interact more, new research suggests.

The study compared language and social communication treatment -- with or without access to an iPad computer tablet -- in 61 young children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and found that the device helped boost the effect of the treatment.

"All the children improved, but they improved more if they had access to the iPad," said expert.

The children used the iPad when they were engaged in play, expert said. "It focused on helping them initiate conversation, using the iPad to comment on what they were doing. The iPad worked because it is a visual stimulant with auditory feedback," expert explained. For instance, children would mispronounce a word, hear it pronounced correctly on the iPad, and then learn to say it correctly.

But, expert emphasized, "The iPad is just a tool." It worked because it was used within a treatment aimed at helping improve the children's communication skills.

Autism spectrum disorders are a group of developmental disorders. Communication and social problems are hallmarks of ASDs. As many as one in 68 U.S. children has an autism spectrum disorder, according to estimates from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children in the study were between the ages of 5 and 8. All were considered "minimally verbal," which experts define as speaking fewer than 20 functional words. "The majority had far fewer." About 30 percent of children with an autism spectrum disorder are minimally verbal, expert said, sometimes even after years of treatment.

For the first three months, all of the children received two sessions a week, totaling two to three hours a week. At the three-month mark, nearly 78 percent of children in the iPad-added group had an early response, but just 62 percent of those in the group without it did, the investigators found.

An early response was defined as an improvement of 25 percent or more in half of the 14 measures, such as the number of spoken words and the use of new words.

If a child was not progressing at the three-month mark, the researchers added the tablet. But adding it later was not as effective as using it from the start. The researchers followed the children for three years.

"The idea of technology being used to help children who really need different approaches is so important," expert said. It's crucial, however, expert agreed, to understand that the iPad "was simply a tool" and that it was an adjunct to the traditional interventions that aimed to improve communication and other developmental advances.

The researchers are continuing to study the iPad, planning to enroll about 200 children in four cities during a planned five-year study.

If the research continues to bear out, the hope would be to use the iPads in school programs and to train parents in its use at home, both experts agreed.

Source: HealthDay News