Using the iPad to Connect

The Wall Street Journal turns its attention to parents using iPad and iPad apps to educate and communicate with special needs children. Shannon Rosa, an advocate and writer whose nine-year-old son, Leo, has autism and uses an iPad says, “It’s portable and something he can carry, and yet it’s large enough to be accessible. There’s no cursor analogy he has to work through; it’s a direct connection.” Holly Gray, whose daughter, Caleigh, has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, uses an app that speaks the words associated with pictures she touches on the screen. Says Gray, “We’re not having to fight to prove to people that she is a smart little girl anymore, because it’s there once they see her using the iPad.”