Reach Out and Touch Something Besides the Computer Screen

Sometime in March, something clicked and Charlie, after years of hand-over-hand prompting and getting nowhere efforts, learned to use the computer mouse. While I acknowledge that, even in this 21st century day and age, life goes on without the computer (these two gentlemen’s companies to the contrary), Charlie’s recently acquired ability to point ‘n’ click has made it possible to consider more and new ways to help him learn to read, comminicate (via typing, one hopes), and much more.

Two years ago, we purchased a touchscreen and Charlie had some very occasional successful moments of pointing and dragging (it was particularly difficult for him to figure out the right amount of pressure with which to press on the screen). He has now been beating the clock while doing online jigsaw puzzles (he often chooses puzzles with those creatures who, in real life, he is very wary of: “man’s best friend“); Charlie has been working on the typing at school with his OT. I have been curious to read some of the fanfare surrounding Microsoft’s new surface computer which, as this Popular Mechanics video suggests, is like a touchscreen computer on steroids.

The cost, if you were wondering, is projected to be $5000-10,000. The designers on the video speak, rather head-spinningly, of “ubiquitous computing” and imagine environments where the very wallpaper is an interactive display; where every surface is a sort of “ultimate unloosable remote control.”

I know that technology has made much possible for Charlie and his learning. If we are ever in need of a picture for a flashcard or for Charlie’s picture schedule, I can simply go to Google images, find a photo of a scooter or whatever, download it, resize, print it out—-rather than combing through magazines and catalogues and ads for just the right picture, or having to wait until something I have ordered comes in the mail: This is a small matter, but small things often count for much in our days with Charlie. And so, along with his newly acquired mouse skills, I am glad that Charlie has a true liking for running his feet and fingers in the pine needles in the front yard and, soon enough, in the sand and spray on the beach, and being in the interactive setting of outside, of “non-virtual reality.”