5 ms·

Samsung Comes Out With App To Help Children With Autism

24 points by nabindust 12y ago

davidgerard 12y ago
Autism Speaks? Great choice of partner there.
kszx 12y ago
Learning to use facial expressions can be quite useful. It's similar to learning negotiation techniques and sales strategies. In this context, spending 15 minutes a day working on the ability to one's facial expression skills (Samsung app: even improve the daily performance in a "performance dashboard") is not necessarily a bad idea. However, it should be remembered that this is primarily about imitation. It is not about "self-expression". People do not move their position on the autistic spectrum by using this app. They just improve their ability to use facial expressions in the way that is expected by the surrounding society.
throwawayspeaks 12y ago
This is pretty dishonest, Autism Speaks is not an "organisation dealing with autistic children". Rather they are a hostile group which sees autism as a disease which further speaks the already horrible reputation of autism. For those who are unaware of AS's past here is a few sources to read.[1][2] Not to mention, the intellectually dishonest class act CEO of AS Suzanne Wright, had the audacity of repeatedly and unapologetically refers to autistics as "missing", "tragedies" "cause of divorce" and compares autism to cancer and being kidnapped[3]. Yeah sure, that's exactly what a suicidal 20 year old wants to be referred to by a organization called 'Autism Speaks'. It's like AS thinks they speak for all autistic people while at the same time, refusing hire any autistic people. As if being systematically called broken by my culture, to be referred as a freak by my family gatherings and to be assaulted at school because I didn't 'fit in'. This is my life and I can't change who I am, and to have such a disgusting fucking organization to trivialize my identity for a quick buck is disgusting. Fuck AS, and fuck anyone who thinks AS is a positive organization that is worthy of sponsoring. Fuck life. [1] http://www.wired.com/2010/10/exclusive-ari-neeman-qa/2/ http://www.wired.com/2010/10/exclusive-ari-neeman-qa/2/ [2] https://i.imgur.com/VPzlbHC.jpg https://i.imgur.com/VPzlbHC.jpg [3] http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/autism-speaks-washington-call-action http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/autism-speaks-was...
- withad 12y ago
  They also have a history of supporting dangerous and unscientific prevention/"treatments" for autism, including promoting anti-vaccine nonsense (http://autisticadvocacy.org/2014/01/2013-joint-letter-to-the-sponsors-of-autism-speaks/ http://autisticadvocacy.org/2014/01/2013-joint-letter-to-the...).
  - rdudek 12y ago
    Thank you both of you for the links. After reading up and doing a bit more research into this, I find AS to be a very dangerous organization. We have a 2 1/2 year old girl who has a significant delay in communication, everything else she pretty much excels at. We started speech therapy and she is definitely improving. We've asked the therapists about autism since we read quite a bit of scary stuff on Autism Speaks site. The therapists both stated that while she may have an issue that can be associated with the spectrum, they do not recommend labeling her as autistic. They did mention that some parents prefer the autistic label because that will open up more resources for them with local school districts which in a way, inflates the autism numbers.
gnufied 12y ago
Hmm, looks interesting. Eye contact indeed is a big problem with children who has autism and while they seem efficient academically, inability to recognise people (as in, treat people as people) is major problem. I wonder why they can't make the app available just on Google Play store though. 200 is a very small number and appears to be Canada only for now.
- nabindust 12y ago
  It will be soon available in google play store too
innguest 12y ago
I know little about autism so feel free to educate me if I'm wrong or inadvertently contributing to spreading misinformation, but this caught my attention, at 46:16 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjqrNPomIzg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjqrNPomIzg It's about how the amygdala is overwhelmed and certain sound frequencies can "wake" the child up.
Wildgoose 12y ago
My wife works with disabled children many of whom are autistic. Our son has Asperger's Syndrome and so is mildly affected by Autism. As a result, we have a lot of experience with interacting with people with Autism. Unfortunately you do also get to hear a lot of inaccurate rubbish, (e.g. from "Autism Speaks"). This app does look useful however. However I don't think that people with autism necessarily find it "difficult" to maintain eye contact, they just don't appreciate its requirement in order to interact with others. For those that do find it genuinely difficult then I suspect this may be down to it adding yet more information for them to deal with. The best description I have ever heard of for autism is to imagine you are a postbox, and people are posting letters for you to read. This is fine as long as the rate of such letters isn't too great. Once information starts getting posted too fast, stuffing letters in faster than they can be processed, then those with autism throw them all in the air and essentially "shut down". This may well also explain the intense "focus" that autistic people may have for things that interest them - they just discard everything else that is not relevant to what they are focussing on.

24 points by nabindust 12y ago

Autism Speaks? Great choice of partner there.

kszx 12y ago

Learning to use facial expressions can be quite useful. It's similar to learning negotiation techniques and sales strategies. In this context, spending 15 minutes a day working on the ability to one's facial expression skills (Samsung app: even improve the daily performance in a "performance dashboard") is not necessarily a bad idea. However, it should be remembered that this is primarily about imitation. It is not about "self-expression". People do not move their position on the autistic spectrum by using this app. They just improve their ability to use facial expressions in the way that is expected by the surrounding society.

throwawayspeaks 12y ago

This is pretty dishonest, Autism Speaks is not an "organisation dealing with autistic children". Rather they are a hostile group which sees autism as a disease which further speaks the already horrible reputation of autism. For those who are unaware of AS's past here is a few sources to read.[1][2] Not to mention, the intellectually dishonest class act CEO of AS Suzanne Wright, had the audacity of repeatedly and unapologetically refers to autistics as "missing", "tragedies" "cause of divorce" and compares autism to cancer and being kidnapped[3]. Yeah sure, that's exactly what a suicidal 20 year old wants to be referred to by a organization called 'Autism Speaks'. It's like AS thinks they speak for all autistic people while at the same time, refusing hire any autistic people. As if being systematically called broken by my culture, to be referred as a freak by my family gatherings and to be assaulted at school because I didn't 'fit in'. This is my life and I can't change who I am, and to have such a disgusting fucking organization to trivialize my identity for a quick buck is disgusting. Fuck AS, and fuck anyone who thinks AS is a positive organization that is worthy of sponsoring. Fuck life. [1] http://www.wired.com/2010/10/exclusive-ari-neeman-qa/2/ http://www.wired.com/2010/10/exclusive-ari-neeman-qa/2/ [2] https://i.imgur.com/VPzlbHC.jpg https://i.imgur.com/VPzlbHC.jpg [3] http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/autism-speaks-washington-call-action http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/autism-speaks-was...

withad 12y ago
They also have a history of supporting dangerous and unscientific prevention/"treatments" for autism, including promoting anti-vaccine nonsense (http://autisticadvocacy.org/2014/01/2013-joint-letter-to-the-sponsors-of-autism-speaks/ http://autisticadvocacy.org/2014/01/2013-joint-letter-to-the...).
- rdudek 12y ago
  Thank you both of you for the links. After reading up and doing a bit more research into this, I find AS to be a very dangerous organization. We have a 2 1/2 year old girl who has a significant delay in communication, everything else she pretty much excels at. We started speech therapy and she is definitely improving. We've asked the therapists about autism since we read quite a bit of scary stuff on Autism Speaks site. The therapists both stated that while she may have an issue that can be associated with the spectrum, they do not recommend labeling her as autistic. They did mention that some parents prefer the autistic label because that will open up more resources for them with local school districts which in a way, inflates the autism numbers.

gnufied 12y ago

Hmm, looks interesting. Eye contact indeed is a big problem with children who has autism and while they seem efficient academically, inability to recognise people (as in, treat people as people) is major problem. I wonder why they can't make the app available just on Google Play store though. 200 is a very small number and appears to be Canada only for now.

nabindust 12y ago
It will be soon available in google play store too

innguest 12y ago

I know little about autism so feel free to educate me if I'm wrong or inadvertently contributing to spreading misinformation, but this caught my attention, at 46:16 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjqrNPomIzg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjqrNPomIzg It's about how the amygdala is overwhelmed and certain sound frequencies can "wake" the child up.

Wildgoose 12y ago

My wife works with disabled children many of whom are autistic. Our son has Asperger's Syndrome and so is mildly affected by Autism. As a result, we have a lot of experience with interacting with people with Autism. Unfortunately you do also get to hear a lot of inaccurate rubbish, (e.g. from "Autism Speaks"). This app does look useful however. However I don't think that people with autism necessarily find it "difficult" to maintain eye contact, they just don't appreciate its requirement in order to interact with others. For those that do find it genuinely difficult then I suspect this may be down to it adding yet more information for them to deal with. The best description I have ever heard of for autism is to imagine you are a postbox, and people are posting letters for you to read. This is fine as long as the rate of such letters isn't too great. Once information starts getting posted too fast, stuffing letters in faster than they can be processed, then those with autism throw them all in the air and essentially "shut down". This may well also explain the intense "focus" that autistic people may have for things that interest them - they just discard everything else that is not relevant to what they are focussing on.