Technology has a way of slipping from the sci-fi past into the present like Michael J. Fox’s Delorean in “Back to the Future.” Remember those sliding doors in Star Trek on the USS Enterprise? We take them for granted now. And every time I see someone open a cell phone and talk to someone, I expect to hear them say, “Call me, Scotty.” The day of live streamed video mail is coming soon, very soon. Every sci-fi movie I watched had someone talking to someone else from a TV screen and we all laughed, however today I heard that our IT department is providing standard built-in webcams on all newly released laptop models.
I had a real wide eyed moment today and I have to share it with you. I saw our doctor wave a Dr. McCoy-Star Trek type “tricorder” over my son’s chest. “What’s that?” I had asked. The doctor explained that he would “realign the electrical impulses that were out of sync so that his respiratory infection could heal.”
“Really?” I thought of myself. This was real. My son thought he was tickling him and the doctor did the treatment until the levels on his forehead showed that the body had recalibrated. Just when you think you’re mastering things, something new comes along and surprises you.
I am an assistive technology specialist. I see new things coming onto the market all the time. I have been following the research and development of mapping the brain’s neural network to identify the combinations of electrical impulses and frequencies that make up hand, wrist, and arm movements. There are studies going on right now on how to recreate these impulses in “bionic” arms that replace amputated ones. The research will allow our human brain to operate the new appendage through thought.
I was at a national convention this fall where I sat down and a gaze unit tracked my retina wirelessly from four feet away. As I looked around, the cursor on a large flat screen computer screen moved in the same direction. The cost was huge, but the technology was there for someone who is severely disabled and wants to access life through a computer. I’m sure I saw Tom Cruise do that in a movie a couple of years ago.
There is no longer any way that one person can know everything about any niche in technology. The world is becoming more and more specialized. We have specialized services within specialized niches that are in specialized markets of specialized companies. It can get pretty crazy. I have heard predictions that there will come a time when a person with my job in general assistive technology will no longer be able to be an assistive technology specialist. They will have to focus on one subcategory because the specialization will be very intense.
How does this apply to parents of children with disabilities? If you are a parent, you should know a couple of things:
1. You should be comfortable knowing that you can’t learn everything.
Don’t expose yourself to guilt and frustration over this fact. Just get an overview of the services and equipment your child may need. Be prepared to say “I don’t know, but I can find out.” That’s my biggest phrase. I have learned to find a needle in a haystack on the Internet when it comes to AT. I spend much of my time online researching equipment, treatments, therapies, or definitions and descriptions of medical disorders. Get ready to view the Internet as your best friend. There is so much information out there it’s amazing.
Most people hate wasting time looking for information. They want it done for them. If you have a child with a disability, start looking and asking. There are answers out there. I don’t even pretend to think or want to trick you into thinking I know everything there is. “All there is” changes every day. If I were to comment on physical and occupational therapy supports, new neurofeedback ADHD and seizure treatment for children using computer games and slot car race tracks, virtual reality simulation on TV with a Wii, etc, we would be here for the next 2 years, by which time 70% of what we knew would be obsolete and new technologies would have taken over.
2. There are new and limited possibilities for young children with disabilities.
Where we’re headed is going to be amazing. Textbooks need to be rewritten on how we serve children due to the impact of technology on all aspects of special needs education and service delivery. If you are a parent of a young child today, the advances in technology to support them will be incredible. It’s a good time to be alive. You have options that no one had before you. There is technology to support your child that is amazing. Take some time to find blogs, forums, and podcasts that talk about technology in education, assistive technology, and alternative medicine trends for neurofeedback. The technology associated with alternative medicine is gaining more respect as time goes by and shows great promise as it becomes a hybrid in collaboration with traditional medicine and treatment.
I imagine that by the time you read this, I will have to be writing a second edition. It’s okay. As long as I don’t expect to catch up, I can relax and find the things that work. That’s what serving kids with assistive technology is all about anyway. Find out what works to support children.
