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I wonder if you could use a program like this:
http://www.vnisoft.com/?http://www.vnisoft.com/english/LEBP.html
Which is designed for teaching people English by clicking on pictures. Since you can use your Touchsmart screen in place of a mouse, it might just work.
You should look around for other English language teaching software to see if there's something that meets your needs.
Hi there you clever developer people,
I have a disabled son who has no speech capability, and cannot use sign language. He can however use his fingers to play some simple games on our touchsmart, our primary reason for buying it was the hope that it would allow him some interaction with our other children through games.
I would love to build a communication program for him, in it's simplest for it would consist of a number of tiles with pictures of familiar objects linked to sounds eg: picture of Dad when pressed would say Dad, and so on for other pictures, maybe even simple phrases. Unfortunately my experience of coding is limited, But I can create forms in VB.net easily enough.
Any Ideas help pointers to other resources very welcome.
Ian
January 10, 2009 5:45 PM
January 10, 2009 7:42 PM
Thanks Technabob, I have ivestigated teaching tools before and although useful in many situations are not exactly what I am after, It is unlikley that he will ever learn language as we know it, he certainly will not speak. It is more a tool that allows him to choose what he wants to communicate through pictures, for instance if he is hungry he may choose a picture of his favourite food and we will know what he wants, so the ability for me to add pictures and sounds is vitally important, I don't belive the code will be particularly complex, but it is unfortunately beyond me.
Ian
January 10, 2009 9:24 PM
My child has multiple disabilities and has had a lot of success with SmartBoards in school. I was thinking of buying the touchsmart and loading the smartboard (smarttech) software onto it. I do know of someone who did just that with a tablet so I figured, it would work on the touchsmart as well. It's worth investigating in any event.
-LMP
January 10, 2009 9:31 PM
anderson62 said: Thanks Technabob, I have ivestigated teaching tools before and although useful in many situations are not exactly what I am after, It is unlikley that he will ever learn language as we know it, he certainly will not speak. It is more a tool that allows him to choose what he wants to communicate through pictures, for instance if he is hungry he may choose a picture of his favourite food and we will know what he wants, so the ability for me to add pictures and sounds is vitally important, I don't belive the code will be particularly complex, but it is unfortunately beyond me. Ian
Well, if there aren't a ton of images and the sounds could be pre-recorded, it seems like something that could be easily built with Flash. How many images and sounds are you thinking about having in the program?
January 15, 2009 9:43 AM
I saw a news segment a couple of days ago that featured using a Touchsmart to help teach autistic kids. They had one kid that wouldn't communicate with anyone and when they put him on the Touchsmart he quickly found a way to communicate. It was on an NBC news segment. Not sure what types of programs they were using if any. Might want to look into it tough.
I agree that a flash app would be the easiest way to set up what you are talking about. Maybe even Gamemaker or something like that. http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker .I used to play around with gamemaker to make games for my then toddler nephew and we had a bunch of fun. It was easy to make simple little story games that you would move along by clicking on an image of as puppy or bird or whatever. I do have coding experience but you don not need to know code to use gamemaker. You can save the game or app or whatever you created to one single executable file.
I may break gamemaker back out and see what kind of apps I can make for touch. Thanks for reminding me.
January 16, 2009 6:14 AM
Thanks for all the replies, a freind of one of my children has started building a program for me. i'll let you see it when tis finished
Ian
January 21, 2009 12:45 AM
I think this is such an important topic. It's important for many people with disabilities. I would love to see TouchSmart technology expanded into so many places. This technology can help people who have trouble learning how to use a pc. I have a friend who works with lots of disabled people and I know if they had TouchSmart, it would help so much.
February 4, 2009 2:10 PM
I'm a school psychologist.
I brought my own TouchSmart PC into work for a few days and worked with some students with severe autism. I was very happy with what the results. The students responded well to the SmartNotes application.
My colleague, a speech/language therapist, also enjoyed working with the TouchSmart with her students. She is the assistive technology and aug com consultant for our school district and thinks that the TouchSmart PC has a lot of potential.
Regarding the TouchSmart Notes application, a missing feature is the capacity to import previously created digital photography and video clips. If the TouchSmart Notes had this feature, it would be easier to convince the school district to purchase TouchSmart PC's for use with students with special needs.
I have a huge library of digital video and digital pictures for creating digital story-telling activities, as well as for video modeling and social stories. Much of the content is directly related to the students and their activities. Some of the content was obtained during trips to various places in the community, like the mall, the library, and the post office. So you can see that adding an import feature to TS Notes would really be a plus.
I can program a bit using C# and WPF. All I need to do to transform the Notes application is to create a way to import digital pictures and video clips into the notes, so I'm not limited to what we photograph or video right infront of the computer. Is any other developer working on something like this?
My impression is that we really can't "mod" or hack into the existing TS programs, although it is tempting. I don't think I need to create a new program from scratch to get the functionality that I want.
Lynn
Lynn Marentette
Seeking Sustainable Innovation
February 4, 2009 4:15 PM
Technically you could recompile parts of the TS software and add functionality to it. It would require a fairly in depth knowledge of .NET and the question would be if it is worth it? Maybe you should just ask the HP developers to add it to their list. Maybe they need a thread pinned on these forums for wishlist/bugs. Anyway, I'm not going to explain how to do it because I'm sure Geek would probably blow a gasket but it is technically possible. Right now you would have to start from scratch and create your own application for the functionality you are after.
February 4, 2009 11:31 PM
I've forwarded the request for importing videos and pictures to the people more involved with the Notes program. If someone wants to recompile the Notes program, I'd be curious to know how that turns out.
February 5, 2009 5:48 PM
Don't know if it's an issue but I noticed that the photos created in the Notes app are stored as bit map files (.bmp). If the Notes app isn't set up to handle jpeg files for any reason that might need to be another request.
Will
February 23, 2009 11:12 PM
Ian, please keep us posted. I am trying to figure out how to do the same thing for the same reason. I know it can be done!!!
February 24, 2009 9:52 PM
Ian,
I've found it. This device cost $1300 but you know that's alot cheaper than any electronic augmentive device out there. It was made by a parent that has an autistic son. Check it out if your friends program doesn't work how you wanted. www.cyranocommunicator.com You can read about the man who sells it at www.nationaltechcenter.org/index.php/2007/10/04/ray-schmidt/
I don't know how well this works or anything about it except it sounds like what your looking for.
I was thinking about putting an electronic photo album togeter and maybe even using a camcorder just to get the voice on and shoot 5 sec movies instead of pic. But I think I'm going to try the cyrano.
December 2, 2009 1:01 AM
I think Microsoft Powerpoint would be a great tool for you to use as a platform for clickable photos for your son. It supports sound, photos, even videos, and is fairly easy to learn. You can download sample presentations as a starting point and modify them to suit your needs.
I just bought a TouchSmart for a similar reason. My 72 yr old mom has macular degeneration (low vision). I plan to use some text-to speech software, as well as a few other applications.
AB
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