Kids With Autism Love This Software

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Not really the latest news, but interesting anyway http://www.newsweek.com/id/179952/page/1

jim smith

Thanks for the link. I have designed several group homes for a local organization that provides care for autistic kids and young adults. I forwarded the Newsweek article to the director and volunteered to help set up a program to teach GSU. Should be interesting. I will let you know how it goes.

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You know Jim, as a mental health professional I am engaged on a daily basis in overcoming the difficulties of living with various disorders, and what is even worse, the profound experience of rejection and discrimination which, of course, is the consequence of stigma.
Therefore I am more than glad to see that there are people like you, willing to help some of them, even in this, somewhat unexpected way - using our favorite piece of software.
And yes, I´ll be very happy if you let me know how it goes.
I hope that our fellow members won´t mind my little digression.
Cheers!

jim smith

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You know Jim, as a mental health professional I am engaged on a daily basis in overcoming the .
And yes, I´ll be very happy if you let me know how it goes.
I hope that our fellow members won´t mind my little digression.
Cheers!

Just thought I would give an update. The group home director has finally approved installing GSU for the residents. He had heard about GSU but was not aware that they could download a free version. I will be doing some tutorials with the staff and residents soon. I will let you know how it works out.

Mike Lucey

Great stuff Jim Please keep us posted on your work. If my memory serves me correctly, Tom Wyman of GSU has a special interest in this field of work and a lot of experience. I'll shoot him the link.

Mike

KXI System

Its nice to let kids try this software...

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Thanks for keeping us informed, Jim!

bjanzen

Thanks, Jim!!!

I don't normally hang out in the Corner Bar (your joke inserted here), but another Googler pointed this out to me. I'm normally on the LayOut forums and handling Mac questions, but I also work with Project Spectrum (http://sketchup.google.com/spectrum). If anyone is doing this kind of work or if you're interested but don't know where to start, please don't hesitate to give a shout out.

Barry

jim smith

@bjanzen said:

Thanks, Jim!!!
......If anyone is doing this kind of work or if you're interested but don't know where to start, please don't hesitate to give a shout out.

Barry

Barry,
thanks for the link to spectrum and thanks for your taking time to help kids. I looked at the videos and followed the other tabs and think this will be an excellent help for the new program my friends are working on. I will be forwarding this to them today and will keep you posted on how it goes.

Thanks again

Jim

bjanzen

Jim et al -

As an FYI, we did a seminar at the University of Utah this past week-end for SketchUp and Autism. You can see some of the details at http://www.fcs.utah.edu/.

On another note, HBO is showing the movie "Temple Grandin" this month. Temple has stopped by our office and given us feedback on SketchUp, and if you watch the movie and read her books, you'll see why she gets SketchUp and sees potential for kids and adults on the Autism Spectrum.

b

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Thanks for the link.
SU is a powerful tool which gives them an opportunity to "talk" - it is very well recognized that most autistic people have remarkable visualization skills, as opposed to poor verbal ones.
Thanks again!