Can technology be helpful for someone on the spectrum? Here is one dad’s perspective.

By Alex Kocan

Technology plays a substantial role in everyone’s modern-day lives. Cell phones, tablets, computers, and laptops have become the preferred mediums for communicating, seeking information, and pursuing entertainment. This is no different for adults and children with special educational needs.

Putting aside the changes it has created within society, technology has influenced my son’s educational and emotional development, as well as his social life, in a positive manner.

A technical brain

My son, Thomas, has always had a technical and logical brain like his grandad. He used to enjoy observing Grandad fix electronic items, such as computers, televisions, and the electronic components inside our boiler, for hours, watching and chattering away.

Grandad was a registered plumbing and heating engineer. Thomas is genuinely interested in technology and wants to educate himself about how things work, and more importantly, how they can be fixed, which they often need to be.