

Samsung Comes Out With App To Help Children With Autism - nabindust
http://www.techerina.com/2014/12/samsung-comes-out-with-look-at-me-app-to-help-children-with-autism.html

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throwawayspeaks
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-
was...](http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/autism-speaks-washington-
call-action)

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withad
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...](http://autisticadvocacy.org/2014/01/2013-joint-letter-to-the-sponsors-
of-autism-speaks/)).

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rdudek
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.

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kszx
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.

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Wildgoose
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.

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gnufied
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.

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nabindust
It will be soon available in google play store too

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davidgerard
Autism Speaks? Great choice of partner there.

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innguest
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.

