Disabled Kids Use Computers To Learn, Grow

February 20, 1989|By John Lucadamo.

Joel, a good-natured 2-year-old wearing a red-and-white striped polo shirt and red overalls, is sitting on his mother`s lap in front of a computer screen. Before him is a special keyboard with the alphabet and pictures representing each letter.

``I think Stickybear wants some cake,`` instructor Jim Gill said.

Joel looks over the keyboard and punches the letter ``C`` with his hand. Stickybear gets his cake and appears to eat it, too, on the computer screen.

Shortly after he was born, Joel Jacobson contracted meningitis, which affected a part of his brain that controls motor movement. Joel cannot roll over yet, but his mother, Teri, said his physical therapist expects that he will be able to soon. His power to think and understand is excellent, Jacobson said.

In most parts of their lives, children like Joel have little control or real choice. A computer can change that.

``To make things move on TV-it`s really empowering for a child with limited movement,`` said Gill, a Compuplay instructor at the National Lekotek Center in Evanston, which works with disabled children and their parents.

``If we`re doing the ABCs, he can make them dance,`` he said. ``The ABCs don`t rule the child. It`s what technology can do for kids.``

The computers and most of the programs for Compuplay are bought off the shelf, but the means of access to the computers are modified so a physically handicapped child and his parents can participate. There are 11 sites nationwide, including suburban Rolling Meadows and Franklin Park.

Introducing young, handicapped children to computers gives them the ability to communicate with the world, said Sheila Morrison, a special-education teacher at Evanston Township High School, who is in charge of its special education computer laboratory. ``I think it`s one of the great effects of technology.``

``We try to give them that and show parents how important that is,``

said Mary Trieschmann, director of Innotek, which includes Compuplay and other programs where technology is used to help handicapped children. ``We don`t tell them what their child can`t do.``

Lekotek began in the 1960s, when Swedes adapted toys so children with an array of handicaps could use them and control parts of their lives. Lekotek is a coined word in Swedish meaning ``play library.``

The concept was brought to Evanston in 1980 by Sally deVincentis, a special-education teacher and now executive director of the center. The family-oriented, nonprofit agency has since expanded nationwide with 50 sites. After receiving a foundation grant, the Evanston staff looked beyond toys and saw computers as adaptable to the Lekotek philosophy. In 1984, Compuplay was begun.

Joel and his mother have been going to Lekotek in Evanston`s Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., since he was about 9 months old.

Since they started in Compuplay, the Jacobsons have bought a personal computer and adaptive equipment. ``We`re doing everything we can at the present time to make his life better for him,`` his mother said.

At first they played with toys, which have traditionally been at the core of Lekotek. He started using a computer last May when he was about 18 months old.

``Everyone thought he was so smart. He really likes the computer,``

Jacobson said. ``He has something he can control.``

The new board Gill put in front of Joel has household items such as a stove, television, bathtub, table and playpen. Joel is shown a toy bathtub and punches the picture of a bathtub, an old-fashioned claw-footed one, and the tub begins to fill up as a computer-produced voice intones, ``Bathtub.`` Joel gets a little squirmy as the bathtub stays on the screen.

Then Gill placed a small, blue plastic table in front of Joel. The table on the computer board is brown, is covered with a table cloth and has a vase with flowers on it. Despite the differences, Joel picks out the table. ``It`s the concept he shows us,`` said his mother, who was clearly pleased.

Compuplay has space for about 15 families in each of its six-week sessions. The charge is $75, and scholarships are available, Trieschmann said. Lydia Orso, 11, has been going to Lekotek for about a year. ``One of the main reasons is she has computer class at school. I want her to beef up her skills,`` said her mother, Linda Orso.

``I want her to live as independently as possible.

``That`s what I like about Lekotek. They don`t let children become dependent,`` Orso said. And Lydia, looking away from the computer where she is playing a game called Dragon`s Keep, said, ``I like it. I like playing games.`` Lydia has Down`s syndrome.

Later, Jim Gill switched to a new program called Talk Writer, in which the computer reads back what is typed on the screen. Lydia types, ``Hi Jim. You are my pal. Be my Valentine.``