Catching Up With Google's SketchUp

Besides the interview with outgoing Autism Speaks Executive Vice-President Alison Tepper Singer over the issue of vaccine research, there's another January 16th article by Claudia Kalb about autism. You could say that it's really about autism (vs. about, "the v word") and specifically about (1) teaching what might become job skills for individual on the autism spectrum and (2) providing a medium through which individuals on the autism spectrum can "express their ideas in a visual way."

Kalb writes about a Google software program, Sketchup, which enables users to draw lines and shapes with a few maneuvers of the computer mouse, and then, via a "Push/Pull" tool, to turn those lines and shapes into 3-D figures. Users can readily design rooms, houses, buildings, and other structures. After hearing numerous positive reports from parents of autistic kids, Google created Project Spectrum, which partners SketchUp with the Boulder Valley School District and the Boulder chapter of the Autism Society of America, to provide autistic children and teenagers with the software.

As for why kids on the spectrum may be intrigued by this program (including my own not-too-interested-in-computers son; more on that below)----the ability of autistic individuals to "think visually" is noted.

Studies show they perform exceptionally well on the Block Design Task, part of a standard IQ test, which assesses an individual's ability to recreate a complicated red and white pattern using a set of red and white blocks. "They're able to mentally segment the design into its component parts so they can see where each block would go," says Ellen Winner, a professor of psychology at Boston College, something non-autistic kids have trouble doing.

I downloaded SketchUp after reading the Newsweek article. Charlie uses computers some at school but he has a blasé indifference to computers, video games, and the like so I was not sure how interested he would not, or would, be. I downloaded the SketchUp software onto my laptop and told Charlie what it was (and became aware, that SketchUp sounds like one of Charlie's favorite condiments). I clicked on the first video and Charlie, who was sitting beside me on the couch, turned his head and frowned with concentration. The video (with a somewhat mechanistic voiceover) was full of lines and colors and shapes, some of which, with a pull of the mouse, metamorphosed into full-blown blocks and boxes and buildings and a dream house or two and a solar system.

Much was made of the potential for SketchUp to provide a means for kids on the spectrum to express themselves visually. Charlie only watched for a minute and then got up and proceeded to get his green and blue backpacks, a large yellow and a smaller blue fleece blanket, his two Leapsters, the Leapster case my parents gave him, and various other items and arrange them with (as the photo above suggests) a certain sense of order, of color, shape, and (as)symmetry, of his own design.

I'll let you know if we get anywhere with SketchUp.