If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn… In January 2011, Gary James, the father of 6 children, 2 with Special Needs, decided to set up a web-site to help other parents like him who were interested in using the Apple iPad as an educational and development tool for children with special needs.
The site shows videos of Apps developed or suitable for special needs children being demonstrated so that the community of parents, educators and professionals get the opportunity to see an app in action before parting with their money. The iPad’s interactive interface is an ideal device for those with communication difficulties and in refining fine motor skills.
In less than 8 months, a4cwsn has become a phenomenon in the world of special needs with almost 6,000 followers on facebook, and through his unique concept of App Parties, which bring developers and the special needs community together, has created a social network and now a charity in which the Developers and the special needs community not only support each other, but raise tens of thousands of dollars to fund iPads for parents who could otherwise not afford them.
Gary hosted his third App party from September 30th – October 2nd, which brought Developers and the special needs community together in an event that raised thousands of more dollars to support a4cwsn.com’s campaign. The campaign is very close to reaching its goal of giving an iPad to a child with special needs in each of 50 States.
James said
This will not only help 50 deserving families, but raise awareness about the use of this technology as a key tool in improving the education, communication and motor skills of children with special needs
Some of the developers and companies donating to the Campaign and participating in this event were.
123 Number Fun Party Ltd, 404 Software, Aardwearing Software, Ablenet, Acceptional, App Books, App in a Box, AppGrade, Artgig Studio, Auryn Inc., Autism Classroom, Autometric Apps, Big Grips, BinaryLabs, Blue Quoll, Brain Integration, Brain Parade, Busy Bee Studios, Callaway Digital Arts, Cambridge, English Online Ltd’s Apps, Close to Home Apps, Daley & Co, Dash & Ditto’s Playground, Dr Mark Bowers, Enabled Games, eReading books, Extra Smart Apps, Extra Special Kids, Foundations Development House, Gateway Black Inc, Generator Learning, Giggle Up Pty Ltd, Go Go Mongo, Good Karma Applications, Grembe, Grids Interactive, Griffin Technology, Gundrop Cases, Handhold Adaptive, iBallz, ICON LLC, idevbooks, iMagine Machine, iModeling, Jelly Biscuit, Jellybean Tunes, Jungle Education, Kelly Jarris, Kidimedia, Kidoodle Apps, Kiwa, Lantelligence, Learning Touch, Lil’ Hoot Owl, Lillie’s Pad, Little Bit Studio, Loud Crow Interactive Inc., Magine Machine, Marware, Mighty Kingdom, Mindshapes, Mobile Education Store, Moving Into Writing, Moving Tales, MugTuk, Nannek, Nigel Green’s Apps, Nosy Crow, OceanHouse Media, Over The Moon Stories, Oz Apps, PicPocket Books, Project Injini Child Development Games, Punflay, Red Piston, Reks, Ruckus Media, See Here Studios LLC, Silverkite, Software Smoothie, Sosh, Spaceboards, Speak in Motion, Splash Math, Study Pad, Super Duper Apps, Tactus Therapy Solutions, Tenlin Studios LLC, The Binary Family, The Conover Company, Think Legend, Timagine, Tizio BV, TouchyBooks, Tridentcase, Treasure Kai, Wasabi, WeAreFaces, Ximad, zbobapps, ZincRoe , ZooGue
Apps for Children with Special Needs (a4cwsn) is committed to helping the families and carers of children with special needs and the wider community of educators and therapists who support them, by producing videos that demonstrate how products designed to educate children and build their life skills really work from a user perspective. Their aim is that these videos, along with relevant information and advice from an independent source you can trust, provides valuable insight into whether a product is suitable for its intended purpose or not, enabling sensible buying decisions to be made. They hope this site and its content provides a valuable resource to the community that serves our precious children with special needs. Please let us know how we can improve the service we offer, or indeed how you can help us to do a better job, by emailing Info@a4cwsn.com
The a4cwsn.com community has been in existence for about 9 months, and it’s associated facebook page enables parents, educators and professionals to communicate with each other about any and all types of issues concerning their children and Special Needs.
