Comics Are a Great Development Tool for Autistic Kids

Since I posted my piece on iPads and Autism a couple of weeks back, I've had many emails from parents and professionals telling me about the different tech and non-tech therapies they have used to support the learning and development of their children. It is great to see the critical thinking approach so many of us are applying to our world to determine what works best and will be most suited to our children or ourselves.

It is also encouraging to see there are a number of research projects exploring touch technology and emerging digital tools' impact and relevance to the lives of children with a disability.

Interestingly, I have had a lot of feedback from parents of children with autism sharing about just how valuable they have found comic books for their children. And, simultaneously Bill Zimmerman of makebeliefscomix.com (who we wrote about over a year ago) made contact to say that he has had many parents sharing with him the value they find in his site. He was able to share some of these from parents who eloquently explain the value of comics in supporting children with autism who learn visually, to build an understanding of emotions and to develop social stories which help children learn and prepare for activities and engagement.

One parent who has used Make Beliefs Comix said:

As the mom to a little boy with autism, I just wanted to thank you for your free MakeBeliefs Comix. I don't know whether you know much about autism, but in very general terms, lots of these kids are extremely visual learners and they are a bit blunted in their ability to recognize how others around them are feeling.

Another related:

I use PowerPoint to make little 'social stories' for my son … on a regular basis, as I've found that humor and visuals can really reach him. Sometimes my little stories are about not leaving the backyard … other times, they introduce new vocabulary words and are about cowboys whose horses get stolen so they are reduced to riding cows! Whatever is needed, I produce.

At any rate, a friend just recommended your MakeBeliefsComix site and it's like Santa came early! The fact that the characters look charming, one can customize the conversations, AND that there are various emotions shown make this a site I'm going to recommend to all my fellow special-needs parent friends.

It was worth highlighting this comic strip tool again because several parents have indicated to me that comics are another great low-tech tool to use with children with autism (of course it won't be right for all kids) and Make Beliefs Comix is a free tool accessible to anyone with a window to the web.

There are so many great web-based tools; if you know or use any others, let us know in the comments section.