OTHER TOOLS: high-tech toys & gadgets

Digital Cameras

Digital Cameras are Good for Kids Who Need Help With:

• Completing tasks with many steps (working memory)
• Keeping belongings in order (organization)
• Dealing with obstacles, setbacks, new information, or correcting mistakes (flexibility)
• Developing better self-awareness and social thinking (metacognition)

What You Need to Know About Digital Cameras:

The digital camera has many accessible features unavailable in the analog 35mm camera that can be helpful in supporting, practicing, and developing critical thinking and self-management skills.

Features That are Most Useful for Practicing Executive Functions:

• Cropping/Editing features
• Video capabilities
• User-friendly functions
• Moveable viewfinder
• Large memory capacity

How Digital Cameras Can Be Helpful for Your Kids:

• Easy, at-home printing allows kids to utilize photos as reminders for daily tasks.
• Instantly available viewing of photos allows parents to show examples to the child of how their child might appear to other people.
• Digital memory allows users to edit and delete photos with ease. Children with learning and organizational deficits can use this tool as an effective means of practicing critical thinking skills.

Digital Cameras Help Yours Kids With Working Memory:

Digital Cameras are good for kids who display difficulty completing tasks with many steps, because they can:

• Use pictures as reminders for easily forgotten tasks. For example, when getting ready for school, many things must be accomplished to be ready to leave for the day. These might include eating breakfast, brushing teeth, remembering homework, or packing a lunch. Taking photos of each of these tasks can serve as good visual reminders of what your child needs to remember to do each morning.

Talking Points:

• What would you take pictures of to remind you about your morning routine for getting ready for school?
• How can you use pictures and other visual reminders?
• What are other ways you are reminded about necessary tasks throughout the day?

Making It Real:

Take pictures of each step in a complex activity. Print these pictures and place them so that your child can look at them while working on the activity. This will help to remind your child of things he/she might forget. For example, if your child continues to forget to put homework in his/her backpack, place a picture of a homework assignment in a backpack next to where the child completes his/her homework.  Other tasks for using digital visual reminders would include taking lunch to school, chores, and hygiene concerns.

Digital Cameras Help Yours Kids With Organization:

Digital Cameras are good for kids who display difficulty with keeping things in order, because they can:

• Create visual reminders to stay organized. For example, your child can take pictures of necessary items for a sports or athletic bag and use this to remind him/her what to bring in order to be prepared for the activity. The child might take pictures of things such as a water bottle, a baseball mitt, a change of clothes, cleats, and other items required by the sport. Other examples for which your child may need to prepare could include music lessons, sleepovers, or even long car rides.

• Another example of this strategy is organizing a dresser. The child can take pictures of each type of clothing and tape it to the outside of the corresponding drawer. Make this fun and creative by having the child take a picture of his/her craziest pair of socks, favorite shirt, or most comfortable pajamas to remind him/her where they belong. 

Talking Points:

• How can pictures help you to be more organized?
• How else could you use visual reminders to help you be organized?
• What are some good methods of organization that you use in other parts of your life?

 
Making It Real:

Have your child take pictures of related objects or scenes for each school subject and place them on the front of each school folder. Half-inch laminated binders work best for this because pictures can easily be placed on the front of the binder. Examples of this would be a picture of a microscope for science, a dictionary for English, or a bullfight for Spanish class.

Digital Cameras Help Yours Kids With Flexibility:

Digital Cameras are good for kids who display difficulty with revising plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information, or mistakes, because they can:

• Take photographs without consequence. Digital memory gives you the freedom to take many pictures and delete the bad ones without having to pay for them. This feature can help facilitate the learning process in children. The trial and error involved in taking digital pictures allows the photographer to assess what is good and what is bad about a given picture and change aspects of the shot to make it better.

Talking Points:

• In what ways can you change the photograph with editing software?
• How does being able to take many photos and delete the bad ones help with producing the best photo possible?
• What are some other activities in which it is good to try out a lot of things and then select the best?

Making It Real:

Have your child take two pictures of the same thing but with different attributes (angle, lighting, color) and determine which aspects worked better for each picture. Also have the child take many pictures of the same thing to find the best image. The ability to compare two pictures at a time helps your child figure out what works and how to adapt to make the picture come out the way he/she wants.

Digital Cameras Help Yours Kids With Metcognition:

Digital Cameras are good for kids who display difficulty with developing self-awareness and social thinking, because as a parent, you can:

• Record events and snapshots of your child’s experiences. These photos can provide visual reminders of success, happiness, and frustration for your child. This tool can be effective in helping your child understand how he/she appears to other people,and to get your child to understand him/herself better. Showing your child pictures of him/herself interacting with other people can help the child to develop a self-concept more congruent with reality.

Talking Points:

• What kinds of emotions do you think it would be helpful to see yourself display?
• How does it help you understand yourself better to see pictures of yourself when you’re angry, sad, or happy?
• How can thinking of how you appear to other people help you to control anger or other emotions?

Making It Real:

Have your child review pictures of him/herself exhibiting strong emotions (rage, temper tantrums, excitement). This will be more helpful if the pictures represent your child in a variety of situations. Examples of this could be of the child’s personal success (scoring a goal in soccer or getting an A on a test) or of the child at a party with friends. These pictures can help your child be more reflective and recognize how he/she exhibits his/her emotions.