Why I created the Viz Kids app

Hi all, this blog post is a personal account as the title suggests. If you're looking for more information about communicating with visual supports or about how to use the Viz Kids app, there are entries being posted each month. This post is about my personal journey from not understanding children with autism to having a deep respect for them, and why it led me to become a special education teacher and creator of Viz Kids.

In 2020 we found ourselves in a pandemic, and like many I was reevaluating how I would spend my time once the lock down was lifted. I was a work-from-home software developer, but I desperately wanted to have wonderful relationships like I had earlier in my career as a caregiver and teacher. I decided to learn sign language with the idea that I would adopt a Deaf child. How exciting would that be! A child that I can care for and share a secret language with appealed to me deeply. But seeing that the adoption process was going to take awhile, I decided to return to the classroom in the meantime. 

Instead of teaching English at a high school, I decided to try out a special education pre-k class. To be honest, the thought of working with children with autism concerned me. I had a difficult experience in the past because I did not know how to connect with the one child with significant autism that I knew, and I had heard that children with significant autism don't want to connect with others in general. It's sad how ignorant I was at the time, but I went into the classroom with optimism, hoping that I could give great care to the children, practice sign language with them and then move on once I adopted.

Gratefully, I loved being with those little four-year-olds! So much energy. So little inhibition. Humans at their rawest. It was exactly what I needed to get out of my post-pandemic funk. I was having a great time, and more importantly, I had a mentor who was teaching me how to understand these wonderful children. Learning about theory of mind, executive functioning and sensory differences was fascinating, and being able to apply this understanding each day and hone my skills was rewarding. There was one aspect to autism that stood out to me the most -- communication.

When I look back, I was always drawn to people with communication differences. I was a caregiver for a nonverbal child who was quadriplegic. He used his eyes to say yes and no. Beyond that, it was the nuances in his facial expressions and demeanor that I needed to observe closely. I taught immigrants who could not speak many words in English. We had to find ways to understand each other. I was learning sign language with the hopes of adopting a Deaf child. And now, I'm communicating with children with significant autism using visual supports!

Using visual schedules, visual choice boards, visual boundaries, visual everything was new and exciting. I was amazed with how well the children and I were able to communicate. But there was something off. Not with the children -- or me -- but with the technology. I came from the software world that was on the cusp of AI, and I was coming to a world of laminated clip art and velcro. What?! Why not smart apps? Why not an app that you can just talk into and get visual supports on the fly? And so, I made Viz Kids. It has helped me and many of my colleagues, and my hope is that it helps families who struggle to communicate with their child. Please read my other posts to learn more about visual supports and the Viz Kids app. 

Before closing, I want to say that children with autism can be very loving and empathetic. They want to connect -- and can connect -- when you have a better understanding of each other. Beyond the immediate, specific ideas you communicate through the Viz Kids app, I hope that it helps you and a nonverbal child connect more deeply.

Best, Luke



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