`iheal` will give students with autism better ability to

bridging the gap
‘IHEAL’ WILL GIVE STUDENTS WITH
AUTISM BETTER ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE
by ELIZABETH M. STEIF
L
HEAL President Alan
Pickert and HEAL
Treasurer Vic Johnson
TPC Sawgrass General
Manager Bill Hughes
and First Coast News
Anchor
Patty Crosby
12 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2013
| FIRST COAST REGISTER
eslie Weed wants to give kids with autism the power of communication
by putting iPads in ESE classrooms around Northeast Florida.
Weed, who founded HEAL (Healing Every Autistic Life) in 2004, saw
the benefit of the technology when she bought an iPad for her daughter Lanier, who is nonverbal and profoundly affected by autism. With the iPad,
Lanier could communicate with her parents, siblings and teachers.
“She could speak to us through this,”Weed said.“When you’re teaching
a child with autism, there’s a disconnect in communication, and the iPad
eliminates that.”
Because of autism’s effect on her fine motor skills, Lanier can’t use sign
language or hold a pen or pencil, but because of her iPad,“her teachers were
astonished at how much she knew,”Weed said.
The Weeds downloaded hundreds of pictures, everything from images of
the beach to basic needs like a toothbrush to everyday images like “Mom’s
car,” and Lanier could use those images to “speak” to her family and teachers.
Weed donated an iPad to Lanier’s classroom at the time at Ocean Palms
Elementary, and it’s become a center for the students, she said.
Now she hopes to raise enough money through HEAL to eventually put an
iPad in every special needs classroom in St. Johns, Baker, Clay, Duval and Nassau counties, as well as Camden County in Georgia.
“The need is unbelievable,”Weed said, pointing out that there are nearly 50
classrooms in St. Johns County alone that would benefit from having an iPad.
The project, iPads Helping Enrich Autistic Lives, doesn’t have an exact price
tag yet, but efforts are already under way to raise money for the initiative.
In September, HEAL held the Bobby Weed-Jack Ingram Charity Golf Classic at TPC Sawgrass, with more than 300 people in attendance at a special
concert by Ingram.
The Players Championship and the Nimnicht Family of Dealerships sponsored the event.
“The Players is a proud supporter of HEAL and is honored to present this
year’s event at TPC Sawgrass,” Matt Rapp, executive director of The Players,
said in a news release.“… Together, we can help bring new learning opportunities to those with developmental disabilities through the touch of an iPad.”
At a cost of nearly $500 each, though, getting iPads for every classroom
in every county is a long-term goal. More immediately, Weed said, HEAL will
work with school districts to identify the classrooms in schools with highest
need and start there.
“If I could get an iPad to all of these teachers, I would be so happy,”Weed
said. She hopes to present the first donations in December or January.
As a parent, Weed said, it’s “unbelievable” to watch the students work and to
see how quickly they pick up the technology. When a teacher is giving a verbal command to a student who might not be able to process the words, the
frustration “is over the top” for both the teacher and the student, Weed said.
But the iPads don’t create the same demand — if a student gets something
wrong, he or she can simply start over and try again.
With the iPads,“kids have control. They’re in control of this life they don’t
usually have control of,” she said.“They’re heroic to get through every day in a
classroom when there is so much going on.”