The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Video games offer hope for autistic children Posted: 06 Mar 2014 11:29 PM PST It is a small but significant reaction that experts say shows how children with autism can benefit from playing some computer games. The Steuart W. Weller Ashburn Elementary School in Virginia is one of the specialized centres in the United States testing Microsoft's popular Xbox game console, equipped with "Kinect." With Kinect, launched by Microsoft in 2010, kids can play videogames without controllers. Instead, they use their bodies to dictate the action on the screen, courtesy of a motion detector. Kinect was not specifically designed for children with autism, but experts say the device is proving beneficial for some with the disability. "The positive high-fives, the cheering for each other, that was something that wasn't seen as often, and it became a regular thing for Sawyer," Anne-Marie Skeen, a specialist teacher at the Virginia school, told AFP. "Now, whenever we praise him, he gives us high-fives because he knows that's a good way to say, 'good job.'" Autism, a range of complex neurodevelopment disorders that typically appear during the first three years of a person's life, now affects an estimated one child in 88 in the United States. It impacts on a person's ability to communicate and interact with others. With the help of schools such as Skeen's, autism is treatable, but children do not simply "outgrow" it. I love boats Side by side, Sawyer Whitely and Michael Mendoza bend and stoop, directing the action on the screen –a boat careering down a rushing river. As many children would be, they are captivated, and when they finish, they look exhilarated. "It looks like you are in the game but you're not," said a breathless Michael, adding innocently: "I love boats." Ashburn's teachers have been working with Kinect for two years, and are homing in on the lack of communication that typically characterizes autism. "Communicating with each other, giving each other directions, giving compliments... I can teach social skills and communication with board games and with other games but the students are so much more motivated to take part in games like this, and with games like the Kinect we get a lot more out of them," said Lynn Keenan, a teacher and trainer. "It's much easier to build the skills when they are motivated to learn. We've found some pretty impressive results. "There are many tools but there are few that hold that kind of motivational value that a tool like this does, so it's much easier then to build the skills because they are motivated to take part in it." Dan Stachelski heads the Lakeside Center for Autism in Issaquah, Washington state. "Because they are so motivated by the game, they are more likely to engage and follow through on instructions that they might provide or they might create a situation where they actually do it on their own, which is what we really want to see the kids do," he explained. He takes the example of "Happy Action Theater," a game in which the avatar shoots at fireballs or kick rocks. "The cool thing about that is that it creates an environment on the screen and you are actually projected yourself onto the screen into this environment, and the cool thing about it is that the way that the kid moves and interacts with this environment on the screen," he said. "And multiple kids can play in the same area at the same time, so for those kids that have social interactions challenges and have difficult times sharing the same space, it gets them in the same space and it's the very first step you want them to achieve." Encouraging results Kinect could also be used to detect signs of autism. For example, researchers at University of Minnesota have installed it to spot signs of hyperactivity, one of the signs of autism. The use of Kinect for children with the disorder is catching on, said Andy Shih, of Autism Speaks, an autism science and advocacy organization, adding that at about $150, Kinect is an affordable accessory that offers "encouraging results." "Many families are exploring its potential," he said, stressing: "We have a neutral position. "We advocate for more researches and more datas. Right now the information is very preliminary. "The population is so diverse: some kids are verbal, other kids are not; some children have intellectual disability, other do not; some children have motor-skills challenges, others do not. "It's very difficult for any one product to be the miracle cure, the magic bullet that will meet all the needs of all individuals." – AFP, March 7, 2014. |
| Your money or your life – coal miner’s dilemma mirrors China’s Posted: 06 Mar 2014 04:45 PM PST "If I did farming, it would take me a year to get what I make in a month," said the 55-year-old, surnamed Di and sporting the blackened fingernails of someone who has spent most of his days beneath the hills of China's poverty-stricken Guizhou province. His lungs "don't hurt much", he said, although in any case he cannot afford treatment. China too has embraced the economic benefits of coal despite the threats it poses to health and the environment. But anger has mounted over the stubborn smog that regularly cloaks Chinese cities, and authorities have repeatedly promised action since President Xi Jinping took office a year ago. Premier Li Keqiang vowed to "declare war against pollution", speaking Wednesday at the opening of the Communist-controlled National People's Congress legislature's annual session. The government will cap total energy consumption, shut 50,000 small coal-fired furnaces, clean up major coal-burning power plants and take six million high-emission vehicles off the roads, he promised. Yet in practice, changing course will be tough in the face of swelling energy demand and pressure to sustain economic growth, already at its lowest levels since 1999. "Since environmental issues have become so public – everybody is talking about them, the international community is talking about them – the government feels the need to deal with environmental issues more seriously," said Xiaomin Liu, a Beijing-based coal expert with the consultancy IHS Cera. "They will do a lot of things, but I don't think that will change things fundamentally," he said. "The first priority is still to keep up economic growth." China uses more energy than any other country and is responsible for about half the world's coal consumption, relying on the fossil fuel for two-thirds of its energy supply. Public pressure over pollution erupted in January 2013 when an "airpocalypse" of smog choked Beijing, with particulate matter shooting 40 times past UN standards and horrifying images spreading worldwide. The scandal prompted authorities to stop burying the problem – cities and state-controlled media began reporting on air quality, and this year 15,000 factories were required to regularly publicise emissions data. Over the past year Beijing has already allocated $280 billion (RM912.5 billion) to improve air quality, and pledged to evaluate officials not only by their economic but also environmental record. Last September it announced tough air pollution limits, called for coal-use cuts in three densely populated areas, including the capital, and promised to shave nationwide coal consumption to 65% of total energy by 2017. Some of the targets were "ambitious", sending an important message, said Alvin Lin, the Beijing-based China climate and energy policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Once you send that signal, then everybody has to try to meet it." But implementation is another matter and even stricter quotas were still needed, he warned. Another concern is that wealthier coastal cities, which have complained about pollution the loudest, will simply shift their coal-fired power-stations and factories to the country's poorer interior. "Maybe the push is going to be just to push the dirty coal further west," said Jennifer Turner, director of the China Environment Forum at the Wilson Center in Washington. "It's the whole Nimby (not in my backyard) movement." Guizhou, in southwestern China, has pledged to close half its mines – about 800 – by mid-2014, but this follows a broader trend of shutting small struggling operators without necessarily cutting overall production. Villagers around Anshun have long reaped the benefits of coal, earning as much as 6,000 yuan (RM3,195) a month from mining, double what they could make as labourers and 10 times more than farming. Nonetheless, some see the advantages of ending the fatal explosions, blackened lungs, water shortages and the threat of collapsing homes. Opposite a mine in Anshun, along a picturesque valley lined with gentle terraces of yellow rapeseed amid a cascade of smoky blue hills, Zhang Yan tearfully recalled searching for her husband after he failed to return from work one evening last year. He had been killed on the job, and their teenage son said his father had urged him to find another trade. "He had talked with me about this, 'Don't do this work, stay above ground, it's safer'," he said, huddling around a stove for warmth. Up the road, a longtime miner surnamed Yan said he quit last year for fear of the "hidden danger". "Closing the mines is a good thing, first off because of the environmental damage to homes and water," said the 45-year-old father of two, who is debating whether to leave his family in Guizhou to find work elsewhere. "The benefits are only temporary," he said. "In the long term there are no benefits." – AFP, March 7, 2014. |
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