What computer language would be good for a 10 year with some autistic/aspergers characteristics?
Q. A friends child is struggling to cope with many aspects of life but is showing great abilities with computers. May be learning a computer language would be beneficial. What would be a good starting language and are there any teaching methods that would be suitable to the situation.
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A high level “wordy” language would be a good way to start, as opposed to assembly language like C++. Java script might be perfect.
BASIC, no pun, it stands for:-
Beginners
All
Symbolic
Instruction
Code.
I’d highly recommend downloading Scratch, which is a programming application specifically built for educational purposes. It’s a great introduction to the logic of programming while still being fairly powerful. I’ve had a lot of success running Scratch workshops with 6th graders.
It’s completely free and open-source. The website is http://scratch.mit.edu/
I would start any kid with Quick Basic. I learned that when I was about 10 and it was a great intro to programming
I am providing link to a very good film on teaching software programming to children with ASD ( http://www.shortfilmindia.com/ShortAforautism..MforMouse.html ). It’s not a big download.
I quote from the synopsis of the film : “… As the film underlines, Dr Mehta entered the field of disabilities when he was commissioned to upgrade the voice synthesizer of the world renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking; and he became interested in Autism when he discovered that so many computer ‘geeks’ are functionally autistic … The workshop on which the film is based was a path-breaking experiment, rarely if ever undertaken anywhere in the world …”
With best wishes to you, the child, and your friend
Either Basic (NOT virtual basic) orPascal.
Basic is more readily available these days–and is adequate. It is english-like and requires the same loogic as any computer language.
But–if you can manage to get a Pascal compiler/software package, I absolutly recommend you do so. Pascal was originally developed specifically as a teaching tool. As such, unlike Basic (or most computer lanuages, for that matter) it is designed to encourage (and in some cases requires) the use of structured programming methods–which both facilitates learning the logic (the main point here) and good programming technique.
Newer versions also have the ccapability of doing virtually any sort of programmming task. It’s also designed with built in safety features to prevent inexperienced users from accidentally wiping the hard drive, etc.!