Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- A most unusual kind of therapy! That's what folks are saying about something that unexpectedly has captured the eyes of those with autism.
In a room at the University of Utah, KSL watched as kids and adults with autism discovered a fascinating tool -- a piece of software called "SketchUp."
Isaac Browning found he could tap his unique creativity. If only for a moment, he escaped some of his autism spectrum disorders and focused on the computer screen. We saw him working on a house in his imagination made mainly of water. How many floors, we asked him?
He replied, "I think about two hundred. It's going to be a high-rise. You can make most things you really want."
Steve Michael Gross, who used this same software to design movie-themed rides at Universal, says "You're only limited by your imagination because you can really do anything you possibly want. If you can think it, you can do it with SketchUp, and you can do it quickly."
The software is interesting. On a sophisticated level, it was originally intended for architects and professional designers. University majors and graduate students use it all the time to conceptualize and model the real McCoy's.
But who could imagine kids with autism sitting down for the first time and doing the same thing in their own worlds.
"It gives me fantastic ideas about inventing," MacLane Keller told us. Despite his autism he lets his imagination soar to new levels. He says, "Some of the things I would like to design with this. I've been coming up with an unmanned spacecraft."
10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Alfred Emery Building
Room 320
225 South 1400 East
For parents only
For more information:
sandy.stark@fcs.utah.edu
801-585-1184
Luke Schroeder, 14, is fascinated. So is 31-year-old Nate Banks who has what is called high-functioning autism. "The potential of the program is just amazing," he says. "It's incredible to just have fun with it."
Nate's mother, Anne Bradley, says "This really looks like a wonderful opportunity to see how far the interest goes, and so far my son really seems to like it."
Another mother, Rita Devine, says "It allows my son to let go, to create the things he's talked about."
Entertaining? You bet! But the University of Utah Family and Consumer Studies, Google, and Universal Creative hope this new discovery might also help those with autism develop skills they could someday use in a real job.
Parents of autistic children can bring their own laptops to a special workshop Saturday at the University of Utah where they can download the software free of charge. There's also no cost for the workshop itself.
E-mail: eyeates@ksl.com
