Most parents would do anything to enrich their kids’ worlds and teach them what they need to know. Hacker parents often take it one step further by modifying the kid’s world to allow them to work past a disability. To wit we have an interactive game board to help a toddler learn her shapes and colors.
The toddler in question is [Becca], and her needs are special because of the progressive nature of the blindness that will result from her Usher Syndrome. [Becca] will need visual acuity testing much earlier than most toddlers, but a standard eye chart is meaningless to kids before they get their letters. This is where Lea shapes come in – a set of four shapes that are used to make visual testing a game and help practitioners assess what a child can and cannot see.
[Jake] and his wife [Beth] were advised to familiarize [Becca] with the shapes, but all she wanted to do was eat the printed sheet. In order to make the task more entertaining, [Jake] built an interactive board where brightly colored Lea shapes trigger the room lights to change to the same color as the block when it’s inserted into the correct spot on the board, as a visual reward. Reed switches, magnets, and an Arduino comprise the game logic, and the board communicates to the Philips Hue smart bulbs over an NRF24L01. The video below also shows some cool under-bed lights and a very engaged [Becca] learning her shapes and colors.
As we expected when we last covered his efforts to help [Rebecca], [Jake] has leveraged the Raspberry Pi he used as a hub for the stairwell lighting project. We’re looking forward to seeing what else he comes up with, and to see how [Becca] is thriving.
So far the mother seems proficient at finding the right blocks and slots for them.
Children need demonstrations. If she doesn’t see what happens when her mother does it, how will she know there is a reward?
(Different Dan to the rude one above)
Becca looks pretty young to be learning shapes and colours, so good work trying, hope it works!
She also seems more interested in exploring the shapes with her mouth – might be worth trying different flavour shapes?
wat?
Yeah Usher Syndrome, look it up. Like I said poor kid, nothing the medical people can do to stop the progression of the disease unless they edit her DNA. Mind you that option is only a decade or so away.
It’d be nice if you actually could read. Then you might learn that Usher is more common when both parents are of Fench Acadian descent, which of course has nothing to do with “inbreeding”.
Jackass.
If you have a recognisable descent you are in fact the result of inbreeding, that is a scientific fact, it is just a question of how much, the degree.
The child is the result of inbreeding.
And so may you be, we just don’t know if that was good or bad luck for you, but what I can see is that you Mr. Maloney have the emotional intelligence of a three year old.
That is actually a very good idea!
Stop trolling you ignorant asshole.
You are the one that is ignorant, clearly you have no idea how the genetics of it works. You can be the result of inbreeding, and better off, or you can be worse off. Go and do some reading, and grow up.