Timocco: The App for Autism & Cerebral Palsy #ad

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Timocco but all opinions are my own.

I’m a firm believer in trying any and all things to help a child with a neurological disability improve their abilities and even, perhaps, surpass limitations we may have been told by professional. To help my children, my husband and I haven’t tried everything yet, only the things we could afford, but what we have tried mostly has had some kind of benefit – from traditional therapies to homeopathy.

One thing that’s been a great help to Zoe in helping her overcome the challenges presented by autism and address many of Amelia’s motor skills has been video games. The iPad, the computer and our gaming systems have helped both our girls improve academically as well as fine tuning motor skills such as writing, finger dexterity and drawing.

What if there was a game specifically designed for kids with autism and other neurological issues that your child enjoyed playing and could help them improve both motor and cognitive skills? Well there is! Growing with Timocco is a computer game that was developed in 2009 by experts in the field of child development along with Sarit Tresser, degreed in Computer Graphics and Occupational Therapies, and Shai Yagur, a leader in virtual motion and computer vision tracking software. Take a peak at how it works:

Testimonial

Read this testimonial of a father who called the founder in tears. He had been trying to get his daughter with Cerebral Palsy to move her right hand for 3 years with no success. After two and a half weeks of playing Timocco’s Home Edition, she started moving her right hand to engage in play without even noticing the physical effort! Success like that is certainly worth a try. I know that these games would get Zoe jumping in place with excitement to chase bubbles or put things in order, like the real world versions do.

How it Works

The tracking is similar to Xbox Kinect or PlayStation Eye. If you’ve played those, you know the game can keep up with and almost perfectly track your movements and respond to them, making it a great tool for children with weakness or difficulty using one side or another. We briefly had Kinect and the girls ADORED it, jumping up and down whenever they got the chance, so I know they would love Timocco!

Timocco is meant to be part of your child’s therapy and using it should tailored and customized to his treatment plan or with his team – much like ProLoQuo2Go. In addition, Timocco has a staff of Occupational Therapists who can assist you in developing a customized treatment plan to perfectly fit your child. It’s not meant to replace therapies you know have in place for your child, but to enhance them, much like the iPad enhanced Zoe’s more traditional therapies at school and her alternative treatments at home.

 

This is also a great way to give your child time on the computer and, if they have the ability, to earn that time, where they can play a game that will foster motor skills. These were a big challenge for Amelia as a child, and it would have been great to have a tool like Timocco when she was very little.

Who It Can Help

Timocco has applications that can help children with autism, cerebral palsy, ADHD, developmental Co-ordination disorder, learning disabilities, and motor and cognitive skill delays. Growing with Timocco is available for both Windows and Mac OS, and you can purchase it starting at $20/month with a one year billed-monthly subscription here, or you can purchase month to month for $30/month if you’d like to try it first.

Considering the monthly fees we spend on Zoe’s treatments and clean foods and products, this is a bargain of a therapy to try. One game I know she really would appreciate is train tracks, where you need to complete building a track from starting point to the end line to get the train to appear. She’s also love balloons because, well, what kid doesn’t love popping balloons?

Another great game would be “What’s Next,” which leads you through a series of events, for example, what to do after you get up in the morning (go to bathroom, wash up, brush teeth). That would be a great help for my kids, especially “Taking a Shower” – which my kids sometimes still think means “pretend you’re enjoying a waterfall and ignore that bar of soap.” Fortunately they’ve mastered “Going to Sleep,” but that would have been a great help in our long struggles with sleep.

So check out Growing with Timocco and see if it helps your child!