I want to take a minute while I have one to make an announcement. As many of you may be aware of, I have started a program called Android4Autism. I know first hand what it’s like to NOT be able to communicate with your child. It’s a heartbreaking and helpless feeling. My wife and I have experienced those same feelings with our youngest, Emmett. Emmett is severely language and speech delayed. It’s heartbreaking for me as a father to struggle to communicate with my son. While he’s learning new words we still struggle much of the time to have even the most basic understanding of what he’s trying to say. Recently, I have turned my hobby of developing ROM’s for Android powered smartphones into a way to help Emmett learn new words, build confidence and self-esteem. Thus Android4Autism was born.

So what is Android4Autism and what is it’s purpose? Android4Autism. seeks to put an Android powered device in the hands of an Autistic child who needs it. Trust me, I know exactly what it’s like know your child could benefit from something that you simply can’t afford, for any number of reasons. How will we do this? The Android community is a very generous one and many of it’s members have taken on the responsibility of spreading Autism Awareness. The Android community by it’s very nature, lives on the bleeding edge of technology. This means that members of this community tend to upgrade quite often and are left with devices they are no longer using. Many of these members are willing to donate these devices to the Android4Autism cause.

When these devices are received, they are fitted with a custom ROM that is stripped down to the very basics and pre-loaded with children’s learning apps. Due to Androids open source nature, I can completely customize these devices and remove basically, anything I want, so that it’s more “kid friendly”. This type of customization is not possible on the iPad. These devices are much smaller then the iPad so they are very portable and easily handled by a young child. I’ll discuss in more detail what these devices will provide at a later date.

Today, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Turetsky, Director of Business Development at Intellijoy. Intellijoy is the #1 creator of educational apps on the Android Market. In fact today they released their newest app, Kids Shapes. If you remember the video I posted recently, featuring Emmett using his Android4Autism device, he was using Kids Shape Puzzle by Intellijoy. For those of following my families story, you know just how big a deal it is for Emmett to be able to do what he did in that video. Since using these apps he has learned dozens of new words that he didn’t know prior. He loves his Android4Autism device, he carries it with him EVERYWHERE and calls it his “puzzles”.

Tonight, I so very pleased to announce that Intellijoy will be donating FULL versions of ALL their children’s apps to Android4Autism to be distributed on all the devices that we will be putting into the hands of Autistic children from around the US. I’m very excited about this because I truly believe this WILL make a difference in the lives of many Autistic children and their families. I don’t make it a habit of promoting companies on this blog because that’s not the purpose of Lost and Tired. However, Intellijoy is a company that is working to help our children learn through engaging and entertaining apps. My children benefit from the use of these applications and I know many more could as well. As special needs parents and members of the Autism community we should support companies like, Intellijoy, as they are providing low cost software that can turn your Android powered smartphone into a learning tool for your child.

So on behalf of Android4Autism and lostandtired.com, I want to THANK Intellijoy for helping to improve the lives our Autistic children and their families. If you have an Android powered smart phone and I KNOW many of you do, check out these apps on the Market. Help spread the word that these apps and others like it can be found on the Android Market. As a community we need to support the companies that are providing resources for our kids….. More to come soon…

In the mean time get all the latest Android4Autism updates by following us on twitter: @Android4Autism or “Like us on Facebook.