One of my working hypotheses is that using a touch screen provides a boost for the kids, particularly for the joint attention game, Amazing Gazing, where you point to where the person is looking.  We haven't analyzed this formally, and there are other contributing factors, but we did see better results in the study that used a touch screen.

Buying a touch screen laptop or good tablet can run 400 to 500 dollars, so I was happy to stumble upon an HP touch screen laptop in the 300 dollar range.  I was out on a "Dad, can you get me a compass for geometry class" errand :-) at OfficeMax, saw this laptop, got it and tested it with FaceSay.  It runs well.   The one I picked is only an 11" screen, so it's a little small, but not a bad trade-off for the price.  If I get time over the holidays, I may tweak the screen layout  of FaceSay - maybe offering an option to reduce the size of the bottom blue section and enlarge the main area - to make better use of the tablet style screen dimensions.

A google at OfficeMax for "touch screen laptop" this morning to confirm that the deal is still available turned up a handful of other deals, including one for under 300 from Dell.  I haven't investigated any of these in any depth, and there may be better deals at Costco, etc.  I just wanted to give a heads-up on encouraging price news.  This could be a long term trend, since tablets are putting pressure on laptops, both in terms of pricing and user experience.

Happy Holidays!

Casey

p.s. I don't own stock in or work for OfficeMax :-).

I'll be demoing FaceSay and presenting the results from the 2007 FaceSay RCT at IMFAR 2010 in Philadelphia, as part of the Innovative Technologies Demo session, sponsored by Autism Speaks.  Philadelphia Marriott, in Franklin Hall B Level 4, Friday, May 21, 2010, 8:00AM