Harry's not just playing games

Computers are helping children with brain injuries to rebuild their lives. By Dorothy Walker

Unlike many parents, Jill Sullivan is delighted to see her son, Harry, playing computer games. "It's brilliant," she says proudly. "It's a real achievement." Jill, from Bow in east London, is using the games to help Harry recover from a devastating accident.

Four years ago, just before his seventh birthday, he was hit by a car and suffered severe head injuries which left him unable to speak or move. "Everything was totally wiped away," says Jill. Neurosurgeons were unwilling to make predictions about Harry's future. But slowly over the years, with the help of therapy, he has been learning to walk and talk again.

Computers have proved helpful since his first encounter with them in a rehabilitation unit, when he managed to blow into a PC microphone and an aeroplane appeared on screen to congratulate him. Harry still has speech therapy at Bromley Hall, his special needs school. Jill supplements this at home with a high-street CD-Rom - English Reading - that helps him to pronounce words and syllables. "He knows what he wants to say, but he can't always position his tongue and lips to say the words," she says. "The computer is extremely patient - you can repeat things again and again.

"The machine has definitely increased his attention span and his independence," Jill says. "Doing some of the programs on his own is a wonderful confidence booster. The easier games are better - when he overcomes them, at least he is winning." But choosing software is difficult. "The first mistake I made was to get an action game, and it was too fast, with too much going on. I exchanged it for some Living Books stories, which I thoroughly recommend." But, she added, "It doesn't work if you buy poor-quality things."

The Sullivans' PC came from Compaq, which has teamed up with the Children's Head Injury Trust to offer advice on using computers with head-injured children. Sarah Dewing, a therapist at the Tadworth rehabilitation unit in Surrey, says: "Computers do have a lot to offer in terms of improving children's concentration. Attention is a common problem and it underlies many of the other difficulties that a child will have.

"I use a program called Thinkable. Children begin by touching the screen when they see a picture, then go on to match pictures," Ms Dewing says. "The software helps them to shift their attention in various ways and tries to distract them." Computers also lend themselves audio-visual interpretation and reasoning skills, she says. After a brain-damaging accident, it can take a long time to work out which functions have been affected: "There is so much interaction between the different skills - physical, cognitive and emotional - that it is a complex picture to tease out," says Dewing. "But children are very motivated by computers, and if their skills in other areas have been compromised, this is an area where they can look and feel normal."

Meanwhile, Harry's computer may help him in new ways. Jill Sullivan plans to use it in her latest role, running a campaign against the threatened closure of her son's special needs school.

The Children's Head Injury Trust, 01865 224786