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Augmentative Communication A Family Journal
posted to General Discussion
in Voices - Exploring Speech, Sign Language, and Augmentative Communication for Kids with Disabilities
on Sep. 18, 2007 at 12:42 PM
- 1 Replies
- 168 Total Views
An introduction: One of our members has agreed to try to put into writing the experience she and her son, family, and school are having using the Dynavox to aide her son's communication at school and at home. Augmentative communication is something we have tested but not jumped in with both feet on yet. We have tried the Dynavox MT4 and can tell a few things about it, BUT this journal will go into the challenges and successes in a way that I think will go beyond anything I could tell you and that will be very helpful to anyone considering augmentative communication as an option for their child. A HUGE THANK YOU for the willingness to share by this great lady in our group.
Below is an excerpt found on this site in another post that is really part of the springboard to this post that will remain a sticky post so she can keep coming back and adding to the ongoing experience her family is having with the Dynavox.
Andrew is a non-verbal autistic. He sporadically will come up with a word, such as mom, home, hi........ but then will go months (literally) without speaking another word. I still hold out hope that he will talk as he has voiced these very few words.
In the meantime, I could tell that not having verbal communication was not only frustrating at times (for everyone), but also I felt that it was truly impeding his learning ability.
If Andrew would sign, I would be very excited for that as well, however Andrew does has some issues with fine motor coordination and strength and attempts at signing have not been successful.
We tried the PECS, but our school was also not really excited to incorporate this into the classroom either.
Fortunately, for the many children that need alternative education, some of the schools here, in the past couple years have finally been making a great effort to accommodate the need. they are slow to embrace change, but I see it finally!
Andrew is 8 years old now. He received his Dynavox just over one year ago now. Since that time he has been carrying it too school daily (or rather I have - -one drawback is they can be heavy for little ones to carry, Plus Andrew is on the smaller side of build because of his eating issues).
The teacher used the dynavox sparatically that first year, but was apprehensive to use it very often. She felt that it would hold Andrew back if there was any chance that he would learn to speak.
As it is - I do not know if it will, or if it won't. I hope it doesn't. His autism Doctor actually thinks if there is a chance for him to speek, that this device will help him - this is according to research that she has read.
I began to use the device at home and set up educational pages for Andrew to learn from. A warning, this can be very time consuming! The best thing I would recommend is to take classes that are offered on programming the dynavox after you purchase it. This would have been invaluable to me, i'm sure. I still plan to take them as they are offered at times throughout the year.
Andrew, without a doubt has a very bright mind!! That alone is worth finding out from the dynavox. He has an amazing memory! So now I know that he does have great potential to learn! Fortunately at one of the parent-teacher meetings, I was so determined to show his teachers this fact, that I took Andrew and the Dynavox with me to the meeting. I did a demonstration with Andrew of what he has learned and of how well he has memorized the use of his Dynavox. They were impressed! And happily they were very excited too, because now they can see the potential that he has to learn as well.
The dynavox can be programmed by you for whatever stage your child is at.
Andrew has very low vision - so chances are he is not reading the words or the pictures on the buttons to know which ones they are. Instead he appears to be memorizing where they are on each "page" of the dynavox. For this reason I have it set up so that he only has eight boxes on each "page". This can be individualized with many more boxes per page for other children.
Each box is a word, a letter, a sentence, a picture, --- whatever you program it to be.
Since there are only eight boxes per "page" on his dynavox, Andrew has to manuever through several layers of pages at times to find the word or activity that he wants to use. So far this has not been a problem at all! In fact, Andrew loves using his dynavox that when I am programming it he is standing right there many times watching me! And once I am done, it takes no time at all for him to memorize what is on his new page and how to get to this page!
The trick to making a Dynavox useful and a valuable tool for Andrew was incorparating it into everyday life. The other is problem is being able to have access at all times to the Dynavox. It is a large peice, and expensive, and it is not the most convenient peice to carry around. Imagine carrying a laptop everywhere you go!! That is what it is like. Of course, I know people who do just that with their laptops, so I figure it's a matter of getting used to the idea of lugging it around - and finding a type of carrier that makes it most convenient to carry it around. We are still tackling this.
This is getting long, so I will tell you some more later. If you can't tell, I am very happy with Andrew's experience with the Dynavox overall. Yes there are drawbacks and things that need to be worked out, but overall HAPPY!! :).
Below is an excerpt found on this site in another post that is really part of the springboard to this post that will remain a sticky post so she can keep coming back and adding to the ongoing experience her family is having with the Dynavox.
Andrew is a non-verbal autistic. He sporadically will come up with a word, such as mom, home, hi........ but then will go months (literally) without speaking another word. I still hold out hope that he will talk as he has voiced these very few words.
In the meantime, I could tell that not having verbal communication was not only frustrating at times (for everyone), but also I felt that it was truly impeding his learning ability.
If Andrew would sign, I would be very excited for that as well, however Andrew does has some issues with fine motor coordination and strength and attempts at signing have not been successful.
We tried the PECS, but our school was also not really excited to incorporate this into the classroom either.
Fortunately, for the many children that need alternative education, some of the schools here, in the past couple years have finally been making a great effort to accommodate the need. they are slow to embrace change, but I see it finally!
Andrew is 8 years old now. He received his Dynavox just over one year ago now. Since that time he has been carrying it too school daily (or rather I have - -one drawback is they can be heavy for little ones to carry, Plus Andrew is on the smaller side of build because of his eating issues).
The teacher used the dynavox sparatically that first year, but was apprehensive to use it very often. She felt that it would hold Andrew back if there was any chance that he would learn to speak.
As it is - I do not know if it will, or if it won't. I hope it doesn't. His autism Doctor actually thinks if there is a chance for him to speek, that this device will help him - this is according to research that she has read.
I began to use the device at home and set up educational pages for Andrew to learn from. A warning, this can be very time consuming! The best thing I would recommend is to take classes that are offered on programming the dynavox after you purchase it. This would have been invaluable to me, i'm sure. I still plan to take them as they are offered at times throughout the year.
Andrew, without a doubt has a very bright mind!! That alone is worth finding out from the dynavox. He has an amazing memory! So now I know that he does have great potential to learn! Fortunately at one of the parent-teacher meetings, I was so determined to show his teachers this fact, that I took Andrew and the Dynavox with me to the meeting. I did a demonstration with Andrew of what he has learned and of how well he has memorized the use of his Dynavox. They were impressed! And happily they were very excited too, because now they can see the potential that he has to learn as well.
The dynavox can be programmed by you for whatever stage your child is at.
Andrew has very low vision - so chances are he is not reading the words or the pictures on the buttons to know which ones they are. Instead he appears to be memorizing where they are on each "page" of the dynavox. For this reason I have it set up so that he only has eight boxes on each "page". This can be individualized with many more boxes per page for other children.
Each box is a word, a letter, a sentence, a picture, --- whatever you program it to be.
Since there are only eight boxes per "page" on his dynavox, Andrew has to manuever through several layers of pages at times to find the word or activity that he wants to use. So far this has not been a problem at all! In fact, Andrew loves using his dynavox that when I am programming it he is standing right there many times watching me! And once I am done, it takes no time at all for him to memorize what is on his new page and how to get to this page!
The trick to making a Dynavox useful and a valuable tool for Andrew was incorparating it into everyday life. The other is problem is being able to have access at all times to the Dynavox. It is a large peice, and expensive, and it is not the most convenient peice to carry around. Imagine carrying a laptop everywhere you go!! That is what it is like. Of course, I know people who do just that with their laptops, so I figure it's a matter of getting used to the idea of lugging it around - and finding a type of carrier that makes it most convenient to carry it around. We are still tackling this.
This is getting long, so I will tell you some more later. If you can't tell, I am very happy with Andrew's experience with the Dynavox overall. Yes there are drawbacks and things that need to be worked out, but overall HAPPY!! :).
Replies:
1-1 of 1 replies
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- by on Sep. 24, 2007 at 1:36 PM
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Hi!! Been busy this past four days. I work three 13-hour shifts/week at the hospital. Not the best schedule but it has to do for now. I don't get anything done but keeping up with immediate "mom" duties, sleep, and work. Hope to find a better work schedule soon!!
So this morning I programmed Andrew's Dynavox with a couple of 12-button pages. He is already well on his way to having them memorized!! It is so exciting to see how easily he can memorize the pages on his Dynavox, and how quickly he can manuever through the pages. My Goal for him as an adult - if he is still not able to communicate verbally--is to have a laptop computer set up for Andrew to communicate with. I see him having a laptop that he can type in whatever he wishes to say and the computer will say what he types. This would be a great communication tool for him as an adult! What a great blessing for him too!
I am now sure without a doubt that Andrew is memorizing "where" the buttons are and not the words or pictures on the buttons - this being due to his low vision. How I finally determined that is watching him use some of his new pages on the Dynavox. "Just in case" I set up each page on his dynavox to be individualized in "color". There are many color choices you can use to individualize your Dynavox pages - as well there are different formats to choose from. This is a real advantage for learning, especially for Andrew. I have a specific background color and then a specific button color for each page of his Dynavox. As well, I can make the wording a speific color, size, and type. This works out great for quick recognition of what is on a page - particularly with Andrew's vision. The layout and color of the page are definitely his clues.
So last week I had created a new page for "socialization" at school. Andrew and I were practicing it at home. The page is set up with "hi", "bye", "thank you" etc. This is then linked to a page with "names" as well to make a greeting more personal for his classmates. Andrew has done wonderful with this so far.
He really surprised his doctor two weeks ago! The doctor said hi and Andrew immediately went to his "hi" button. and then with just verbal coaching he found the button that said his doctors name. Wow! it really made the doctor excited! I think she was just so happy to see Andrew making the progress and communicating! I know it is frustrating to his doctors sometimes as well to not see the progress they hoped for. Most doctors want to see that too! So far this as been a great tool for him to use!!
Got to go! It's beutiful outside today. Everyone else having soem great fall weather!! This is a beutiful time of year! have a great day! Mary.
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