Communicating with any child can be challenging. Communicating with a child with autism can be daunting at times. My Andy is 10 years old with autism. He has about 50-100 spoken words. About 80% of those is unintelligible. He uses words, pictures, writing, iPad and gestures to communicate. Andy loves to communicate. Sometimes determining what he is saying is like playing a game of charades. Heartbreaking for me because I really want to understand him when he talks so I can encourage talking. His spoken communication began to flourish once he turned 9 years old. He talks but it is limited. Imagine how frustrated it would be to be talking and pulling out any method of communication and your mom does not understand. Sometimes I catch on in a moment other times it has taken minutes.
Though he can pronounce iPad, iPod and iPhone as clear as can be.
This morning he came up to me and tried to tell me what he wanted. He tapped me and said I wan ehaoua. And so began the guessing game. I know you want Whole Foods. He screams. McDonalds? He screams. Target? He says I want ehaoua. I say spell it. He says Eoblr. I say Carnival?
Okay get your iPad and tell me what you want. He finds his iPad navigates to the Las Vegas page that I hid from him and requests. I want Excalibur. Oh!
For the next ten minutes we work on accepting No. I am so proud he tried talk and then used his iPad,
Two years ago this would not have been possible.
Before the iPad or proloquo Andy was locked in his world. Communication was so daunting with no words and guessing games would only end up in tantrums.
Then I saw an article about the iPad and proloquo2go. I bought an iPad and proloquo2go. Here is a link to
proloquo2go. I promptly bought and did not use it for six months. I was so determined Andy was going to talk that I didn't need or want it.
Something changed last year at this time. Determined to give Andy a voice to decrease frustration I programmed proloquo2go. My son was using proloqo2go within a week and fluently. My work as a teacher has shown sometimes it is a magic bullet and sometimes there are students who not ready for it. But as teacher you work toward this goal day in and day out.
The iPad and Proloquo2go opened up a world to my son in many different ways. For the first time in his life he was understood the first time he requested it not after many times of trying. We could do things that I thought would never happen such as argue. He can be persistent. Most of all he can tell me how he feels. He has asthma so that is important.
Here is what a few of our pages looks like;
This is our home page. What I love about proloquo2go is that it is easier to program after only a few days of practicing. Andy can read some words so you can use pictures or not use pictures. I can make pages on the go. My son can now order his food at his favorite restaurants.
It takes a matter of minutes to make new pages. This can done on a moments notice. The last year of using the proloquo2go app has brought out my child. He can share his opinions. Most of all his personality is shining through.
Since Andy recently started writing we are working on typing in proloquo2go. It is taking some practice but he is learning.
In closing there are lots of communications apps out there but in my opinion Proloquo2go for my son has been the answer to a lot of prayers. It is worth checking out and there is a great deal of support on facebook. There is a
Proloquo2go page,
a professional proloquo2go group and a
parent proloquo2go with excellent support.
Thank you Steve Jobs and Proloquo2go for developing two things that has changed my child's life and everyone who comes in contact with him. Thank you from this mom's heart.
