So Proud!

Abby started her consult with Susan Norwell today. It went great! I am so proud miss Abby. She worked for a couple hours in the morning, and again in the evening. She really enjoyed working with Susan, who has already taught us so much. It's awesome to meet someone with so much experience with Rett Syndrome. She really gets Abby, and Abby is loving it. We don't have a lot of devices at home for Abby to use, so it was great to see Abby try a few out. We were blown away at how well she did with everything that we tried. By the end of the visit, we will have an idea of what device we need to get for her. She doesn't normally use symbols either (she uses photos), but she was using the Boardmaker symbols without any trouble. I hate to say it, but I think we have underestimated her. This consult is just what we needed to get on the right track. Abby usually gets bored with me "working" with her after about 30 minutes, but she lasted much longer today. The communicators she used today gave her so many options of things to say. It was amazing. She clearly has a lot to say, if given the right tools!

Here are a few of the things she tried today:

Tech/Talk
Abby seemed to like this device, although it limited her responses to 8 choices. She could access all of them, but had more difficulty physically getting her hand on the top row. It would be good to have the model that allowed scanning, so she wouldn't have to rely on the accuracy of her hands. It would be great to have this with the Boardmaker Plus, which would give us lots of symbols at our fingertips.

http://store.mayer-johnson.com/us/assistive-technology/tech-talk.html


Tango
This device is something that Abby could use for a long time. She could use scanning to access an endless amount of words and phrases that are age appropriate, which is cool.

http://www.dynavoxtech.com/products/tango/default.aspx

Abby loves books! Susan had some great ideas to make books more interactive for her. I don't know what I think will be the best communicator for her yet, but I do think we will definitely invest in Boardmaker Plus. It will give us access to thousands of symbols. With it, we can start using symbols in a natural context throughout the day. I'm starting to get it, Susan. It's not so much that we're teaching her the symbols. We're using the symbols in our conversations with Abby, so she will learn how she can use them too.