Special Needs Children Given a Voice
Mia Hysteria shares her inspirational, humorous and sometimes heart-wrenching journey of raising 3 young children, one with special needs, while managing a life of chaos, in her blog: General Hysteria. Mia has been blogging on General Hysteria since September 5, 2008 about her son, Ben (1), her daughter, Violet (2) and her oldest son, Alex (6). Alex has cerebral palsy, autism, sensory processing disorder, developmental delays, epilepsy, and ADHD. On a laptop, in a cul-de-sac, somewhere in Colorado, Mia is single-handedly attempting to share her stories, thoughts, frustrations and elations so that no person feels isolated, forgotten or unworthy of their own journey.
Alex is a kindergarten student at The Elementary School with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy. Alex’s parents reported that Alex is verbal, with about 60-70% intelligibility. Organizing his communication is still a struggle for him. Alex can get overwhelmed or over stimulated easily. In the classroom, Alex’s writing was described as slow. Miss A reports that he has difficulty with sentence formulation.
This is the beginning of the Assistive Technology Report we received from SWAAAC, State Wide Augmentative and Alternative Assistive Communication with the Colorado Department of Education System, providing alternative services of communication for students.
The SWAAAC Team that evaluates student’s needs for communication alternatives are interdisciplinary, including a Speech-Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, Special Educators, Psychologists and Para-professionals, as needed. The goal of the team is to assist in designing communication devices to assist students with disabilities in achieving full access and participation in all educational opportunities.
According to their site, “In the broadest sense, Assistive Technology (AT) is any tool or device that helps a person with a disability function more effectively or independently at home, school, work or play….services can include: training the student and classroom staff in its use, consulting on the positioning or mounting of the device and coordination with other services.”
The result? Alex has been given a voice; an opportunity to participate in the classroom, with assignments involving writing, and learning sentence formulation. The struggle of learning and participation, and the ability to reach success has been made easier.
For Alex, they implemented the IntelliKeys system by IntelliTools.
“IntelliKeys, enables users with physical, visual, or cognitive disabilities to easily type, enter numbers, navigate on-screen displays, and execute menu command.” The overlays are customized, taking into consideration disability level, goals and likes. Alex simply touches the overlay in the form of pictures to form a sentence.
When he does this, he is ‘rewarded’. For instance if he produces the sentence, “I like planes”, the computer program will verbalize the sentence – for which Alex’s response is enthusiastically that he likes planes too – or it flies an airplane by which Alex goes crazy for!
The proof? When recently asked his age, he responded with a smile, “I’m 6 years old”. WHAT!?!?!? My husband and I looked at each other, both with our jaws equally unhinged and hitting the ground. We were proud, amazed, surprised; our hearts stopped. We have tried for years to have Alex say his age when asked. It has never happened. Not once. Not ever. Until after he started using this system.
One of the overlays is the individual letters of his name (for recognition) and the number 6 (his age). He puts it together and the system says, “I’m 6 years old”. Alex, again enthusiastically, responds, “I’m 6 years old too”.
If your child needs assistance in this area, seek this service out. It doesn’t mean that the IntelliTools system is right for your child, but it’s worth the time and effort to give your child a voice.
More from Mile High Mamas
- The Children’s Hospital Q & A: Growing Pains
- Mama Drama: Mama Needs a Minute
- The Children’s Hospital Q & A: Pet Allergies
Mile High Mamas Recommends
- Captured: Death of a Marine in Afghanistan (Plog Photo Blog)
- Executive orders ignore legislative process (eLetters)
- Why does Limbaugh have a voice? (eLetters)
I was absolutely amazed by this technology. I cannot imagine of a mother how you must have felt to receive a response from Alex. Technology is truly amazing!
What a wonderful post you wrote! This just gives me such hope that technological advances can assist in so many different areas.
Amber~ Yes, it was quite shocking to tell you the truth. I was very serious when I said our jaws became unhinged!
Kari~ Thank you. I was amazed by it myself. Hope. Yes.
It’s great that you found something like this!
I thought so too. I am incredibly thankful for the SSN teacher who suggested the eval!
We are always looking for new ways for our son to communicate – thanks for sharing.