Questions about communciation

thefuturemrskudla

Hi,

Does anyone use an augmentive communcation device w/her (or his) LO (or hasis considered/ing such use)?  I am considering this, based on my son's hearing and neurological issues, which predispose him to communication delays/obstacles.  He is 15 months old, severe hearing loss, hypoplasia of the corpus callosum, and left facial nerve paresis. He has good receptive language  (spoken English & ASL, but the latter to a much lesser degree based on my beginning skills), babbles (since 7 months), tries to imitate many sounds, but says no real words.  He seems to sign 1 or 2 words, and maybe tries to "sign babble."

Thanks for your input.  I have a lot of anxiety about this issue, and would really love to hear from other parents.

skittles_123

I-Pad or I-Phone? I have heard that this has been a successful tool for kiddos/people to communicate. There are special apps you can get, not sure where? My ds has ASD, but has language, so he doesn't need it for that, but it is starting to get more noteriety in the autism world for the verbally challenged autistic kiddos. We do have an I-Pad as a supplement for his ABA however, and it is pretty awesome!

Assembly_Reqd

We went to a speech seminar at the NODCC conference and some parents were asking questions about apps. I heard people talking about this one more than once.

https://www.proloquo2go.com/

A couple of parents also said not to waste money on speech specific devices unless you have to because the ipads, iphones & apps are so much cheaper and you can customise them and use them for more than just speech. If Owen bursts out one day in speech then there is no reason why mommy can't use the iphone or ipad herself Also, if Owen's eyesight is good you can probably use something smaller like the iphone. I would think that the ipad would be great for a low vision child because the screen is larger and you can probably size the icons.

If you do decide to get a device, parents also suggested that you play with it and figure out how many steps/menus LO will have to go thru to say what he wants. Some programs are more complex and hard for very young children or children with more severe metal impairments.

bryslady

Here is a brief summary of our communication journey with Kelsey (not updated since we got her Ipad)

https://kelseycan.blogspot.com/2010/06/communication-update.html

 Kelsey has cerebral palsy and a visual impairment so ours may be different from yours. 

It all exploded really fast once we gave her the tools to communicate.

 She now used proloquo to go on the Ipad, but I personally would not jump to this step.  

The gotalks, in my opinion were the cheapest option. In our case, we were able to borrow from an equipment loan library in our state. the gotalk 4 has 5 levels so you get 20 messages plus two stationary.  the 20 also has 5 so you can actually allow them to build sentences with it.

 I had to drive this pursuit as I think it is uncommon for someone so young to do much beyond a big mac switch.  However, I think the sooner you do it the better you are.

As I read research and various articles, aug com does not take away the child's desire to verbalize.  They are going to do the easiest thing they can (which would be speaking) if they are able.  Aug com just gives them the tools to get their needs/wants expressed before they are able to verbalize.

 Even the "yes" "no" cards opened up the world to us.  I knew Kelsey was smart, but until she had a way to express herself, I had a hard time convincing others.

The other amazing thing that we have gotten out of this part of the journey is Kelsey's sense of humor.  She is a funny little girl and will find the most interesting ways to say things to tease or convey that sense of humor.

 Since your son is so young, maybe start with a big mac with a recorded message during meals or something (eg "more please") and the yes no picture cards?  Kelsey was around 26 mo when we started the actual devices, but I think she would have been ready sooner had her motor skills been better.

Pierce3252

We have a communication device - more specifically a 7 level communication builder from enabling devices.  It has programmable grids that you can make anywhere from 2 to 16 responses.  (i think it goes up to 32 if we made it even smaller, but we have stuck with the 16 because it would have to be pretty small).  Its so durable!!  So far we have like a grid for everyday stuff, like I want an apple, I want some yogurt, Look mom, My name is and so forth.  Oh it also has yes or no on there too.  We also have a grid for calling people on the phone we just got - he used it to call his Grandparents yesterday and he was so excited.  It makes him so happy to use it and for people to understand him.  It has really helped with him not feeling frustrated.

We have an ipad too which we also use for communication too - tap to talk, tapspeak, and icommunicate (no proloq2go yet) - not as durable - but has a ton more than just communication.    With our little guy, whose receptive is good, but expressive is poor, its been great! 

Pierce3252

Sorry i forgot to include we started out with a big mac and a much smaller device with less options.  We just moved up to the bigger one a few months ago.    My guy is almost 2 and a half. 

lovelylinz

I'm a beginning SLP with a lot of extra training in AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) and I've seen studies shown at conferences that have kids younger than yours starting with AAC.  You don't necessarily need to jump right to a speech device, since those are usually pretty expensive and it's hard to tell where your LO will be in a few years.  A lot of kids can work with lower-tech systems, including pictures and objects (holding up milk and juice to give LO a choice).  The push is to make sure that your child can communicate, whether or not it is verbal, recorded on a device, or picking from pictures.

 That said, voice-recorded buttons are relatively cheap and easy to program and also allow LO to communicate with people out-and-about who don't know him.  Depending on where you live, there are some amazing college speech clinics that have AAC labs where you can check out lots of AAC devices all at once.  Company representatives will also loan out devices to try if you talk to the right person.

I lurk on this board occasionally, so I'm not sure of LO's history, but look into speech services for your little guy.  You can talk to speech-language pathologist at your local elementary school and they can let you know who to talk to and what the process is in your area.  Getting an early jump on language is a very good idea, especially based on what you described.  A little bit of guidance at this point can have way more effect than constant intervention in kindergarten.