Conan's Experience with his Talker (guest post)

I am excited to share that I have several guest posts planned this month in celebration of AAC Awareness Month!  Today, I am honored to bring you this first guest post by an AAC mom sharing her AAC story in her own words.  Thank you, Kaz, for taking the time to share your story.

CONAN'S EXPERIENCE WITH HIS TALKER

Conan got his talker (aka iPad with the Proloquo2Go communication app) through Seattle School District 3 months after he got a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.  When he got evaluated by an SLP at the Seattle Children's Autism Center, she noticed his relative strength for mobile technology to make requests.  I know firsthand Conan's a visual learner who gravitates towards technology as he's learned so much from our iPad, including English and Japanese alphabets, shapes, colors, how to count, and names of all types of foods that are his passion.

The SLP at SCAC explained "with a voice output device, the ability to hear the words and see the text at the top of the screen provides a feedback loop that often encourages greater spoken language imitation and also supports literacy growth."

Before Conan got his talker, he would vocalize, sometimes verbalize and use PECS to express his needs and wants.  It has been 10 months since he started using his device and I have to say it jump started his speech.  We uploaded pictures of foods, drinks, family, friends, teachers, therapists, toys and rooms in our house and labeled every single one of them.  He was a natural and had no problem using the talker to let us know what he wanted to eat or drink.  We worked on greeting words, using the talker.  We would say "Hi Conan!"  and push "Hi (greeter's name)" for him to model after the talker.  Now he says hi to people who say hi to him.

One time, I pressed "I love you, mama" on his talker right after I said "I love you, Conan."  Conan looked at the talker, listened to it say the words, and finally said "I love you, mama."  The moment I heard him say those words, my heart melted and I started to cry.  Sure, he was just repeating the talker but it was the sweetest music I've ever heard and the fact that he can learn to say anything through his talker was comforting, thrilling and empowering.

Conan's learned to say so much more now that his vocabularies have skyrocketed.  I've heard some parents' hesitation to let their kids use AAC, but in our experience, Conan talks more now because of his talker.   He does not always rely on it for communication and often times tries to express his needs verbally.  However, the fact is he's communicating, with or without his talker, and we less frequently have to guess in confusion what he's trying to say.  No one is frustrated, no tears and that's good enough for us to celebrate with a big shout, "good job!"

Kaz
Mom to a new kindergartner, Conan