More Links to help you start AAC Modelling 

Hi All, when we are first starting out with using iPads, Low Tech Choice Boards or other means to get our children to communicate it can be really daunting on 'breaking through' that communication barrier.  We might get success with simple motivating choices but often its like groundhog day with those choices being ALL they will use because they have been successful with them.  However, how do you progress?  How do you get past just requesting set items, like FOOD or DRINK?
Well recently another parent posted links on a Facebook group I am on and I thought I would share those links about Modelling and AAC (Augmentative Communication).  Feel free to ask questions regarding modelling and starting communication with your child.  I will do my best to help you! Remember we're all different and so are our kids!

• https://www.facebook.com/pages/PrAACtically-Speaking/1488812111389361?fref=ts

• http://praacticalaac.org/…/how-i-do-it-encouraging-aac-imp…/

• http://4waystoliteracy.weebly.com/…/2…/using_als_at_home.pdf

• http://www.rockybay.org.au/…/6.2-Teaching-Strategies-Modell…

Cheers, Vivien

How do I get them to Understand Communication?

Hi All

I have been having a lot of thought lately (& discussions) about getting kids past that hurdle of understanding.  Reading my blog might give others the impression it was easy for us, and somewhat miraculous and years down the track it almost seems even to us that it is!
It helps to have a motivated child who is keen on learning and receptive to what they are being given and shown.  Perhaps now at almost 8 years old our son seems to be that way.  However, that wasn't always the case.
He complained, he refused to look, he wouldn't let you redirect his hands, he wouldn't even engage with the iPad originally and certainly didn't have the fine motor skills to manage it.  He has astigmatism and won't use his glasses so his eyesight isn't the best either.  These are all factors that go against his being successful with ANY form of communication.  For years we just got grumps and passive acceptance of whatever he was given, he just learnt to be Ok with whatever was going on and we had a lot of bad behaviour formed out of frustration.  We always gave him Marmite on toast but when he learnt to communicate we learned he actually loved Honey which was why he tended to throw away his toast and not eat it!
At the beginning I totally expected my son to 'see' and understand the pictures he was given, to associate that a picture of cheese was actually cheese.  But somehow he didn't get it, I could tell him that the photo I was showing him was cheese and he would be happy with that, he would accept that it was cheese even though he knew it wasn't edible and totally wasn't cheese, it was just a PHOTO of cheese.  Herein lies the problem, we as parents and adults know that a photo of cheese, is just a photo of cheese, we know that we can go into the fridge and get some cheese and cut a piece (or unwrap a piece) of said cheese.  Your child knows you have cheese somewhere, probably in the fridge and they know a bit of complaining and maybe even fussing at the fridge will make you guess they need or want some cheese.  Maybe every morning tea they get cheese and they look forward to that special time the cheese miraculously arrives in front of them.  However one morning you don't give them cheese you decide on a piece of apple instead.  But they wanted cheese! Ensuing complaining and behaviours start.  We don't get it, they love apple, but suddenly they are upset! If ONLY they could tell us what the problem was, maybe they're sick? tired?  Did we say something wrong? Who knows?
We might try signing, trying to ask lots of questions and add to the kids confusion.
This is the scenario we are faced with, so we maybe with the help of an SLT create a bunch of PCCs (Picture Communication Cards) or PCS.  Usually they are large photos of desirable items, like cheese.  We encourage our kids to look at these photos, we explain they are cheese, we expect them to get it, and we feel defeated after weeks of showing them the photo of cheese, telling them its cheese and they refuse to touch it appropriately in order to get cheese.  When we test them by showing them a picture of socks and a picture of cheese they happily touch the socks photo and expect to get cheese.  We suddenly realise our kids didn't really understand the photos and we wonder if they are as smart as we think they are if they continually choose socks instead of the cheese photo.

Well I am about to shock you...STOP RIGHT THERE!!

I've been there too, its disheartening, its confusing, bewildering and causes you to re-evaluate everything you think, do and expect.  You can completely give up and think your child will never get it.  THEY WILL AND THEY DID....
Something I found was that the SLT's never mentioned the obvious.  Your child DID get what you were trying to get them to do, they DID communicate.  They may not have chosen the right card but they DID CHOOSE.  What you did was Step one in a long process, you got them to understand what was expected in this communication journey.  They learnt that in order to get what they wanted (whatever it was) they had to touch a CARD to get it.  That is enormous! That is communication! That is progress.  So DON'T feel defeated, don't think your kid is stupid, because they are not.  They got what you were trying to show them.  If they do something like touch a card (or an ipad button) they get something they want.  You have just shaped a behaviour.  It doesn't matter what is on the card, or the button, right now they don't really understand whats on that card or button.  They understand the concept of doing something to get something else, and thats what we want.
Phase 1 of PECs training is all about shaping behaviour to get a desired result, all that phase is after is getting the child to hand over a card in order to get something.  It really doesn't matter WHAT is on that card, it could be anything from a word, to a picture to a colour to anything you feel like.  You are teaching them a process first, picture recognition comes later.

We have had to reset before and go backwards and not use cards too, and we still do to some degree use physical objects for choice making.  We will often show a banana and a yoghurt say and get him to choose between them by handing us the one he wants.  Thats still a useful communication tool.  Thats still a choice.  In the early days we often at breakfast had two cards in front of him (FOOD and DRINK) and just out of his reach was his weetbix bowl and a drink of milk.  Both cards sat in front of those items and we would point at the cards and then at the physical options and say slowly and calmly what each item was.  He would reach for the weetbix and we would gently push his hand down to the FOOD card and say 'FOOD'.  He often wouldn't look and would again reach for the bowl and maybe start to vocalise angrily.  We would then hold the card up and say 'FOOD' again and then hold the bowl up and again say 'FOOD'.  He would just continually reach for his bowl and complain getting quite teary.  It took a LONG time to shape behaviour into touching a card and get past the tears and frustration.  Many times we wanted to give up and didn't think he would ever get it.  We have discovered with many things with our son that everything TAKES TIME.  I really wish there was an express train to training but there isn't.  At the beginning don't expect your child to understand the symbols, photos or whatever you are using.  Get them instead to step one, understanding if they want something they need to first do something for you.  Shape that behaviour and you have success.  Eventually you can teach them the point of each card.  You need to first motivate them to communicate and to want to do something for you so you can do something for them.  Find what their motivation is, a favourite toy, a DVD they love, some food or drink they MUST have, a trip to the park.  Whatever it is, you need to say to them 'Well if you want this then you need to do this for me first'.  They will get it quickly, trust me.  But whatever you do it must be a positive and successful experience, don't set yourself and them to fail.  If you are offering them cheese then have it ready to give straight away, no fussing, no going to the fridge, no going to cut it or otherwise.  If you're setting up the environment for success have the object nearby to associate with.  In the case of the park you might drive there in the car and then point at it and a picture in your hand and ask them to touch the card before then getting out of the car and going to the park.  If they don't touch the card you might instead drive off up the road and try again.  Focus on the learning on days your doing that, don't be distracted by other things or the child will learn that the phone ringing or a sibling being involved is all part of the process and will expect the phone to ring before they touch a card and get what they want.  Kids are literal.  They learn process.  If one time they were successful in getting what they wanted but the phone rang in the middle of it or you spoke to their sibling to get the item, you may find they refuse to do the same thing a different day and wait passively or don't engage because they are waiting for the phone to ring or the sibling to arrive to start the whole process.  Try and make it a quiet time with little distraction, I know how easy that sounds when I only have one child, but for the beginning process its what you have to do.  ANY distraction will ruin yours and their success.

Take heart, it does seem a tough road but once you break through you can quickly leave that behind.

GOOD LUCK!

PS> heres a great link discussing Teaching using repetition: http://www.autismmind.com/Teaching_Strategies_srk/Repetition_cnk/

Thinking of a Core Vocabulary

Even though I have yet to have continued our jump to iPad communication story yet and explained quite where we're at I would add in something of interest I recently discovered online.

As I am sure you have read in my previous posts about our communication journey, I label things, give them nouns and point them out to my son so hes aware that things have words associated with them.  This naturally leads to symbols and eventually awareness of symbols as a language.  Letters themselves are symbols, and those letters make up a word that we recognise as a word once we have learnt to read.  For kids like our son he may not understand words in the written form but he is learning to associate symbols of another form - pictures, and associate them with words.  I don't know if he really understands the letters form a word, but he definitely has learnt the associated symbol picture which is often just a photo of the object.  These pictures are often nouns, food items, clothing items, desirable things like TV Programs etc.  But they most definitely aren't a 'core word', like I, ME, HAVE, WANT, GO etc.  Hes started to learn those words have purpose on his iPad and uses them to make sentences.  Mostly thats because I have put desirable items within folders that have a core word like GO or WANT as their title.  So he simply goes to his WANT folder and within that he can find his FOOD folder and eventually his MUNCHOS button.  By this time he has created a sentence saying I WANT, FOOD, MUNCHOS, mostly without trying.  Hes learnt this over time and with modelling help from myself and other people in his life. But I have wondered for a LONG time how to teach him the concept words.  Words like LOVE, LIKE, HERE words that have meaning but no real associated symbol as such.  Can I get him to create a sentence like I LOVE YOU using just buttons on his iPad?  So I am in that phase right now trying to wrap my head around core word concepts and teaching my son how to use them.  Hes currently stuck in that choice level communication of wants and needs, and any elaborate sentence making is limited.  As I have chosen to be his iPad AAC Programmer I need to understand him and the concepts of language.  But returning to my original point of this post:

I read this facinating page: for-the-love-of-core-and-labels-labels-labels
and the concepts they discuss with labelling items struck me and made me re-evaluate my 'noun' based labelling around our house.  Now I think I will go around replacing my labels with more useful 'sentence' labels as this quote from the above link says " label things around the classroom or the home with core word phrases to help learners with delayed language acquisition gain additional exposure to functional core word meanings in the context of their play and learning environment."

So lets see where this leads in our ever changing journey!

Cheers, Vivien

How do I get this Kid to Communicate? - Part 1a (Addendum)

I have been thinking a lot about my first post about this communication Journey with our son Evan and thought...Ok, I told you OUR story...and mentioned briefly how WE did it, but if you're there at that point with your kid thinking...great I'll try that too...but HOW do I even start?  Well I've been there, and I can sympathise.  Even with an onboard Speech Language Therapist you see every other week (or maybe less) it can seem really overwhelming when you have a frustrated non-verbal child grunting and crying because, well, "you just don't understand me!!".  Yep, that acting out phase where they may physically act out, you know, tantrums, thumping, biting, vomiting (yep, we had that too), and the all important: every time Mum or Dad talks - SCREAM!!
It can be soul-destroying, frustrating and bewildering for all of you, believe or not those are actually your child communicating, even though it may not seem like it.  So HOW do we harness that 'bad behaviour' and turn it into meaningful communication?  Thats what I was stuck with 5 years ago, a child that was really happy and unhappy all in one go, I would talk endlessly at him, use sign language, sing songs, read books, point out words..yadda yadda...but it seemed to just pass him by even though he did say the odd word.  Then came our crunch time, major surgery, out of the blue, our son had a dislocated left leg that was going to take major work to fix.  He was going to be stuck in a pelvic(hip) spica cast for 3 months.  Well believe it or not the sunshine in all those storm clouds was an opportunity to connect with our son as he was going to be a 'trapped' audience.  It was that and the time was right I guess...but anyway, I am getting off topic.

Disclaimer
Just so you know in a former life (we all have one of those) I used to be a Senior Computer Engineer and have LOTS of experience with technology so I may come across a little technical or give you information you may go "yeah, great, but HOW do I do that?".  Sorry, but I will try and explain and if you need help you can always add a comment and I will try and help.  Also, remember this is one families journey, one unique childs way of relating and communicating.  Every person is different, has different experiences, different problems and skills.  It doesn't mean they won't communicate it just means you haven't found the common ground yet between you to start that dialogue. Take heart no matter how overwhelming it seems, break it down into small manageable moments and you may just find a place to start and maybe like us get a breakthrough.  I am NO SLT, I have no real experience with this apart from what I have learnt, read, experienced, and tried.  This is about how WE went about it and what we found works for us.  Others may have other ways, maybe better, maybe their SLT is fabulous and has great ideas.  Either way I am not advocating anything or promoting any particular product - I am just telling you how I did what I did and what products I have used and found useful.  That said lets give you an insight into what has worked for us.

Stop and think for a moment...
Before you even embark on this if you haven't started already or are still coming to grips with a bunch of failed tries to communicate.  Take a step back.  We were there too, rushing headlong bombarding our son with words, books, pictures, sign language, hand over hand helping etc.  What I didn't realise is I was trying to get him to understand ME, when really I wanted him to TALK to me, so I could understand HIM.  Of course its natural to push your language at a child, you wants and

needs and forget or maybe not even realise thats what you're doing.  So step back, look at your child, be mindful. What are they doing?  Are they actually communicating with their grunts and cries, are they in context?  Are they flapping a hand, shaking their head, looking away or maybe even towards something, do they close their eyes on queue when they don't want something.  When you ask them a question like "Do you want a drink?" do they cry, reach for it, grunt, babble, or just ignore.  All of those are forms of communication. So look at them, take note of these situations because all of them are opportunities for communication.  If they reach for a drink you maybe have in your hand, then great you can redirect that activity to a picture card and have them tap that instead.  If they flap their hands or clap (like our son did), great you can redirect that activity to a switch button with a 'YES' word spoken or even to a picture card.  Its intention, they are showing intention and that is worth redirecting to useful output! Ignoring is still communicating, its a non-response, so maybe they didn't want a drink, so you can use that as an opportunity to say "NO? Ok, would you like MORE food?"  so you just acknowledged their non-response as a NO, and maybe it won't seem it but the child probably notices that and will continue to use that as their means of saying NO.  In these situations its well worth it to learn basic sign language (pick your method - we use Makaton and NZ Sign) to sign words like NO, YES, MORE, FINISHED, WANT and others that may be handy.
So why am I so interested in this food thing anyway?  My kid doesn't eat, they're either tube fed or fussy.  What then?  Well of course I am going to talk about food, thats my sons motivation, yours might not be and thats Ok.  But I bet they love something, what is it?  TV? YouTube? Swinging? Cuddles?  A favourite toy?  So in those situations again stop and think, wait for a moment.  What is it your child is doing when you are standing poised with the TV remote, the favourite toy?
If it helps, write down what you think your child loves, even if its just you! While you're at it write down what you notice through the day as noises, try and notice when the noises happen, what are you both doing?  Are you talking to them? Asking a question?  Are they happily doing what motivates them?  Or is it just random?  Just watch, take note, take video if necessary.  Try and work out what makes your child tick.  Its that mindful step back and watch rather than DO that seems to help.  If you ever get a quiet moment think about your interaction for the day and you'll realise you communicated in so many ways through touch, words, gestures, and actions.  It doesn't have to be a formal iPad AAC App, it doesn't even have to be sign language, or Picture Cards.  There are many other ways to be understood.
In our household we use the phrase "He just doesn't understand the rules of the game yet".  I have used that with many SLT's over the years.  Once our son knew what we wanted from him and how to play that game he was off and 'running' and still is - hes a heck of a lot faster than us too!

Software used (Windows PC (XP/Windows 7) 
Ok, so I use(d) a boring old Windows XP Netbook (HP in fact) with no CD/DVD drive and limited USB ports, memory etc etc.  All that mattered was I had a computer to do stuff with and access to the internet.  I had no fancy camera, I used a standard old Canon 2 Megapixel camera to take my photos

and I just randomly photographed stuff and uploaded it to my PC.

I tried using MS Paint, MS Word, and inbuilt software like it but found in order to adjust the picture size, crop the photo, or whatever I needed something else and it had to be FREE!

So over the years I have been using the following programs on my PC:
Serif Page Plus Starter Edition 
- A free Desktop Publishing software that is great to get started with manipulating pictures on a page and then printing it and laminating.  I created a series of templates of a certain size box to put photos into and then text to create my choice boards.

PhotoScape 
- A free photo editing tool that I found really handy over the years for doing all sorts of edits of my photos and graphics

Google Image Search - yep I just typed into Google Search Engine whatever I was looking for and click on the Images section.

I did use an earlier program called QuickPics but it is no longer available, and the graphics are available out there still - Google Patrick Ecker.  

Also I registered for a free trial of Boardmaker which gives you a 30-day trial to play with the software and create your own boards, test some out and get your own graphics.  It was a handy way to get some early boards done with good well known graphics that I could use without spending $200+ on the software that I may never eventually need all the time.  

Other Stuff

I also brought a cheap A4 Laminator, Lamination Sheets, A pencil case to store all my cards in or a cheap plastic lunchbox, a colour printer, scissors, BlueTac, stick on velcro dots (hook & loop) and plenty of other things over the years to do the Low Tech cards we originally (and still) use.  

Heres a link to my Pinterest Page too where I keep all my handy to read items on both Low Tech (paper & ink) aids, and the AAC (iPad) communication 

Pinterest - Special Needs - AAC/Communication 

I'll be back in a few days to do Part 2 of our Journey - Thanks for reading my BLOG!

Generic Choices - Free Printable

Hi All

I have had a request to provide a few files for labelling your items at home so I thought I would provide two free printables so you too can go around labelling the doors at home and your drawers.

So heres the links to the Google Drive stored PDF's

You will need a Google account in order to access them:

Generic Choices 1.PDF
Generic Choices 2.PDF

How Do I get this kid to communicate?? (PART 1 - Baby Steps)

I thought I would write a blog entry about our endless journey on this Special Needs Train we're on.  One of the biggest hiccups for our son has been his ability to talk which has come and gone.  He used to talk when he was 2 years old, only small words like Mum, Woof Woof (for the dogs) and a few others I can no longer remember.  He also has said 'Hello' and 'Banana' over the years but they have all but vanished.  He just garbles now, I think the official term is 'Jargon' where a toddler knows the vowels and the consonant sounds but doesn't form them into words.  Random words will pop out but we've accepted he is non-verbal.  At 7 years old we just have to leave him to it and hope one day he remembers how to talk.  That aside we realised the only way to help his frustrations was to get him talking SOMEHOW.  It wasn't obviously going to be a voice so where next?

LABEL EVERYTHING

A Mum I met early on suggested we label things in our house with large laminated picture cards so he would be at least exposed to PCS (Picture Communication System) Cards early on and we could continue to point them out.  Of course they were going to be nouns, naming words.  So we set about labeling the toilet door, his bedroom door, the bathroom door, and his drawers in his room to say what was in each drawer.  We also had a 'brush teeth' card by his toothbrush in the bathroom.  They are still there today somewhat ignored by us all now.



SIMPLE CHOICES  

So we then moved onto choice boards, and flip books.  We took photos of things around the house and filled a small flip page photo album with familiar photos which he used for comfort at the Preschool.  Every-time he got distressed they could pull out his photo book and sit with him and he would calm down looking at familiar items, Mum, Dad, our Dogs, the car, his bedroom, all sorts of things.  I did put words on them but he really never noticed the words.  So after trolling the internet for advice I landed upon large simple choice cards.  One for FOOD and one for DRINK.  At home we stuck them onto the table in front of him either side of his plate.  We would encourage him to touch each card in order to 'request' some food or a drink.  He would get annoyed at us and wail, but we persevered. He did eventually get the idea and would touch his card when he wanted more FOOD.  We discovered however that even when the card wasn't there he would touch the spot where the card should be and tap.  It was then we discovered the card didn't matter and he wasn't aware of the picture or the word on it.  He had 'motor planned' that in order to get something he needed to tap that spot on the table and people would give him things.  So where to next? How do we get him understanding the pictures and cards have meaning?

CHOICE BOARDS

Next came the simple strip of choices, and large pieces of paper with 4 photos of food choices that we stuck to the front of the pantry. As we came in for morning tea I would take him to the picture and manually hand over hand touch each picture and state what it was 'CHIPS', 'BANANA' etc and then slowly go back and wait for him to make a choice.  I could tell he was choosing an item by the pressure I felt of his wee hand pushing the page.  As he got better at the choosing he would touch each of the pictures himself and wait for one of us to say what the pictures were.  It was then we realised he was 'auditory scanning' , he needed to hear what each picture was called before he chose what he wanted.  Again we realised the pictures didn't matter it was the words spoken and the motor planning of what each picture was and where.  So we added a second 'Core' choice to his choice boards the 'I WANT' button knowing he wouldn't really get it as such but we would continue to model it with him, tapping the 'I WANT' picture before touching the FOOD picture so he learnt the sequence he needed to do in order to get what he was after.

This went on for a few years and at the same time we were doing Makaton sign language with him.  Over time he developed a means of saying 'Yes' by clapping, it was this definite yes sign that helped for our next level of communication, which was also asking him direct simple questions and getting an answer of YES or a non response which we took to be a NO.  He was still doing great choosing using the simple choice boards as well.

But this is when an SLT (Speech Language Therapist) also came into our lives and things started to change.  Also we purchased an iPad2 at this time and put a basic AAC (Communication App) on it.  We never told the SLT we had done that, we just put the App on and setup a few basics and modelled with our son to choose the items on it.  He couldn't manage the dexterity needed to touch the buttons on the App but again we kept helping him and did educational play (cause & effect) till he got the idea of how to use his hands on an iPad.  I will leave the rest of the story for Part 2 - Next Level