For the benefit of Kylee and others who don't see us in person I thought I'd try and explain Alexa's talker. It is an iPod touch and it uses an app that is called Proloquo2Go
http://www.proloquo2go.com/. The website is great at explaining but it's basically a text to speech device. It comes with nearly 8000 preloaded vocabulary words, and you can add your own after that. We call it a talker because alternative communication device is just not a practical label for everyday use.
Her very clever teacher adapted a sports armband to stay on her very tiny wrist, and now it is quickly accessible. Alexa is fantastic with this device, she quickly learned how to navigate through the screens, and loves to explore the preloaded vocabulary pages. One great feature of the app is the option to take a picture with the iPod and use that on a button, so all her friends and family are in there. She uses it at school to do her reading and to do schedule each morning. She is beginning to use it with a lot of prompting to introduce herself to new people. She still tends to default to her high fives and performance of gymnastics moves method of conversation initiation, but I am trying very hard to steer her away from this method. It is proving difficult however, because many of the adults in Alexa's life find it hard to resist giving her a high five or a hug instead of waiting long enough for her to get her talker on and to the right screen. The additional difficulty is that the speaker in the iPod is not loud enough to hear when in a crowd of people. We got a bluetooth speaker to use in noisy situations, but that also takes a moment to turn on and those two moments are too much for many people, they move on to talk to someone else.
For the benefit of Kylee and others who don't see us in person I thought I'd try and explain Alexa's talker. It is an iPod touch and it uses an app that is called Proloquo2Go http://www.proloquo2go.com/. The website is great at explaining but it's basically a text to speech device. It comes with nearly 8000 preloaded vocabulary words, and you can add your own after that. We call it a talker because alternative communication device is just not a practical label for everyday use.
Her very clever teacher adapted a sports armband to stay on her very tiny wrist, and now it is quickly accessible. Alexa is fantastic with this device, she quickly learned how to navigate through the screens, and loves to explore the preloaded vocabulary pages. One great feature of the app is the option to take a picture with the iPod and use that on a button, so all her friends and family are in there. She uses it at school to do her reading and to do schedule each morning. She is beginning to use it with a lot of prompting to introduce herself to new people. She still tends to default to her high fives and performance of gymnastics moves method of conversation initiation, but I am trying very hard to steer her away from this method. It is proving difficult however, because many of the adults in Alexa's life find it hard to resist giving her a high five or a hug instead of waiting long enough for her to get her talker on and to the right screen. The additional difficulty is that the speaker in the iPod is not loud enough to hear when in a crowd of people. We got a bluetooth speaker to use in noisy situations, but that also takes a moment to turn on and those two moments are too much for many people, they move on to talk to someone else. 
1 comment:
Thanks! I guess just because she cant talk much does not mean she does not understand!! I am impressed!
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