I could use some ideas

[ravinlunachick]

We've had ds home for a little over a month now. He has both amazed and confounded me, lol. I can't get him to do anything that even remotely resembles school work (no worksheets, handwriting pages, school-y apps, etc), but he has been making great efforts to write and type messages to me for the first time ever. Note: He is nonverbal, in that he can't speak, but he uses a communication app and some signs. His receptive language is only a couple years behind his age.

 

For example, he had a major freak-out and meltdown when I logged into ABC Mouse a few days after we brought him home. He had used it at school, and I mistakenly thought he might like it. He was in a really bad situation at ps, and I think anything that reminds him of it is just too much right now. Before this school year, he loved doing worksheets and such. He will play on Starfall, though he prefers to only do the letters, and he is far beyond that academically. He asks all the time to go to Toys R Us, using his app, but the other day, he wanted to write on the dry erase board instead. He composed the sentence on the iPod, and showed it to me. I stood beside him, and just stretched out the sounds, and he wrote, "Mama I like Toys R Us plise." He even signed his name at the bottom!  He has also written, "Print Matr," (for a Mater coloring page) and "Print Pepa," (for Peppa Pig). His app has a typing view so that if there is not a button for what he wants to say, he can type it. It includes predictive ability, so if he is close, the word he wants will appear as a choice.

 

Often, though, he will get the letters jumbled, so that the predictive ability doesn't work, or I can't figure out what word he is trying to write. We both get frustrated when that happens.The other day at the park, he was in tears because he was trying to type a word and we hit a wall. :crying:  I know that if I could just provide him with some good spelling lessons and handwriting practice (many letters are still approximations), he could get close enough for communication success, but I can't figure out how to do that in the unschooly way he seems to need right now. He enjoys games, but the letter tiles we have are still upsetting to him right now. He will play Boggle Jr. for a few minutes at a time, though.

 

Any ideas are much appreciated.

[Rosie_0801]

You can't work a bit more on his signing and print out pictures of things he has trouble spelling, label them and stick them on toilet door or somewhere?

 

Really, if he is this stressed, you might have to let him alone a while longer. The poor kid. And poor you too.  :grouphug:

[geodob]

You wrote that he uses 'some signs'.

But given that he is 'non-verbal', perhaps you could consider helping to learn ASL.  

This is often very helpful for children who are non-verbal and have significant speech Apraxia.

Which they can become quite fluent in.

Learning how to spell words using 'Sign', can then carry over to writing words they can sign.

[ravinlunachick]

We don't rely on ASL, because he isn't accurate enough. He is fairly fluent with his communication app, but has begun wanting to type, rather than page through categories to find the word symbol he wants. This is huge, as it has been suggested by SLPs over the years that he may come to rely on typing rather than talking. Typing (as opposed to relying on the app) would also open up the Internet for him. I need to encourage this.

 

The "nonverbal" label has always puzzled me. He's had it because he can't speak at all, but it obviously doesn't apply across the board, or he wouldn't be able to compose and write notes to me like he did above. So I'm left wondering whether the nonverbal label even applies any longer.

 

He has, somewhat miraculously, FINALLY begun to attempt speech, after beginning Discrete Video Modeling therapy. I can't express adequately what a thrill this is! It's all still completely unintelligible, of course, but it is the attempt that matters to me.

 

I feel as though doors long closed to him are beginning to show cracks of light around the edges, and I want to do everything I can to help them open. He's averse to WD-40 and crowbar methods, though! [emoji3]

[Rosie_0801]

How is his ASL too inaccurate?

[geodob]

Though a few companies are developing some new types of 'Speech to Text' programs?

Which are ASL to Text, and ASL to Speech programs.

That use the camera on a smartphone, laptop, PC, to read ASL as it is signed.

Which converts ASL to Speech or Text.

 

But at the same time, some other companies are developing some new 'Sensor Technology'?

Which can detect what we are thinking?

As you read this, you are probably hearing the words without saying them out loud?

Using your 'inner voice'.

But when we use our inner voice, our neck and oro-facial muscles react as if we were speaking out loud.

So that sensors are being developed, that can detect this muscle reaction and turn it into written and spoken words.

 

Though this sensor system will also be able to be used for the hands.

So that a sign will only need to be thought of.

Which can then be automatically typed out or spoken.

Also translate it to other languages.

[ravinlunachick]

Rosie, I mean that only my husband and I know what most of his signs are; a third party would have trouble or find it impossible, because his fingers aren't positioned right, or he is only doing the vaguest copy of any motion involved. Attempts to get him to be more careful and accurate have failed, for the most part. Also, using the app gives him a voice.

 

Using ASL would mean he could only communicate with someone who knows ASL. Using the app or typed text (or eventually even written, as his handwriting develops) means anyone who can read or hear can communicate with him.

 

The sensors sound very cool, geodob.

[Rosie_0801]

ASL is still a recognised language and it is faster to use than typing. It's something you can use naturally (with practice) around the dinner table. Obviously literacy is more important, but there is some good reasons why ASL could be a valuable skill if you can all learn. Do you know other signers? I've seen people with severe arthritis signing. I've seen people signing one handed out of laziness. One doesn't have to use the ASL equivalent of the Queen's English, necessarily. It might be too much work to make it worthwhile (as speech often is with deaf kids,) but with special needs kids, the more baskets they have to carry their eggs, the better.

 

:grouphug:

[PuddleJumper1]

We don't rely on ASL, because he isn't accurate enough. He is fairly fluent with his communication app, but has begun wanting to type, rather than page through categories to find the word symbol he wants. This is huge, as it has been suggested by SLPs over the years that he may come to rely on typing rather than talking. Typing (as opposed to relying on the app) would also open up the Internet for him. I need to encourage this.

 

The "nonverbal" label has always puzzled me. He's had it because he can't speak at all, but it obviously doesn't apply across the board, or he wouldn't be able to compose and write notes to me like he did above. So I'm left wondering whether the nonverbal label even applies any longer.

 

He has, somewhat miraculously, FINALLY begun to attempt speech, after beginning Discrete Video Modeling therapy. I can't express adequately what a thrill this is! It's all still completely unintelligible, of course, but it is the attempt that matters to me.

 

I feel as though doors long closed to him are beginning to show cracks of light around the edges, and I want to do everything I can to help them open. He's averse to WD-40 and crowbar methods, though! [emoji3]

 

I, too, dislike the word 'non-verbal'. My guy has no spoken communication (outside of a handful of name approximations) but he does communicate with a speech generating device, PECs and some sign. We refer to him as a non-vocal communicator. I was at a training last year where the presenter was talking about this very issue. Verbal and vocal are two very different things. My son is very verbal but he just can't use his voice to communicate. 

 

I'm intrigued by this Discrete Video Modeling Therapy. I'd love to hear more about your experiences with it. 

 

ETA - I agree with Rosie on him maybe needing some more time. When we brought ds home after 6 years in ps it took a long time for him to decompress. We did fun stuff in the mean time. His communication was always forefront work but in an everyday sort of sense. No actual school work while he adjusted to the change. 

 

[PuddleJumper1]

How is his ASL too inaccurate?

 

 

Rosie, I mean that only my husband and I know what most of his signs are; a third party would have trouble or find it impossible, because his fingers aren't positioned right, or he is only doing the vaguest copy of any motion involved. Attempts to get him to be more careful and accurate have failed, for the most part. Also, using the app gives him a voice.

 

 

 

We have the same issue. Ds has a lot of signs he uses but they are all approximations of ASL due to his fine motor issues. An ASL speaker might get some of them but not all. We carry a list of his signs and what they mean so anyone working with him when we aren't right there can have some idea of what he is saying. 

[ElizabethB]

Read, Write, Type?

 

You can try the demo and see. It works both spelling and typing, and they have a follow on that works even more with spelling.

[ravinlunachick]

ElizabethB, I'll look into Read Write Type some more. That looks like it might be a little bit beyond him now, but perhaps in the near future it could be a good fit.

 

PuddleJumper, I stumbled upon the Discrete Video Modeling. Actually, I accidentally clicked an ad on Facebook for Gemiini (not a typo), LOL. I looked at it and was skeptical, and mostly forgot about it for a while. In the meantime, my son's addiction to surprise egg YouTube videos grew and grew. I just thought he liked looking at the unboxing of new toys, but as it turns out, it's much more than that for him. He began to play imaginatively, for the first time in his life, and then began using his communication app to mirror some of the sentences and questions from the "script" most of those videos use. He taught himself to search for his favorite videos, and frequently asks to go to the store to buy some of the toys shown in the videos. 

 

I began thinking about how we owed those gains to the stupid egg videos, and one night while I was lying awake in bed, I remembered the Facebook ad. A few seconds later, and I was looking at their website. I was a little hesitant (it's pricey!), but decided that clearly those point-of-view videos were doing something for him, so I decided to grit my teeth and jump in for a trial.

 

After only 3 days of following their Quick Start program, we started seeing more oral movement than he had ever made before. He was mesmerized by the videos, particularly the extreme close-ups of only the mouth. I could see that as he watched, he was starting to mimic. Still, I was skeptical and afraid to get my hopes up. He started getting a little resistant to some of the repetitions required by the program, so we mixed it up a bit (with a "fun" custom video from the site about Legos and PlayDoh), and he was back on board. I compiled a video from their library of our family names, and within a day, he was spontaneously trying to say his sister's name! :) We got sounds he had never attempted before, despite YEARS of speech therapy. I even added in some preposition work, because he never made gains with those assessments, and within a week, he went from 18% correct to 82% in trials.

 

Now, I realize intelligible speech may be a long way off, or even impossible for him. I also realize that kids on the spectrum sometimes make sudden gains. However, he's been plateaued for a while now, and we have never seen the kinds of gains he has made in such a brief period with Gemiini. I'm determined to stick with it for at least 6 months and reevaluate then, but for now, I'm incredibly happy with it. I think the removal of all extraneous visual cues really helps him to focus, and for whatever reason, he truly enjoys videos made in that fashion. 

 

Oh, one more thing...today, he was so motivated by his desire to get a turn with the kinetic sand his sisters were playing with, that he actually opened up the letter tiles and spelled out "Sand [his name]." I joked that no, he wasn't made out of sand, and he laughed and shook his head (silly Mama!). I told him if he wanted to play with the sand, then that's what he needed to say. He then spelled out "play" before the word "sand," with two letters transposed. I slid my finger under it, asked if it matched, and he fixed the letters. Then I decided to see if we could get an entire sentence. I asked him to make a sentence, and he made "I want (spelled watn at first) play sand [his name]" :thumbup:

 

Yeah....his sisters got the boot and he got the sand to himself for a good long time, LOL.

[MomOfABunch]

What communication app do you use?

[ravinlunachick]

What communication app do you use?

He uses ProLoQuo2Go.

http://www.assistiveware.com/product/proloquo2go

[HSsquared]

Keep searching for what works for you and him.

 

Glad to hear about read write type. I've been wanting something Ike this for my 6yo on ASD.

 

Have you heard of Carly's story? She's a teen, typing, though nonverbal. See here: https://www.facebook.com/erynkhubbard/videos/451214254956059/?pnref=story

 

Here's Carly's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/carlysvoice