December 27, 2012
At 9am, Heidi came to our home to introduce an AAC App that she (and her partner Renee) developed for the IPad called Speak for Yourself (SFY). I nearly cancelled the appointment. The buttons on the screen seemed too small. Jess’s fine motor skills were too poor. Besides, when she had been evaluated, it was concluded that an iPad would be too difficult for Jess to use or understand. I knew the comprehension was not an issue, but was concerned about other factors that would impede her from using this device.
Heidi arrived with an armful of iPads in two different sizes. One was dedicated to SFY and another had SFY and App games. Jess was all over them both. She immediately started to problem solve and see how they worked.
At one point during the meeting, Heidi and I were talking and Jess opened the babble feature. This is where you can open the screen up to show 120 available words at once. Using SFY, Jess said “exceptional” and then looked at me. I stopped talking to Heidi, turned to Jess and said “yes, you are exceptional!”. Jess found this word a few more times during our session. I was encouraged. Heidi shared with me later that this was when she knew Jess could find success using SFY.
Now we just had to get school on board.
Please let me know if this would benefit my daughter 16 yrs. old, Angelman syndrome. She is just starting to use picture exchange for simple requests. Hopefully this could be good for her.
I’d be happy to share what we’ve learned along our path. We had tried a many different low tech and high AAC’s and the school wanted to revisit PEC’s, we fought. Jessie’s AAC evaluation said she wasn’t a candidate for any of the iPad apps, they were wrong, they underestimated her. I sent you a friend request. We can talk 🙂 Happy Thanksgiving!