AAC Learning: Shifting Attention Between Devices, Activities and Partners

This adorable little girl is Ariella, a nonverbal 3 year old who is just beginning to explore the use of AAC to help her develop communication and language while she's working on her speech. I love this video because Ariella does a fantastic job showing us how she shifts her attention carefully between her device and YouTube on the computer. She takes her time to peruse her choices, selects and then waits expectantly for her video to start. There's no question she understands what she's doing. Shifting attention between an AAC device, the task at hand and your communication device is one of the challenges of AAC use. It's important as we evaluate our children's language and communication skills to remember that AAC users have increased demands on their focus and direction of attention than verbal communicators.

AAC Learning: Navigation Using Visual Scene Displays

Victoria has been trying out several speech generating devices in our office over the past month. As part of her evaluation we are determining how we can best help Victoria navigate through pages of her device independently to get to her messages. This video shows her 2nd exposure to a photograph scene display to navigate to categories of desired items for requesting. She did wonderfully, learning to select a category (videos, snacks and toys) and telling us what she wanted! Over the course of an hour session, Victoria even began using the "close" button to get back to her scene to ask for different items. Yay, Victoria!!

Motor Planning Considerations

This is a super quick video showing our friend Sabrina making snack choices.  Sabrina often initiates motor movements after a significant delay.  At times, Sabrina fails to move into action even when she appears to be interested in the presented choices.  We found that if we remove her speech generating device from her visual field and then reintroduce it to her, her motor movement towards the device is almost always immediate.  Sabrina's motor planning delay often makes her look as if she is not interested in activities/objects  when the opposite is often true.  Just a little reminder to keep motor planning in mind when using AAC systems!

Learning How to Find Words in my Dictionary (Word List)

This video was taken a year ago when Zachary first began working with the Dynavox Xpress.  He is learning how the vocabulary is organized, how to navigate to his favorite subjects and how to speak a message.  Instruction includes verbal explanation of category with models for navigation.  Cueing shifts from direct point cues to direct verbal cues and  finally indirect cues as Zachary begins to figure it out!

Watching YouTube & Talking with my Tango

Nicholas uses his Tango communication device to request favorite videos, use action requests and do a weekly movie review. He's getting good at selecting among his favorites, Scooby Doo and Blues Clues, giving them a big THUMBS UP!

Miracle & Gwendolyn Chat with their V's

Miracle and Gwendolyn sat down for a chat last week in our office. Both little girls are using Dynavox Series 5 software with pragmatically organized messages. This is a fun little snippet of our chatterbox girls learning about conversation.

New Device, Familiar Messages, Familiar Partners

Lauren is transitioning to a new speech generating device, the Maestro.  At 18 years old, Lauren has recently been showing a significant increase in her functional use of her messsages.  On this day, Lauren is getting used to the new device but is using some very familiar messages.  When she's stressed, Lauren benefits from holding her partner's hand when she touches her device.  When she's motivated  though she is VERY much in charge of what she presses and allows no direction from  her partner.  At the end of our video you can see how beautifully Lauren tells us she's "ready to go" and that she "want(s) to get in the van!"

Intro to the DynaVox Maestro

Carson is an emergent AAC user. Today was brilliant, watching him discover the power of communication with AAC and the Maestro. Good things are coming for this cute little guy!

Xpressing My Opinion on the Xpress

In late winter, 2009, Anthony was introduced to the Dynavox Xpress on the day this video was made. We considered the Xpress for Anthony because he's such a social guy and enjoys being fun, cracking jokes and being the COOL teenager he is. In the months that followed, Anthony got his own Xpress. He loves the video and MP3 player on his device and the COOL vocabulary. This video shows Anthony figuring out all of his commenting options on his My Phrases page set.

Damon on Valentines 2003

A visit with Damon 7 years ago to see how far he's come! This is Damon with his first Dynavox 3100 in January 2003. He used 36 location Gateway at the time with some partner assistance for navigation to new vocabulary. Just a few years before this video was made we were told he couldn't use a high tech device. So much for that!!

Damon On Wrestling

Damon uses his DynaVox V to introduce himself and his favorite sport. Damon uses several different page sets to have a conversation in this video.  He uses My Phrases for a quick "hello" and "see you later."  He moves out to his scenes introduce himself and tell his listeners a little about himself and how he communicates.  Damon loves wrestling and goes to his wrestling scene page with 40 location popups to talk about his favorite wrestler (for today, anyway!).  Unfortunately Damon's speech therapist has no idea how to pronounce Ted DiBiase!  

Malick Introduces Himself

Our friend Malick uses the C12 with CEye by Tobii ATI with eye gaze access to activate his messages on a 30 button grid page format. He has had his C12 consistently for less than 2 months.  In this video Malick is using his "talk" page to greet his therapist. Watch his sweet smile when he is able to introduce himself by name.


(On screen, Malick looks and holds his gaze for 3 seconds.  You'll see the red clock on the button count down quickly and then speaks his message.)

Learning to make sentences on the Vantage Lite

At the time of this video, Jujuan had his Vantage Lite for one week. We chose the Vantage Lite with 60 location for him because he has amazing sequential and motor memory. He navigates to his pages very quickly and can communicate very specific information using correct word order and form using his Vantage Lite. A screen shot of his main page is to the right.
Apologies that you can't see the screen well in the video.

Katie Goes to Walmart

Katie took her first trip to Wal-Mart using her Tango to interact. This is Katie's introduction to her Shopping Talk Topic. She's learning positive/negative commenting and social interaction messages. Katie is a little cautious when she learns new message so she likes to hold our hand as she's trying out her new words. Katie's partners do not physically guide her hand but do provide verbal cueing throughout this initial experience. Katie had a great time in her outing and went home with a funny new video!

The Tango is a speech generating device available from Dynavox at www.dynavoxtech.com.

Tess and Alli Chatting with AAC

Tess came all the way from Texas and visited Alli in our Georgia office yesterday.  Tess and Alli are both terrifically smart young ladies who use AAC devices to communicate.  Tess uses the Vanguard by Prenke Romich with 2-switch scanning.  Alli uses the Vmax with EyeMax by Dynavox with eye gaze access to activate her messages.  Alli and Tess spent an hour and a half chatting and checking out each other's devices.  The girls have plans to keep in touch via video chatting.

Can I Have a Hug? And Hugs and Hugs and Hugs...

Nia is an adorable little lady who has found a voice with her DynaVox V. How cute is this??

Making Sentences with Gateway on the Dynavox V

Josh is moving up in the communication world- leaving behind his MiniMo and making the move to the more advanced Dynavox V.  Josh has become motivated by the power of having a significantly larger vocabulary available to him and is now making short sentences on his own.  We've seen many AAC users who rejected their devices when they were limited to 4-6 messages develop internal motivation to communicate when they moved to a larger, richer vocabulary.  Josh is a wonderful example of this!

Meeting a New Person with my Dynavox V

Ronnie is a sweet young AAC user who loves to talk! In this video he is meeting a new friend for the first time. Ronnie does an excellent job making appropriate eye contact, and taking turns in conversation. Social interaction is such a motivator for many of our kids!

Alli Learning Programming on EyeMax

Alli has come a long way and is engaging in interactive communication with her EyeMax. She is beginning to be interested in programming her EyeMax. In this video, Alli independently accesses the modify button, selects her own symbol and changes the color of her new button. Alli uses her Dashboard page to change her own volume and turn on/off her Chat mode.

Emily Revisited! Dynavox Vmax with Step Scanning

Emily has been working very hard this year and has become quite independent in expressing herself. She uses a switch placed on the upper left side of her tray to step by step scan her choice of message on her Dynavox. When Emily hears the message she wants, she stops tapping her switch and the message speaks loudly for her partners. Emily likes to hold and pull her device closer to her with her right hand but does not have the fine motor skills to access the individual buttons with her hands. You can see Emily's video in the Fall of 2009 in our other videos. She's come a long way!


http://youtu.be/7XEzAng1joE