Does anyone's dc use an AAC device?? Would anyone be interested in a Support thread??

[hazeyjane]

Ds was awarded an AAC device in the last term on school. It is an GridProGo, and the programme we use is Beeline.

I feel as though we are flailing around in the dark a bit, wrt use. SALT is going through (yet another) hiatus and ds is between SALTs, the AAC specialist only works term time, and of course it is the holidays!

I have been adding in (and taking away) words, and creating grids - and ds does use it, but it can be a bit purposeless (hitting the word 'fire boat' 6000 times)

then we have flashes of brilliance, like ds trying to tell us about a dream, finding his talker and telling us that it was about Finn from Adventure Time! Or last night when I aked him what he would like for tea and he made up this sentence -- 'I want 2 sausages 2 fish fingers chips potatoes' (I was as thrilled with the variation in diet -it is usually pork pie!!)

I have been on the phone to SALT to ask for some guidance, and have been googling and looking at blogs for ideas, but wondered if anyone on here has a dc that uses a device, who would like to share ideas??

catching up!

We have a griffin on the ipad - I don't know what the case is on the device we have funded, but it looks very much like the griffin. I like the look of the fatframe. We have to get a new ipad soon and will probably get a fatframe for it.

AnitaDobson hello - ds does this, hitting a word repeatedly or coming out with gobbledegook, the AAC SALT we saw said that it is like a babbling stage, and to sort of let him get on with it, then re focus him.

One of the things that I said when we went for funding for a device, was that I didn't want it to be an ipad, as ds associates the ipad with games. The device he has now is solely for talking. This is also handy for when he has it at school, as the other children aren't so interested in it when they realise it just has boring words on it and no games!!

I can't tell you all how lovely it is to get posts from others with children using AAC

I know the communication/SALT is really the Cinderella service. DS was referred for assessment over 9 months ago and still heard nothing.

I bought the iPad and proloquo2go myself so I am reluctant to pay out any more for something that should be provided, but yes, he does need something that is not as exciting as the iPad. I do put on guided access which helps. The problem is we have so much else to manage, physio, OT sessions after school that there are just not enough hours in the day. I know if it was only communication we would have cracked it by now, but we have had a major operation to cope with plus a hip problem just as I was about to tackle communication.

We had a private SALT come to give us oral aversion exercises so I have to get back in touch with her now all is more settled.

Our NHS salt said DS could not use the p2go in school anyway. Just stick to pecs. Which is why I am looking at touch2go.

The ACE Centre gave me some excellent advice and the number of the local NHS assessment place to contact direct. Also a charity for S&L. I think we will have to be given an AAC device for school.

You can see how confused I am!

Why can't he use p2go in school? If that's his voice he should use it!

Ds has been awarded his device by the LEA - obviously we must be really lucky. It took a long time from assessment to the award, but it has been worth it, in that he has the device, case, bluetooth speaker and a day of training in how to edit and create grids for the device.

Agree though that school need to allow him to have the device - that is crazy! Is it a ms school or special needs? It took a long time for school to be on board with ds having a device, but it is written into his EHCP, and I think they have seen how beneficial it will be to him.

It's because he couldn't use it effectively. I couldn't find anyone to teach him and us to use it and as hazey says it like learning a new language. One I don't know and neither did the SALT. She had no idea how to teach the TA to use it and the TA used it (successfully) to offer choices. Even this was banned.

I thought if I could get a touch2talk folder set up and him using it at home it would transfer into school and if he got used to the idea of communicating he would start using the P2Go better. ACE won't sell me one without a bit more info like what symbols is he using in school. They were really helpful and gave me the number of local AAC assessment and a charity.

I do feel like I am going round in circles sometimes though. But it makes sense to me to at least have some online training in using the physical cards as it is very step by step and straightforward.

P2go don't do online training and our nearest training salt is 2 hours away

X posted. It is a mainstream school and DS is non verbal and a wheelchair user. They have never had a child so involved as DS

Hello all

Just posting because I don't want this thread to die!!!

Also because ds's device has glitched and needs to be sent off for repairs - such a pain in the arse, as the school are suddenly being a lot more proactive about using it. They have been using it to look at books and taking it into his ms inclusion class. I don't want a hiccup!!

Also he has a new SALT coming next week, with an AAC specialist to consult with her - talk about bad timing!!

Hope everyone is ok and glitch free!

Oh and I wondered, what sort of voices everyone has on their dc's devices??

It is a funny thing about what voice we use. The software we use (an app called AAC Speech Assistant) has the option of male or female, English or American. We obviously want the English one but it may seem surprising to some that we ise the female voice, when it is being used by a boy. It just seemed wrong to me somehow to have this adult male voice coming out from a teeny little boy (he was 5 when he started using the software, and is now 6). So we have the female English voice. No-one seems to question this, and we are all so used to this voice now! As he grows up I suppose I will at some stage change to the male voice...

Ds uses an English woman too! We have the pitch of her voice turned up. Like you say, it seemed really odd having a deep man's voice saying, 'Mumma. Want Spiderman and juice'!! We tried turning the pitch up on the mans voice but it sounded like a munchkin!!

Oh I am glad I am not the only one! Exactly, the things he says would sound odd in amna's voice and also I just don;t think it seems right for a very small cute little child to be booming "no bed, want CBeebies" in a adult man's voice!

Ah the voice. When ds1's voice broke I switched to adult male. When he stopped using his device the SALT suggested trying a different voice, so I got him to choose & we have English female!

So we have a spotty 16 year old with a woman's voice. But clearly to him it is how the talker 'should' sound.

My son has Proloquo2Go and uses Harry, the British little boy voice....it is lovely because it sounds a little bit posh which is exactly how DS's clear words are after seven years of speech therapy

Bumping up the thread!

Met with ds's new speech therapist today, she brought along another speech therapist who specialises in AAC to give advice to the school.

It was very interesting talking to them, and sitting in on what the head teacher was saying - 2 things became very clear - one is that the teacher wants ds in ms rather than the sn unit he is now in, and two is that she hasn't got a clue what to do with the device and finds it a royal pain in the arse. The AAC SALT said she would set 2 targets, and that they were for the school - 1) use the device with ds, modelling the sentences, that way he will learn where the words are as will they, 2) put ds in charge of the device, let him carry it around and put it on the desk. She said that until these things happened there would be no point in setting further targets.

The other SALT - who will be his main SALT seemed great, she said that she needed to do an assessment of ds's receptive language as his understanding seemed way ahead of where his targets are set.

His teacher said that she had been concentrating on encouraging speech, and the SALT pointed out (this must be about the 100th time that this has been pointed out to her) that Makaton and using the AAC device will encourage speech, not stop it.

We have p2go and rejected the Harry voice as it sounded too posh and cold, so we have the Australian boy who sounds really gentle and cute

Your SALT does sound more on the ball that most hazey.

I have now got hold of a talk to touch instruction manual from ACE (who are an excellent charity and very helpful) and I have set up a basic communication book which DS can keep with him all the time. He did cotton on immediately how to use when I did a test page, so we have to build on this. I am using mostly the same symbols that p2go uses so the hope is he will get the idea of communication from the touch book and then transfer those skills to the iPad. I got 14 days free trial of board maker from inclusive technology.

It will go into school with him tomorrow and typically, we have a SALT appt for the first time in 9 months. Ta said she is useless! I will at least be able to demonstrate to the TAs how it works.

DS will have today after school to learn to use it!

Did you know it's AAC awareness month? You do know!
How's everyone getting on? Dd has been plagued by technical issues with her device, resulting in her refusing to use it now. It's so frustrating. We are using such an old device it's keeps breaking down. We've been trying to get her formally assessed for funding for over a year now. This is slowly happening but in the meantime we have reverted to signing and pen and paper. I've purchased the ' speakforyourself ' app today as its half price. I'm going to try and turn her back on to using a device to communicate to try and alleviate some of the frustration she's displaying.

Hello Toots!

~Yes, I started the month full of good intention, posting a daily update of ds and his talker on FB, partly to raise awareness, partly to motivate me to be more consistent with it's use, and partly to kick up the arse one of ds's TAs, who is on FB. Unfortunately ds got ill, and it all went out of the window a bit!

I like the look of Speak For Yourself - have you seen the FB page for SFY users (other aac users can join, but the majority seem to be SFY)?

Very frustrating to have a knackered device. We have been very luvky with funding and assessment, it took a while but the package we got was very good.

School here have been a PITA wrt ds's talker, insisting that it will stop him talking - this is the sn unit that proudly told me they didn't use Makaton as this also stops them talking HFER (Huge Fucking Eye Roll).

Happy AAC Awareness Month everyone!

I like HFER. I may have to borrow that one! The sn unit sound like they need a visit from the makaton charity or the fabulous singing hands to show them how amazing and inclusive makaton is for all children. How can you be proud to not use signing? My mind boggles...good luck with them Hazey.

I only posted a half written list yesterday as it all went a bit wrong here! I've just noticed now. Whoops.

Excitingly we have a trial with liberator on Monday to look at kit and programs. Fingers crossed. I'm busy trying to adapt SFY on dd's iPad. I've bought a different colour surround for it to be used when it's her talker that's blue, when it's her iPad chill out app time the cover is red. Do you think I'm going to get away with it? She's pretty switched on ... We don't have another iPad to let her use solely as her talker ( I'm desperately hanging onto mine as my connection with the outside world, oh and you lot)! I'll let you know how it goes. Have a great weekend.