AAC refusal

[spader1987]

Hi, ds 8 has asd, severe learning difficulties and has no speech at all. We use aac more specifically the proloquo2go ipad app to communicate. He started using proloquo2go a couple of years ago and has made a lot of progress until recently. He can make a 6 part sentence for example 'I want eat toast please mummy'.

For some reason he has really taken against using the ipad over the last couple of months. He has developed a number of repetitive ocd type behaviours whilst using the ipad which is making him very frustrated, angry and not wanting to use it at all.
Has anyone who uses aac ever had something similar where there child has totally taken against the communication system u use? If so how did you move forward?

Myself and ds have a very good understanding so i am very good at guessing what he is trying to tell me. This is not ideal going forward and does not promote his own independence. The ipad has been so successful previously that i would love to find away to move forward with it.

Any ideas in general would be much appreciated!

I didn't want to leave this unanswered and I have slight experience of this with DD11 who has CP.

Is it the iPad itself he doesn't like or the programme? That would be my first port of call, we found with DD that she didn't like to use her AAC because the communication language set (we use The Grid by Smartbox which has different languages within it) was too simple for her and that she needed more complex vocabulary.

Do you have SALT input?

Thanks so much for your reply!

Ds has always had a lot of ocd behaviours such as having to touch an object a number of times till it feels right to him. Unfortunately this seems to now be the problem with the ipad. He will start his sentence but will have the urge to keep pressing certain buttons over and over and this leads to frustration, the ipad has been getting thrown a lot. He has got so fed up with it that he now shakes his head when asked to use it. Perhaps using a different app may help. I did find that when we recently moved house his ocd behaviours improved quite considerably.

We have no nhs salt input, they didn't seem to know what to do with him. We have been lucky that the school he attends has there own salt who specialises in aac, she really is fantastic. She is currently on maternity leave and the school hasn't replaced her whilst she is away. So effectively we are currently on our own. I have talked to school but they seem unsure on how to proceed.

Is the app your dd uses similar to proloquo2go?

Hi,

Sorry I didn't come back to you, we are all full of cold!

As I said DD uses The Grid (now The Grid 3) by Smartbox which was provided by a branch of the NHS called Access to Communication and Technology (ACT for short). You can get a free version of some of their software on the ipad it's called Grid Player I cant remember what languages it comes with as standard but the free version is quite good ( just looked and it comes with symbol talker A and B which is where we started off before moving to C and D then onto Beeline). I refuse to pay the almost £300+ for The Grid 3 iPad version!

I also found that with DDs over movements that she would accidentally press the home button and come out of the app when she didn't want to, I googled how to turn guided access on and now she can't get out of apps unless I do it for her.

I hope some of this helps.

Thanks so much for the info! I'll have a good look into that!

My DS also uses P2G. In the beginning it was great, then DS seemed self conscious of it. He would refuse to use it in school but would be happy using it at home/ small group classes. I also suspect, as his school weren’t using it with him, that also increased his issue with it.

Right now, we follow his lead. He doesn’t use it at school but we use it together at home.

It could be the programme your DS isn’t keen on. I would get your DS assessed by one of the AAC hubs, which are all around in the UK. You would be seen by an AAC specialist, who would assess your son on different types of AAC programmes and grid sizes etc.

Can I also ask... is your grid size limited ? If it is, your DS May be frustrated by a small grid size. On the Proloquo2go, DS has a grid size of 8X11 or something. They recommend you increase your grid size up by 7X7 or 7X11...

The OCD type behaviour will go. It’s almost like playing with a new toy, you explore with it a bit, over and over again and once you know how to play with it, you use it functionally. Like the P2G, the more you model on the device, modelling different times in the day, different things, the more your DS will learn how to use and the OCD behaviours will eventually go.

I recommend you join the coreword classroom, by Assitive ware, Google this. It’s free and lists a number of activities you can use alongside your AAC.

It’s great that your DS is using his device to request for things and I’m sure your already doing this, but also model other functions that are a bit more difficult. For example: I DONT LIKE THAT”, “I’M BORED”, “THESE PANCAKES ARE YUCKY”.