Progress ....

Apologies for no posts in a while from me.  I have been busy fighting on various fronts, including getting my daughter a new EHCP (in the UK, a legal statement of special needs and the provision that is needed as a result of those needs) in order to get her speech-generating device written into her provision.  Slow progress, but I am getting there!  We now have a Speech & Language Therapist who is sympathetic to AAC and has written a report for the EHCP that she needs to have a regular structured programme to help her make progress on P2Go so that is good.

Another positive thing is that I have signed up for a course on modelling/ Aided Language Input for parents of children 2-11 who use AAC.  Looking forward to getting started.  Here is the advert in case anyone is interested.

Finally, I'm pleased (and surprised) to say that despite very poor modelling from me recently (been distracted due to the EHCP issue) my daughter has spontaneously used four brand new buttons on her device that she hasn't used before.  They are:

Book:  she visited her granny's house and remembered there was a book there that she really liked and wanted to see again so she said 'I want book' (she doesn't normally ask for books because they are freely available on her bookshelf at home).  Unfortunately she's not yet able to specify which book it was she wanted but we worked it out!

Finished: she finished her dinner and said 'finished yoghurt' (she likes a yoghurt after dinner). 'Finished' is a really good one because she has a tendency to pick up food and throw it when she's had enough so if she can start telling us this way that will be an improvement!

Please: she doesn't normally bother with 'please' or 'thank-you' but a few days ago she said 'I want chocolate'.  I said 'chocolate is finished' and she went back to her iPad and pressed 'please'.  I was so impressed she ended up getting some (as she knew she would!!) 

Night-night: her Daddy said 'it's time for bed' and she went to the iPad and pressed 'night-night'.  I was really pleased about this one because it wasn't requesting, it was just nice social communication.

So all this progress is motivating me to up my game with the modelling!  Fingers crossed the course above will kick-start me into action again.  :)