Coffee, cake and cars

Today I took my son out to Costa for cake (and sneakily, for some communication practice).  Our local Costa is perfect for this: it has a small enclosed outdoor seating area which you can't easily escape from with a railing which overlooks a busy road.  This means in addition to ordering coffee and cake we could use his vehicle folder to comment on what was passing by!

I was hoping to get him to ask for something at the counter but that proved too difficult (he was massively excited by all the cakes available), so I got him chocolate brownie and a drink (which I know he likes).  When we sat down I got him to ask for drink or cake.  He couldn't decide whether it was 'chocolate' or cake' which was a good teaching opportunity because we put the two together to make 'chocolate cake'.  I realised I hadn't added a 'yummy' and 'yucky' button to his food folder (his sister has those words in her food folder) and they would have been useful so I will fix that for next time!

Then we used his vehicles folder to comment on the vehicles going by.  We saw cars, vans, buses, motorbikes, taxis, and .... the highlight of the day .... an ambulance!   He showed an interest in me modelling and repeated some of the words but didn't do much pressing himself.  However if we go to that cafe and start doing this regularly I think there's a good chance he will.

Let her choose what SHE wants to talk about........it's not all about choices....

This post speaks for itself. Sometimes you've just got to be  a teen and talk teen stuff, cause, well, because SHE CAN 😊

Typical teen, talking boys, boys, boys.....

She then found the keyboard and asked how to spell words, well, boys names to be fair.....

Don't forget, let them explore, have a voice and talk about what THEY want to talk about. 

Bye for now...

We're off to the moon!!

Ok so I'm not off to the moon but I am off to the Space centre tomorrow with my carer!

I've been before but never had a very successful time there because I didn't have anything set up knowing what my choices was when I was there and also being able to just learn and identify things! 

This is what I have come up with for my trip...... As you can see I like to keep things spaced out so as not to overload me and I can communicate fast and when needed! 

 

I've even managed to make a folder for me to be able to talk about the topic of space to try and identify things when I am there. Well that's the plan anyway will see if it goes to plan! Could be a learning day as well! 

Bye for now Bouncy pony!! 

Let's talk about my Christmas presents.....

Something most take for granted..... Being able to talk about what you had nice for Christmas. This seemed like something I would never be able to do but I managed to do it for the first time today!!! I met up with some new friends and was really excited to show them what I had got for Christmas and introducing them to my sister too and I thought what better way than to show them photos!!  But having just a photo wouldn't work for me as I had no way then of explaining what was inside the photo when in my head I have so much to say! So I made an album for them and away I went!

I've made a few folders each with things inside I want to show people it always is easier to talk to people when I am motivated and excited!! 

What better way to start a conversation than showing someone my paw patrol collection!

As you can see I kept it short and simple and showed my favorite things which kept me interested and it really helped to break the ice as you would say to help me start to talk to my new friends it was a 100% success!! 

Learning to expand sentences using adapted home made book

Blueberry had a slt session this week. We discussed the words that she is missing out and how to help her expand her sentences. Me, being me, thought I'd set up this activity. Blueberry did find it hard to stay on task and remember what the question was, so lots of prompts were needed. We will persevere and keep trying though.

I made a Christmas book template.

Then to use the connective and describing words I made a 'little words' pop up. This kept it simple for Blueberry.

Happy Christmas 🎄🎄

Reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar with AAC

I have recently been inspired by conversations with co-blogger Twinkle Blueberry about modelling AAC whilst sharing books (and her recent blogpost on the subject) so I decided to give it a go.  My girl is much younger than hers and she likes very simple, repetitive books which are read in the same way, with the same rhythm, each time.  She is also quite impatient and likes things to happen quickly!  This means that (at this stage, anyway) I can't do long, complicated modelling that would involve navigating through different folders to find words - because she likes pages turned quickly!!

So this is how we did it ...

First of all we put on the YouTube video of Eric Carle reading his book 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'.  (She likes watching him better than listening to me!)

Then we opened our 'comments' folder (general comments, not designed for this activity):

Then I just put in any comments which were relevant as Eric turned the pages.  She was comfortable with that as it didn't change the rhythm or speed of the story too much.  Buttons which were useful were:

 'Oh dear!  Ouch!' (when the caterpillar had a stomach ache)

'Yummy!' (when the caterpillar ate nice things)

'That's clever!' (when the caterpillar built a cocoon)

'That's silly!' (when the caterpillar ate too much food).

 'Wow!  That's pretty!' (when the caterpillar turned into a butterfly), 

Shared reading by navigating folders

My daughter doesn't really show any interest in books, but I keep trying! 

Today I shared this book whilst incorporating her communication app too. Using the 7X11 intermediate core she used 3 buttons on the home page,  then used the 'places' folder, to find the  'home places' folder and found the button for toilet. Yes, she did need a bit of verbal prompting, but this definitely increased her ability to cope with a bit of shared reading, and gave us both practice navigating through the folders. I shall definitely be using this again.

One happy, and proud, mummy.

Watching Disney's 'Frozen' with AAC

This afternoon we snuggled under a duvet on the sofa and watched Disney's Frozen for the first time (yes, two years after the rest of the world ...).  I quickly consulted my three fellow bloggers who told me the key words that would be needed and made a folder with some core vocabulary (yellow, always same location on screen) and some useful Frozen words.  It was quite successful: my girl enjoyed snuggling up and watching it and was definitely engaged with my commenting (her eyes were going from TV screen to iPad and back) although she didn't choose to join in.  That's not a great surprise - she's much more oriented to requesting, so commenting is the next step.  However, the device blended nicely into the activity and helped us share the film together.

Using Proloquo2Go's Built-In Animal Sound Effects

A really cool feature of Proloquo2Go is that it has built-in sound effects which you can add to a button instead of text to speak. In this folder I have created buttons for animals and in the grey button underneath each animal you can press to hear the sound it makes.  This folder is fun for choosing which verse of old McDonald to sing as well as commenting on farm picture books and trips to the farm.

Commenting on TV programmes

AAC can be used for commenting on TV programmes - and as my children tend to also have toys and books connected with their favourite programmes, that means more opportunities to use these buttons in different contexts.  Here are the folders for Peppa Pig and In the Night Garden commenting.

Choosing clothes

I created this folder so my girl can have some say in what she wears.  This morning we used it for the first time successfully in a very simple context - I brought in two jumpers and two pairs of leggings (different colours) and got her to choose.  I hope that over time she will be able to have a bigger choice as she gets used to the folder and maybe even use it for shopping to choose what to buy!