I'm back......

Help everyone bouncy pony here!! It's been so long since I last blogged apologies for that but things have been very tough and communication was put to a halt and I am now getting back to it and feeling more confident again slowly!

Today I have had a brilliant day at a castle and park and my carer made sure we had a relaxing day with communication involved of course! What better than to get my favourite a Diet Coke from the cafe! And while I was there why not order for my carer too?! Why not indeed so that is exactly what I did..... 

And here u can see me and my carer enjoying our stuff I ASKED FOR! Woo hoo go me! Feeling proud of myself and back on form that if u want something u got to ask a tough but fair lesson my carer has taught me! 

That's all for now but don't u worry I'm back and I'm on it communication is coming in thick and fast!

Bouncy pony! 

The summer holidays, surely a great time to practice our social communication

Been a bit quiet here recently...sorry!!

We have 2 small but significant stories to tell.....

Yesterday we met up with bouncy pony, who asked Ellie some simple yes/no questions using her device....although Ellie needed encouragement she managed to do this...

Today we went out for a drink in our favourite tea rooms, Ellie asked the waitress for a 'little cup' using her device. 

Doesn't sound much does it? 

Believe me, it's huge :) 

You want it you got to ask for it!

Been out with my carer today and we went on a canal boat ride it was good fun! There was people sitting near us which is a situation I dread and I didn't take my iPad out with me today so I was literally speechless..... That is until I got my iPhone instead and opened up proloquo2go!

As my carer says "If you want it you have to ask for it" she isn't a mind reader! Though I wish she was sometimes! I asked for my drink and I got it there and then perfect! I love the feeling it gives me when I get something I want but don't have the words to say so my device at my side means I can get nearly anything I request or need I just have to use my words and talk to Amy! 

Still enjoying my drink now well earnt I would say! My carer knows I'll do most things for this drink which can be used to carers advantage and instead of simply asking me and prompting me do I want it for me to just take it they make me ASK for my drink! Something so simple and always seems to hard to me but makes it better for me in the long term :) 

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.

Smoothie making the autism way!

Last week I tried making a smoothie at a centre I go to it wasn't without its challenges due to my sensory processing disorder I find loud noises really hard to tolerate and even with my ear defenders on the noise of the machine can be too much!! I did as much as I could to prepare for it

I made a smoothie page with choices of fruit on and also included fruit I don't like so I could say what I didn't want which is something I'm trying to work on instead of making my no noises im trying to verbally tell my carers what I don't want 

This is what I chose in my smoothie oh and kiwi but I pointed to that

Talking whilst making it to add more ingredients to my list! I wanted pineapple too! 

This is me making my smoothie easiest way I found around making it was to press the button in very small burst of noise but it wasn't mixing properly so my carer took over and pressed it continued for a few seconds what seemed hours to me and I hit her because I couldn't tolerate the noise but I really did want to do it! So it was one of them moment she had to take the chance of me hitting out but I wanted to make a smoothie and this was the only way!

It tasted lovely in the end wasn't without challenges I had HUGE sensory overload from it and really got upset but lesson learnt next time I'll go out the room when others are making them so to minimise the amount of time I have to hear it!!

How rewards help me speak

When I first got my communication device I was so used to not talking we soon realised it was going to take some hard work to get me to 'talk' so my mom and carers worked on something I liked to do...... Going to a cafe at the park and asking for a Diet Coke.  

I did this same thing for quite a while until I was then able to move the Diet Coke to different places like restaurants and supermarkets. Until I became confident and understood that if I did good communication I got something back which I loved ice cold Diet Coke! 

We still use this method now when I have been good and communicated rather than grunted and got frustrated with mom for not understanding I get to have a drink somewhere with a red straw of course! That's an ongoing battle! 

Here is my star chart the idea is I earn a star for every communication effort I make when I get 6 I get a reward can easily be adapted to suit anyone whatever works for you! 

Bye 

Bouncy pony!