You may remember the mom who was “Voiceless But Still Talking” earlier this month at the start of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Awareness Month. If you missed it, Mary used the Speak for Yourself (SfY) AAC app and her daughter’s back up iPad to communicate for the week. She provided us daily journal entries describing her adventures and feelings about the experience. She has graciously agreed to provide periodic updates, as she continues to communicate with her 21-year-old daughter using SfY to model and speak to Jess in the AAC language she is learning.
I had the opportunity to have lunch with Mary and Jess on Monday (Columbus Day). One of Mary’s requests following her voiceless week was that she wanted to have a conversation with me and Jess using only SfY. So, during lunch, we did just that. Jess, like she has so many times before, touched my heart.
Here is Mary’s journal entry from that day:
“October 10, 2013
Did not realize how exhausting being voiceless for a week could be. I’m still recovering. My focus was on learning SFY, in essence, a new language and to live my daughter’s experiences so I could better help her. My house work suffered, my home cooked meals suffered, my husband, I think, suffered, however, I have my suspicions that he secretly enjoyed not having to have casual banter.
“Model, model, model”…yes I did! I’m starting to remember where the words are. Just like learning a typewriter (I’m dating myself), learning the key board without having to think about location which in turn increases speed
It is worth sharing that my being voiceless has given my daughter renewed enthusiasm to speak through her iPad. Jess looks at me in a different way, admiration mixed with a little awe. At one point, she wanted the mini back to talk with. This pleased her to be able to use both interchangeably. She doesn’t always put her sentences together grammatically correct (and that reminds me, I’m well aware of grammar mistakes in previous posts. I need an editor). Always exciting when she gets it all right, but we are enjoying the process and the long journey ahead. Always exciting to add a new word. Most recent was “lip gloss”! Jess has a new friend that took her shopping. They do girly stuff. Every morning Jess now insists on putting on her make-up (this is the only make-up she is wearing, but I foresee her wanting more). I also added apple. When we were having lunch, she found the word before I had the chance to show her where it was.
This afternoon was interesting. Jess was saying one word on iPad and then looked for the same word on Mini-me. Just interesting to watch how she processes everything.
Yesterday, she figured out how to unlock the guided access feature. This is HUGE. For that moment, I let her use her devoted SFY iPad to play the game she worked hard to get into, however, now will have to change the code to protect the programs. She has been known to go shopping on iTunes. And for today, one of my goals was realized. Jess, Heidi and I had a conversation where we were all talking only through SFY!
Near the end of our session, Jess was playing a game on Heidi’s iPad. Heidi and I were talking about how hard it was not to talk and how well Jess was doing. Then she used Heidi’s iPad (she talks in full babble…lol), and Jess said “Thank you “ to Heidi for helping her find her voice. This was a special moment. Jess just doesn’t say what we want her to say, she is finding her own voice herself.”
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