Almost Caught Up

Also while I was at home, I spoke with a lot of my extended family about what I am doing with the project, showing them how the device worked, and telling them what I was doing to make it easier for the student, family, teacher, and therapist to use the device for communication purposes. They really thought this was amazing and became really interested in the technology and how it works. My Grandmother was having a really hard time getting her head around what I was doing, so I sat down with her and really explained what the device does and how it can help the student. Once she understood, she thought about my cousin who had a stroke and asked me if a device like this would help him. I was floored. Why didn’t I think about that before? My cousin had a stroke and gets really angry when he is trying to communicate but cannot say what he is thinking. He is completely competent in the head and would be the perfect candidate for a dynavox device. I am going to speak to someone very soon about whether or not his family would be interested in helping him receive a device like this. I don’t see how they could not want one because this could make all of the difference in the world for him. He would not need to learn the cause and effect ideas or have the device simplified for him. He just honestly needs the voice to say what he is thinking. I do not believe his fine motor skills are defined enough for him to write down everything he wants to say. Who wants to have to sit with a pen and paper all of the time at the dinner table and be trying to eat. He is such a very bright man who wants to be completely engaged in the situations around him, and he has such a large family that to have a voice would make a lot of difference in his entire life. Even though I have been working on this project for months, I still did not even think about my own family member who this device would benefit. It took my grandma understanding what I was doing for me to see its potential close to my own home. I am sure that this is a huge issue in all of areas because people don’t always think about all of the options but instead just learn to deal with it as things are. This also makes me wonder why no one has suggested such a device for him or if they have, why hasn’t his family done something about this.

On Wednesday when I got back to school, I worked very hard on putting all of the finishing touches on the device before giving it back to the student on Thursday. I changed a lot of little things to make it even friendlier to use and moved orders around and just double-checked all of the features one last time.

On Thursday, I took the device back to the school, but the student was not in class that day which was very disappointing because I had hoped to run a check with him and work with him some that day to see how the school day ran using the device. I also wanted his teacher to see how I would incorporate the device into his daily routine of classes and activities at school. This is what I believe will be the biggest challenge for her. I do not know whether or not she is going to think to go get the device, turn it on, and use it for all of his classes. Will she remember to charge the device before the next day? Naptime would be the perfect opportunity for her to make sure the device was fully functioning and ready for the next day. I did take the time to sit down with the teacher and explain what all I have done with the device to make it easier to use. Because I had the opportunity to be in his classroom for seven weeks for my own schooling, I know his classroom schedule and what he is working on in school. I made sure to include these on the device. That way he can answer questions, participate, and take initiative during classroom time. When I got home from school I left a message for his mother on the phone to let her know that the device was back in the classroom and ready for her to use. Then I began contacting some speech therapists to move forward to find out how they viewed AAT and whether or not they have patients using the device at this time. I contacted the center where the student I am working with receives speech therapy, and they told me how to get in contact with his therapist to set up a meeting time to talk about what I have done with the device. My next step was to contact a speech therapist in Milledgeville because I wanted to know how AAT is received in Baldwin County specifically. In as nice a terms as I can use, they were very not agreeable, not interested, and rude to me. This saddens me because whether they realize it or not, I am actually here to help and could be a real asset to what they are trying to accomplish through speech therapy. There is another speech center in Milledgeville, so I am going to work on trying to contact them in the near future. I have done a lot of emailing back and forth with the student’s speech therapist, and we scheduled a meeting for Tuesday morning to talk about his device, which was really encouraging to me after the last bad experience.

I hand picked who is taking over the classroom where I was placed as a student teacher, so I went over to the new girl’s house to train her about the dynavox and what I would like to see accomplished with the device in the classroom. I drew her some pictures, explained what was on the device, how to use the device, and what the student is like to deal with in the classroom. We talked about my concerns for the teacher not using the device, and I am very grateful to have her being my eyes and ears in the classroom for the next seven weeks. I am excited to hear how things are progressing. The student teacher that is going in is very excited about working with the student, the teacher, and the dynavox, which is awesome! She is going to check in with me to let me know how things are going, what needs to be fixed, and what is or is not actually happening in the classroom. I will be very thankful for some honest feedback. She is also the kind of person who advocates for what is right, so I know she will encourage the teacher to incorporate the device into daily activities in school. I am very optimistic about her working with the student after the time we spent together in training and talking about the project.

(6 hrs)