Well hellooooooo!

[Jodi]

Hi Everyone. It's been a while... I just finished another term at school (it S*CKS!! beginning to wonder if it's all worth it - I'm going to take the summer off!!!!!)

Anyway - just wanted to update on Springboard - the communication device I talked about a while ago. We've been using it for about a month now. It is a POWERFUL little communication device. We are starting to see Ryan's personality more and more as he uses it to communicate with us. It has LAYERS and LAYERS of touch screens. Example... you touch food, and then there is breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack... touch one of those squares and you get a whole new screen with options. You can program the device to say one word or a sentence, you can download images (great for family/pets/places etc). At school we have images for all his friends and teachers/therapists. I just found out today that Ryan goes to speech with Andrew and Stephanie!!! He pushed the his image and their images along with the image for his speech therapists which lead me to ask, "is that who you go to speech with?" His reply... "essss" (Ryan's yes!) He was very excited to share this with me! People... this is waaaay cool stuff. If any of you have any specific questions I'd be glad to answer them.

The other update... behavior We are still struggling with Ryan's independence. I still can't believe that after a year he STILL fights doing what he is told so much. I had no idea having a 1:1 would cause this much trouble. Ryan had been taken out of the class so much last year that he never learned to be a part of a group - so he still struggles here.

I just wanted you all to know I have been popping in and out and have seen great and sad news - so YAY to you all for the good, and those who have been struggling, my prayers didn't stop!

Jodi

[Jessie]

Hi Jodi,

Been wondering where you were and how Ryan is doing! Glad to hear the communicating device is working for Ryan. We started Jason on one a few weeks ago and although he "gets it", it doesn't mean he wants to use it! Go figure.

Anyway, glad to hear things are going well in that area. Behavioral issues are such a chore!!!



Jessie

[Emilysmom]

Thanks so much for the update Jodi! The communication device sounds awesome! It sure seems like something like that could take away so much frustration, by giving the person the power to communicate! Maybe that will help with the behavior issues too? I'm going to believe that it will!

Susan