Category Archives: Communication

Communication with a Letter Board

Communication, Patty Updates...

Dad-Catch-Katty-02

Teresa’s been working with a marker board to help facilitate Patty’s communication. Teresa voices the alphabet—letter by letter—and Patty spells the message.In this conversation, Patty is telling Teresa about her sister Katty and how she was caught by her father after sneaking out without permission. Here’s Teresa’s description:

“It’s actually a very funny conversation. Apparently, Katty snuck out and was caught by (her father)—I think she was riding around with her friends. If you look at the board you’ll see that Patty spelled DAD: DED, but that was my error not going slowly enough when I said the vowels A–E–I–O–U and Y. Patty confirmed most letters using the YES switch with the new spandex loop—that worked beautifully, I never had to adjust the switch once it was placed in the correct position.”

Write On!

Finding Emilie

Communication

Emilie's art

And if you like inspiring stories about loss and recovery, here’s a beauty from RadioLab:

In this segment, we take an emotional left turn to a story of a very different kind of lost and found. We begin with a college student, Alan Lundgard, who fell in love with a fellow art student, Emilie Gossiaux. Emilie’s mom, Susan Gossiaux, describes her daughter, and the terrible phone call she recieved from Alan nine months after he became Emilie’s boyfriend. Together, Susan and Alan tell Jad and Robert about the devastating fork in the road that left Emilie lost in a netherworld, and how Alan found her again.

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Finding Emilie

For more on Emilie:
Emilie Gossiaux’s web site

Eye-blinks & Eye-gaze

Communication

Patty is non-verbal and communicates through both eye-blinks and eye-gazes.

Below is a video demonstrating how Patty communications with an eye-gaze. In this video Patty is saying “YES.” When Patty says “YES,” she will look to the right (her left).

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For “NO,” Patty looks to the left and for “YES” she looks to the right, as pictured below:

Patty looks to the left for "NO"
Patty looks to the left for “NO”
Patty looks to the right for "YES"
Patty looks to the right for “YES”

Patty Works with String-Switch for the First Time

Assistive Technology, Communication, Marty, Posts, Switch Access

Patty's right foot with string switch Patty's right foot with AbleNet string switch

5/30/10

Today we introduced Patty to a string-switch (AbleNet) for the first time. For several months we have been exploring switch access with several different types of switches including microswitches, mercury switches, miniswitches, and any switch we could think of that might give Patty access to controlling some cause-and-effect activity. It seems like a simple enough task but with Patty there are so many varibles that can make a difference a sixteenth of an inch one way or another. These things take time.

Well, today was a very big day. We’ve been borrowing switches generously loaned from the Frank D. Lanterman Regional Center’s Family Resource Center and today we tried a string-switch for the first time. It’s so simple I’m now wondering why I didn’t think of it earlier but that’s how these things go. We simply hung the string loop over of Patty’s right foot and toes, mounted the switch an inch or two from her foot and Patty did the rest!

With Patty’s determination and our verbal direction and support, Patty was successfully able to turn on and off a couple battery-adapted devices: one, an insane toy from Chinatown; and the other a radio tuned to a local classical radio station. Take a look at the video to see and hear some wonderful music, literally and most definitely figuratively.

At the end of this video you will also have a chance to see how Patty communicates with an eye-gaze system that she has developed with Teresa. Enjoy!

— Marty