Busted!

March 13, 2011

A few weeks ago we celebrated the arrival of Nathan’s communication device, an ECO2, from Prentke Romich. We had been using various versions of ECOs from different loaner resources for many months prior, and to have one of our own opens doors and possibilities for allowing us to have a great idea of what is going on in Nathan’s head.

I’ve been the one taking Nathan to speech therapy for the last couple of years so almost all of the communications between Kerrie, Annette and I have gone through me. Kerrie said that she was turning on the Log function, and I didn’t think too much of it. She said it would give her an idea of how he’s using it in his day-to-day activities.

At the end of the first week she asked to access the device, put in a USB drive and pulled a file off of it. She went back to her work computer, opened a file, printed it and headed off as Nathan and I worked with the student observer was running some basic exercises on the ECO2. Kerrie returned, grabbed a pen and highlighter and went through printout making marks throughout.

When she was done, she got my attention and reviewed what she was seeing. Basically, the printout was showing how Nathan was using the device at school to sign-in (which I set up and help him with) and then throughout the day and school week how Nathan’s teacher would work on numbers, colors, letters and even an art page that was apparently built in, because I didn’t put it together. (Have I mentioned how much we love Nathan’s teacher?)

The printout also indicated outside of class times (nights and weekends) that there really wasn’t much activity on the machine. I’ve shown Annette some of the basics that I had learned from Kerrie, and our more formal programming class hadn’t occurred yet, basically meaning that I wasn’t holding up my end of the deal. I can’t deny it, I was just doing what I do to get through the day, but I wasn’t giving Nathan the opportunity to learn to use the device in his life.

The next week, we/I did better. Still not using the device all the time, but finding new ways to incorporate it into his play, as not to make it seem like punishment. I created a page with his toys, and for some, like his helicopter toy, once he selected that, we could go to the colors page to make him choose which color helicopter he wanted to play with.

It’s a basic reminder that if a child’s only development is done during an hour a week in therapy, that the other 6 days are being wasted, allowing too much time to slip away between exercises. If we only worked out/exercised one hour a week could we really think we’d lose weight or get fit? Who’s fault is it for not taking advantage of all the time given to us? The more we all use the resources available to us, the better off we’ll all be in the long run.

One of the best ways to put the device to use is to find ways that interest (all of) us and get more exposure to using the device. One of the features of the device is the camera which will take a picture and allow the programmer to input “hot spots” for different items in the photo. For instance, I took a photo of Nathan’s classroom and after signing-in he can choose to go to the sensory table, toys, puzzles or tables. We did the same thing at home with his high chair, activity chair, beanbag chair or just playing on the floor.

Not exactly what the doctor ordered

The goal is to come up with activities which require him to make choices. This weekend made me think of one activity my family always enjoys participating. With the announcement of the NCAA Tournament teams (and with Ohio State’s success thus far this season) I decided to make pages and allow Nathan to complete his own bracket.

The pages we’ve been using for Nathan have room for 15 options. Yes, for the first round, I’ve “forced” him to choose the #1 seed, but I don’t think that’s too far of a stretch since no 16 seed has beaten a 1. Other than that, the choices are all up to him. I hide all but the two teams in any given game and he makes the choice. I have “seeded the board” putting the higher seeds in the buttons he chooses the most, leaving the lower seeds higher and to the outside.

Some call it biased, but I refuse to entertain the argument unless you’re using a keyboard that’s listed alphabetically and not QWERTY. I’m sure it will make Kerrie roll her eyes, but I also doubt she’ll be too surprised. She’ll have to give us some credit as we are integrating the device into our daily activities.

I’m almost tempted to offer the bracket challenge to some of his doctors to see who’s the smart one in the end.

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