tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447392662850613354.post5771429915773416334..comments2024-02-25T10:24:30.868-05:00Comments on Special needs disability parenting BLOOM: Let's give kids who don't speak tools to succeedBLOOM - Parenting Kids With Disabilitieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06901482901008135659noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447392662850613354.post-18981660539160631432013-05-30T16:50:16.264-04:002013-05-30T16:50:16.264-04:00ACC unfortunately is a tool of psychologists who w...ACC unfortunately is a tool of psychologists who want to intervene on behalf of children for their own benefit. As a child, I volunteered to work with non-verbal peers, using I don't know what technologies to help them communicate, unaware of the heteronomous nature of the technology, while I would use my own received and constructed languages with my peers.<br /><br />Being autistic, I've always made up my own words while amassing a ponderous personal vocabulary of words I just liked the sound of. I mashed them up. I invented new meanings. I forced old words into new contexts. People still find it strange that I like to use out of date words. I don't it to be quaintly hipsteresque. I do it because they're the words that come to mind when I want to communicate.<br /><br />The technologies we use now do as much to silence children's voices as they do to allow them a means of communication. No one asks the child if this is the voice they want speaking for them, or if they'd rather use some profanity, or even augment a profanity (fütiferosity is a favourite of mine). No, children who are non-verbal are given a preset suite of tools to communicate with us, without us ever bothering to communicate to them in their own language. And any parent who has a child who does not speak their language should watch amanda bagg's video in my language (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc), or melanie yergeau's I stim therefore I am http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2QSvPIDXwA as these videos will remind you that we are communicating, even when we're not using the tools we're forced to use to communicate.<br /><br />I'm obviously good at expressing myself. Nothing like finally learning how to communicate effectively at age 35, but the first few decades were tough. I can tell you, that there's no way I'd have ever used the tools I'd be given now. They're too reductionist and pragmatic and uninteresting. I got into language via iambic pentameter and sustained alliteration. And I still struggle with simple anglo saxon words. If you want to engage children in language, why not start with some engaging words? That's my take.Jason Nolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08678439544508714619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447392662850613354.post-20800345072933985092013-05-17T18:46:44.084-04:002013-05-17T18:46:44.084-04:00Pat Mirenda is making such incredibly important po...Pat Mirenda is making such incredibly important points; I hope what she's saying can be firmly incorporated into all AAC strategizing though that isn't easy, by any stretch of the imagination. But I think too often the most profound aspects of communication are somehow lost in the technology shuffle.Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06318174928862120631noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447392662850613354.post-46285484469647824692013-05-17T15:26:05.708-04:002013-05-17T15:26:05.708-04:00Thank you for posting this. My son has Down syndr...Thank you for posting this. My son has Down syndrome which results in severe language delay and possibly apraxia. He signs a little bit, but not as much as we encourage. He got a Dynavox V three years ago and pretty much hated it. It was a struggle to get him to use it and we really didn't know what else to do. This year the school district trialed him on an iPad with ProLoQuo app and he loves it! He still doesn't use it as much at home (because we know what he is saying, I think) but he does use it much more at school. So that is progress. But the fact that what is programmed into the device is based on what other people decide to put in still troubles me. One of the reasons we wanted the speech device was to give us some clue as to what is in his head, what he thinks about, etc. and I don't think we are getting that yet. Hopefully! But we are still a long way off. I am going to share this with the speech therapists, technology consultants, etc. at his school. They are wonderful but I don't know that they have thought from this perspective.BethBGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12353601159806913449noreply@blogger.com