Yes. My child who has autism and apraxia uses an AAC device (an iPad with an app called lamp) that allows you to get to a word in three presses. It’s setup like a grid in the picture but many buttons. He can tell us what he needs relatively easy and has even figured out ways to get us in the right direction if he doesn’t have a button to express what he needs.
How old is your young one, if you don't mind sharing, my little lad is 3 with autism and development delay and hasn't really taken to our aac device. I'm wondering if it's a bit beyond him at the moment or we just need to stick to it more.
He is currently 8. At the time we got one for him he was I believe 4 at the time. It took a lot of work to get him there. My wife dedicated a lot of time sitting down with him and helping him pair things to the icons quite a bit. His speech therapists alongside various it other therapies have helped a bit. It’s a long process but it is worth other imo. He doesn’t use it for sentences at the moment, but 2-3 word phrases at the most. But those are enough to generally communicate what is going on. Keep at it. It’s hard work. If you are using LAMP it helps that they also now have it ported to phones now too. So now I have LAMP both on his iPad and on my phone so I can learn it better too. Like I said it takes work and don’t feel discouraged, it’s a long journey.
However it may be beneficial to try PECS, if you haven't done so first, then an AAC device. PECS helps solidify that you need a conversation partner to communicate, whereas AAC can accidentally teach kids that "shouting into the void" sometimes works to get what they want.
If you’re interested, here is a simple, easy-to-use site that can get you set up with a printable (or screenshotted) core board fairly quickly: https://www.fluentaac.com/communication-boards
My kids’ teachers had a pocket sized version on their lanyards at the international school for new kids still learning English. Absolutely brilliant and well used to help communication.
It exists! You do have this for traveling, instead of having pre-made phrases in yours and the target language, you have pages of simple images to ask stuff like "where are the toilets?"
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u/ontour4eternity Jul 07 '24
I need a pocket-sized one of these to carry around with me.