Please join me in a HAPPY Dance -Updated 4/27/07

[SueM in MN]

I found out today that my DD's communication device was approved, so she will soon be getting a new Vantage Communication Device.

 

[Forevryoung]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope it works out well for everyone.

Bet your daughter is excited!



ETA- just checked it out and it looks like a great device with a ton of potential for your daughter! Keep me updated with how it goes.

 

[Goofyluver]

Congratulations! I hope your DD soon finds her "voice"! I'm a speech therapist! I want one for me! I know how difficult it is to get these devices. Good luck and have fun!

 

[forr2grls]

YAY!!!!!! Congrats!!

Paula

 

[Wheelsie]

CONGRATS Sue

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks everyone.
What follows might be more than you want to know (if so, just skip it and take the thanks).

She had a different communication device (Dynavox) for the last 10 years, but it's obsolete, broken and was very cumbersome to use. It was arranged around folders of similar items/ideas (like food) that had to be programmed with things she might want to say. Not a lot of opportunity for her to come up with with what she wanted to say.
The new device (Vantage) is arranged around what is called Core vocabulary - if you have quick access to the 100 most frequently used words, you can come up with a lot.
We had a Vantage device for a trial during a WDW trip in October. She didn't use the device that much, but some of the things she said surprized me. For example, we had to switch resorts in the middle of our stay. As she watched us packing up, she came up by herself with "Think vacation" and added the sign for "all finished". (The speech therapist had shown her how to find "vacation" before we left, but she had not used it by herself before). I cried when we had to give the device back after the trial because, with it, she was able to actually express what she wanted to say instead of what someone thought she might want to say.
We are very excited to get her own!

 

[OneLittleSpark]

Yay! I'm so glad you guys have managed to get one for her, it sounds like she got along really well with it on the trial. Please send all our congratulations on to her and wish her the best with it from all of us DISers!

Here follows a happy dance:

 

[SueM in MN]

DD's new communication device arrived by Fed Ex today!

She explored a bit on it this evening (and let me know in no uncertain terms that it is hers and we are not to touch it unless we ask first). I have some changes I need to make (like adding some of her favorite foods and changing the pronounciation to make it say her name correctly).

 

[Forevryoung]

SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So much easier to program than the DV4 (but definitely not intuitive still)

Let me know if you need directions (I can email ones to you). They have been written by grad students as we use the devices so they may be easier to understand

Enjoy!

I hope it works out well for your daughter

 

[SueM in MN]

SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So much easier to program than the DV4 (but definitely not intuitive still)

Let me know if you need directions (I can email ones to you). They have been written by grad students as we use the devices so they may be easier to understand

Enjoy!

I hope it works out well for your daughter

I'll see how it goes and might take you up on the offer if I can't figure it out.

I had programmed all the pages on her old Dynavox. When she got a tablet computer with Dynavox 3100 software on it, I had to reprogram every page on there because they would not 'stick' on the device when I transferred them over to the computer.

The Vantage looks great because there is so much core language and we only will need to add a few things. I'll be able to work with her on it this weekend, but I'm planning to keep it home on Monday and do some programming then (when she won't be home to see me work on it). It comes with PASS (programming software), but I can't use it because it's a Windows only program and we have only Mac computers in our house.

 

[OneLittleSpark]

Great news!

I hope your daughter gets on well with it and good luck with the programming!

 

[Forevryoung]

Sue, I'll be in the lab tonight (yea yea going into work on a Saturday night ) so I'll grab the directions off the computer. I can even email them to you and you don't have to look at them if you don't need them. That way you have everything before you start (especially if it means "borrowing" it from your daughter on Monday). Programming the vanguard is NOTHING like programing Dynovox software

If you have any specific questions, we have a vanguard in the lab that I can experiment with

It is "nice" that it comes with so much core vocabulary, you just have to be good at remembering where everything is (not always obvious as you know)

 

[SueM in MN]

Sue, I'll be in the lab tonight (yea yea going into work on a Saturday night ) so I'll grab the directions off the computer. I can even email them to you and you don't have to look at them if you don't need them. That way you have everything before you start (especially if it means "borrowing" it from your daughter on Monday). Programming the vanguard is NOTHING like programing Dynovox software

If you have any specific questions, we have a vanguard in the lab that I can experiment with

It is "nice" that it comes with so much core vocabulary, you just have to be good at remembering where everything is (not always obvious as you know)

Thanks for the offer. I would appreciate it.

I got a chance to look at the book last night (she has only claimed the device, not the documentation it came with).
My DH has a lot of problem with where stuff is and what icons are used. If I hear "why do they have a picture of a lamb for 'it' once more, I will throw something." It seemed to make logical sense to DD when she trialed it and since she's the main one it has to make sense to, that's the biggest concern.
She never did like the file folder/page arrangement of the Dynavox and was very frustrated with it because she wanted to say more specific things. She's been signing since she was 3, but it's very 'modified' because she makes up signs (uses them consistently though - for example, decorative water fountains are "throwing water") and if a sign is physically difficult for her, she just leaves off the hard parts. But, she also combines signs into long sentences and she figured out things by herself like if you use the kind of universal sign for "I don't know" (hands palm up off to your side), that makes whatever you say after it a question. Her longest sentence I've seen in sign was "I don't know (natural sign) what time (point at wrist where watch would be) Daddy (actual sign) all finished (actual sign) work (actual sign) drive (mimic steering) home (point to floor of room she is in at home) eat (actual sign)."
The SLP who did her eval said that with skills like that, she should be able to do the Vantage well once she figures it out. I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Forevryoung]

Sue,

Most SLP's are clueless when it comes to AAC I do hope that it makes sense to your daughter and that she learns to use it proficiently.

I have a contact at PRC if you need anything on that end. I hope you don't though.

I wouldn't program the Vanguard without your daughter there unless you talk about picture combinations and what not before hand. You want to program it to make the most sense to her (ask three people how they would make "drowning" as a minspeak icon system, you will get five different answers... yes I programed "drowning" into our vanguard in the lab because I'm strange It was a bathtub and an umbrella ) It will be even easier in the beginning if your daughter can read the words

I know you had said that the dynovox system didn't work well with the file/folder system.

And who cares if the lamb for "it" does't make sense... would it have made more sense if they had made it a pen or phone or horse? So completely random anyway.

 

[SueM in MN]

Sue,

Most SLP's are clueless when it comes to AAC I do hope that it makes sense to your daughter and that she learns to use it proficiently.

We had several of those in the school system (the one in the middle school wanted DD to 'prove' she could find a picture on a sheet of paper before it could be put onto the Dynavox....
so, DD went from a 30 button per page really primitive system where overlays had to be physically changed to change a page to a 2 button Dynavox page where one button was "yes" and one was "no" - things she could easily communicate with gestures.
I even took the SLP with me to Dynavox training hoping she would get some sense, but she never did.

Anyway, the SLP who did the evaluation at Gillette Rehab in St. Paul is well known and respected in the Midwest.

I have a contact at PRC if you need anything on that end. I hope you don't though.

I've been on first name status with the PRC local rep for quite a while (we've been working on getting a device for about 18 months), so hopefully I can get help if I need it.

I'm not planning to do a lot of programming at this point - mostly put in DD's name, family members, some extras for favorite foods etc. (She needs more than just "candy", we need some specific kinds of candy and could not find "gum" on the icon tutor, so I'll need to add that. Don't think we'll have much use for "drowning" though)

 

[Forevryoung]

yea, my "drowning" page was a weird joke because electronic equipment that vital, that hard to get, and that expensive should never be near a body of water (especially a body of water large enough to drown in!) And besides, I highly doubt if you are drowning, you would be able to take the time to hit the 2+ icons to reach "I'm Drowning!" (I recorded my voice for that one )

My classmates think I'm odd, it's ok if you do too

Sounds good about adding foods, names etc. Make sure she picks a good voice (have fun playing around with the pitch and stuff too).

 

[SueM in MN]

yea, my "drowning" page was a weird joke because electronic equipment that vital, that hard to get, and that expensive should never be near a body of water (especially a body of water large enough to drown in!) And besides, I highly doubt if you are drowning, you would be able to take the time to hit the 2+ icons to reach "I'm Drowning!" (I recorded my voice for that one )

My classmates think I'm odd, it's ok if you do too

Sounds good about adding foods, names etc. Make sure she picks a good voice (have fun playing around with the pitch and stuff too).

The voice that was active when it came was a man's voice (not sure who because she would not let me have it long enough to see). I did quickly get it changed to "Jennifer" one of the RealSpeak voices. I did change the speed - Jennifer talked so fast we could not understand her. She's better now, but even though that voice sounds more 'real', I'm not sure we'll keep it because it is not as understandable as I thought it might be.
At any rate, DD is happy not to have "Kit, the kid" (one of the DEC talk voices). At least if we go back to that voice, we would be able to change pitch, etc. We could not do that on the tablet computer because the Dynavox software didn't like us fooling with the DEC talk voices; every time we got it the way we wanted it, Windows crashed.

 

[Forevryoung]

There are some scary old smoker lady voices on the Vanguard- Try to find them, I bet your daughter would laugh (maybe alice was one of them???)

 

[SueM in MN]

There are some scary old smoker lady voices on the Vanguard- Try to find them, I bet your daughter would laugh (maybe alice was one of them???)

Oh, I know that voice, it was on the Dynavox too - can't remember her name, but DD really got laughs out of her. I think the voice is either called "Rita" or "Wendy".

There was someone at the hospital where I work that actually chose that voice - she was a heavy smoker for years and I guess it really did sound like her 'normal' voice.