Daphne has just 17 days left in this school year, and it’s been one of exciting ups and some significantly difficult downs.
She is, without question, growing into a young girl, and the Don Draper levels of hormonal cocktails involved is both shaking our peaceful household and stirring “go to your room!” melodrama.
In other words, parenting.
Sadly ours comes with a garnish of additional frustration since Daphne is unable to speak without the use of her AAC device. So now we have a frustrated young girl who is unable to tell you exactly what’s wrong, and instead is screaming and arching her back on the couch.
Her parents, in response, begin a rousing game of 20-Questions.
“Are you hungry?”
“Does something hurt?”
“Are you thirsty?”
“Do you want to go swing?”
“Are you upset about the pacing of the season finale of Super Why?”
“Did you want music?”
“Want to go for a ride?”
“Does your head hurt?”
“Are you sure you’re not hungry?”
“Angered by the unchecked corporate takeover happening both in America and around the world?”
“Want to read The Pout-Pout Fish?”
When, more than likely, the answer is none of these things. And we simply have no way of knowing.
But! That leads me to one of the significant improvements over this school year…the use of her Talker. (Which is that “AAC device” thing I mentioned a few moments ago.)
Essentially, Daphne has an iPad with an application called “TouchChat” that she uses to communicate. TouchChat has a grid of icons that represent common words and phrases. As well as some not so common ones that her father has added.
She’s getting quite good at both finding the words she wants to use, as well as applying them to “real” conversations rather than just stimming/repeating them. As a matter of fact, we actually got a call from her teacher this afternoon telling us that Daphne was interjecting herself into a conversation that she and another teacher were having about their automotive troubles. Daphne stood up, wandered over, and pressed the “car” button at them.
So, she’s trying like hell to be involved and to communicate with us. It’s just hard for her.
I mean, just imagine if you had to hunt & peck a button on an Apple device for every word that you wanted…to say in…a conversa… Um…
You know, maybe that’s a bad example.
Regardless, she’s doing really great with it. And since she just wandered into my office while I was writing this to tell me, “Go. Swing. Outside. Yes.” we’ll wrap this one up here.
See you soon.
j.s.