Buckeye Bill's Web site
http://coralandopal.blogspot.com/
Locally ...For parents and caregivers who need switch communication aides, Children's Hospital has them available for rent through the authorization of the speech department. Since they are expensive, they ask for a small deposit beforehand. Elisabeth has been training on using one when she was 3 years old when she was at Redwood.
It's been 9 years now and she is finally making the connection that if she pushes the button with a picture of milk, she will get a glass of milk. Very recently we've been offering choices using 2 of these gizmos at one time. We estimate that her success rate is 60%. The hard part is finding something that she doesn't like since this is the only way we can figure if she's progressed from "cause and effect" to the next level.
One night at dinner she was consistent choosing the chili button over water and after a few spoonfuls she switched to water. What's really amazing is that when we start talking about something not paying attention, she continued hitting the button until she got our attention. We decided to take it one step further by removing the pictures and relying on what was recorded on the switch. So when she hit the red button, she heard "chili" and the yellow "water." We were 60% accurate here.
Today, she was hitting the milk button over and over and pushing the cup away when we presented it to her. My guess is that she wanted something else to drink like chocolate milk or water. This is a milestone even though she is not consistent in her choices. It is a major milestone.
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