Autism & I: iPad and Proloquo2go

Well, I’m back after a loooooong break from blogging.  Why the break?  It was because everytime I tried to log into this website to update it I got an error message.  And seeing as it was Summer break and the kids were at home, I just haven’t found the time to hunt for the solution and fix it.

But now Jake and Abby are back at school (today is their second day) and I sat down prepared for a lengthly search and a difficult fix…

Facilitated Communication and Autism

One Google search was all it needed, resulting in my finding the answer on the first website I visited.  The solution was one tiny line of code uploaded to my admin folder and voila, I’m back.  It was so simple that I’m frustrated with myself for not fixing it sooner.

Jake, age 7.

Jake on holiday in Cobourg, ON

So as I said, today is their second day back at school and they both seem to be enjoying being back.  Jake has gone in with his brand new iPad (yup, we got him an iPad!!) all set up with Proloquo2go, which is the app that the school suggested.  I was a little sceptical about it at first, as I had initially found TapToTalk and was impressed with it enough to consider paying $10 to upgrade to the full, customizable version.  And when Proloquo2go, at a whopping $189, was suggested as the app that would be best for Jake, I just thought that TapToTalk would be just as good.

Proloquo2go Introduction on YouTube

Although both apps have their uses, I can now see that the school was right and that Proloquo2go is going to evolve with Jake and be the app that he uses while he continues to be non-verbal, which might possibly be for the rest of his life.  It comes pre-loaded with symbols for everything under the sun (and including the sun!) but you can also set it up to work with photographs for those needing more basic assistance, like our Jake.

I imagine that Jake might then one day start to under symbols and then might eventually move on to Proloquo2go’s built-in keyboard.

The app is so advanced that it will then speak, out loud, whatever you type.

The iPad’s camera means that I can add a new choice/button for Jake without syncing it with my computer or even taking the pictures that I require from the internet. 

For example, Jake’s new favorite food is pretzels and I want him to have that as a choice of food on his iPad.  So I open Proloquo2go, go into edit mode and touch ‘add’.  Give it a name: pretzels, and use the iPad’s camera to take a picture of the bowl of pretzels. Hit ‘done’.

Now Jake can touch the picture of the bowl of pretzels and hear a voice say “pretzels”.  How cool is that?!

At the moment, Jake likes to tap the iPad’s screen with an open hand, so we’re not getting exact choices from him yet, but I hope that he starts to see that he can make himself heard in this way and that it could open up a whole new world for him.  He’s a smart boy; there’s no reason to think he won’t master this.

And he loves the iPad’s camera.  He can see himself on a pretty big screen and smiles his gentle “Jake” smile.  It lights the whole room!

September 7, 2011   Posted in: Communication, Entertainment, Food, Main, School

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