Ari's "Talker"

About a month ago, Ariana got her Springboard Lite augmentative communcation device. This computer is extremely sophisticated and has the potential to take Ariana's communication to a much higher level. It is also designed to grow with her as her vocabulary expands, and it is completely customizeable to her needs. The state of Arizona provides us with this piece of equipment until Ari outgrows it or no longer needs it at all (fingers crossed!), at which point, we'll give it back so they can tune it up and pass it along to another child. Ariana LOVES her "talker", and she insists on having it by her side whenever she spots it. She will whine, reach her hand out, and say "uh uh!" until we realize what she's after and hand it over. I can get Ariana to eat complete meals just by insisting that she take bites in order to keep her talker turned on and beside her. After several hours of programming by Ari's speech therapist and training for me, we have finally gotten the talker to a point where we feel comfortable using it everyday. Do we use it all the time? No, not yet... baby steps. We use it mostly at meals (particularly breakfast, lunch, and snack), at the beginning of playtime activities, and during therapy. Right now, she's in what I call the "exploratory stage", meaning that she is still pressing buttons just to see the cause and effect reaction, and not specifically to communicate her needs. However, she is learning certain sequences for communication, and I am really impressed at just how fast she is catching on the the concept of it. Her favorite sequence right now that she has just about mastered is "Want eat cereal (yogurt, fruit, cracker)" (2-3 buttons), "Want drink milk please" (4 buttons!), and "My birthday is February 19" (1 button) -- don't ask me why she likes that one so much, I think it's the picture of the cake). Ariana's favorite thing to do with the talker is to play songs. She LOVES when it sings "I'm a little teapot", for which she does a modified version of the hand motions, "Happy Birthday", "It's a small world", and the Disney "Welcome" song. We listen to the Disney Welcome song probably...fifty times a day. And it's just the first verse over and over. And I love it. But I digress... Anyway, I'm slowly learning more programming, and Ari is learning to navigate her talker at about the same pace. But we are getting there, and it's a good thing. Gabe still loves the talker, but he is getting used to the idea that it is Ari's talker and not his. I try not to let him play with it hardly at all, which may seem mean, but it's really not. Gabe needs clear, defined boundaries, especially when it comes to ownership, so he respects 'all or nothing' much more than he appreciates 'here and there'. I keep reminding myself and others that this talker is not going to take the place of verbal communication for Ariana. When I ask her to say something on the talker, I also ask her to say it using her words. I will not be satisfied with Ari using the talker alone, no matter how proficient she gets at it. This is, above all, a means of expanding Ari's expressive verbal communication and vocabulary. It is a way for her to learn sequencing of words like other children, without having the early experience of speaking them. And, of course, it will her communicate her needs directly through it.