Documenting successes...

Jonathan has had a season of growth! I'm glad I started this blog so I can look back and see all the progress he's made the last couple of years. Remembering where we've come from helps me to keep moving forward. So here are the recent reasons to celebrate...

-Jonathan used the Dynavox to request a specific toy and to turn out the lights this week. Up until now, he's mostly used it to request the same food/drink items over and over.

-I programmed the Dynavox to insert his words into a sentence strip. He now has to request in a full sentence and then push "talk". It's the next step in the process of teaching him to (hopefully) read someday. He took to it very well and we are using this new setup all the time now.

-Today, I took Jonathan grocery shopping with me. I programmed his Dynavox with a grocery list to check off. He pushed the cart and tossed (literally) items into the cart that I would hand him. He was happy the whole time, stayed with me (we didn't use a tethering strap) and we both enjoyed our successful outing together. We celebrated with an order of french fries from McDonald's on the way home!

It's so great to see tangible evidence of learning and growth!

Today is a good day.
Heather

Success with the Dynavox!

We are seeing some huge progress with Jonathan and his Dynavox. In the past few weeks he's discovered that the device is portable and has started carrying it around the house to request things. For several months, he basically used it to ask for food. We were excited to see this, and he seemed to be happy to be understood. Then recently he started asking to go swimming. It's January, so I laughed and said "you're silly-it's too cold"! I really didn't think much of that interaction until the next time he requested swimming...only this time he giggled before he pushed the button...he was JOKING!!! What a break-through! My little non-verbal son has a sense of humor. Now he plays the joking game all the time. I love it!
Tonight he brought the Dynavox to me and requested a specific toy. It turns out, the toy had been mistakenly locked in a closet. Just a few months ago I was adding his favorite toys to the device and wondering if he would ever actually use that feature.
So our journey continues. This progress gives me hope for his future.

Until next time,
Heather