Tell Us, We Want To Know

"At the end of the first hour he understood how to work it, what to do, and he wanted to do it."

This video offered a different perspective to me.  We often think about giving students a voice so that they are less frustrated and reduce negative behaviours, but this young man was apparently quite compliant.  Since he was unable to initiate, he spent most of his life doing the things that people suggested to him or told him to do. Proloquo2go allowed him to initiate rather than wait for someone to ask so that he could respond.   As his SLP put it, finally "he doesn't have to try to be what people want him to be". He is able to use it at home, at school, and even at his gym, where an adult holds it for him so he can run over to his iPad whenever he has something he wants to say.

My favourite part of the video was when the mom described the first time that she got to argue with her son. He wanted pizza, and with his iPad he was able to be emphatic – it allowed him to strongly express his opinion in an acceptable way. I love that she was so thrilled that he was expressing himself that she went and got him pizza :) 

Although it seems simple at first, Nick's Mom's statement becomes so poignant when you stop and think about it: "Tell us, we want to know!" For probably the first time in his life, Nick recognizes that this piece of technology is allowing him a voice that people want to hear. While it certainly sounds as though he had many people in his life who always presumed that he was intelligent and 'wanted to know' what he was thinking and feeling, he hadn't found the tool that allowed him to finally 'tell them'.