We bought our first iPad nearly a year ago. It was bought for two reasons. The first was that we wanted to explore communication options for Sawyer, who is still largely non-verbal. The second was that we wanted to have a touch-screen computer in the house, also for Sawyer, because he has not yet mastered the use of a mouse. I guess you could say we bought the first iPad for Sawyer. His brothers could also use it, but it was primarily for him.
Right after we bought the iPad, we bought two applications. The first was an inexpensive PBS Kids application (which I bought only after realizing iPad does not support Flash player, which is the base of the
PBSKids.org site all of our boys like to play games on). The second was a rather expensive communication software,
Proloquo2go.
One iPad, many functions. That was our thought. Or perhaps our hope.
Six months in, we began to see the error of our ways. Sawyer absolutely understood the communication software. He could manipulate it as well as any of his favorite web sites or any other computer program, finding items buried four or five screens into the program with no trouble and very little time.
The problem, you see, was that it was his least favorite part of the iPad. Who would want to use communication software, when you could easily tap out to a screen full of fun apps for puzzles and art and games and animated stories and even movies?
Both of our twins have struggled with verbal communication. But it has been many years since either of them have struggled to communicate. Xander uses a lot of memorized but still functional scripts. Sawyer has always used pushing or pulling or pointing. They have no trouble letting you know what they want, or making a choice that is presented to them. They also have no trouble letting you know if they like something or they don't. It is the words, the expressive language, that have been so incredibly hard.
And both of the boys are incredibly rational. If they can communicate without those words, why should they make that extra effort. Why use the communication software to say
"I want some milk, please" when they can simply walk to the refrigerator and make the selection.
And for right now, perhaps that's fine. But we have to look at the bigger picture. As scary as it sometimes is, we have to look down the road into the future. Communicating with family is one thing. They know you, they learn your behaviors and understand them. But communicating with the rest of the world is another thing. And you have to work toward that independence, toward the opportunity of a life of their own that someday will no longer include you.
So we bought another iPad. We were determined that Sawyer would not only know how to use the communication software, but that he would actually begin to use it on a regular basis. It will open up so many possibilities for him, not only at school, but also in life.
The first iPad, the one with the white drop case, is Sawyer's communication iPad. We have taken absolutely everything off of it that we can. It has no games or puzzles or remotely fun applications anywhere on it (we had to turn off iCloud, of course, to prevent all of our apps from automatically reappearing every day). It has Proloquo2go. And that's it.
This iPad is significantly less fun, and it is also in less demand. It can be left out without fear of fighting or disappearing. It still goes with Sawyer every day to school in his back pack.
The second iPad, the one with the black drop case, is the touch-screen computer. It is also mostly Sawyer's iPad, though all of the boys have the option of requesting this as their screen choice from time to time. It has all of the fun apps installed - the puzzles, the games, the drawing programs, the WordWorld video series, PBS Kids, Angry Birds ... you name it, it probably has it. The second iPad, the fun one, stays at home.
And though we were not crazy about the expense of two iPads (and two expensive but totally worth the investment
drop cases), we have seen dramatic improvement. Sawyer is using his communication software much more than he ever has before.
There is some other good news. When you use the same Apple ID and iCloud, the apps appear on all of your Apple devices, even your iPod Touch. So we actually have Proloquo2go on three devices at home, and we only had to pay for the expensive app once. We can also customize each one differently if, for example, we wanted to set up one of them for Xander.
Right now we just use Proloquo2go for Sawyer. We use it to let him make choices, like what he wants to eat or drink. We use it to help him with his private speech therapy. It has choices for free play, and folders for taking turns or answering yes or no questions. We use it to help him at school. He has folders for calendar and weather - two of his favorite things to do at school. He has folders we can use for learning and testing - like uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, colors, even money.
It's still a balancing act. We encourage the use of the software, but we also still work toward verbal language. He is doing very well with beginning sounds, and even a few blended sounds. Just yesterday, his speech therapist told me he is following the appropriate progression of sounds, just at the very delayed age of six rather than one. He is working very hard, both at trying to communicate verbally and to use the communication software. We ask for and expect both. We are happy to provide the communication device and give him more ability to express himself with words. But we also hope and work toward the day when his words will eventually come back.
