Choosing an AAC Device for Brycen

We've had to change our plan with a device for Brycen since I last blogged about it due to the financial aspect of it. With Brycen's services, there is a hierarchy of who will pay for what and in what order. It is billed through our private insurance first, then put through to Medicaid, and then if Medicaid is at it's limit of paying for something, our Waiver services can help out if we have the money available in Brycen's name. It's very confusing so I'm not really going to do into detail on the specifics, but the summary of all of it is the device that we think is best for him right now will hopefully be too low-tech for him in a couple years and Medicaid puts limits on how often they will help pay for a device. We are still unsure if and how much our private ins. will pay because of the run-around I have gotten from them in the 3 calls I have made to them. So, despite my reservations about getting a higher-tech device for Brycen right now as I know how easily frustrated he is, as well as the short attention span he has, we really have no choice at this point. These devices can easily be thousands of dollars...so obviously far out of our personal financial reach so we have to rely on insurance to do what they can and just adapt to what they will pay for and how often.

Therefore, we are no longer getting the Go-Talk 9 that he is currently using in therapy sessions now and has responded so positively to. We had a meeting yesterday with a rep from Talk To Me Technologies and will have another meeting on Monday with a rep from the Dynavox company. They each carry different devices that are very similar, but we want to make sure we are considering all of our options since this obviously is not a simple decision. While I am absolutely ecstatic about taking this next step in helping Brycen with his communication skills, it is also frightening and stressful as I worry about making the wrong decision and I worry also about building too much hope into the device. Don't get me wrong...I know the research supports how much these devices can help in so many areas of the child's life, but being that there is no one right device or one right answer on how to help kids with ASD, I feel like I am reaching for something with a very fragile mindset.

Anyway, I wanted to share a link to the actual device we introduced Brycen to at the meeting yesterday.
http://www.talktometechnologies.com/UserFiles/docs/Alt-Chat_brochure.pdf
I loved it! My experience with devices has been with the basic low tech Go-Talks as well as the older style, big computer like devices over the years. It is amazing what they have recently came out with that you can really tailor to the child's specific needs and day-to-day things. The devices we are currently looking for need to last him at least 5 years, so we want it to be able to grow with him from pictures, to words, and be something he can use to do homework with. So if he is still having issues with verbal skills in a few years, we can sit at the table with him with the device, ask him a homework question, and he can spell out his answer!

Now, I'm sure you are all waiting for me to tell you how Brycen responded to it...and I'm sure the suspense is killing you because it really killed me for the last couple weeks since we set this appt up! It was so unbelieveable that I had to call Mike at work right after the appt, which I NEVER do! I usually just wait to fill him in on updates from Brycen's appts and school stuff when he comes home, but this was far too amazing to not share right away.

Brycen LOVED it! He actually came over and just grabbed it out of her hand when she was showing me things. He set it down on the table, and pushed a couple buttons to see what it would say. This is the same reaction to the Go-Talk that he had...like he needed to just feel it out first and see what it does by pushing all of the buttons. What I think really surprised him is when he would push a category button, a bunch more pictures magically appeared and he looked up with a smile like "this is pretty cool." Without any prompts or pointing to show him, he pushed on the "toys" button on his own, found a picture of a "ball" on the next screen, pushed it and heard "I want to play ball." He then smiled and went over to the ball to play with the SLP. He came back over a little while later while we were talking, grabbed the device again, found the toy button on his own again, and then pushed the "swing" button and the device said "I want to swing." So then he went over to the swing and did that for a little bit! Not only did he seem to be curious about the device, he figured out those steps without us even showing him just by looking at the pictures and trying it out! He also followed through with the choice he made which is something we have been working on with him.

Now the big news is we decided to try out the "I'm hungry" button and we programmed in two different snacks we had available for him to choose from. He did the same thing as before just by us pointing to the "i'm hungry" button first. After a few minutes of snack, he went back to the mainscreen on his own, found the toys again and communicated through the buttons that he wanted to swing again. Then after swinging, he came back, found the "I'm hungry" on his own and went to the snacks again.

I know this probably doesn't give you the best picture of how it all played out...but take it from me, that I was absolutely amazed at how interested he was in the machine and how he pretty much taught himself those two things! I, of course, had tears in my eyes! If we can accomplish all of that in one hour, imagine what the possibilities are once he has a machine to use every single day!