Non-verbal Children...anyone Use A Tablet?

I think this is a great idea. You wouldn't need a cell plan - you could always just go to a library or coffey shop that has wifi to download the applications you need for her. There are tons of things out there for very young (pre-pre-school) that would probably be great for her. Our friends 18 months old has been using theirs for several months at least, so based on your description I'd give it a whirl.

Our son had home therapy under the school district's early childhood program (3-5). They did the evaluations for the adaptive technology. We kept him home until he was 8, and we actually had more success with them providing him equipment then. Now they try things at school, but never send them home. Part of that is that nothing seems to be effective for him. My son is totally blind as well as brain injured, so most of the traditional communication devices don't work well with him. Additionally, he just doesn't seem to get the concept. My friend's son is much more orthopedically involved than my son, but has some vision and is brain injured as well. His school bought him an Ipad. I saw him with it the first week he had it, so he was just getting used to it. He had the cat; he would pet it, and the cat repeats vocalizations. He interacted quite a bit with the cat. It also had a basic communication board app. I thought it was a pretty neat tool, but my son would just throw it. I have a son with the verizon tablet and one with the nook color. Near as I can tell they pretty much do the same thing. The nook color gets on the internet for free, and it has many apps. My son with the tablet is constantly going over his data allotment on the $50 plan. I don't really know what apps are available, but of the two, I would buy the nook if you aren't needing to word process.

If you have ANY internet (which I assume you do by posting here), all you need to buy is a wireless router. The cable internet cord plugs into that and then send a wireless signal for about a 200-400 foot radius. Then any and all computers in that radius can access the internet if they have your password.edited to add, if she is prone to throwing it, you can build a padded frame and secure it to the frame.

Well I know our district has them for our non-verbal kiddos so it can definitely be a way to get her to communicate :) What I'm familiar with is that the SLP (me) would ask for an Assisstive Technology assessment for a non-verbal kid from the district so we could see what devices/strategies/etc. would work best for the particular kiddo.

Yep. What Dannie said. If she's coming up for IEP eval, ask them to include an adaptive tech eval as well. The key words are. "She needs some form of communication. She seems to understand and try to communicate but her physical issues are keeping her from expressing herself." Oh and I remembered. DD had a dynovox through school. Like Joy, she is now too involved to use it. From 3-5 it went back and forth to school and the teacher programmed it.

What about low-tech options? Maybe a pocket notebook with sub-titled pictures glued to the pages to represent common things and activities? Like a picture of a banana with "banana" written underneath, a picture of the bathroom with "potty", etc... Or maybe a stack of cards with the same concept? You may even be able to find pre-made flash cards that will work.

I wanted to mention that we have been working on signing for over a year, and weren't sure she could do it because of her hypotonia, dyspraxia, ataxia, apraxia, and developmental cordination disorder. However she is finally getting it and is understanding what we are signing. She too signs approximation which can very to close to the right sign to well less then close:arrow: . The important thing is to get them understanding language, so whatever avenue works. Our SLP and PT got the technology people involved but EI could have too. Funding for our dd various adaptive equipment comes from the deaf blind project, EI, and Medicaid.

A friend of mine has a nonverbal 3yo and her DS uses a tablet. He uses a Nook, and I've heard another family saying good things about the Kindle (I have a Kindle for myself, but my kiddos definitely can't use it-they have issues with throwing things). Personally though, I've relied on flashcards for nonverbal and still learning to talk kids. Waited2long mentioned a simliar idea. I had a deck for basic needs and also would "make" more, for example, letting a kid choose between two dinner options that were equally available by quickly sketching them both on paper. I'm no artist, but getting comfortable with basic drawing helped a lot with the quiet kids. You might have tried this already, but felt like it was worth sharing:)

I don't doubt flashcards, etc would be beneficial....BUT, the thing is, she's very hard to 'sit down and look at what we have', KWIM? Even the speech and DT people have her fastened into her high chair in order to maintain her attention. This technique seems to help a great deal. The only reason I'd thought about a tablet, was because an OT over the summer (intern) used one just a couple of times....w/ moving 'games', etc.....just to see if she would/could actually touch the screen to get a response. She DID pay attention to it.....but getting the concept wasn't truly there. (However, she only used it with her for about 10min each time...and that was only twice, KWIM?) It's just a thought. Right now, because signing isn't work real well.........(the reciprocality of it)........I'm wracking my brain to consider anything to connect!!! She DOES seem to understand what we're saying a lot of the time.........but can only garble or babble or growl/squeal to make sounds. Thanks for the suggestions! Sincerely, Linny

I forgot to mention that we used touch cues, a form of sign language used with deaf-blind children. While my son is hearing, it did help to break through to him and help him understand his world. The signs were not necessarily the correct ASL sign, but adapted for his needs. For example, he loves to clap his hands, so we taught him to tap his tray or knees for "more" instead of the actual sign. My son also understands everything we say, but the touch cues helped to break through and allowed him to communicate with us. it was hand over hand for a long time before he used them himself, but all of his touch cues were his first words.

but my friend uses both an Ipad and home made cards to communicate. Here is her blog [url=http://niederfamily.blogspot.com/]Uncommon Sense[/url] - she gives explanations on what she does and posts videos of her daughter using them. She's around the same age as your daughter I think. I'm sure if you emailed her through her blog, she'd be happy to share tips with you.

I initally looked at tablets....but ended up going with the [URL="www.taptotalk.com"]Tap to Talk [/URL]program that can be used on a Nintendo DS (and DS Lite) (((Or anything that runs Android and some other systems.)) Basically, when he's with me or my mom, we can just hand him our Android phones....otherwise the DS Lite was (prior to being lost sometime between getting on the bus and me picking him up at day care) portable and just so normal. Kids have DS all over the place. It was also a little more durable than the tablets I'd looked at---because its built for kid use. BTW if you have anything Android they do have a free sample that you could test to see if she can use.

Lady, have you actually paid for the full program? I have the Tap to Talk free version on our nook color and on my cell. I was thinking about paying for the full version. DD mostly uses it for entertainment rather than actual communication but I wonder if a more function verison of the program might make it more useful for actual communication.

Have to tell you that I'm SO glad I brought this up on the board! Not only because I'm SO ignorant about tablets and all......but because it's caused me to do more research and discuss it all with her OT. Today, during a session, OT explained much to me; stating *she* would start using a tablet on dd, as well as discuss this with the 'next' speech dept. (We're not sending her to public school and so the next speech person will be in same network as the OT.) She strongly advised we NOT have an eval yet, because dd hasn't dealt with tablets/etc yet...and so, it would be possible for any eval to show 'the child is too low functioning to use a tablet'. Hmmmm....hadn't thought of that one! Soooo, the ball will get rolling in terms of signing her up with additional speech to start teaching her to use a tablet too. :) I'm excited....I just hope dd can actually learn to point and learn from one! Sincerely, Linny

Yes, I have. What I did was try the free version. The morning after I downloaded it, LG was able to tell me he wanted a smoothie instead of juice for breakfast using the options. So, before requesting the Alt Com evaluation, I went ahead and paid for the full version. I have to be honest, I'm not great at using it. I forget mainly because at home we're trying for speech and the school was somewhat supportive, but at daycare not only do the teachers use it with him, but even the other kids have gotten on the action :) The thing is on the eval....LG's private speech therapist is friends with the school's Alt Com specialist. One of the first things the ST asked is if an Alt Com eval had been done. She said her friend ended up with little to nothing to do because ST's don't like to refer for the evaluation as, "children should know how first". Then, when I requested the eval, I got exactly that response from the school ST. She was a bit peeved and would only do the request if I "insisted". In my view, the Alt Com eval should be used to create a plan to teach the child to use the which ever process/item that appears to work best of that child. The child shouldn't have to know how to do something prior to being taught how to do it. The only downside is that we had it less than a month and then it disappeared sometime between getting on the bus for school and when I picked him up for daycare.