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Monday 9 April 2012
4 April: 1 Voice NE @ Brigit's
Brigit, Jemima and Michael, with Mum's and PAs, get together to put final touches to agenda for the launch of 1 Voice NE 21 April at Northern Counties College.
17 Mar: Cued Speech @ Newcastle Uni
with trainer Nicholas Orpin of the Cued Speech Association, organised by Alanna Bentley, speech therapy student at Newcastle Uni.
29 Feb: Judy King @ College
College agreed (May 2011) specialist assessment of Michael's communication needs could take place at college, breakthrough, as Connexions worried they might not buy into the results of an assessment we paid for privately.
Much liaising with Principal and Connexions to get it to actually happen, but here we are, 2nd half of 3rd and final year, and it did.
Independent Speech and Language Therapist Judy King, who specialises in AAC, assessed Michael's comprehension, expressive language, and communication aid skills today through informal chat, dictation, picture description, the Test For Reception of Grammar (TROG), and the Derbyshire Language Scheme.
There was just enough time after the assessment for Judy to give family and college staff a brief overview of how Michael did.
There was just enough time after the assessment for Judy to give family and college staff a brief overview of how Michael did.
24 Feb: 84 LLL on Vantage Lite
Got Vantage Lite on loan from RCAS Newcastle for Michael to try as potential replacement for his 9 years old Pathfinder. It only has 84 keys whereas Pathfinder has 128, so many words will be in new places and some may be missing altogether. Vantage it smaller and lighter though.
6-12 Feb: Pixon Kit Upgrade
Got Pixon Kit at Liberator's special 21st Birthday price of £21 (so we bought 2) and started to upgrade it straight away. Pixon Kit has just over 200 words (with symbols) in a flip-out wallet and we found that without the symbols we could fit over 500 core words. Delighted.
18 Jan - 24 Feb: Core Movies
Made a series of movies of Michael reading and saying on his communication aid the 300 core words his tutor at college is determined are beyond his level. For the very few words he hesitated with - either because he didn't know the hieroglyphic sequences to them on his Pathfinder, or he misread them or could not read them - we talked about meaning and knocked up some 'repetition with variety' sentences for him to practice using them and finding them on his machine.
Playlist of the movies on Michael's YouTube channel:
Note: We did not teach Michael the core words by drilling him to read word lists. He has learned these words over a number of years, incidentally through real life talking and writing, and in a structured way through language lessons based on ESL.
9-10 Dec '11: Beyond Michael? I Don't think So!
Michael had friends from college visiting him at home on Friday and Saturday so I asked him to read and say on his Pathfinder the 300 words on our language display. He seemed to get around 95% correct. I don't know what diagnostics test his tutor is using but it is obviously giving false results.
29 Nov '11: Core Words Beyond Michael's Level!
Michael lost his student card so I took him to reception to get a new one. He gave his name and birthday using his communication aid and the receptionist commented that she hadn't seen a communication aid before!
He's only been here three years!
I mention three years of failed attempts at arranging AAC training, questions in home/college diary and so many emails ignored, and that I feel it's time for me to speak with the Principal, but that as there is a new line manager this year I feel I should speak with her first.
Receptionist immediately calls both tutor and line manager to Reception, not how I wanted it to happen, and it all went wrong.
Tutor: "Those 300 words on the 'storyboard' are beyond Michael's level according to our diagnostics".
They are not on the wall.
15 Sep '11: No Core, No Computing
Michael's tutor / course leader phones to remind me to sign a form and I ask are the words on the wall yet. No they are not. I remind her that these words account for 80% to 90% of what everyone says and that if they are denied to Michael then he is being denied that % of language.
College had promised to find Michael some regular computing lessons to attend instead of doing allotment or cafe and I asked when will this be?
Tutor says she has told the guy the computing cannot happen on a Thursday and that Michael he is very happy and smiling at the allotment, tho she knows that is not what 'I' wanted for him!
What I wanted?
May 2011: Core Words Promise
After a whole year of trying to find a date that is suitable for college to have the AAC training with Liberator and two years of trying to persuade college to display 300 core words on the wall in class we are finally promised that the words will go on the wall. It is a start, a very late start, but a start.
May 2010: SLT Gone Missing
In answer to my inquiries re AAC training college informs me SLT didn't turn up for planned sessions with Michael, no answer to phone calls or email and will I try to chase her up and be the one who arranges AAC training with Liberator.
Dec 2008: AAC for Next Year
SLT KMcG will arrange AAC training for staff at Bishop Auckland College so they are ready to facilitate and support Michael when he starts there next September.
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