Red Lights: A Record of Life's Defining Moments

Mikey's Talker Update

So late today I put a roast and potatoes in the slow cooker thinking we could have them tomorrow. Mikey came down stairs and saw the slow cooker, went and got his talker and brought it to me and went in to his food page and then hit the modify button. He has basically decided that it is much quicker to this then go and find a place where it says "I want you to add a new word to my talker." Then he points to the talker like I'm supposed to magically know what to add. I get him to try to explain and he hits a an empty button and starts to type something but there is no way I can read it. So I open up the food folder for the add picture and he starts scrolling through and finds "hot food". It's just a bowl with steam coming out of it. He hits the picture and finishes the process of adding the word. Then he tells me "Want - eat - hot food" and I'm thinking we are getting no closer to me understanding. So then he goes and gets a plate and points to the slow cooker... at which point I had to explain to him that it's going to take hours for that to be done. I offered him a few other things but he was pretty sure "HOT" was going to be it... so now he is happily eating a bowl of hot soup as that makes complete sense when it is +30 (very hot) out.

Mikey Talker Update

Mikey got his communication device a couple of weeks ago. He still has the exact same language system on his iPad so now we basically have two communication devices and we can each take one and talk to each other. I'm trying to find time each night before he goes to sleep for us to talk about the day - recall the things that happened, make comments about them and connect emotions to them. Yesterday, Mikey wanted hot dogs. The word is not on his device but that has never really phased him before because it is a word that he has always just signed to me instead. Yesterday he came to me with his device and said "want" "eat" and then he went to the food page and signed hot dog and pointed to one of the empty spaces and so I put the word "hot dog" in and then he told me he wanted hot dogs. As we were talking later and going through our day, he right away went in to the food section and said "hot dog"... not because he wanted a hot dog but because he wanted that be a part of what we talked about when we remembered the day... and so on we went labeling it as "yummy". It's incredible to witness him coming to this understanding that stories can be carried through time if we just find a place to hold the word permanent.

Mikey Talker Update

My kid is a flirt! So we go down for breakfast and are happily eating and all the while he is smiling a waving to this young couple at the next table. They start talking and asking questions... wanting to know more in a respectful way... and Mikey keeps flirting... Next thing you know they are having breakfast with us and Mikey has them eating out of his hands getting more eggs and yogurt and whatever his heart desire for him. He is high fiving and fist bumping with them and telling them he is going swimming later with his talker. They are having the time of their life and asking some amazing questions in between. We all say goodbye and Mikey and I head around the corner and wait for the elevator. They don't know we are still there or that we can still hear their conversation. We get in the elevator just after the statement that breakfast will most likely be the best part of their day because how can it get any better then this. A great reminder that there are people who will take the time to slow it down, allow for the time it takes to use his talker (and they were even trying it out themselves to talk back to him) and recognize that sometimes a fist bump is an important part of a conversation.

Mikey Talker Update

Our Sunday Morning Breakfast Adventure... and My Sunday Morning Language Learning Lesson... So at 7 am in walks Mr. Mikey and his talker demanding, once again, that we go to a hotel. I asked him what he likes about the hotel and he replied want eggs, breakfast, Wendy's. I asked him if he wanted me to make him eggs at home and he said hotel Wendy's, no McDonald's. Oh dear child... Now I need to figure out what is different in your mind about Wendy's and McDonald's. There must be something for you to make that distinction that it must be Wendy's and not McDonald's. The best I can think is that mostly we do drive through with McDonald's and the few times we go to Wendy's we actually go IN to Wendy's. I ask (and show) him if he wants to go to a restruarant and he says hotel eggs breakfast car socks shoes. Obviously I'm going to be getting out of my nice warm bed and the dream of just laying around all Sunday morning has been shot down. I tell him I think he is actually talking about a restruarant and not a hotel and I will show him so he can tell me if that is what he is thinking. I love now that when we are going somewhere he doesn't hesitate to grab his talker and bring it along. Socks on. Shoes on. And away we go, talker in hand, to the car. We drive across town and into the Perkin's parking lot. His face lights up, he grabs his talker and says hotel eggs breakfast. I explain the difference between hotel and restruarant and he grabs his talker and says restruarant eggs breakfast. We get out of the car, go in to the restaurant and he promptly tells the lady seating us "want eggs breakfast". I love his perseverance with his talker and I am coming to so much more deeply understand how important it is to help him to understand and connect the symbols on his talker to meaning in his world.

Mikey Talker Update

So today, after exploring his talker for a long time, he told me he would like to go to Wendy's. He actually never chooses Wendy's although I like it so we go there once in a while. Wendy's is all the way across town but I figure why not... We have to drive by Future Shop to get to Wendy's and as we are going by, he gets my attention and starts pointing and grumbling. I ask him if he wants to go there and he goes on to his talker and says "video game"... so in we went and bought him a video game and when we got home I added "Future Shop" to the places folder. I think I'm going to regret that. We never made it to Wendy's... he was ready to go home after we had been to Future Shop.

Mikey Talker Update

Word from the school today is that the go to message for the day was "want - hotel - mom". Apparently he thinks it is time to become a world traveler.

Mikey Talker Update

Word from the school today is that the go to message for the day was "want - hotel - mom". Apparently he thinks it is time to become a world traveler.

Mikey Talker Update

So Mikey has informed me that he thinks we should go to a hotel again. When I told him we would not be able to go to a hotel every weekend, he proceeded to tell me for about 5 minutes all the things that we would take along and do while we were at the hotel. He is for sure starting to understand where things are on his talker... and is beyond adorable (sorry 16 year old male son who probably doesn't want me describing him that way) when he gets something in his head he wants to say and begins looking through all the folders for the word he has in his head with his little pointer finger over his mouth in 'the thinking pose'. As cute as he is, this weekend we are learning that even when you use your talker you are not going to get every single thing you ask for. And I'm learning (again) that even when I say no, Mikey is going to persist with finding other ways to ask... as he later came down not only with the suitcase but with the suitcase packed full of pretty much every item that he had listed earlier on his talker.

Mikey Talker Update

Mikey and I will be heading home later on this morning. It's been a nice little get away just in being able to spend time with Mikey but I also think it is a step forward in regards to his communication system. When we pulled in the parking lot of the hotel on Friday Mikey got very excited and you could see the wheels spinning. When we got in to the hotel, he went in to his backpack, pulled out his talker and just sat with it exploring all the different folders that were there. He didn't come to say anything to me... just explored all the words that he will now be able to use expressively. Throughout the weekend he has tried playing with them in different combinations to try to get new things across. He has also started carrying it to wherever he is and setting it down in front of him so that he has it there with him just in case. Last night when it was time for bed, he carried it over to the nightstand beside the bed and set it up so that he could see it from where he was sleeping. I'm thinking he is starting to understand the potential power of this thing as in the past it has always been someone else setting it up and making sure it is there and the things he has said on it have always just been those things that we have pretty much given him the direct pattern to use (or some very close to it version). He hasn't really ever wanted to explore it and see what is there although he is deeply interested in watching me explore it and see what is there that way. This morning we were laying in bed using it to just say silly things back and forth and I said "I love you" and he went and pushed "I" "love" and then went in to the people folder and hovered over mom and then giggled and went to the drink folder and said "orange juice" and then "want drink". I guess I know where I rank.

Mikey Talker Update

Hotel confirmed for Friday... I figured I better make sure everything is in place after he came downstairs this morning with the suitcase again! He was okay when I told him two more sleeps but I think he just needed to make sure I knew he was going to hold me to my word...